Transcript for Episode 58: Hank Hill Goes to a Gay Rodeo

This is the transcript for the installment of the show in which we discuss the King of the Hill episode “My Own Private Rodeo.” If you’d rather listen to Glen and Drew than read what they say, click here. The transcript was provided by Sarah Neal, whose skills we recommend wholeheartedly.

Bug:  But maybe now I've got another chance to get back in my son's life!

Hank:  Yeah. Uh, the invitation didn't say anything about formal attire, but I'm guessing you might want to, you know, tone it down a bit. 

Bug:  Don't worry. I'm not going to wear the spangles and rhinestones when I see Dale. Those are my stage clothes. The Gay Rodeo is theater, honey. It's just camp—you know, kitschy fun? 

Hank:  So I'll see you later. 

["Yahoos and Triangles" performed by The Refreshments plays]

Drew:  Hello, and welcome to Gayest Episode Ever, the podcast where we talk about the LGBT-focused episodes of classic sitcoms, which is to say the very special episodes that also happen to be the very queer episodes. I'm Drew Mackie. 

Glen:  I'm—Glen Lakin. 

Drew:  Why'd you say it like that? 

Glen:  I don't know. Just switching it up. 

Drew:  In case that intro did not tip you off, today we are talking about King of the Hill. King of the Hill, Glen!

Glen:  I liked it in your email when you said "Queen of the Hill." 

Drew:  "Lol." 

Glen:  Yeah. 

Drew:  Yeah. The episode we're talking about is titled "My Own Private Rodeo," but we're going to call it "Hank Hill Goes to a Gay Rodeo." It is the 18th episode of the sixth season of the show. It originally aired April 28, 2002. The sixth season is a really good season of King of the Hill. It's the one that ends with the two-parter where they go to Japan and Hank meets his half-Japanese half-brother, and it is so much better than a gimmicky let's-all-go-to-Japan episode could be. It's very heartfelt. 

Glen:  How does it compare to "The Simpsons Go to Japan"?

Drew:  "The Simpsons Go to Japan" is sort of like a parade of stereotypes, and in King of the Hill they have a little bit of that (but it is character-driven). It's like all King of the Hill stuff. It feels very real. 

Glen:  Yeah. Bobby has that romance with the Dance Dance Revolution girl. 

Drew:  Mm-hmm. And maybe the most "Ha ha, Japan," part is the fact that the Hills think that their hotel room is tiny, but it turns out that they never opened the sliding walls to get into the main part of it. They were just sleeping in the foyer because they didn't know there was any more to it. 

Glen:  That's like Fry and his apartment with Bender. 

Drew:  Yeah, actually. Very similar joke. A year ago yesterday, we did the previous King of the Hill episode. 

Glen:  Spooky. 

Drew:  Yeah, it was "Peggy Hill Meets a Drag Queen," which actually occurs a lot later in the series than this one does. This is the first gay-themed episode the show ever did. So this is the point, usually, where I say, "Glen, what is your experience with King of the Hill?" But that's all in the "Peggy Hill Meets a Drag Queen" episode, so if you want to listen to that part, it's all there. We don't need to retread that. But do you remember when I told you that I wanted to do King of the Hill because I didn't want to retread all the show history that I do every week for a new show? 

Glen:  Yeah. 

Drew:  Guess what I forgot to do in the "Peggy Hill Meets a Drag Queen" episode. 

Glen:  Show history? 

Drew:  Show history. I forgot it entirely. So I'm going to as quickly as I can give what I'm going to call a concise history of King of the Hill with one major departure—only because I think it's a good story. 

Glen:  Okay. 

Drew:  Okay. King of the Hill ran for 13 seasons—13 seasons!

Glen:  That's a lot of seasons. 

Drew:  Yes, and 259 episodes on Fox, from January 12, 1997 – May 6, 2010. It only left the air a decade ago, which seems astonishing because it just feels like so much has happened since then. 

Glen:  So much has happened since last month. 

Drew:  Yeah, since the last time we recorded an episode, in fact. It centers on the Hill Family living in Arlen, Texas. Hank, voiced by series creator Mike Judge, sells propane and propane accessories. Peggy, voiced by Kathy—I meant to say "Najimy," but I wrote "Kajimu," and I think "Kathy Kajimu" is a much better name—is a housewife and sometimes substitute teacher. And Bobby, voiced by Pamela Adlon, is strange—endearingly strange. So Mike Judge came up with the idea for this while he was working on Beavis & Butthead. It's based on his growing up in various parts of Texas, and he wrote the script and submitted it to Fox as a pitch for something that should be a new animated show. They weren't super convinced that it was a good idea to do a based-in-reality animated sitcom. I don't think they got it. But they paired him with Greg Daniels and said, "Help sort this out and turn it into a sitcom that works," and it's actually Greg Daniels that came up with a lot of the things that we think of as being very essential to the show—for example, Luanne. 

Glen:  Oh, my goodness. 

Drew:  Luanne was not in the original script. Greg Daniels introduced her, and Mike Judge was so impressed with the improvements he made that he said, "This show is going to be created by you and me instead of created by me and developed by you." That's why, in the opening credits, when Hank is throwing that garbage bag into the garbage can it says, "Mike Judge and Greg Daniels." Daniels would go on to do the American version of The Office, and also, he is the creator for Parks and Recreation. I think that's appropriate because Parks and Rec is in many ways the inheritor of a lot of vibes, like the idea of a smalltown atmosphere and some sort of right-versus-left political tension. 

Glen:  Yeah. 

Drew:  I feel like by the end of that series, Pawnee was almost as well-realized as Arlen was. 

Glen:  Yeah. Both series have a lot about the quite-good intentions of bad decisions. 

Drew:  Mm-hmm. Also, in large part there are a lot of gray areas where in King of the Hill we get the character like Kahn who, over the course of the series, they make a real character, and you understand why he is irritating to Hank in the ways he is, and they do that with a lot of characters who are initially flatter on Parks and Rec. I guess that's every show, though. 

Glen:  Yeah. 

Drew:  Greg Daniels, aside from his TV credits, is interesting because his wife is the sister of the guy who played Toby on The Office—Paul Lieberstein is his name—and who was also the showrunner on The Office from Seasons 5, 6, 7, and 8. There's a third Lieberstein sibling whose name is Warren Lieberstein who is also a writer on The Office and was also married to Angela Kinsey, who played Angela on The Office, but who divorced Warren Lieberstein partway through that show's run. The thing that makes me like the vibe on The Office is that you would think divorcing out of a family that essentially runs the entire show would really screw Angela Kinsey over, but that is not how the show worked. After she divorced her husband—that's the point when Jim and Pam get married, and the show ends up focusing on her and Dwight more than anyone else. Dwight and Angela become focuses of the show. She has that whole line where she's dating the closeted-gay senator, and they actually give her more to do and make her character a bigger character. I think that's nice because that was the right thing to do for comedic purposes, and they didn't screw over someone for weird nepotism reasons like you hear so often in Hollywood. Also, once I swam in her pool. Angela Kinsey's pool. It's a nice pool. 

Glen:  You also have some margarita glasses from her. 

Drew:  Those are from her Christmas party, but they were given by Pam from The Office. Those are my Pam-from-The-Office-cactus-margarita glasses which I never use, but should. 

Glen:  Let's make some margaritas tonight. 

Drew:  I don't have any tequila. We have a lot of oranges. We can make them with oranges. 

Glen:  Is that a thing? 

Drew:  It's probably not, and someone can correct us. King of the Hill was a midseason replacement that started airing at the start of 1997 at 8:30, right after The Simpsons. Can you guess what show it replaced in that timeslot? 

Glen:  No. 

Drew:  Ned and Stacey. 

Glen:  Nooo!

Drew:  Yeah. Ned and Stacey, which we will one day talk about—someday. They kept that timeslot for Season 2 and it was the 15th most-watched show in Season 2, but then they tried to move it to Tuesdays, and it became the 104th. Then, over the next decade, it bounces up and down depending on whether it's being interrupted by Sports because for some reason Fox stuck it at 7:30, before The Simpsons, which I guess makes sense from a programming line-up because it gave you two and a half hours of animated TV. I guess The X-Files was there for a long time, but I can't think of an example of a primetime block starting at 7:30. 

Glen:  Yeah. 

Drew:  Yeah. Kind of makes it feel like it's not really part of the show. 

Glen:  Yeah. I always had a sense that, despite it doing well, Fox never had the same level of faith in it anywhere near what The Simpsons had—which, I mean, yeah, it's The Simpsons. But also, you're allowed to have two really good, animated shows, and you can respect them both. 

Drew:  For what it's worth, they also didn't respect Family Guy, and Adult Swim made so much money off syndicating Family Guy and King of the Hill, where I think it is still on for an hour every night even now. 

Glen:  I want some of that sweet, sweet syndication money. 

Drew:  I know. Well, maybe we will syndicate Gayest Episode Ever somehow. Does that work? 

Glen:  No. 

Drew:  No? Okay. It actually was going up in the ratings in its final season, but then it was canceled kind of unceremoniously, and right around the time it was canceled it was announced that the new 8:30pm slot made for The Simpsons was The Cleveland Show. Everyone's favorite show, The Cleveland Show. It's a beloved show now. Still on the air and everything. 

Glen:  Is it? 

Drew:  No. No, no, no. 

Glen:  Wait. Didn't it last, like, a season? 

Drew:  They lasted longer than a season, and there are things that that show did okay. The one thing I'll say in favor of The Cleveland Show—which is still bad—is it is indicative of what happened to the "Big Four" at that point. For one season, it was the only sitcom on NBC, ABC, Fox, or CBS about a Black family—the only one. From the perspective of somebody who grew up in the '90s, that's crazy. And also, Cleveland was not voiced by a Black man, which is not okay. Yeah. After King of the Hill was canceled, there was some speculation it might get picked up by ABC, which was at the time airing The Goode Family, which was like King of the Hill but making fun of the libs—but in a good way. I actually watched and enjoyed the show a lot, and I don't think ABC knew what to do with it, and it didn't last a full season. There is a scene that takes place in a very Whole Foods-like grocery store where two characters are having a conversation and there's a digital leader board in the background that shows you which foods are ethical and which foods are unethical at any point in time, and over the course of this scene "catfish" keeps moving back and forth between the two of them. That is a well-realized thing. Four of King of the Hill's 259 episodes never aired on Fox, so if you only watched the broadcast run, there are four episodes of King of the Hill you may have never seen, and you can watch them on Hulu right now. 

Glen:  Oh!

Drew:  Isn't that crazy? 

Glen:  You should list them in the show notes. 

Drew:  I should do that. As someone who just recently watched an episode of The Simpsons that I'd never seen before—which was a shocker—the idea of finding an unseen gem in something that you feel like you know very well is a delightful surprise. The last time we did a King of the Hill episode, we talked about the notion of Mike Judge doing some sort of follow up. It still might happen. Nothing has really progressed, except that Mike Judge said if he ever does it, it would be on older characters and would feature an older Bobby Hill, which I am kind of terrified by how Bobby Hill would have turned out. 

Glen:  I really want to believe that he got hot. 

Drew:  I'm trying to think of a way how that might have happened—

Glen:  I think it's all there. Also, Hot Bobby Hill is my band name. 

Drew:  That's actually a pretty good band name—drag name, no. I don't think that works. This episode was directed by Cynthia Tang-Loveland, who also had directed Family Guy and has worked on art for The Simpsons, The Critic, and a show called The Pirates of Dark Water. 

Glen:  [gasps in delight]

Drew:  Worked it in, finally. It was written by Alex Gregory and Peter—H-U-Y-C-K—He-yuk? I have no idea how to pronounce that. They've written together for Frasier and Veep. I always try to check to see if the writers are gay. I don't believe either of them are. They're both kind of cute, though. 

Glen:  Well, that's something. 

Drew:  That's something. This episode's title is a reference to the 1991 Gus Van Sant movie My Own Private Idaho, which in turn is a reference to one of my favorite songs by the B-52s. 

Glen:  I'm happy you have this. 

Drew:  Have—this song? 

Glen:  I don't know, this little—yeah. 

Drew:  I saw My Own Private Idaho when I was 17. It was on IFC or something, and I did not appreciate it. I've never actually watched it again. I don't think I was smart enough to understand any of it. 

Glen:  I didn't see it until a few years ago for the first time. I went to a restored screening of it. 

Drew:  Did you like it? 

Glen:  Yeah. It was weirder than I had been led to believe. 

Drew:  Is it explicitly gay or not? 

Glen:  Yeah—very. 

Drew:  Okay. I watched it so long ago, I don't really have clear memories of it anymore. On Wikipedia, it says that this episode was substantially changed from its original version, and one of the changes was the role of Bug Gribble (Dale's dad) was originally voiced by Charles Nelson Reilly. They changed the episode, and then he wasn't voiced by Charles Nelson Reilly anymore. All of the citations for this go to pages that don't have that information, so I don't even know if that's true. I can't even tell if Charles Nelson Reilly recorded the lines and then they recorded over him with David Herman—David Herman being the guy who played Michael Bolton in Office Space. He does a lot of voice stuff now. Charles Nelson Reilly, just for the record, is Paul Lynde but not Paul Lynde—he was on the game shows in the '70s. He was very camp. He eventually did admit that he was gay—

Glen:  Well, good. 

Drew:  —and then he passed away in 2007. This episode was nominated by GLAAD for Outstanding Individual Episode (In a Series Without a Regular Gay Character), an award that began in 1998 to salute the Simpsons episode "Homer's Phobia." 

Glen:  Not to get ahead of ourselves, but do you think it is a well-deserved win? 

Drew:  It was nominated. It did not win. 

Glen:  Oh. 

Drew:  It lost to something called Resurrection Blvd., which I have never even heard of. It starred Veronica's mom from Riverdale and I think it was about boxing.

Glen:  Oh, okay. I was going to say, is it about a bunch of dead celebrities who are brought back on a magical street? 

Drew:  I mean, that would be a better show. Make that show happen. I think it did deserve the nomination, without having seen the competition. I would have liked to see it win. Most of the winners are not half-hour sitcoms. 30 Rock won one, New Adventures of Old Christine won one, and Parks and Rec won one, and I think that's about it for half-hour sitcoms. 

Glen:  Are we going to do the episode of New Adventures of Old Christine? 

Drew:  Sure. 

Glen:  Awesome. 

Drew:  We can do that next. I am familiar enough with that show to be able to discuss it competently. I think that's everything I have. I think we're at—

Glen:  Act 1, Scene 1? 

Drew:  Mm-hmm, which is at a wedding boutique called The Bridal Path, which is not a great pun. 

Glen:  No, it's a bit of a stretch. 

Drew:  The sign has a horse wearing a wedding dress— 

Glen:  Okay. Well, that makes it better. 

Drew:  Yeah. This is basically all Peggy gets to do in this episode. She's not featured in this episode—hardly at all—but she's helping Nancy get ready for her vow renewal ceremony to Dale. Do you know of anyone who actually has had a vow renewal ceremony in real life? 

Glen:  No. I mean, I know of elaborate anniversary parties, but that's as far as the people in my parents' circle took it when I was growing up. 

Drew:  If you, the listener, do know of someone that did this, please tell me. I feel like, like quicksand and being trapped in an elevator, this is something that TV made me think happened all the time but actually does not happen very often at all. The one thing you have to know about this episode is that it follows the episode called "Peggy's Headache," which is the episode where Peggy realizes that Nancy has been cheating on Dale—basically their entire marriage—with John Redcorn, who is her spiritual healer and masseur, I think that word is. Peggy is the last person to realize this. Everyone else knows. Also, this means that Joseph is not Dale's biological son. Joseph is actually John Redcorn's biological son. 

Glen:  Which to anyone who meets Joseph, it's very apparent. 

Drew:  In the first episode, they make a joke about it. I can't remember what the context is, but John Redcorn appears in that episode, and it is noted that Joseph does not seem like he could be related to Dale. It's kind of interesting that this show would do this because it's mostly stand-alone episodes, but if you don't have that background information, a lot of this episode will not hit you properly. 

Glen:  Yeah. It was nice in that way. I think a lot of animated shows, once they got past that four-season hump where they didn't think they were going to get canceled, they allowed themselves a little bit of serial storytelling—especially King of the Hill. Like, think about the store that got blown up at the end of a season. There's a tornado. Characters come, characters go, characters die. There are relationships. There are elements of that. 

Drew:  One of my favorite arcs is Luann grieving over the death of Buckley and getting dark and Sinéad O'Connor-like. Also Peggy jumping out of the plane and her parachute doesn't open. I think that's a season finale as well, and the next season begins with her in a full-body cast, and that's something that takes her a while. What a Cartoon is a spin-off to Talking Simpsons. They did an entire episode about the "Peggy's Headache" episode and how it's a perfectly constructed episode of TV, and it is. I will link to that in the show notes. It's a great breakdown of why this show works so well. We go to the next scene, and Hank and the boys are standing outside drinking beer. Nancy shows Dale the guest list, and Dale is horrified to see that his father is on the guest list. 

Glen:  Were you delighted by the joke about Peggy's calligraphy? 

Nancy:  I'm just running our guest list over to Peggy. She is my re-maid of honor and all, and she's been dying to use her calligraphy kit. 

Drew:  I was disappointed we didn't get to see that the calligraphy was actually not that good. I imagine it would not be that good. 

Glen:  No. 

Drew:  That, I guess, is another point in Peggy's favor in this episode, but that is basically the last thing she gets to do. Dale is a really interesting character, and I love Dale-centric episodes. He is someone who believes very much so in conspiracy theories—but when you realize that in real life he would be someone who would talk incessantly about QAnon, you realize that you would not like this person in real life at all. 

Glen:  I mean, I realized that without making the present-day comparison, but yeah. I think of all of Hank's friends on that show, he's the most aggressively annoying, and you have to search real hard to find the same redemptive qualities you can find with the other characters, like Bill. Bill is a sympathetic character. 

Drew:  So the difference between Dale and Bill is that Dale's life is a lie but he doesn't realize it and he's obliviously going through life thinking everything's pretty much okay—

Glen:  Despite believing lots of lies. 

Drew:  Yes. I also think the point there is that all of his conspiracy theories he believes are also incredibly wrong because he's wrong about everything. Bill is aware of how pathetic his life is, and he's trying to make the best of it but it doesn't work. I don't know which one would be harder to be around in the long run. I guess I'd pick Boomhauer. Also, it's weird to think that in this universe Boomhauer's supposed to be attractive. 

Glen:  I believe it. 

Drew:  I don't really get it. I guess John Redcorn is drawn to be so much more attractive than Boomhauer—but yeah, mysterious character. Nancy is, again, drawing on the previous episode and saying that "This is a time for starting over and new beginnings, and maybe you can have that with your dad," even though she has not told Dale about Joseph not being his son. He clearly does not know. Then we see a flashback to what Dale remembers of his wedding day. 

Glen:  Which is just in the backyard. I enjoyed that instead of a champagne fountain they had a beer fountain, and we see that Dale was just as oblivious in his youth as he is in his adult life.

Drew:  Because he didn't figure out what was going on with his dad? 

Glen:  Because of the way he views his life as such a success, and he sees himself as someone that everyone wants to emulate and look up to, which despite all the other lies, I just don't think he garners the respect that he thinks he does. 

Drew:  He clearly does not. And also, he gets worse over time because everyone knows that Nancy's cheating on him. In the memory, he walks into the kitchen, and he sees his father kissing Nancy, still in her wedding dress, and it ends with Nancy violently slapping Bug away and running away crying. And then Dale can't slap as hard as Nancy does and then also runs away crying. It's a nice little joke. 

Glen:  Yeah. There is something I do enjoy about this character who is so outwardly masculine but failing at it. 

Drew:  In every respect, yeah. Let me go back to—I have a note that says, "Bill's sad, sad, sad life." 

Glen:  Yeah. I think my note that I can't figure out what it is for also applies to that because there's a reach-around for rabbit hutch, which I think was brought up by Bill. 

Bill:  Well, he probably misses you, Dale. I know I miss my dad. I can't tell you how many nights he locked me in that rabbit hutch [chuckles sadly]—I deserved it though. I just couldn't listen. 

Glen:  I think I was trying to find a reach-around for the closet, but I didn't quite get there. 

Drew:  Bill is sad. That's as far as we need to get. Next scene, Bobby wants to pop out of a cake at the re-wedding. 

Bobby:  And right in the middle of the re-wedding, I pop out of the cake—with two sparklers!

Peggy:  I like it. I like it a lot—except for the part about you. But the cake part—now that is an excellent idea. 

Glen:  I guess that's a reach-around, too. 

Drew:  Go for it. 

Glen:  Just another coming-out symbolism. 

Drew:  Right, and he's doing something that a man shouldn't do. And then Peggy, again, is oblivious, and she's like, "I like that idea, but just the cake idea. Cake at a wedding—what a great idea." 

Glen:  We maybe mentioned this in the first episode about King of the Hill, but Bobby is such an interesting character. Bobby's an interesting character because one of Hank's worries about him is that he's weird, but there's the underlying tension of is he weird because he's gay? Because he is very comfortable with his own masculinity in that he's fine performing other gender roles. He doesn't let that limit his interests in music or art or movies, and I don't think it's ever—they never spent an episode where it was like, "Is Bobby gay?" 

Drew:  I don't think they did either. The closest is in the first episode when you get "That boy ain't right," and it's not implied that that means anything more than he's just a little weird. All of the interests that Bobby has in the arts or performing or anything like that clearly freaks Hank out. His desire to pop out of a cake does not really get commented upon by anyone because Nancy comes in and says, "Dale still hates his dad. Can you please give this invitation to him? And you can do it because the rodeo he's part of is actually in Coburn," which is allegedly near Arlen, and he says, "Okay. Yeah, I'll go do it. 

Glen:  Hank gets one of my favorite Hank lines. 

Hank:  I guess I am the best man, and with the joy of responsibility comes the burden of obligation. 

Drew:  That's such a perfect line. I wrote that down, too. Yeah, that's such a good Hank line. He finds responsibility joyful. So then we're at the rodeo. We have Hank, Bill, and Boomhauer at the LGRA Rodeo. 

Hank:  I wonder why so many cowboys have mustaches. 

Drew:  There's a guy in a leather vest without a shirt on. 

Glen:  This is a very horny episode. 

Drew:  Yes. So I'm going to say whoever designed all the background characters, the good thing is they did a pretty good job imagining a cross section of the kind of guys in Texas who would be at a gay rodeo, which are white guys with mustaches and a bunch of Latin guys. The bad news, I guess, is that they're all really hot. 

Glen:  They're not all—I thought there was a slight variety of body types. I agree there wasn't a wide breadth, but not everyone was in shape. Yes, we get more muscle tone than we would in a normal episode of King of the Hill, but I'm fine with that. 

Drew:  Also, there's not a single woman there, and that's probably not going to happen because I'm sure there are lesbians for whom the Western lifestyle is especially appealing and would be part of that—but not in this universe. As two men walk away holding hands, you see a sign then that "LGRA" is the Lonestar Gay Rodeo Association. 

Glen:  Yeah. Hank and his friends continue to miss all the clues that it is a gay rodeo—the men holding hands; the rendition of "YMCA," which Hank really likes because of the facilities that the YMCA offers. 

["YMCA" performed by the Village People plays]

Hank:  I kind of like this son. You know, the YMCA has terrific facilities. 

Glen:  And then building to Bill's question of "Where are all the ladies?" and something about his delivery just tickled me. 

Drew:  He's very childlike and innocent—not unlike Bobby, in a lot of ways. I hope Bobby ends up being better than Bill. I have a digression about "YMCA," but it turns out it was really interesting, and there's a capper that I think you will really like at the end. I wanted to look up to see if there was a definitive answer for how a gay anthem became such a mainstream hit, and I actually didn't find that. However, I did find that the two writers credited with writing it are Jacques Morali (the French producer who formed the Village People but was not actually part of it) and Victor Willis (who was a member and was either the cop or the naval officer, depending on what point you're looking at the group). Morali, who is gay—actually, I don't think it was ever explicitly stated, but the belief is that Morali was writing about the fact that the YMCA was a place where you could cruise and hook up if you wanted to. Victor Willis says that's not the case and it's actually a song about the YMCA just being a great place in general with no innuendo, which I think is a lie because in other interviews he mentions that he enjoys innuendo. I think it's like when Grace Jones says that "Pull Up to the Bumper" is about parking a big, black limousine—which I do not think it is--and she's just having a goof with you. The thing is, Victor Willis, I don't think he's anything other than straight because he's married a lot of women—turns out one of the women he was married to is named Phylicia Ayers-Allen. Do you know what that woman goes by today? She spells "Phylicia" P-H-Y. 

Glen:  [gasps quietly] Phylicia Rashad? 

Drew:  The Black cop from Village People used to be married to Phylicia Rashad. Isn't that weird? 

Glen:  Oh—it's so beautiful. 

Drew:  They met on the set of The Wiz. Yeah. I did find an article about the history of "YMCA" that at the very least notes that yes, it was actually a place where gay men could live cheaply, hook up, and cruise. However, it was also a place where working-class people could go to the gym, and people who weren't gay but needed a cheap place to live would just live. So it's not one or the other, it was always both, and that's why the fact that "YMCA" became a crossover hit is maybe appropriate because it still is this gay thing, but a straight person can appreciate it for the reasons that it's not all that gay to them, if that makes sense. That came from an article in Gothamist by Abbey White that I will link to in the show notes. Bill buys a rainbow tank. He likes rainbows. Are gay rodeos still a thing? 

Glen:  I don't know. Did you see that some people re excited about COVID-19 because they think it's a chance to take back the rainbow from gays? 

Drew:  [silence]

Glen:  Because I think over in England, some of their more hopeful messaging about fighting the outbreak has rainbows. I don't know. I didn't want to dig too deep about it. 

Drew:  Yeah, that's not going to happen. Good luck with that. It's just going to result in a lot of people being confused. When I was in Europe when the second Iraq War was going on, there were a bunch of rainbow flags that said "pace," which is Italian for "peace," and that was kind of confusing. But rainbows still meant "gay" over there. People knew what the peace flags meant—they can be two things. You're not going to take rainbows away from gay people. Suck it. I would go to a gay rodeo if one still existed and also if there's a point in time when we can go to group events again.

Glen:  Mm-hmm. And if you life in Georgia, that's Friday. 

Drew:  Skipping that gay rodeo. But having grown up being forced to go to actual rodeos—non-gay rodeos, I should say—I always thought they were boring, but I realize that everyone there was probably drunk. People would just go outside to drink beer all day, and now I think it would be fun to do. 

Glen:  As long as they're humane. 

Drew:  I don't know that that's an argument that really will make any rodeo work. I don't think human treatment of animals—how do I put this? 

Glen:  You're saying it's quite impossible for animals to give consent for entertainment purposes? 

Drew:  It is, and the people who participate in rodeos will tell you that it is humane, and the people who think they're immoral will tell you it's not humane, and I don't know that that can ever be decisively answered—until animals can talk—and vote. That's when Bill notices, "Where are all the ladies?" 

Bill:  Where are all the ladies? 

Hank:  Well, they're probably crowding around Dale's dad's trailer. I bet half of these poor bastards are losing their gals right now. 

Glen:  The famous ladies' man, apparently. 

Drew:  Hank is full of reaching answers to explain away apparently gay things; for example, the man riding a bucking stallion in a sundress—the man is in the sundress, not the stallion—and Hank's like, "Oh, he must have lost some sort of crazy cowboy bet." 

Glen:  Boy, does he feel silly. Yeah. We talked about this in the first episode, but there is something endearing about Hank's earnestness, even though it is usually in favor of conservative views. Again, he's pretty much the only conservative figure in popular media that I consistently like. 

Drew:  Mm-hmm. It's not like he's willfully doing it. It's just that his bubble is so thick that he doesn't make those connections on his own. It really has to be thrust in front of his face—which it's about to be. 

Rodeo Announcer:  But don't go anywhere, rodeo fans. Up next Bug Gribble takes on the meanest goat in Texas! And the fun is just beginning here at the gay-heyyyy rodeoooo!

Drew:  Hank is not appalled. Hank seems mostly okay with it. I think he's surprised. But I like that Boomhauer and Bill's reaction is to giggle—like, church giggles—which is good because it would have pulled the episode in a whole other direction if either of them were openly homophobic, but they're not completely comfortable with this, and it's a less-than-welcoming reaction. It's not the most mature reaction, but you're allowing for some other less-than-welcoming reaction. It would not be realistic that they'd both be like, "Yeah, gay people are great." 

Glen:  Yeah. It also gives Hank an opportunity to chasten them because, again, this show has to set Hank apart from his peers—not that he's better than, but that he has in him the capability to more easily recognize different lifestyles. 

[Bill and Boomhauer giggle quietly]

Hank:  Come on , guys. Keep it together. You're acting like a bunch of 12-year-olds. This is a real sporting event. I saw it on ESPN3. That's where they parked poor Fran Tarkenton. 

Glen:  Yeah, and he always of course, then, has his own rationale for it. He's not chastening them because he is necessarily defending gay lifestyles. He's saying, "This is a real sporting event. I saw it on ESPN3. In his mind, you have to respect sports—

Drew:  [laughs] Okay. 

Glen:  —even if you, yourself, do not enjoy that sport. 

Drew:  He didn't respect dog dancing—no, he did respect dog dancing. 

Glen:  Yes, he did. 

Drew:  He got into it. Okay. I take that back. You're right. But still, he's like, "Why would Dale's dad be in a gay rodeo?" and his guess is like when guys end up playing basketball in Europe. And then Bug enters, and he is—I like that they did not make him—he's an attractive older man, and I actually like his outfit. He's wearing a Western shirt buttoned down to his naval and he has a nice little scarf on. He is very clearly a gay character, but they made him a handsome, comfortable-seeming, older gay man.

Glen:  He's not a joke character. 

Drew:  No. 

Glen:  Which they actually highlight because usually in these shows, when our main characters are confronted with the gay content, we cut to commercial off their horrified looks. In this case, they give them a moment to be—not quite horrified, but to have the surprise on their face—but we actually cut to commercial from a shot of Bug being showered with affection and roses and applause. So we're cutting to commercial off of this character being celebrated and respected rather than off of the reaction where the characters are horrified by him. 

Drew:  This is true. He's in his element, and he's just done well at what he does. What he did was he put a pair of panties on a goat. But still, he's happy about himself. Speaking of putting panties on a goat, Glen—

Glen:  We're going to cut to a commercial about goat panties? 

Drew:  I don't know. We'll find out!

[Drew and Glen promote Nat's Secret Coffee Club—visit luckycoffeco.com]

Drew:  And we're back. 

Glen:  Hi. 

Drew:  And the show is back. And the show comes back from commercial with a shot of two men from behind, and each one has his hand on the other man's butt, and that is a little daring for something that would air in the first block of primetime. It's something that I don't think you'd ever see a live-action version of. They can probably get away with it because it's a cartoon and it's not quite as brazen as if it were two real-life butts side by side. But I'm glad they chose that shot, and also, there's some kid who was watching this, and that was the first time they ever saw that. Even if it was in Mike Judge's cartoon format, that is not without meaning. 

Glen:  Yeah, and I think that the show goes out of its way to have these—they don't linger on the background moments, but there are moments where they're showing gay physical contact and a gay community celebrating openly. It's never, for lack of a better term, thrown in anyone's face, but there is an opportunity where—I don't want to say if people want to laugh at it they can because it's not framed as a joke. But I think there are people who could read it as a joke rather than representation, so I think it's dancing a line, and they can get away with it because there is a non-generous reading of it that can be seen as making fun of this lifestyle rather than celebrating it. 

Drew:  Like in the earlier scene when Hank says, "Why do so many cowboys have mustaches?" and as they walk away, two of those cowboys hold each other's hands and then walk away. So that could read as "Ha ha. Hank, you're dumb," or it could just be like, "Oh, it's representation." It is both. That makes sense. I like that. So Hank goes and knocks on Bug's trailer, and the way he answers, he's like—

Bug:  No autographs—unless I'm signing your chest!

Drew:  The way he answers in a provocative way and the way his partner enters his trailer and is not surprised to see another man there makes me think that Bug has a very active and full sexual life. 

Glen:  There's a comment later about—was it Gary and Mike? 

Drew:  Taboo guys? The guys they want to play Taboo with?

Glen:  Yeah, because they say, "Oh, we can do Gary and Mike anytime." 

Drew:  Oh. Okay. 

Glen:  I do believe they have an open relationship. 

Drew:  Okay. Good for them. Good for Dale's dad. So Hank explains who he is, and Mr. Gribble is very happy to see Hank after all these years. 

Hank:  Uh—hello, Mr. Gribble. 

Bug:  Little Hanky Hill! Come in, come in, come in—entre vous! FYI, it's a mess. So, what are you doing here? Are you gay? 

Hank:  Bah-huh—what? No! I sell propane. 

Drew:  [laughs and laughs]

Glen:  Do you want that bumper sticker? 

Drew:  "I'm not gay, I sell propane!" I'll give it to my dad. That is one of the most Hank-Hill things. After the responsibility line earlier, that is—they clearly understand who Hank is as a person. Hank explains the vow renewal, and Bug reveals a different flashback to why he ended up kissing Nancy, and that was that he was making eyes at a very handsome Filipino caterer when he heard Dale coming. To cover up what was going on, he just grabbed the nearest thing in a skirt, which happened to be Nancy. 

Glen:  He could have just not kissed anyone. 

Drew:  He was heavily—yeah. That is probably the plot hole I don't like. But he was heavily closeted, and he was very determined to make sure no one found out that he was gay. 

Glen:  I guess if this wasn't a Fox show they could have shown him having a huge boner, and the only way to cover the fact that he had a boner was to show attraction to Nancy. 

Drew:  I mean, did you check? I don't know that he didn't have a huge boner. But is happy to have a second chance with Dale. Hank asks him to tone it down. There's a nice joke about camp and kitsch, and that is the second time we've had a very camp, older man explain kitsch and camp to a straight, middle-aged man who just does not really seem to get it. And that is when Juan Pedro enters with paella and is not surprised at all to see another man there. 

Juan Pedro:  [opens door] Who wants paella? Gary and Mike made it, and it's decadent. 

Glen:  I was going to ask you how you felt about Juan Pedro's performance or portrayal. To me, I can't decide if it's daring and comfortable or if it's meant to be a joke. 

Drew:  I'm going to look up right now who—I didn't find out who the voice actor is. My answer is kind of dependent upon who is voicing this character. [Drew googles "My Own Private Rodeo]. Okay. So David Herman, who is voicing Bug, is also voicing Juan Pedro, so it is a non-Latinx guy voicing what could be called a Latin stereotype. I don't know. I know there are points when Latin characters on King of the Hill are voiced by actors of that heritage, and there are times when they're not, and maybe they didn't have the budget for two guest stars in this episode. They've had the budget for two guest stars in other episodes. They could have found someone else to do this role—you know, Tony. But he's over-the-top and—yeah, it's sort of an Apu situation. 

Glen:  Yeah. 

Drew:  They have a very fiery, passionate relationship, but it's not just Juan Pedro. Bug is as fiery and passionate as Juan is. 

Juan Pedro:  You have a son? Bug, how can you have a son? I asked you a question! How can you have a son?!

Hank:  Uh—well, you see, when a man and a woman care for each other, what happens—

Bug:  I was married!

Juan Pedro:  Married?! You lying snake! 

[Juan Pedro throws something, which shatters]

Bug:  I was confused, and it was a very painful time for me!

Juan Pedro:  And I want to share your pain, but you hide from me! 

Bug:  I'm sorry [starts to cry]. Juan Pedro, please—

Juan Pedro:  No, you always—you're lying! Lying!

[Juan Pedro and Bug sob with increasing intensity]

Hank:  Gentlemen. 

Glen:  Yeah, another very Hank Hill moment where he is very uncomfortable with men showing emotion. 

Drew:  You know what I just realized? What is Dale's father's name? 

Glen:  Bug. 

Drew:  What is Dale's profession? 

Glen:  He kills bugs. He's an exterminator. 

Drew:  Yeah. He hates bugs. I did not think about that until right now. That's probably intentional, right? 

Glen:  Yes. 

Drew:  Yeah. So we are at the Gribble house. Bug shows up at the front door, and he is ready to make amends for hurting his son's feelings on his wedding day. Dale's response is monkey-style kung fu, which comes up a lot. Another very stereotypical conservative-white-guy thing is the belief that you are properly trained in one or more martial arts that probably don't work in real life. I think there's more than one episode where he yells "Blinding sand!" and then throws a pocket of sand he has concealed on his body in someone's eyes [laughs]. 

Glen:  Now that move I like. 

Drew:  I mean, that would work. He basically forgives him on the spot. 

Bug:  I hate myself for what I did to you. 

Dale:  I hate you more! Trust me, I'm an expert hater. 

Bug:  I don't blame you. Planting one on Nancy was the worst, most disgusting thing I've ever done, and I'm here to say I—I want my boy back [cries]. 

Dale:  My god, you're pathetic. And to think, I once called you—Daddy!

[happy reconciliation music swells]

Bug:  Son? 

Dale:  Daddy!

[Bug and Dale sob]

Drew:  And Nancy raises an eyebrow. 

Glen:  She asks—

Nancy:  I'm glad you're glad he's back, Sug, but have you noticed anything different about your dad? Doesn't he seem a little—fancier? 

Dale:  The only thing that's different is he's here, and I love him. [Dale kisses Nancy] Yep. As long as he keeps his hands off your hot body, we're cool. 

Drew:  And Dale is oblivious because Dale's oblivious to everything. So now we're having beers in the alley again. It's the four guys and Bug, in order, and Bug gets his chance to say "yep" like everyone else. 

Hank:  Yep. 

Bill:  Yep. 

Boomhauer:  Mm-hmm. 

Dale:  Yep. 

Bug: —Oh, my turn? Yep. 

Glen:  Do you like this act of performative masculinity? 

Drew:  It is very similar to the scene that happens in the previous King of the Hill episode we talked about where Caroline—

Glen:  Let's say Jamie. 

Drew:  Jamie is the name when he's not in drag—also has to interact with the guys when they don't know that he's a gay man, and yeah, performative masculinity. 

Glen:  Yeah. 

Drew:  Bug does a good job. He doesn't oversell it. It's right where it should be. 

Glen:  It's almost like everything is an act. Everything is a performance. 

Drew:  He's a performer. 

Glen:  Well, I'm just saying all of us, generally. 

Drew:  Gender is performed. It does not exist on its own in a vacuum. Yes. That was something I learned in college that was sort of mind-blowing when it was first told to me, and it still kind of is when I'm like, "Oh, yeah. Gender is a construct that we're constantly doing and reinterpreting ourselves around all the time." 

Glen:  It's exhausting. 

Drew:  Juan Pedro shows up. 

Bug:  I completely forgot. Hey, Dale, this is Juan Pedro, my—special friend. 

Dale:  Nice to meet you. Any special friend of my dad's is a special friend of mine. These are my special friends, Hank, Bill, and Boomhauer. 

[Bill and Boomhauer stifle giggles and slap at each other]

Bug:  Son, I'm so sorry. Juan Pedro and I have plans tonight. 

Dale:  But Dad, you were supposed to go to the gun club to show my buddies your pistol twirling. 

Juan Pedro:  But we were supposed to play Taboo with Gary and Mike tonight. 

Bug:  Oh. I'm in quite the pickle. What to do? What to do? 

Dale:  Look. Juan Pedro, why don't you come to the gun club with us tonight and then tomorrow we can all go to Gary and Mike's and play Taboo? 

Juan Pedro:  Well, okay. We can do Gary and Mike anytime. And wait 'til you try my margaritas!

Dale:  Great! Hank likes margaritas. Hey, Hank! You coming over to Gary and Mike's tomorrow for margaritas and Taboo? 

Hank:  —Nope. 

Juan Pedro:  Oh, I know you! Hello, Hank!

Hank:  Hello, Juan Pedro. 

Drew:  So then we're in a tux shop. Dale's being fitted for his re-wedding tux. Nancy and Bug have a very interesting conversation. 

Bug:  Joseph is such a beautiful boy. Is he, uh—adopted? 

Nancy:  No, not exactly. He's—um—well, he's—it's a long story. 

Bug:  Nancy!

Nancy:  I know, I know. But telling your husband you cheated on him is such an unpleasant conversation. I think the party will be much more fun if you and I just stay in the closet. 

Glen:  It is strange how much mileage this show got out of a cuckolding joke—like six seasons. 

Drew:  I think it goes on longer than this. I tried to actually find this but couldn't find it for certain. I believe there's a scene much later in the show where Dale tacitly acknowledges that Joseph is not his biological son but he doesn't care and he doesn't think of him as being any less of his son. I can't remember—

Glen:  It's about aliens. I believe Dale makes that admission because he thinks Joseph is part alien. 

Drew:  That would be something he would think. But yeah, they do get a lot of mileage out of it. And I don't find it to be—I think it works. I don't find it to be especially cruel or anything. I like that for so much of the show Nancy is torn to bits. I don't think she does ever tell Dale that we see. 

Glen:  No. 

Drew:  I don't know. We were talking about how shows take a flat character and then round them out, and she is in the very difficult position of she knows what she did was wrong and she wants to fix it but she can't fix it without hurting Dale more, and things are kind of okay the way they are now, so maybe let's pretend that everything's okay. She tells Bug, "Why don't we both just stay in the closet?" 

Glen:  Yeah. That's why this episode is so interesting paired with the previous episode, because she is, for all intents and purposes, living in the closet herself and it's interesting to look at what lies people are comfortable keeping versus lies that they think should be out in the open. 

Drew:  Bug doesn't seem to want to keep anything in the closet. 

Bug:  I'm not going to tell you how to live your life, but I can't do that anymore. 

Nancy:  No!

Bug:  Dale needs to know his daddy is queerer than a box of birds. 

Drew:  Maybe it's a Texas thing. I don't know. And then a dagger flies between Bug and Nancy because Dale thinks that Bug is trying to steal his wife again. 

[dagger thwangs on impact with a mannequin] 

Bug:  Hmm? 

Nancy:  [gasps!]

Dale:  Get away from my wife or next time I'll aim for the mannequin and hit you!

[laughter]

Glen:  Nancy also gets a great line in this scene when she's like, "Telling your husband you cheated on him is such an unpleasant conversation." 

Drew:  [laughs] She's not wrong. 

Glen:  No, and that's what I like. I like that they're just very strong characters. So much of what she does is couched in that Southern politeness in conflict avoidance, just in the way that so much of Peggy goes back to her insecurity and overcompensation. 

Drew:  And it should be said that although Nancy does do something that's really fucked up, she ends up ending the relationship with John Redcorn and doesn't see him anymore even though she loved John Redcorn and John Redcorn is the father of her child. She breaks off the relationship with him because she feels guilty about doing something that's inethical—unethical—unethical to Dale, even though—she has a conversation with her mother in the episode about how she's been having a secret affair, and the mom's like, "Oh, I know. I had one, too. But I need to tell you, if you give it up, you'll lose your hair." The mom is bald. She went bald—she started losing her hair when she stopped having the long-standing affair, and she's been wearing a wig for most of Nancy's life, and Nancy has to accept that she may also go bald like her mother but it's worth it to go bald and not do something cruel to your husband, more so than it is to enjoy an affair and have a full head of hair. It's very complicated. So Bug tries to come out to Dale, and it doesn't work. 

Bug:  There's something I need to get off my chest. If we're going to have a real relationship again, we should be 100 percent, Oprah honest with each other. 

Dale:  Are you in love with Nancy? 

Bug:  [sighs] I'm not the man you think I am. My rodeo—is a gay rodeo. 

Dale:  Why would a confirmed bachelor such as yourself work at a gay rodeo? 

Bug:  Honey, even when I was married to your mother I was leading a secret life. Don't you see? Juan Pedro is not just my special friend—he's my partner. 

Dale:  Partner? Why do you need a partner to work the gay rodeo? Wait a minute—you're—oh, my god! I can't believe this! My own father!

Bug:  Dale—forget I said anything. We were having so much fun! Let's go back to being a family again. 

Dale:  Too late! You're re-uninvited to my re-wedding, now get out!

Bug:  Dale, please!

Dale:  Get out! I can never trust you again! 

[Bug sobs]

Dale:  Get out before I have Nancy throw you out!

Nancy:  Oh, Sug. 

Dale:  I can't believe it. It was right in front of my face this whole time. My father—is a government agent!

Drew:  It's like Hank. He just doesn't even go to the most logical conclusion and comes up with a contrived answer for it. He says, "I don't know what to do! No one's ever deceived me before!" [laughs] The next line is my favorite. So that's the end of that scene, and in the next scene we're in the backyard. We're getting ready for the wedding. Everyone's wearing tuxes, and Hank's like—

Hank:  Are you sure that's what he told you—that he was a—fed? 

Drew:  [laughs]

Glen:  Yeah. 

Drew:  That's such a great joke. 

Glen:  Yeah. It's such a great joke. I kind of want a t-shirt that says, "Hank Hill can say 'fag.'" I don't think I'd be able to wear that shirt anywhere, other than around the house—but where am I going now anyway? 

Drew:  Remember when we did the "Homer's Phobia" episode, he initially was scripted to say the word "fag," and they cut that, which is for the best. In this weird version, Hank actually comes closer than Homer Simpson did. Why does Dale storm off exactly? What is it that sets him off precisely? He wants to go to the gay rodeo and blow his dad's cover and tell all the gays that he's not a gay rodeo star, he's actually a fed working undercover, investigating gay rodeos for some reason. This is when he goes to the disco kiosk—or whatever you want to call it—and Bug tries to pull him out of there and he says—

Bug:  Dale, it is true! I'm gay!

Dale:  Nice try, J. Edgar. 

Drew:  Which, again, he misses the point. I don't know—maybe we can cut it. Would this be a point that I can remind people about the story with Tim Gunn and J. Edgar Hoover? 

Glen:  Sure. 

Drew:  One quick aside about J. Edgar Hoover, and it's one of the best pop culture residences I could make for him. J. Edgar Hoover—probably gay, head of the FBI, very troubled man, made a bad movie about him. Something that you may not know is that Tim Gunn of Project Runway fame is the son of a man who also worked for the FBI and worked closely with J. Edgar Hoover. 

Glen:  His character is in Mindhunters. 

Drew:  Yeah, which is very, very odd. But yeah, his dad was a real big deal. There is a memory that Tim Gunn shared on NPR about being with his dad on the weekend at FBI Headquarters, and his dad tells them, "Vivian Vance is here. Do you want to go meet her?" Vivian Vance being the woman who played Ethel on I Love Lucy. And he's like, "Sure. I love I Love Lucy. I'll go meet Vivian Vance," and he does. So this happens—he meets Vivian Vance, and then years after his father dies he's recalling this in front of his sister and mother, and his mother makes a face, and he's like, "What?" and she's like, "Why would Vivian Vance be at the FBI?" He's like, "I don't—I don't know. I guess I didn't really think about it at the time. I was a little kid." She was like, "Well, put a wig on J. Edgar Hoover, and you have Vivian Vance," which is a very cruel thing to say to Vivian Vance because Vivian Vance was a better-looking woman than J. Edgar Hoover was a man or a woman—the implication being, and I think he agrees that he probably was actually interacting with J. Edgar Hoover in drag, being told by his father that it was Vivian Vance, which is awesome and a really fucked-up think to do to your kid and such a weird thing to realize after the fact. Yeah. Tim Gunn. Interesting person. 

Glen:  Yeah. I do like that when Dale addresses the gay rodeo crowd he says—

Dale:  Listen up, homosexuals and so-called bisexuals!

[laughter]

Drew:  So he doesn't know that J. Edgar Hoover is probably gay, but he does know that bisexuality is believed to be a myth? I don't know who told him that. But yeah. 

Glen:  Yeah. No, it is—a nice bit of nuance. 

Drew:  That's when I went back and was like, "Were either of these writers gay? Because that seems like a joke a non-gay person wouldn't make," but I couldn't tell. It was a good joke. So what I thought was going to happen is that while Dale is standing in the middle of the rodeo arena and everyone's looking at him, I thought a bull was going to come out and rush him and his dad was going to save him. That is not what happens. What happens I like even better. Dad just lassos him and ties him up like he would a goat [laughs].

Glen:  And puts panties on him. 

Drew:  Out of habit—just to shut him up and kind of enforce, like, "I am your father. You're embarrassing me in front of the community. We're going to have a talk about this right now." Then Juan Pedro shows up again. They have another fiery breakdown in front of everyone. 

Juan Pedro:  Are you ashamed of me? 

Bug:  I did tell him. Baby, please! You know you'll always be my caballero numero uno. 

Dale:  [audibly struggling in the background]

Juan Pedro:  I am drowning in your lies. 

Bug:  Then swim to me, Juan Pedro! Don't give up on us, the life we've built together. I love you. You know that, don't you? 

[dramatic music swells]

Juan Pedro:  Yes. And I love you, Bug-a-lug.

[crowd cheers]

Drew:  The writing is melodramatic but kind of nice when Juan Pedro says, "I'm drowning in your lies," and Bug says, "Then swim to me," and he does, and they hug, and they say "I love you" to each other, and Dale realizes that "Oh, this is a real thing." What'd you think about the kiss? 

Glen:  I didn't—it didn't stand out to me in any way. Was it gross or something? 

Drew:  no. So what they do is interesting. You don't see the two men kiss. 

Glen:  Oh, that's right—it's in his glasses. 

Drew:  The shot is just of Dale's face, and Dale always wears these shiny, aviator sunglasses, so you're seeing Juan Pedro and bug reflected in either lens of the aviator, so when they go into kiss they move out of the frame of the glasses and they're where Dale's nose would be. So you know they're kissing, but you don't see it. So yes, they are censoring a man-on-man kiss. I don't know if they had to or not—I couldn't find that. But if you're going to do that, at least they picked the most artful way—

Glen:  Yeah. It was actually beautiful. 

Drew:  And it's in character with Dale and everything. You almost wouldn't notice that you're being denied seeing two men kiss. 

Glen:  Did you pick up on the parallels between Bug and Juan Pedro basically renewing their vows and Dale—

Drew:  [gasps!] I did not!

Glen:  —and Nancy renewing theirs? 

Drew:  I did not even think about that!

Glen:  Yeah. Bug and Juan Pedro actually doing what Nancy's not strong enough to do, which is be open. Bug has revealed his past, his secret that he had been hiding from Juan Pedro, and that sort of openness allows them to express their love in a more honest way whereas this celebration with Dale and Nancy is again just performative. Like, yes, she's sort of recommitting to him but not being honest, really, about what this is all about. 

Drew:  Didn't even really notice that, but yeah. So the renewals happen offscreen. We come to the after party. Everyone's dancing, including Juan Pedro and Bug, and Dale and Nancy are talking about how great it is to have renewed their vows, and they "cheers!" to new beginnings and happy endings—which is not inaccurate, but we know that Nancy has a secret. Then she asks him—

Nancy:  So, are you really okay with your dad being gay? 

Dale:  Why would I have a problem with it? John Redcorn's gay, and I've been friends with him for years. 

Drew:  It's a really good joke. It's a joke you have to have watched the show a lot to understand. John Redcorn is not gay and has sex with many women. Dale is really oblivious. And it's sweet that Dale likes gay people. He has no problem with gay people. He just doesn't know what one looks like, apparently. 

Glen:  Yeah. 

Drew:  Yeah. What'd you think? 

Glen:  I think I liked the other episode we discussed more. This is sweet, and it's good. It just didn't have the same opportunity for characters to reexamine their feelings on something. 

Drew:  The minor characters reexamine themselves and experience growth—like Bug and Juan Pedro do—in the "Peggy Hill Meets a Drag Queen" episode, Peggy Hill is the one who has to grow, and it's more exciting to see the main character grow rather than someone—we never see Bug again. He doesn't ever recur, I don't think. So yeah. Do you want to know what the original plot was before they rewrote it? 

Glen:  Sure. 

Drew:  So the original plot still had Hank going to the gay rodeo. That part doesn't really change. But the lead-in to the plot is that Dale has a tooth problem but doesn't want to go to the dentist, and he's scared that if he goes under anesthesia the government will put a tracking device inside him, so he's not going to go to the dentist. Then the whole gay rodeo thing happens, and it ends with Bug fearing that Dale would not be able to accept him for being gay and tells him that he is a federal agent working undercover because he feels like that's something Dale can understand. Dale accepts that his dad is an undercover agent, and it ends with Bug taking Dale to the dentist and holding his hand while he has dental surgery. 

Glen:  Well this—version—sounds as good as what we watched. 

Drew:  No! No, it's not as good. I'm glad that Bug gets to be honest and gets to really actually come out, but on some level, the idea that you can't really be honest with Dale fully seems like a more predictable conclusion because Nancy can't be. No one is. Everyone knows that Dale isn't Joseph's father, and no one can be honest with him about it. What do you think about the parallels between Dale and Peggy being both equally oblivious to stuff? 

Glen:  Yeah, I get the comparison. It just feels different because all the things that Dale disbelieves or believes that are wrong are outside of himself, pretty much. Like, yeah, he has an inflated sense of ego when it comes to his martial arts and guns and things like that, but he believes conspiracy theories. Peggy just believes that she's wildly more talented than she is. 

Drew:  Yeah. So believing in conspiracy theories is different than Peggy thinking that she speaks Spanish fluently when she doesn't at all, but both of them are people who like to show off how much they know about the world when actually they know very little or they know wrong things. So in that way, it's interesting that Hank Hill has these two characters—his best friend and his wife who actually don't like each other very much who are in that one way very similar people. 

Glen:  I think it just speaks to the setting of the show being a small town in Texas and the residents there fashioning themselves a more exciting life than they were given, and so I think it's more about how anyone anywhere can believe themselves to be protagonists in a grander story than has been written for them. 

Drew:  Which is a good thing and a bad thing. 

Glen:  Yeah. 

Drew:  Anything else about this King of the Hill episode you want to share with our audience? 

Glen:  I jerked off to it. No, just kidding. I have—I have nothing more to share. What about you? 

Drew:  No, I don't think I have anything. If anyone's been to a gay rodeo, I want to know if it is actually fun or how much like a regular rodeo it is. I don't ever want to go—I don't want to actually watch people ride horses, but everything else associated with rodeos I think could improve if everyone was gay. 

Glen:  You just want to see hot men wearing chaps and vests. 

Drew:  Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm, I do. I mean, I was going to say, we can go to the Eagle and see that, but we actually can't right now. Maybe one day we can. I just want to know what that atmosphere is like. 

Glen:  Well, Drew, if people want to tell you about the gay rodeo, where can they do that? 

Drew:  You can tweet at me @DrewGMackie—M-A-C-K-I-E. Don't tweet @GayestEpisode for the moment. We're still suspended. If you know someone who works at Twitter and can unsuspend our account, please ask them to do it. Please. I would really appreciate it. Thank you. Glen, where can people tweet at you if not through @GayestEpisode? 

Glen:  You can find me on Twitter @IWriteWrongs—that is I-W-R-I-T-E-Wrongs, or in Instagram @BrosQuartz—B-R-O-S-Quartz. 

Drew:  Listen to every previous episode of Gayest Episode Ever at gayestepisodeever.com. If you haven't left us a rate and review on iTunes, please do that. They help other people find this podcast. You know this because it gets discussed on every podcast you've ever listened to—unless this is the first podcast you've ever listened to, in which case that would be a weird intro to the podcast world, but welcome. How's your quarantine going? This is a TableCakes podcast. TableCakes is a Los Angeles based podcast network. You can learn about all the other shows we have at tablecakes.com. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson, and this show is transcribed by Sarah Neal. You can find links to their respected websites in the show notes. We do have a Patreon. We are not charging for the month of May. We may in June. We don't know what's going to happen in June yet. But for right now, you can sign up for all the Patreon features and not have to pay the $1 we'd otherwise be charging you for bonus episodes—which I will get to you shortly. There will be a bonus episode for the month of April. 

Glen:  Is that what month it is? 

Drew:  It's April right now. It's—is it 4/20? It's 4/20. 

Glen:  Oh!

Drew:  Happy 4/20, Glen. I think that's it. I think that's all the housework I have to do at the bottom of the episode. 

Glen:  Any bonus questions? 

Drew:  I do have a bonus question, and this is one I wrote for you. 

Glen:  Oh!

Drew:  It's about King of the Hill, though. 

Glen:  Okay. 

Drew:  I was wondering if you could guess, who on King of the Hill didn't vote for Donald Trump? 

Glen:  I mean, this is more of a quiz. I don't think Hank Hill would have voted for Donald Trump. 

Drew:  I think you're probably right, actually. I think most people would assume he would. But there's an episode—do you know about the George W. Bush episode? 

Glen:  Yeah. The weak handshake? 

Drew:  Yeah. So he shook W's hand when W. Was the governor in Texas, and he didn't like the way his handshake felt, and when it comes to the Bush v. Gore election, he can't decide whether he should vote Republican and vote for the guy he doesn't like or trust his gut and vote for a party that he doesn't really support—and you don't ever see who he votes for. It's left to your imagination. It's a very interesting episode of TV. 

Glen:  Is this the one where Luann puts a "Vote Communist" sign up on the lawn? 

Drew:  Is it? 

Glen:  I think it is. 

Drew:  Okay. I don't remember that part. I've actually only seen that episode the one time. Do you think Peggy would have voted for Donald Trump? 

Glen:  Yes. 

Drew:  See, I think she would find him—she doesn't like boorish men, so I think she would have rejected him outright. I think everyone else voted for Donald Trump. 

Glen:  I think she would have been put off by Clinton because Clinton actually achieves a lot of what she views in herself, and she might find that threatening. 

Drew:  This is true. 

Glen:  She probably—maybe Jill Stein? 

Drew:  Oh, that's heartbreaking. I think the Gribbles all voted for Donald Trump. I think Boomhauer definitely voted for Donald Trump. I think Bill probably did because most everyone else did—unless Hank told him who he was voting for, in which case he would not have voted for that person. So yeah. It's an interesting show about politics. Like I said, Parks and Rec was the inheritor to a sitcom that could kind of approach the left/right divide and do it in a way that wouldn't make anyone super offended. I wish we got another show like this. I wish Mike Judge did a sitcom and had another university like this where you can talk about politics in a way that could engage both sides and make them both feel comfortable. 

Glen:  We all want that. 

Drew:  We all want that. Glen, podcast over. 

Glen:  Bye forever. 

["Little Cowboy" performed by Joe McRoy plays]