Talking Simpsons - Bonus New Year's Episode - TalKing of the Hill "Pretty, Pretty Dresses"

Episode Date: January 15, 2025

The Talking Simpsons Network is taking a week off for the holiday season, so to fill the content gap, we've decided to post an episode of our Patreon-exclusive TalKing of the Hill podcast miniseries! If you like this episode and want to hear the rest (with more to come every month), head over to Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and sign up at the $5 level. Once you do, you'll have immediate access to all of our limited miniseries, covering animated shows like Futurama, Mission Hill, The Critic, and Batman: The Animated Series. So visit Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and sign up today!

Hey there, Ryan Reynolds here. It's a new year, and you know what that means. No, not the diet. Resolutions. A way for us all to try and do a little bit better than we did last year. And my resolution, unlike big wireless, is to not be a raging a**

and raise the price of wireless on you every chance I get. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. $45 upfront payment required equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speeds lower above 40 gigabytes on Unlimited. See MintMobile.com for details. What you listening to, son?

["The Bloodbath Theme"] ["The Bloodbath Theme"] Howdy, y'all, and welcome to Talk King of the Hill where we sit back and watch the blood bath. I'm your host, the hissing disease-ridden cry for help Bob Mackie, and this is the Talking Simpsons Network's chronological exploration of King of the Hill. Who is here with me today as always? Hey, it's Henry Gilbert, and I have some pillows on my couch, but that doesn't make me insane.

And this month's episode is Pretty Pretty Dresses. Bill's in the house. You want me to go get him? I'm skeptical that you could, yet intrigued that you may. This episode originally aired on December 20th, 1998, and as always, Henry will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history. This is Hank Hill with the news.

Happy holidays, Bobby. Bill Clinton is officially impeached. You got mail beats Prince of Egypt at the box office and every kid wants a Furby for Christmas. Okay, Clinton impeached. And we all know what that does to a president. Well, it takes up the news for a whole bunch of time. It certainly fills up the news for a whole bunch of time.

It certainly fills up the schedules of people working at CNN and Fox News and all that. But as for actual results or like removed from office, it doesn't do anything. Now I forget, was Donald Trump impeached three times or just twice? I believe it was just the double. Okay.

Yeah, I believe it was the first one, which was like lying about. Okay. Yeah. I believe it was the first one, which was like lying about a check or something. I honestly can't remember because the second one is very easy to remember. It's January 6th, which yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. That, oh, that little event. Yes. Yeah. Which again, I do think Democrats, I don't want to say building a mountain out of a molehill, because you shouldn't, illegally occupying the capital on orders of the president is wrong, like, and should be punished. But it's like, I don't know, but it's not, does anybody care about it anymore? Is it an election winner for them? It's a black stain on their record, and we all know how much presidents care about those.

History will reflect poorly on them as it has with all the previous president mistakes. And you've got mail. It's a movie I just watched within the past year, and Tom Hanks plays the devil, secretly. The character he plays is evil, and the entire point of the plot is embrace big business because they're actually doing a better job than you. And this is the future. There's a great scene because the story of the movie is, you know, Tom Hanks rolls into town with his big bookstore.

He's putting Meg Ryan's bookstore out of business. And the entire movie is her getting comfortable with that fact. And there's an amazingly evil scene where she walks into this big bookstore and she's like, let's see what this place is all about. And it's marvelous. It's spectacular. They have everything. She's proven wrong. It's such an evil movie. She sees it like, wow, my small bookstore can't, can't compete with this giant place. It offers so much options. Yeah. That's a big bookstore did

not have Jean Stapleton. Oh, well, so there you go. Then that's the big difference. No. And then what she loses and then just gets with the guy. But also her losing her mom's bookstore. It doesn't even mean that too much to her financially. Like she doesn't like lose her apartment or anything. It's just it's more just shame for her. Yeah, she was gifted a family bookstore and it is such an end of history movie. We're at an end of history period in history. And I believe this is the one with great Kenear

as her boyfriend she starts off with. He's the backstery. Yeah. And he sucks because he cares about things. He cares about politics and she's apolitical and he's the bad guy for actually caring. And then he hooks up with a woman who actually cares about things too. But they're, they're also bad guys in this movie. Yeah, she needs to learn to stop being upset about big business and fuck the guy who represents big business, like the more conservative guy who's going to stamp out small little bookshops. And they win in the end, don't they? Yes. Yeah. And we're on to Furbies now. This is the next toy craze following Tickle Me Elmo, I believe.

But we're still, this is also the Christmas season of Pokemon, but Pokemon is not a singular toy, but it is lots of toys and games and stuff. So Furby and Pokemon are both sharing a Christmas holiday. Yeah, well, and I think too, the Pokemon was not ready merch-wise for the truly, how definitely huge that Christmas could be.

The 99 Christmas, they are totally there and ready for it. And they've got the movie and everything. Like, Pokemon was so big unexpectedly that Viz got to make so much money off of it getting a sweetheart deal that they would not normally get. Like they got a regular anime deal for what would end up being the new Ninja Turtles and their video deal. They got so lucky, but I was too old for Furby. I don't know if you had Furby contact in your life. No, it was a friend's little sister had a Furby and that was the most, and it was more of like the we were teens and so I recall friends going like, oh this is her Furby,

try to teach it to swear words. Say it, see it, like make it say a swear back to you because I think they could learn words or something. And they could communicate with each other? Uh yeah, I believe so. Yeah. Like or at least they could fake it. I mean, I just never, as far as a form factor thing, Pikachu way cuter than a Furby to me. Like it's, Furby is American weird cute. And that's just too like lumpy to me. I'm settling. Yeah. Yeah. It's like a troll doll or something. I know it's like right before those quid. I mean, if we didn't have those Furby guys, we wouldn't have those disgusting Quiznos subs monsters. Oh, you're right. They're made out of

like cut out Furby parts. Yes. They're basically like a Furby ransom note animated in front of you. Yeah. And it was an amazing moment. We saw that on TV, that meme. We didn't know they could do that. It was a meme on television and it would make me eat at least a few Quiznos. I think it's not technically fully dead yet, but it basically there's no more Quiznos. I was outside the first Quiznos and I think it was Denver. So that one's still open and it's not very remarkable in any way. You know, man, if Quiznos had fully overtaken Subway back in the past, you know, we wouldn't have to have all these jarrid

memories in our past that would not exist. And it feels like Quiznos had higher quality sandwiches as well. That's what I recall. It's just like the bread's not real, the tuna's not real, it's a world of lies when you're walking into a Subway. And it like forced Subway to start toasting sandwiches because that was like Quiznos' big deal, like like we toast your subs Which what do you do? But I I mean I like to toast a meatball sub

But you know, I'm my my current diet meatball subs are thing of the past They are that it that is one of the unhealthiest subs you can get absolutely Yeah now I'm gonna sound like a west coast elite and I am of kind of but I used to eat Subway all the time in college because that's when they had the Sub Club. I was a member, you ate so many subs, you got a free one. And especially during the season of Lent in a very Catholic town, the tuna subs were so cheap. And then I moved away and there were no nearby Subways. But one Christmas while I was out here, my sister gave me a Subway gift card and I tried Subway

for the first time in maybe a decade. I don't know how I ever ate that in my life. My palette has changed tremendously since I was in my early twenties. Man, I, uh, I don't think I've had a quiz. I mean, the last time I had a subway sub had to be like four, but it's definitely pre COVID. And even that feels like it's like, Oh, it's the only thing open in an airport type deal. It's also just like, it just sits in you so much that if you're on, if you're at like a convention or something, you'd be like, well I'd rather just have like a slice of pizza then.

And of course I'm saying a meatball sub. Also, I had the danger of when I go out to lunch and get it at my first video game press job, I'd be like, well, I'm just going to have the, I'll get 12 inches and just have, you know, the other half for dinner after I eat the first half. Like, you know, it's still pretty, I could eat this other half. And then I, I regretted it deeply. You have to cut it in half and put the other half in the fridge immediately. So you can't access it.

I should have, that should have locked it up, put it in a lockbox as Gore was saying not too long after this. But yeah, so that's what was happening around the holiday season of 1998. Sandwich chat. The writer of this episode is Paul Lieberstein who is a great writer, Toby from The Office of course, and the director for this one is new to King of the Hill, but we've talked about him before, Dominic Pulcino. So this is his first King of the Hill, but we covered him on sideshow Bob's last gleaming because that was his first Simpsons. So he's one of many people to come over from the Simpsons to King of the Hill from film Roman.

Part of that Simpsons King of the Hill brain drain that was going on that did weaken their animation on the simpsons for a bit but why because uh west archer knew all the bet a lot of the best people to to hire and give uh and they weren't going to get to direct on simpsons it was a very crowded list on simpson so i i don't blame him and his last episode of the simpsons was lard of the dance and he'll be on king of the hill until season 10 so a very long time long stay and he'll be on King of the Hill until season 10. So a very long time. It's a long stay. And he leaves to direct on Family Guy, but weirdly enough, he just directed the third episode of Family Guy

and that's it until he joined the show much later. Oh wow, okay. Well, because he has a brother, right? That's the Pulcino I'm thinking of who's done a million Family Guys, right? I think Michael Pulcino. Yeah, I think there's a Michael Pulcino. Yeah, I think there's a Michael Pulcino. Yeah, yeah, it's these directing Pulcinos here. I think in the early days of Family Guy, they were just grabbing directors left and rights because I think even Bob Jakes directed an early Family Guy.

Oh, right, when we had him on for a podcast, I was, he was like, yeah, I worked on the, I did the chicken fight, which everybody loves, but he didn't seem proud enough of it. No, and that's also the episode with the Randy Newman bit. It's called Da Boom, which because that is what the name of Fox's lineup was called. Da Boom! That's right. He should be more proud of that. I understand that if you directed some of the best episodes of Ren and Stimpy, that Family Guy has seen his trash to you. Like I get that.

And yeah, so Mike Pulcino, he actually has directed, no, I look at his IMDB. He actually has done more on Simpsons than Family Guy. He has, he has not actually directed an episode of Family Guy. He's been AD on stuff and animation director and timer on 15 episodes of Family Guy. So he's more of a Simpsons guy too, the Mike Pulcino.

Those talented Pulcinos. So I guess upfront I will say perhaps a light trigger warning for self harm. This is an episode about self harm, but I think it's handled well, although it's handled in a way that a TV show of 1998 would handle it. It's handled well by 1998 standards. Yes. Yeah. No, I have to really compliment Lieberstein that he did the Christmas episode the previous year, Hysterical Blindness one, which is my new favorite

Christmas episode. And this is my old favorite Christmas episode, uh, before I, uh, stopped being so desperately lonely in, during the holiday season. But I think like Leverstein, like Leverstein, he is such, you see it in Toby too, like there is a desperate sadness that he is able to channel, which, you know, seemingly he's been married for, you know, decades and seems like a happy enough guy, but he finds so much darkness in there. And I always have to remind myself that it is,

they're all great writers, it is not, but I forgot about the nepotism at play in a lot of this here this here that like that he's Paul is the brother of Susan Daniels, named Lieberstein. It's Greg Daniels, his wife, who also she is a huge ass deal to like she when this aired, she was the president of the WB, like green lighting like Dawson's Creek and Buffy the vampire slayer stuff. Yeah, you know, I'm going to dare Greg Daniels son to write on a show that's not run by his be like green lighting like Dawson's Creek and Buffy the vampire slayer stuff. Yeah. You know, I'm going to dare Greg Daniels son to write on a show that's not run by

his dad. That's just my, I'm going to put that out there. I dare you to write for another show. He's writing for his dad because his dad knows he's the best writer and he wants to keep them all to himself. Also Abe graining. I've got my eyes on you. Yes. Yeah. I, and well, I end his also Daniel's, at least one of Daniel's daughters, executive produced a reality show with him too called My Dad and Your Mom, or Your Dad and My Dad, whatever. It's about a dating show of children setting up their parent, their divorced or single

parents with each other's parents. Interesting. Yeah, it's the Daniels was like oh you know my daughter thought it'd be a great idea so she set it up with me but yeah I always forget that Susan Daniels she until a couple years ago was the president of original content at YouTube which not YouTube Red was her which I wouldn't take the most crap for that I'm a proud subscriber but I don't care about their original content that probably doesn't exist anymore their biggest hit wasn't on their channel it only got big the karate kid show they did nobody watched it until when a Netflix and then it got huge yeah yeah we're going to YouTube to watch

three-hour videos about survival horror games. You know, we're not going there for, uh, to see Ralph. Ralph Macchio has been up to the Susan Daniels, uh, career. Uh, when I looked at it, I couldn't, uh, uh, look away. It was, it is pretty interesting that she, she was one of those, uh, Fox execs that when the WB started up to ha and hired away all these Fox people, she was one of them and quickly moved up the ranks

to become the president of the network until the network, she left it in 2003 and worked in a bunch of other places. But yeah, and she wrote a book that I might read on the history of the WB. She co-wrote it with another person. I was like, well, I'm sure there's some parts of the story she's not gonna tell as a former exec,

but it'd be interesting to see. That sounds fascinating. Yeah. Yeah. This episode though opens with a cold open and we see, you know, it's the Cripsis episode, so it's winter time. The guys are drinking in the alley together as normal, but instead of what normally happens,

the chorus of yups, Bill starts weeping openly, and then we hear an instrumental version of sleigh ride as the guys are just trying to ignore him. So this show, I think does a good job of putting you in the shoes of this depressed person and also in the shoes of the people who he's alienating. Absolutely. It is so few shows deal with depression in a way that makes it understandable to be on the side of the person suffering from it in the episode, but also completely I empathizing

with all the people who are trying to help this sad, desperate man in deep denial. Yeah. And I'm not trying to be judgmental of Bill because I can think of lots of times in my life where I was zero fun to be around because I was, uh, bad things were happening to me out of my control and I wasn't taking it well. So I could have made a lot more friends than I did at certain periods of my life. But you know, I just was not a fun person to hang out with. Oh yeah. No, I, um, well, especially this episode always meant a lot to me because, you know, for the longest time before I started dating my

husband, I did not, I had a lot of lonely Christmases, a lot of lonely holiday seasons and New Year's and, you know, the feeling of Bill just sobbing as it all hits me once and then, and then your thought in your head of like oh everybody thinks I'm weird now I got a barrier barrier and then then denial and it's just you know sad Christmas music was my favorite thing to listen to at Christmas time because I wanted to be I don't know sometimes I wanted to like well I'm the sad loser and but there is like this that I also really identify

in this episode with Bill is like, I have been on the side of being like the, the saddest person in a friend group or the only, the only single guy in a group where, and, and knowing that people like feel bad for me, but I, it kind of, you both feel defensive, but also you want them to feel bad for you because you're getting attention, but also you want them to feel bad for you because you're

getting attention, but then you want to push them away because you don't want their pay. You're just in such a weird emotional state. Yeah. Yeah. I know I've also been the only single person in a group a few times in my life. And my main thought was like, why is no one setting me up with anyone? And the reason is nobody wants to be set up with someone who's thinking that all the time.

They make it so clear in this episode of why you can't get somebody together with somebody else in this situation. And yeah, I mean, I also, my last little preamble thing I wanna say too is that I just watched all of Barry, finished it off and I've always thought this, but he's so good in live action. I don't see him enough in live action these days.

But seriously, Steven Root is one of the best actors around now. He's a great actor. Yeah, I think I'm gonna move on to that after I finish Better Call Saul and I'm more than halfway through that series. Yeah, it's a good, I'd say you're in parallel lines there. It's like, you're just shifting lanes slightly.

I'm gonna lose Max when I go to Canada. Yo, so you really gotta move fast. Well, they have Crave, which is basically their Max. I see Crave. But yeah, Steven Root, he's so good in that show, and he is playing a totally different character than Bill. Like, he is playing a totally different character than Bill. Like he is playing a higher status guy, but a guy who also, there's a real loneliness and sadness and denial in the character of Fuchs that he plays on Barry as well. Like there's a lot to him

in that. But here with Bill, like he's always good with Bill, but this is him playing Bill to his fullest. And like the way the sobbing is one thing, but the way he lightly plays the emotions at times like, like, Oh God, he's so good. He's, he might, I think he's the best voice actor on the show. I think he is. In a show full of great voice actors. Because like Strickland and Bill are so different in terms of their emotionality and their, and their confidence levels, uh, and their different voices too. So I feel like he, he has full range in this. And he, and at the same time as this, or maybe it's been canceled. Nope,

it's just about to be canceled. He's on news radio as well, uh, playing Jimmy James and he's an incredibly confident weirdo boss like in that show totally different from Bill and he is a master at that too like yes Steven Root one of the greatest around a pre I'm just appreciating him more and more as as time goes on and you know they've been lately touching upon and exploring the sadness of Bill, but we can't forget that like the third episode started with the kid, the guys thinking of their childhoods. We cut back and Bill just goes, I'm so depressed, I can't even blink. And then we have the theme

song. So Bill started off as this depressed character with a very flat affect and Steven Root found a better way to play him a more more fun way to play him, exploring the highs and lows of Bill. But now we're going back to depression to find out like what's causing it and Bill hitting bottom. And then this season, they've already shown him to be like, well, they added a new detail that like he sort of peeps in on Hank and Peggy and makes himself a third wheel in their relationship in uncomfortable ways. And he has, we've seen that he is in love with Peggy that was shown in, you know, the Peggy's Pageant fever, his deep love for her.

And he eats their trash as we saw last month. And maybe shits in their yard. No, he definitely does. So, it's a whole new level of darkness to the character of Bill. And also, I mean, the title of this episode isn't said in this episode it said in season 2 which I think is also part of the mental illness stew of Bill when he says that his father's punishment for him was that he was forced to wear dresses pretty pretty dresses which shows that some

part of Bill likes wearing dresses and but his only way of channeling it is in Deeply desperate times. Yeah, a complete mental breakdown Yeah, so we come back and Bill starts he stops crying almost too quickly like in an unnatural way He's trying to just push everything down He's he's talking about how much he loves Christmas and then we find out that Lenore left him seven years ago on Christmas Eve. And he obviously is lying when he says, best thing that ever happened to me. So, uh, and he also breaks down in the middle of saying, you know, holidays are the least lonely time of the year. Oh God, the way he says that man. And, and that they, did they, I forget if they named her before this episode. I don't I'm pretty sure they did. Okay

Yeah, well Lenore is the perfect name for it too like it is the the the lost wife in the Edgar Allen Poe poem the Raven that he's pining after but for him, she's not dead She just left him and he can't understand why which that also it's revealed at the end like Part of the frustration is it should be obvious why they had all these fights all the time but he wants to be in such deep denial he's like I don't know why she left me yeah and uh I like also how the beginning explores that these are all guys who don't like to talk about emotions so it's an upon, but unspoken thing that they all watch

Bill during the holidays. They don't want to talk about it. And the discomfort with Hank is that he has to address this directly. But in the beginning, he finds ways out of it. He's like, you know what, I could go for a cookie. I bet Bill's got some cookies lying around somewhere. And he walks off screen because he's like, I have to make sure Bill isn't going to try to kill himself. But he can't say I, I'm concerned. Yeah. This also is about Hank having to navigate caring about another man that does not break the very defined rules of masculinity. Like, you know, I would hope that today it's a little more normal even for the Hanks of the world to say I love my friend that I've known since high school and don't want him to die

without having to justify it even to just two people who have known him just as long too. Like that even with them, he has to just lie and say, uh, or not even lie, but like just, he has to say a cover for it of like, Oh, uh, I want a cookie. Yeah, yeah, probably got him and Dale and boom, how I know what's up. But it just has to go unspoken here. Even even Bill has to pretend it's not happening while he cries in front of his friends because it is too hard for him. I get so heartbreaking like Lenore, Lenore leaving him destroyed him. And it's it's been seven years.

So Hank enters Bill's depressing house. I think this is the most we've seen of it so far. He looks around and from his POV, we see a long dead Christmas tree, probably from seven years ago, decorated with lights. There's a Lenore stocking hanging on it. And there's also gifts for her under the tree. And we see as we pan across the living room on his cable spool coffee table, he's in the process of wrapping more gifts for her.

He got her a toaster apparently. Yeah, he's buying her new gifts and wrapping it up for her, which is, he, that's part of his deep denial too, thinking, well, she must want, when she comes back, she'll want a new gift. I can't just give her the old stuff. Hey there, Ryan Reynolds here. It's a new year and you know what that means.

No, not the diet, resolutions. A way for us all to try and do a little bit better than we did last year. And my resolution, unlike big wireless, is to not be a raging a** and raise the price of wireless on you every chance I get. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. $45 upfront payment required equivalent to $15 per month.

New customers on first three month plan only taxes and fees extra speeds lower above 40 gigabytes on unlimited cement mobile.com for details. And the entire living room is just, there's presence strewn all about a bill walks out of the bathroom and tries to cover for all the presidents by saying, Oh, you know, I just need to clean up. And he's shoving them under the couch with his foot. But he has already seen too much. And the way he's wiping his face, like he, I just need to clean up. And he's shoving them under the couch with his foot. But Hank has already seen too much. And the way he's wiping his face,

like he hid in the bathroom to like sob ugly and then clean himself up like, okay, back to denial, close the door. And then when Hank says like, oh, hey, hey, hey, Hank. Like, yeah, he doesn't, Bill, and everybody knows, but Bill, if you were to tell Bill, it would break him even more Yeah, and let's hear Hank checking in on Bill

Uh, I just wanted to make sure that you'll be coming over for dinner, you know until the holidays are over Oh, yeah, i'm coming. I cleared my calendar right through the end of the year and a good chunk of the next Bill, uh, these old gifts aren't for Lenore, are they? No. Yes, but she'll come back and be happy I saved everything. Bill, you've got to face the facts. She's not... Well, it's very unlikely that...

Well, I guess you never know. Freakish things do happen. Yes, they do. Thank you. I've received a few more responses for our party. Rudy Beaker, yes, VP. All this talk about people makes me... You know what it makes me think about?

Breakups. You ever think about that dead boyfriend of yours? Well, I wonder if you'll ever find someone again. think about breakups. You ever think about that dead boyfriend of yours? Well, I wonder if you'll ever find someone again. I mean, most people just get one relationship in this life. So while Hank is talking to bill, he's just like jamming the dead tree in the closet behind him too. Bill, Hank's trying his best to lightly deal with it. But yeah, the look, again, great animation.

The look on Bill's face as Hank is starting to tell him the reality he won't accept, like it's very unlikely. And the way he pulls back is like, yes, they do. Thank you. Freakish things have happened. And this, I wonder if they intentionally did it in the Thanksgiving episode, but Bill was at Thanksgiving with them as well, which now implies to me that from Thanksgiving to New Year's, that is when they have Bill over for dinner all of the time, or at the very least Thanksgiving is when they first invite Bill over for the holidays at the start of

it. I take it to be Christmas to New Year's, but it could be longer. But I like that they're implying that he is just the presence and he's making everybody uncomfortable. Yeah. And this is the kind of thing where it has sympathy for the people trying to help a depressed person because Bill is just hard to be around. He's bringing up this depressing stuff, not really aware that he's bumming everyone out, but he just has nothing in his life to hold on to so he's just

Focusing on the misery. Yeah, this you know, this was a real thing people were talking about more at the time in Sopranos as well. They talked about how Tony's mom and honestly Tony Soprano as well That they both have this need to bring everybody down that they both have this need to bring everybody down. Like at the table they'll say like, if they know somebody who died, they'll say recently or a bad thing happened to somebody. Like you hear about this,

like and you just want to bring everybody down. And even if then you don't have that, you bring up like, hey, remember that thing that really bothers you? I remember it. And they just bring it up to needle you. And I don't think Bill wants to fully make Luan unhappy, but he does, I do think that he wants to make Luan

feel as bad as he feels a little bit, and everybody else at the table too, like to remind them, hey, remember when you were alone, or oh, you're currently alone,, Hey, remember when you were alone or, Oh, you're currently alone, Luanne, don't you feel bad? Yeah. He's kind of resentful, but he's also thinking, I want you to know that you're just like me in some ways. I'm not a freak. You're not better than me. Yeah. I mean, Oh, and the way Luanne is like ruined by this,

like what a cruel thing and great acting by Brittany Murphy in this whole episode. Yeah. Because we cut to Peggy. She looks shocked, Luanne looks troubled, and Peggy just changes the subject to, hey Luanne, you did such a great job hosting last time. Why don't you do that again? And she just goes, I, what? Oh yes, what?

Yeah. Do you think that she- She's just shell shocked. Do you think that bringing that up again is why she sees Buckley's angel, as she mentions later in the episode? She saw him during the nine pretty darn angry men episode. So she's having regular visits with Buckley's angel. I forgot. Wow. So yeah, these are these have a couple of connecting things to it.

Then Bobby Sadness here and how Bill is jumping on top of it. It reminds me of the, it'd be season six, but when Bobby and Connie break up, Bill loves it. And he's like, oh good, I have another like sad person to hang out with and feel depressed with and eat junk food with. And the I'm with Cupid episode, which confused me when I searched for it,

cause I was like, no, no way, that's a Simpsons episode. That's the better I'm with Cupid from, which confused me when I searched for it because I was like, no, no way, that's the Simpsons episode. That's the better I'm with Cupid from, I think, the same year. It was. I think you're right. Or maybe it was a little bit later, but still a better episode. Yeah. And I love how much Bill relates to Bobby in that. Everyone is trying to steer Bobby away from becoming Bill in that episode.

It's too easy to do, especially for a heavier boy like Bobby, for sure. So yeah, Bill drops a bomb on the dinner table by bringing up Buckley. He then moves on to, what was the name of that girl who dumped you, Bobby? And then he's just like, Marie. So he's now down in the dumps. Great continuity here too. That was Buffy's name, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah.

Not Buffy, Sarah Michelle Gillard. Yeah. Hey, she was Buffy and she doesn't really act anymore. So Buffy or D buffy Sarah Michelle Gill are. Yeah. Hey, she was buffy. And she doesn't really act anymore. So, buffy or Daphne, right? Yes. Yeah. So, this is a subject Bill wants to dive into, but Peggy is just like budding in to avoid any more talk of this. And then Bill brings up an old flame of hers, Bob Cecil. And Bill tells Peggy, you liked him. And she says, well, that was 10th grade. No, I didn't. And then he goes on to say, yeah, you did, but he didn't like you. And she is really annoyed by this. You can tell it's digging up old memories. The cut to her face of just pure pinched face rage at him bringing that

up like, but he didn't like. His satisfaction is saying, but he didn't like you. That's so mean. And earlier in this scene, Bobby wants to be the hostess with the mostess. So there's a little bit of, let's call it a C plot in this episode of Bobby trying to show off what a good hostess he can be. And that is shown in this one scene here next that Bobby is serving breakfast to Hank and Peggy, clearly auditioning to be the hostess. And then it's so cute that he wants to be the hostess. And then it's so cute that he he wants to be the hostess like not a male gendered thing like he could be a waiter or a maitre d. Yeah but no he wants to be the hostess that's fun for him. And in this scene here we find out why Hank protects Bill.

Peggy a little more than 20 years ago I set Arlen High's single season rushing record. Sure, I had legs like a jackrabbit, but Bill D'Otreve blocked for me. And the running back who forgets his front line, that's the man I wouldn't want to have to dinner. Shame on you. Shame on you both. Yeah. ["Running Back"]

Here you go, darlin'. Come on. Mmm. Come on. Eat up. So, uh, were they all out of dogs there, Bill? No, no. Iguanas are very trendy these days. You see them in cigar bars with movie stars. Come on. Come on, Lenore.

You named it Lenore? Well, yeah. I thought he looked like a Lenore. I think he's just not very hungry right now. I mean, with so many new people. Should I leave? Thank you. This is needlessly cruel to Lou Ann in this first act. I think as he sees that she's like the one person he can like

bully at the table and men make feel bad. That's I also knowing how suicidal that this episode goes into it's extra dark that the way that Bobby and Peggy agree I could do I can live without him. Just like basically saying if he was dead I wouldn't care like I mean Dale's on the same page later He just wants to sit back and watch the bloodbath. I mean he wants his stuff. That's what he wants Yeah, and we have this as Peggy calls it an I juana That's he says Bill says iguana correctly and it so the fact that she says it wrong Afterwards shows that in typical Peggy, you know says it wrong afterwards shows that in typical Peggy, you know, pride that she's like, no, it's Ijuana. I know how Ijuana. That's how you say it.

And we had another language joke with Peggy earlier at the table where she's going over the RSVPs and she says two people have yes, VPD. And I think it's a very subtle joke about how Peggy doesn't understand French either because RSVP stands for Repondez-Sivou-Ple or Respond if you please. So Peggy says, we have two yes you pleases. So she thinks that if you, whatever your response is to an RSVP, it is either a yes VP or a no VP. Instead of just saying yes, they have RSVP'd. Yes.

Yeah. That's, I would think that's the typical way an American would say it. This person RSVP'd, but you're right. Yeah, that is such a Peggy-ism. And, you know, when I look at how this episode is about, you know, like so many King of the Hill episodes about masculinity in America, Hank, the only way Hank can explain why he would care about Bill is via football. It has to be a lengthy football thing of like, well, no, when you play football, it is a forever bond. And this man was my defender and I'd never have hit my all season rushing record if they

hadn't, if Bill hadn't blocked for me. So I have to go with this man forever. Again, it's the low stakes King of the Hill too, because it's not a like a touchdown record or whatever. It's a rushing record. At least Al Bundy had three touchdowns in a single game. You're right. Yeah. No, it is. It is a small thing he can brag about forever that you're right. It's not typically it's the the touchdowns would be what the guy would be

bragging about and and yeah that him thinking that he's a cool lizard guy like famous celebrities with big lizards I and that he he lets you know when he named it Lenore that doesn't he look like in a Lenore so he knows it's a male lizard but he named it Lenore uh do you I never had friends who own lizards I don't know about you I had a friend with an iguana. I think he took okay care of it, but I mean, I'm sure we got lizard people in the, in the audience. They're not like affectionate because they're lizards. So they just kind of sit on a hot rock all day. Actually I'll take that back. We had a bearded dragon because my mom worked with somebody who couldn't take care of it. So we took it in and

it was a really cool looking lizard, but it just sat on a rock all day and then ate the mealworms we fed it. So lizards, they don't really do a lot of things. So if you're prepared for that, then sure, go to Lizard Town. But for me, I'm a bird boy. Yeah. I was going to say, you're in a different area, but you guys are united in being not cats or dogs. Yeah. Birds are the lizards of the sky That's what I like to say. I wasn't it that like All of the things we thought of dinosaurs just birds. Yes. Yeah, I mean, I'm no scientician

But I like to think I like feathers on birds. It looks cool. Sorry feathers on dinosaurs. It looks cool I'm not one of those guys that was disappointed when they found that out Well, you know as a child the t-rex was my favorite and to know that it you know is basically a big chicken I I've gotten used to it now, but I mean a t-rex will always look like the Jurassic Park t-rex I think they had colorful feathers like parrots do though So I think dinosaurs look more like the things you fight in Monster Hunter. Oh, that's cool. Yeah makes them better folks I like it, yeah. And yeah, the shock of everybody at the table when he feeds a living cockroach to it, like,

oh my God. He thinks it's going to be okay because it's a dead cockroach, but then it wriggles to life and the thing eats it. Just the way Peggy puts her face in her hands, like, oh God. So we then cut to the master bedroom, and that's where Peggy is putting her very large foot down when it comes to the bill issue. And this is when she calls the Ijuana a cry for help. And the bedroom door opens.

Hank thinks it's Luanne but it's Bill, like a little kid coming in because he had a bad dream. It's funny, first Hank is offended that like Halloween's going to see me in my underpants. But then Peggy more justifiably than Hank pulls up her bedsheet to be like, Bill, I like. But they're also both kind of modestly dressed. Yes.

You know, they're not naked. Though any level of intimacy with Bill is too much for Peggy for for good reason. She can correctly assume that he has pleasured himself to her image. And so I can see why she would be very uncomfortable with being seen by him. He wants to fill the spank bank. So he had a dream and he uses the word Lenore a lot in this explanation. It's like, I dreamt that Lenore came back and stole Lenore and I ran down the street shouting Lenore, Lenore, and then my teeth fell out.

Which obviously that I think in Freudian reading of dreams that's you know an expression of powerlessness when your teeth fall out. I've thought of this line when occasionally I've had dreams of my teeth falling out and though that was when I had a real dentist phobia, which I have, uh, dealt with. Well, I've gotten better with it. What's your next appointment, sir? Well, you know, it's waiting until I move. Well, technically they did set me up for a cleaning in September, uh, for a check

in, but they understand that I probably will be living somewhere else in September, uh, very likely. So, uh, I'm going to get living somewhere else in September, very likely. So I'm gonna get a new one in September by then. You're gonna have that good insurance though. Yes, yeah, yeah. No, but yeah, my teeth fell out. Just the statement of it is so great.

And then he adds, Peggy, you were there. So that's when Peggy tells Hank, you have 24 hours to get that man out of my dream. Or sorry, get me out of that man's dreams. That's so great. And it's also like Bill does not have the sense to like, you don't have to tell somebody you dreamed about them. And in fact, you probably shouldn't,

but Bill, you know, Bill's just being a very, he's just an open wound of pain right now. Yeah. He's trauma dumping or whatever you call it. I mean, the real answer to all of this is like starting here or really from the beginning, Bill needs to see a therapist and talk about these things with that person, which I mean, you know, he's got army money. He could, uh, well, then he, I don't know, then maybe they'd actually like

drum him out of the army. If he was, uh, he said he was having these crazy thoughts. Well, this is 1998. There aren't every show is not telling you to go to therapy and get mental health and everything. Yeah, it's true. Yeah, which obviously it just grows on trees. You know, if somebody tells you you need to go get therapy, you can just go and get it when you need it. Ted Lasso himself told me I could.

And it's like, well, Jason Sudeikis, are you going to pay for my therapist? He can afford it. He can afford it. He can afford it. He's about to go through a bad divorce. I wonder. I wonder. He lives in California.

I'm going to visit the Munn mansion. That's who his ex-wife is, right? Oh, you know, I think it's Olivia Wilde. Olivia Wilde? Olivia, Munn is the one with, with Malaney. Oh, right. All these famous Olivia's with comedians. What's going on here?

I know. Well, they, and they get sick of them eventually. So we cut to the alley where Hank and Bill are drinking. We see how comfortable Bill is just being in Hank's house because he just pats his belly and he goes, well, shall we? It's the only happiness he has is like, yeah, he's, and he also drinks. I like to, I think body language wise, he drinks his beer faster than Hank so he can be like, well, beer's over.

Let's go. Let's get the chow time here. And during this little conversation, the iguana on his shoulder is just hissing openly. That's so great, too. I'm glad they don't kill this thing. It gets away, but then Bill gets it back. Yeah, though it's not seen in Act 3 or ever again. I think Bill finds it a good home.

I hope so. I want to believe that but our next clip Hank tries to let Bill down easy. You need a minute? Bill I want to have dinner tonight. Just the family You don't want me come to dinner. Why don't you just take the night to practice being happy? Okay? Yeah, okay? That's fine. No problem. I like eating alone, I prefer it even. No offense to your family. Oh, it is just so wonderful. The food even smells better.

So yes, they're happy without Bill. It is, I mean, that, when you're in that depressive state and you worry you're making other people sad, like to have this scene of a character saying like, Oh God, I feel so much better without this miserable guy around us all the time. It, it, it can hurt. But I mean, it's true, Bill, you, you feel both sides of this. You pity Bill, but then you see that Bill may is, is making himself a problem to everybody

else. Yeah. And he's not trying to improve a situation, which is hard. And Bill's not ready yet. Yeah. And then Hank, God, the way Hank says to him in such a perfect like denial line of like, take the night to practice being happy. You can't think of any other way to get Bill out of the situation. And yeah, Bill's like, no, I actually I prefer eating alone.

Yeah, that didn't hurt my feelings at all. Like Bill's like, no, I actually prefer eating alone. Yeah. That didn't hurt my feelings at all. Like he's trying to walk away with some pride. Yeah. And we really see how Bill lives with this next scene because he's got the bachelor set up in which he has one glass, one plate and one fork just in his cupboard. But he's making pasta and when the dish breaks, he just ladles the pasta onto the counter, eats it with the big pasta spoon and then drinks the meat sauce because he has nothing to eat it out of. It's so sad.

We talked about this on another podcast. I've been there a little bit in my darkest moments, more with macaroni and cheese. I make the Kraft Blue Box in the thing and then I'm like, eh, well who needs a bowl? Or I'm gonna watch a bowl for this, but. I ate so much pasta in my 20s because it was so cheap. I could get three meals out of a box of pasta in a can of sauce.

And that put me off pasta for a very long time. But I will say these days I have like two very nice pasta meals a year and it's good. It's worth it. No, I love pasta too, but it really can't be a, yeah, a dinner staple for me. Like in my twenties or early thirties as well, either like it's just, it's so heavy, especially like the sauce with it. And then, well, I got to have a little cheese on top too. But yeah, I mean, there's a reason people like Carboload with like a bowl of spaghetti. Or same with the Kraft macaroni and cheese.

Hey, when you're poor and get three meals for $3 and lots of calories, it's totally rules to eat a lot of pasta. Yeah. But the look of when Bill drops that plate and goes like, hmm, I hate just, it also reminds me of another of my favorite comedies about depression, the sequence in Kids in the Hall called Junk Mail Saved My Life, because he's washing his, Kevin McDonald's character, Kevin McDonald, is washing his singular plate, he's like,

obviously I don't need one more than one plate because I have emotional problems It's he's he's a great depressed guy. I think I was living the one plate lifestyle because when I first moved out to California I was living in some guy's extra room and he had dishes and then I moved to a second location And I wasn't sure how long I was going to be there. And I thought, why do I need more than one plates? Uh, and I actually really didn't need more than one. And then when I moved again, I went to Ikea and got more plates, but for about three months, I think I just had one plate and I still have it. It's not coming with me though.

I have many a plate in my current apartment, but I still have the singular plate I bought at Target in 2011. I'm considering like, do I bring the plates with me or do I just buy like 10? I mean how much is it worth it really to just bring like utilitarian plates when I can just dump these and buy you know spend 30 bucks on on eight new plates like what am I keeping all these plates for? I'm keeping some glasses definitely because they're sentimental attachment to. Now if the

plates had Spider-Man on them well Well, sure that's different. Those are collectible Just like all my favorite glasses though. I also have it's not just glasses of spider-man. We also have the Star Wars Sparks. Yes, we do. Yeah, but I was gonna say the we got a glass for our honeymoon made like specially engraved when we went to Disneyland that we've only drank out of once. And also I have two champagne glasses for the premiere event of Final Fantasy XIII. What? I keep around just for special occasions.

XIII? Yes. I went to a Final Fantasy XIII launch event. They were giving away singular Free champagne glasses and then a co-worker was like you want mine too? So I have two of them Wow in the I'll show them tea after the after this Bob Champagne and Final Fantasy 13 13. Yes. Yeah. Well, it's a great game to remember while drinking I need to drink a lot of champagne to enjoy that game. Let's all say that

Not a fan of 13. I love, we see how happy everyone is without Bill and Hank is even pitching his own propane movie with Clint Eastwood as the star. That's so great. I've been there with Bill on the outside watching people. I felt it more later in the episode in the boom hour scene, but this moment here of seeing, Oh, this is what I

want. And I, but I can't make it happen. And you can see why that is the thing over the edge. Like Hank, the one person he could thought he could count on to pity him and invite him to things. He is now happier without him. So you can see the next step makes a certain sense that he takes, but isn't it adorable that Hank is just this pitch for a movie that he can think like, oh yeah, maybe me, yeah me, or maybe your Aunt Peggy will be the director of the film. He thinks it's that easy because he has no respect for anyone doing anything creative.

He's just like, yeah, maybe I'll direct it or Aunt Peggy probably. How hard can it be? I think what makes this, I mean, it's a comedy, it's a cartoon. It's just like, yeah, maybe Elle directed it or Peggy probably. How hard can it be? Yeah. I think what makes this, I mean, it's a comedy, it's a cartoon, it'd be harder to watch this if it was real people. But I think what they're trying to tell you with all of these attempts is that Bill doesn't actually want to kill himself. He wants attention and that's not said in a finger pointing way. He just wants his friends to care about him and these are cries for help. Yes, yeah. That his sobbing and general sadness wasn't enough. So, I mean, he knows that on a certain level, well, now I'm going to sound like Dale later in this episode, but Bill, you know

that falling off a one story roof likely isn't going to kill you or that later attempts are not like, I mean, you know, not to be too dark. This is also a ranch home. It's a one story. Yeah. He felt like eight feet off the roof and not to be too dark, but he lives in Texas. Like you, he has access to a gun, you know, like, which is, uh, I, I believe this is still a true statistic. It was when I heard it in the past,

but like, you know, if you own a gun, more likely you'll use it on yourself than an intruder, you know, or a loved one. But yeah, I mean, cause, uh, there's a, I remember this Australian comedian, I forget his name and Jim, something or other, but he said like, we all get sad and if you got a gun around, it's easy to make a choice you can't undo because you just, you got a gun right there. And that always has scared me about a gun ownership

of just like, I don't know. I think that was, I mean, this has happened countless times but I think that was actually the case with Phil Hartman and his wife. It just like there was a fight and a gun was there and she used it on herself and him. Yeah, but not in that order. Yes. Unless this is like a locked room mystery or something.

You're turning this into Ace Attorney here. Yes. Yes, very sad, obviously, but we're trying to say it's good that Bill, Dale probably doesn't have a gun around, or sorry that Bill doesn't have a gun around. Sorry, Bill doesn't have a gun around. Yeah. I guess with a hunter, maybe he does not. I could see he pawns some guns or something, but yeah, it's a good thing he doesn't have a gun. And the reason why Hank is alerted to this is that when Bill carries away one of Hank's ladders, he snags the Christmas lights, Hank sees them going out and he goes out to fix them and when he goes to the garage he

sees one of his four ladders is missing. The ten-footers gone. A great joke about Hank that he owns four ladders all perfectly properly stored on his wall. And Alec also has he shouts for his friends he's deciding which one to blame because he goes, Dale or Bill, probably Dale. In most cases, he'd be right. It was Dale who would take it. But I mean, earlier in this season, Dale had the thing of like, can I keep it? You can borrow it. Can I keep it? Keep it. So yeah, Hank goes up on the roof and then he sees Bill. He has ignored all of these warning signs. He's like, what's going on on there? Bill satellite trouble. And Bill just says, no, I'm just up here to kill myself. And that's when he awkwardly tumbles off his own roof, but he grabs the

gutter on the way down. So it's clear. Like if he wanted to, I mean, he probably couldn't kill himself with falling onto grass from the top of his roof, but he at least injured his arm, but he doesn't want to die. No, no, I don't think, yeah, I mean, I do believe these are framed like cries for help, for sure. Yeah, it's not full.

This is one of these dumb things I've, you know, the Wiki, the official, well, not official, but the big fan Wiki for King of the Hill for this episode, A, could use some improvements, and one of the Hill for this episode, A could use some improvements and one of the like trivia bits was Bill says he's suicidal, but when he's being held in place with a gun, he doesn't just try to get shot. And I was like, yeah, that's not a logical inconsistency in the episode. Like he doesn't want, he doesn't want to be shot to death by someone else. Oh, he's, you're not really suicidal. Like,

come on. Is that the Wiki? The Wikia? Yeah, it's on the fandom. Yes, it's on kingofthehill.fandom.com. I mean, my theory is Bill doesn't actually want to die. He just wants attention and love. And this is the only, in his lowest moment,

this is the way he can try to find it. He is desperate for love. Yeah. Yes, yeah. So we cut back to Act Two after we end act one with Hank going, no Hank just fully believes it. Yeah, yeah bill is sitting on his front step He's moping his arms in a sling and we all find out that bill needs help You know who I feel sorryest for in all this Bill we need to find him a psychiatrist. He's just suicidal, Peggy.

He's not crazy. We've just got to watch him constantly until he snaps out of it. I don't think Bill is going to snap out of it. There's nothing we can do but sit back and watch the blood bath. No, he's our friend. Now, Dale, you make your own hours, so you take the day shift. I'll take nights. Boom-hour, late afternoon to early evening. Can I have another codeine, please? Quiet, Bill. We're trying to do something here. So, uh, huh, that shouldn't be here. So, uh, maybe you ought to get to bed and try to sleep this thing off.

All I do is sleep. I guess I'm just getting in practice huh for the big long sleep. Come on Bill, how about a beer? Beer is a depressing Hank. Don't go blaming the beer. I agree. Now I feel like Bill should probably cut back on the alcohol a little bit in this time. Especially in this state yeah. But again they are doing a good job here. They're showing what it's like to be depressed and that it's very hard to accept help or even think help is possible. And then the frustration of a person trying to help someone that's depressed and is just hitting a wall all the time. And that you care, but they are fighting you on it the whole

way. Well, and also like the way, I mean, that Peggy, one, that Peggy is like, you know, I feel sorry for all this Bill, like, yeah, obviously, but. She's the right one. She's like, we should get Bill a psychiatrist, but everyone just thinks it's a crazy big city idea. I know, a psychiatrist is seen as so extreme that suicidal, being suicidal isn't worth it.

They're like, no, no, no, it's not that far gone that we need that. I mean, that's also showing that Peggy is seen as usually the more, uh, mainstream or I guess the, you know, city fight in her way of thinking, just cause she watches Oprah, you know, it's really just the end of it. She thinks psychology has something to do with it as we hear later. And yeah, like all I do is sleep is also like such a great depressing thing. All I do is sleep. And yeah, when Hank walks in, he sees a knife. That's why he's like, well, that shouldn't

be here. Oh yes. Yeah, that's great too. So this is a weird moment here because we get some twangy odd couple style music. And as we see Bill halfheartedly trying to kill himself in several scenes. He runs to the oven, sticks his head in while Hank gets a beer from the fridge. Hank leaves and he just says, it's electric Bill. And Bill just replies, yeah, well, it's getting pretty hot. And that's when Hank just yanks him out of the oven and tosses him into bed. I love when he gets so fed up with like picks him up. Yeah. I think the music is their way

of saying like, this is where sitcoms are now. Like you wouldn't expect this could have happened in the odd couple if they just took it to the next level. Because yeah, I mean, I've couple the, uh, you know, I think he even talks about, uh, Felix in, uh, I'm thinking of the, the original movie version. Felix definitely is very sad that his wife is divorcing him. But that this is like multiple on screen attempts at suicide. And they're just like, are they a little bit of that? Yeah. It's helping lighten things a bit. So Bill is resisting Hank, getting him ready for bed.

Hank wants to know where Bill keeps his pajamas. And he starts digging through a dresser and he finds out that Bill likes silk pajamas because it feels nice against the skin. Too feminine for Hank. He's disgusted. I would tell him, he's like, silk is for panty hose, which like that, I don't think panty hose is made of silk. I think it's nylon, but he thinks that like, no, this is far too feminine for Bill and his Bill's excuse is perfect. Yeah. They're all I've got you've got a wife You got a wife I guess that's like the only soft thing he'll feel in bed is just the silk pajamas. He is extremely lonely

Yes, though. He didn't have sex with Luanne's mom and a horrible With Leanne in an incredibly bad Poison poisonous relationship. It was a brief bit of sex in his normally sexless life. So Hank forces Bill into his own pajamas. We see him like brushing Bill's teeth as he stands catatonic in front of the mirror.

And then we cut to Hank sitting in a chair next to Bill's bed, nodding off as Bill sleeps. But Bill wasn't sleeping. He was waiting for Hank to fall asleep so he could slam his head in the drawer of a nightstand. Yeah. Again, this is them doing their own version of, you know, like when somebody is committed on Suicide Watch, like this is Hank doing his version of it, which of course, you know, I have in some of, this is one of those things where you read on Twitter of like, oh, so I'm not

saying I'm an expert in this, but I definitely hear people on Twitter say like, you know, if you call in that kind of thing of a wellness checker, you want somebody to put on suicide watch, that can actually like the way it is applied by the American justice system and healthcare system, it can destroy that person too. Like it does not, it ends up not helping them. People are swatted that way too. Definitely. Yeah. That you call somebody for a wellness check. I'm like, I think this person might be suicidal. Sometimes the cops show up and be like, Oh, then I better kill this person who shows up. You mean they don't know how to handle a situation like that, a tricky mental health

situation. Shockingly, the cops just pull out their gun and think it's the problem solving wand. Now where's that dog? So yeah, they're clearly on suicide watcher. They're just not saying it. I mean, then we see Dale's version of this. It's just him watching Bill as he holds a shotgun. He won't let Bill get up to pee. Yeah. Oh yeah. He says tinkle. Yeah. Okay. This is a quote from the king of the hill dot fandom page. Uh, this is in trivia. Bill is shown trying to kill himself throughout part of the episode. However, he obeys Dale when he threatens to shoot him with a shotgun.

Like that's used as like a trivia. I was like, when I saw that, I was like, yes, that totally makes sense. He doesn't want to be shot by Dale. I mean, wiki editors don't always have the best media literacy, I'll say. Yeah, it's like, look, I have known a person, a friend of a friend of a friend in high school who did do suicide by cop, so I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but this situation is not about that.

Like, so they're like, why doesn't Dale just, why doesn't he want Dale to just blast him with a shotgun in his home? It sounds pleasant. Honestly, compared to what Boomhauer does to him, I feel like Dale tortures him more, less than how Boomhauer tortures them. Yeah, I guess Boomhauer does just want to stay at Bill's house. So we cut to Bill at Ugly's, which we've seen before. It's at Line Dancing Bar. And he sighs as he watches Boom Hauer Dancing with a Woman and he tells the bartender, Lenore and I used to come here and watch people dance like that. So even when he was in love with his wife, they never actually were affectionate in public.

They just watched other couples be affectionate with each other. It also shows you like how bad their relationship was. And I, another great like little body language thing is we've, I have been, when I first went to a gay bar, I, I had this kind of nervousness nervousness of, Oh, well the bartender has to talk to me. So I talked to them instead of trying to meet new people. I think bill is in the same situation of like, Oh, this bartender, this woman who's a bartender here, she has to listen to me at least. And she's walking away as he starts his sense. Like even the bartender will not listen to Bill.

I mean, I've been to a lot of bars and you see the same only guys there a lot. It's like, well, this bartender woman has to talk to me. She's captive behind the bar. I feel very bad for those bartenders in those situations. Yeah, we've, well, there was that extreme pizza we went to a lot of times in the past where there was definitely like two or three regulars that all were just like, if you go there enough, you see the regulars and it makes you sad.

They're not fun Norm or Cliff Claven types either. No, they're clearly broken people with need help that isn't alcohol. When I went to the same bar all the time, I was young and I was working on podcasts, that was not sad. And you weren't talking the ear off of the bartender or wait staff.

No, I walked in and they knew what I wanted, there was no communication necessary. Perfection, man. And yeah, but I absolutely can identify with Bill of going out to places and seeing couples together when I am single and being in incredible pain. Absolutely. Yeah. So I love how they steer away from an obvious reference because Bill runs out of uglies into traffic and we think they're going to do that North by Northwest

reference. Like Simpsons has done. Yeah. In which the, the big Mack truck almost hits a guy, but instead it's, it turns away like a block away from Bill into a gas station. That seems the most serious bill is of like, I want to die. But then the reveal the like, he's reacting like it's about to hit him when it's very far away and there's a stop sign in between them. I think shows you that like, even at this moment, he doesn't truly, he's not that desperate to die. Yeah. I guess. Yeah. I don't want to put, I, I, I fear I'm putting things of like, you don't really want to die type statement. We don't want to say

like, oh, he's faking it, you know, but in a sense he does want the, he wants the attention, but that's not in a negative sense. He just needs his friends to notice him and help him. But this is all he's stupid. So this is all he can do. And he's very, very sad. Yeah. And again, we, you know, we're of course, mental health professionals and I would say is correct on this. I've done a better help ads. That means I'm qualified to analyze Bill, I think. Exactly. So we cut back to Bill's and this is where the boys are discussing what to do next. I can't keep this up it's not in my nature to care about others. Yeah man a little

routine man I'm gonna tell you about no free time man I'm gonna work Bill work Bill work Bill man I'm gonna put it in the butt of my own head, man. Okay, I'll take over your guys shifts. I just got to work it out with my boss. Dale, what are you wearing? Nothing. That's Bill's pajama top. He's as good as dead. What's the difference? Sir, you know how I hate missing work during the holidays, but I got to...

It's your Christmas party, right? Yeah. You need some time to set up. Well, get get it right you invited our whole dang client sheet no actually it concerns a friend of mine and well it's a matter of life or death really yeah yeah just wrap it up one way or the other and have Donna zero out your vacation days dang it bill oh I haven't slept in two days. This morning Bill tried to drown himself in the toilet. So do you think you could find him a date? I would have to invite a woman over for dinner and of course never tell her that Bill would be here.

Thanks Peggy. I like how Hank is taking Peggy's hypothetical as a suggestion of what she's going to do. It's like, oh God, then it's such a great turn that he's explaining how incredibly desperate Bill is, that like trying to dry himself in the toilet and then he's like, thinking he had him a date, like he doesn't understand that nobody would want to date this person, nor is he ready to have a date. Yeah, he's not staying, He's the work on himself.

And also the bill. Bill is now costing Hank like literal like vacation days. He is losing money on this. And Mr. Strickland is such a fucking prick because Hank on his own initiative is throwing a Christmas party to, you know, give goodwill to their clients. And Strickland won't even budge a nitch once he wants to help his friend yeah for the way and the way Buck thinks about it is it's just to play in the Christmas party which then aren't days off he's just working at home to set up for the Christmas party but nope since he won't be in the office Buck has to take his vape well I mean he just

sees this as an excuse to take away vacation days. Definitely Buck is the type who, were he actually still alive now? We'll see in the reboot, you never know. That's true. But he'd be forcing people, he went back into the office post-cold. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, again.

Oh, actually, they live in Texas. They never would have shut down in the first place. Oh, that's true, that's also true. But again, Hank invited the entire client's list on his own initiative To as a nice thing to do for his business and the boss is like don't screw this up And it's hosted in his home instead, which is the cheaper thing than renting, you know, like a hotel Ballroom or whatever. Yeah, Hank should be mad at mr. Strickland and not bill. Yeah. Yeah, buddy

Well, Hank will never do that. Yeah, it's always yeah I mean that is also a great extra layer too. He's like, dang it, Bill. It's like your boss is the one who just screwed you here, Hank. But he can never be bad. It takes a whole lot to make Hank be mad at his surrogate father, Buck Strickland. It's very Hank. So we then cut to this date with Mrs. Tobis, I think her name is.

The design on her is so perfect because it is like, I would assume that she works at the same school as Peggy. So she has to look like the only single woman at the school. Very, in a judgmental sense, spinstery. I think that's the word they gave the animation team. Absolutely. I would bet that's in the, uh, the stage directions. Yeah. Her hope chest is gathering dust. I think. Yeah. Very prim, uh,

very stern Peggy just sheepishly smiles at her. And then we pan over to bill he's in his full military uniform. Uh, Lenore dresses up for it. Those are his only dress clothes. Uh, Lenore is on his shoulder, and then he just tells the woman, "'They won't let me have a knife. "'I'm in the middle of killing myself.'" I love that line so much.

And then just the next, like, "'Do you like iguanas, Mrs. Dobus?' And she doesn't answer that. She just looks at Peggy and says, "'You lied to me, Peggy.'" She's all like, "'You lied to me.'" And then Peggy is trying to smooth things says, you lied to me, Peggy. She's all like, you lied to me. And then Peggy is trying to smooth things over because she's like, well, you know, Bill is the collector of, you know, exotic pets and you are collector of throw pillows.

And she underlines that by saying, I have some pillows on my couch, but that does not make me insane. She is. Yeah. I love that her extra level of insult is that you ever compared me to this man and said I was like him and would be a good fit for him. And she dunks on Lenore by calling all iguanas

repulsive, disgusting creatures, and Bill says, well, I think we could all use a bath, and she just goes, oh, at him. And then the piss on his shoulder, like, God, that's so funny. And then what he says, because the iguana makes on his shoulder and he says, well, when it's your own. That's right.

Then he's acting like it's his baby. Like, well, you know, when your baby spits up on you, it's your own kid. You don't even notice. I guess that also implies he is pretty used to being defecated on by this animal. And he is brought so low that even Peggy kind of defends him because this woman says, you are a gross man. And Peggy responds, Sheila. Even she, Bill is being humiliated so much here

that even Peggy feels sympathy for Bill. For Bill. Yeah, Peggy, even she will try to fix it later. Like she, that is how low he's been brought. Yeah, and that got his desperate like, marry me after that. And Luanne reacts like, oh, this is so exciting. God, when she's only, Brittany Murphy is earning it. Like she does basically one or two lines per act in this one, but she is so goddamn funny. Absolutely. And this is when Lady Bird wanders in, spooks Lenore. Lenore runs across

the table, scaring everyone, jumps out the window. Bill shouts out in a very telling way, Lenore, don't leave me. Oh, he has, I almost wrote down like Wallace of Walson Grumman style acting like the way he like shakes his hands like it's it's so sad and desperate. He's having a little fit. He runs to the window. I like how he clumsily falls out of the window into some shrubbery. Yeah, he doesn't think to like go out the door. He's like, no, I got to go out the window. I can't lose this. This is the last thing I have in my life is Lenore. And then Peggy tells this woman, I should tell you right now, I have already given him your number. That is pretty, you know, Sheila should never talk to Peggy again. No,

I don't think she's ever featured on the show again. So Hank watches from afar as Bill looks around his house for Lenore. And then he goes inside and from the back, uh, Dale strolls out holding a television. Dale, he would have wanted me to have it! He's still alive! Nick, Pick and I ain't gonna bring him back! Please, help me!

Help me! Help me look for Lenore! Bill, can't you see that this whole Lenore thing is your problem? The iguana, these presents, this this old tree get rid of this stuff No, I couldn't I could say when when she comes back. She's never coming back. It's so obvious She doesn't want this stupid stocking. No Or whatever's in this box Or this!

Or this! There! You feel okay? I don't feel anything. Great, I knew you'd snap out of this. Sure you're okay? Yes. Good. Now I can tell you, you were acting pretty weird there. Yes. Okay then. I'll see you tomorrow. So this is the tough love that Bill didn't need right now. And you know, Facebook has

this thing called memories in which every day you can check in and see things you posted in the past. And I have posted that meme in the past when I at a time I was depressed where it's Hank saying, you feel you feel OK? He's like, I don't feel anything. Great. I've shared that three panel meme once when I was feeling shitty. I've had cries for help of that, too. No, yeah, that people think that, yes, it's like, well, you're not feeling anything. That's great. That's great. Like, yeah, you sometimes in it, when you're in a depressed state, the most you can feel is it just shuts off. Like I, well, I mean, too,

I've heard I'm still in this as it's a, it's a saying I heard Dan Harmon say in his WTF, but just that feeling of like you cut wires at a certain point. Yeah. But just to like, well, this thing's basically this alarm is going to sound all the time. But if I cut the wires on it, then the sound stops. Oh, absolutely. Like I do remember a lot of my depressive states were caused from situations, especially losing my job and maybe four or five months into being unemployed at a

certain time in my life, I just thought, I don't think I'll ever feel joy again. This is just it for me. I eventually got over that, but there was a time I believed that for about a week, just like nothing will make me happy again. This is the rest of my life. Yeah. Yeah. I, I did read it to mention something hopeful for once. We're both happy. Yes. That's the thing. I'm moving to a nice new condo in Vancouver soon. In fact, I'm probably packed up right now as you're listening to this. Yeah, me too. I'm probably not for Seattle. But yeah, this is, you know, in the it gets better style way of talking. But this writer I really like who wrote a lot of comics I enjoyed Matt fraction. He had a

Q&A column basically and a person asked, you know, I'm feeling very depressed I feel like it's never gonna get better. Why why why go on and fraction says like I you know I felt that way too. I've been in very dark places too and the same he said is like, you know this might not feel too helpful right now, but the same thing he said is like, you know, this might not feel too helpful right now, but the way you say it is like, so many things can happen in life you never know. And so really like if you assume this will be how it feels forever, you're wrong. Like it like you have no clue where your life is going to go. And obviously that can have

bad, you know, Hey, a bad thing can happen out of nowhere too in your life. But you won't feel this way all of the time is a hopeful message to me. And I think uniformly people that survive serious self harm incidents, they do say the first thing I thought when I did the thing was, Oh, I should not have done this. And that's just your body telling you like, no, you need to stay alive. Yeah. Yeah. Actually that, that Matt fraction art thing, he also linked to an article written by interviewing. It was basically on the subject of people who have jumped off of the Golden Gate bridge. Yes. Yes. I think this is what I was thinking

about. Actually they, they talked to several survivors in it. And yeah, it has stuck with me forever. One of the survivors, and it is rare to survive it, the person said the right after they jumped off as they were falling, they thought, everything in my life could have been fixed except for this right now as I'm falling to my death. And I made a huge mistake like that too.

Like anytime, anytime I have felt in a dark place or thought about that, that has also been a reassuring thing to me of just like, you know, if I were to jump off a big building, like in the middle of free fall, like, Oh, I fucked up. Like this, this is forever. Like this is really, I won't feel bad forever, but I will feel this forever. Let's like that kind of fear has kept those things at bay. Yeah, sure. Yeah. Yeah. And this is why Bill is not seriously trying to hurt himself. Yeah, he, he wouldn't keep doing it in ways that his friends could see. I think. Oh, yeah, for sure.

But, but also yes, that the way Hank is smashing all of his stuff, this is more for Hank than for Bill, like he, yeah, Hank, he just pissed off. Yeah. Sorry. You didn't interrupt. Yeah, no, no, no. Hank thinks he's helping Bill when really Hank. And I totally understand.

And Hank just said he hasn't slept in two days. Like he is exhausted. And so he's just like, ah, screw all this shit. And he's just smashing everything to just tell basically it's the only way he can be mad at bill, but he has to dress it up with like, see, isn't this finally helping you? You're destroying all this stuff. It really is just that it helped Hank, not that it helped bill. He sounds relieved after he goes off on Bill at the end of the scene. For sure, yeah. And there's a little moment of like that little pause and you hear it

in the sound in just the clip of a little heightening of the music. It's Hank looking around and thinking, am I going to smash everything? Yes, yes I am. Yeah. And that's why there's a big pause before when he goes, and this too, and he throws the toaster because he's making that decision. Should I just go for it? How mad am I? So Bill slumps to the floor and then we cut back to the hills the next day. And Hank is basically explaining to Peggy that his tough love was for the best. And he foreshadows what's going to happen in act three by saying, can you imagine if he showed up at our party with Lenore?

Oh, right. Yeah. I, cause he was saying that about the iguana, but wow. Oh, that's great. Uh, and Peggy just checks in again and he goes, and she goes, are you sure he's okay? And Hank says, I asked him twice. So that's all he needed to do to ensure Bill is now back on the level. That is such a guy code thing of like, I asked him twice. Like, come on, like, uh, what, what more do you need? I, I asked a man once if he's okay, that is caring too much twice. I overdid it. If anything, if anything, I'm gay now. So the, so then really the way you

said that, that implies that by losing the pet Lenore, that is also what pushed bill to the next level of like, well, then I need to recreate Lenore entirely in my life. Yeah. And just become a different person. So Hank in the kitchen, he closes the fridge door, he sees Lenore on top of the fridge, and he goes to bring Lenore back to Bill, but he's not anywhere in his house. And Hank sees some strange woman in his backyard hanging laundry. But as he confronts this stranger about being in Bill's backyard, the person turns around and we see that it's Bill in a dress and a big floppy bonnet.

Implying that these are Lenore's clothes, which she had very big, uh, outfits that she wore. Yeah. Uh, maybe these, I guess there were never maternity clothes because they never had children, but yeah. But also that she just walks around with these like giant floppy ass I mean obviously these are comical to see bill wearing though this slow reveal of the turnaround it Almost it feels a little framed to me like psycho as well of just more the reveal of like the body of the mother In it. Oh, yeah, I I guess if Hank spun Bill around in

a chair, it was Bill as a woman maybe. But yeah, we see the pressing concern here in that Bill has gone off the deep end because he says, I'm Lenore. And then he adds, I'm just washing a dress for your big party, silly. And this is the most concerning thing to Hank. Like yes, my friend is now completely disassociated with reality. But also, he's going to be at my party. He's going to really embarrass me. Yeah. Yeah.

And another of those amazing Steven Root acting moments, when he says, why do you keep calling me Bill? Yeah. I'm Lenore. He does drop back into the Bill voice a few times. So we're going to come back to act three, and this is when Hank confronts Bill. Bill, take off the dress. Why do you keep calling me Bill?

My name is Lenore! Silly, I've come back because I love Bill so much, and I really missed him. No, uh-uh, this is too much. In high school you blocked for me, but I did my job too. I ran through the hole setting Arlen High's single season rushing record, as you recall. And now here I am blocking for you, but you're not even trying.

I don't even know what kind of game you're playing. Maybe some kind of crazy tennis. Hey, okay then. Nice visiting with you. See you at the party! No! No, you stay away from my party! No party!

You got that? I'm already invited so there. Oh, hello! Do you gentlemen think you could spare a beer for a lady? Come on, you know you're Bill. No, no, I don't know that. I'm Lenore. Well, if you're Lenore, then where's Bill?

Uh, Bill's in the house. You want me to go get him? I'm skeptical that you could, yet intrigued that you may. One of the best Dale lines. Yes, that's so good. I mean, I think Dale is everybody at home going like, come on, you know your Bill. But he wants to test this hypothesis. Like could Bill get Bill, could this person? Yeah. Yeah. But in the way Bill does sound like Bill, he says, no, no, no, it's a very Bill way of saying like, no, no, no, no, no, no. And then Bill walks away and then Dale's like checking in with the other guys.

Like anyone noticed that Bill's acting a little weird lately? Maybe it's me. It's so funny. Yeah. Very understated Dale thing. And also the, yeah, when Hank is telling off Bill, he still has to let him know what his record was. Like he still has to slip in there.

Yeah. He's very self-aggrandizing, but he thinks he can just turn this off. He's like, no, no, we're not doing this. I don't know what you're doing, but it stops here. But Bill won't turn it off. Yeah. And he's also like, this is so obscene. You're not even playing football anymore. You're playing tennis, a disgusting game that men don't play. So Bill comes back with a sweater over his yellow dress and then he tells him Bill's busy. I needed a wrap. It's chilly. The way again, the little froggy way his regular voice goes, it's chilly. And the most profane thing Bill can do is go, yep. Hank just goes, all right, that's it. He goes inside.

That's great that that's the straw that breaks the camel's back there. We cut to him violently peeling a potato, and he tells Peggy he's really pissed off because he uses vacation days on Bill, bathing the son of a bitch, and now he's gonna crash the Christmas party. And then Peggy is somewhat sensible

because she tells Hank, you know, Bill is not doing this on purpose and the only way he can get Lenore back is to become her. And then she says, I wouldn't be surprised if there was some kind of a psychological basis to it. What a great Peggy statement. Like, oh yeah, maybe there's something psychological to this. And then Luanne is very astute because she's like, well, you know, I don't know anything about psychology, but I think Mr. Dautry needs closure, which is exactly correct. She's very astute with that observation. And it's what Hank gives him at the end of the episode.

Yeah. But then she goes from sensible to zany where she goes, it's what Buckley's angel told me. Peggy not seeing this cry for help is like, well, Buckley's angel is the only one making sense around here. She is not. Yeah. Buckley's angels, the only one making sense around here. She is not, yeah, this shows how much everybody buries any idea of psychological help. Again, this is suburban Texas.

If you are certifiable to be ignored for the rest of your life, you're not normal if you get psychiatric help or therapy. And so for them too, it is much easier to be like, well, Buckley's angel is talking to her. Obviously this is not to be investigated or to like, you're not going to take her to a therapist or anything. It's probably one of many times she has mentioned Buckley's angel talking to her. You're right. Yeah. The way Peggy reacts to it, I think it does mean that she's seen this a lot,

which then, you know, the, I think it's the second to last episode this season is where is the full Buckley's angel episode. Yeah. It's pretty far off. This is a big season of episodes and we'll get to the end and by like 2026. So hang in there everybody. It's a good season. Uh, so Peggy comes up with basically a very stock sitcom plan. Like we're going to invite the real in order of the party. And I like how that doesn't play out at all. going to invite the real in order to the party. And I like how that doesn't play out at all. Yeah, I love that they hold that back. You don't see her it ever in the series. No, she I wait she comes. Okay, go ahead. Yeah. And in season five, Hank in the great glass elevator. Oh, you're right. I apologize. Yes. Which honestly, I don't want to say it makes this. It changes this one a little bit that Lenore, I like that in this episode

that you can read Lenore however you want. Like I mean, clearly, you know, she doesn't love Bill, but nobody's making any other personal judgments on Lenore. Like saying like, Oh, she was a jerk to me or whatever. But in that episode, Lenore only returns when Bill is starting to date Governor and Richard. Right, right. Yeah. Well, a weird guest star, but she had fun. And Lenore is showing up to ruin Bill's relationship. The implication of Lenore in that episode is that she is somebody who only finds Bill attractive

when she can ruin a relationship he has with a better person to be with. Yeah, and that was the only episode she was ever in. Like, they played that card once and then they were done with it. Just like Leanne it's not these characters do not become sideshow Bob for these series. Oh what a weird series that would be. Lenore comes back with various plots. Yeah a new boyfriend every season. Yeah played by a different famous man. But now the Christmas party is underway. Listen Hank, we got all our clients here.

Big fish, little fish. So if you see some little fish cornering me, it's your job to pull me out. We should treat all our clients like big fish, Mr. Strickland. Yeah, good, good. Save that for the little fish. Damn it. May I offer you a homemade tater tot, Mr. and Mrs. Doutree? Why, thanks. What the hell's going on here, Hank?

I ordered a Santa. This is some kind of mistake. Bill, get out. Lenore! Bill! I want to stay and mingle. Lenore, who is me? Sure does love a party. Party, party. Phone call for you, mom.

Yeah, hello. Lenore? Hold on. Bill, it's the real Lenore. I like how Bill is embracing his feminine and masculine side because he's holding a beer and a glass of wine as he's walking around. It's great. I love that. I might have just noticed that now. And also for the first time, I noticed that Peggy's hors d'oeuvres are homemade tater tots, which seems like her idea of fancy, but how different could that be from a bag of frozen

tater tots? Yeah, honestly, like that's why she was feeling, oh, maybe it's because Hank overpeeled those potatoes. He's like, I just mash him into tater tots. But that's, that's, uh, yeah, that's a great little Peggy ism. And Bobby is so devoted to being a hostess. He gives Peggy the phone on a tray. That's great. And also the Bobby, he's the one who treats Bill with the respect of like, well, yeah, you're Mr. And Mrs. Dautreve tonight. Hello. All in one. Yeah. Now, yes, this is one thing that like, this is what it, it meant this then too, but 25 years later, it is really hard not to watch this with the current context of how

Texas and other States treat people. Oh yeah. Especially, I mean, I'm hearing more about it in Florida, but I'm sure it's just as bad in getting worse than Texas. Texas is having trouble keeping up with Florida. Well, they don't have Ron DeSico there trying to drum up some support for a presidential run. Old meatball Ron, that's a good line, but I gotta give it to Trump, meatball Ron's a funny line.

It doesn't even mean anything and I love it. But yeah, I mean, this obviously Bill is going through his own thing. Bill is not a trans character. He's not wearing drag. This is what he's just, he is becoming Lenore for his own mental health issue he is dealing with. Yeah. But as far as the party is concerned, this is a man in drag who showed up and it is, it is upsetting everybody in this very conservative room. They think he's a California pervert. They're about to commit a hate crime on him. And yeah, it's just so I do feel extra tension in these scenes from seeing how all the characters are treating Bill. The second he walks in and the judgment and hate in all of their eyes. Yeah. There's about to be a scene.

And it reminds me too, I just read a whole article about how this is a video game thing, but basically Arcane Studios, this was the whole thing about how they made a recent video game. Is it Redfall? Is that Redfall game. And then it wasn't very good. And Jason Schreier, who's a great investigative journalist writing for Bloomberg, he was trying to see why it turned out bad. And one of the big reasons was, Arcane Studios is based in Texas,

and they wanted to hire up, but a lot of great talent in game development doesn't want to live in fucking Texas. Yeah, wow, I never thought about that. That was their Austin studio then. Even Austin. You're still subject to the rules of the state. You're still in Texas. Yeah. No. And same with like, this is the reason like people don't want businesses for business purposes want to be based out of like Florida or Texas or these positive tax havens. But socially, socially, unless you are a very conservative, straight white guy,

you almost certainly would prefer to live in California or a coastal city than you would in Texas or Florida for a job. And I mean, I'm, I, you know, I feel like that should be your punishment for, I hate that people have to suffer in any of these states, but the only way things change in America too is if a business suffers in some way. Yeah, I mean, I really feel like I'll never go to Disney World because I don't want to set foot

in that awful state and support it. I just, I mean, I feel safe there, but also like it just, I would just be thinking about it the entire time. No, I know we've, my husband and I have been talking about it too, because there really are like, there's a lot of rides that are only in Orlando and that we'd like to experience for the first time

and do it together. Like we love going to parks, the Disney parks, but I, yeah, Florida, especially right now is like, and I say this as someone who lived in Florida from ages 10 to 25. You have Florida experience. I know how bad Florida is. And I was living in Jacksonville, Florida,

the greater Jacksonville area. I'm not talking about Miami, Florida, if you're thinking of that, or even Orlando, which is slightly, I lived, so I know how bad Florida can be. Everything I read about is like, this is really bad even by Florida standards. Yes, I don't wanna go back to Ohio again.

Every, I mean, the red states are getting redder and it sucks, man. Like same with, I don't want to visit family in Arkansas for similar reasons. I completely understand. Yes, yeah. Going back to the show though, I like how this stock sitcom plot does not pay off because

you think for as a first time viewer like, okay, this is where the closure comes from. Lenora is going to be like, I don't love you anymore, Bill. And he's going to get over that. But she won't even talk to Bill. She won't even send her love through Peggy. I love Peggy just pleading on the phone like, can you at least send your love to him, please? And we don't even hear her voice. We just see, and Peggy's reaction is like,

Peggy always like, yeah, I get it, I get it. And we see Bill overhearing all of this in the background. Sorry for interrupting. Yeah, no, and the way, no, no, no. And the way Peggy, the way Peggy says, nevermind Bill, like that she wants to hope that Bill doesn't realize that that was Lenore on the phone who said she didn't want to talk to him. It just, it destroys him like this less and it's Christmas time.

And clearly she told the door like Bill is in a really bad way. Lenore, could you just tell him you care? Even if it's a lie, she won't even give that to bill, which it could be that Lenore is not a particularly caring person, or it could be that these, and I'm not basing this on the season five Lenore we see, but the Lenore's they're writing her in this episode

maybe is that she's like, I don't want to give him false hope, we're done. Like, and he needs to understand that. Peggy was thinking a TV plot would pay off. Why would Lenore ever come to this party with Bill there? She doesn't love him. Yeah. And I mean, Bill is in drag and now he's openly weeping as he's like shakily trying to pour

himself more wine and everybody is starting to turn on him and Boomhauer is warning Hank like he's going to get his ass kicked at this party. And this is when Hank has to save Bill yet again. Go back to Hollywood. This is in the Democratic National Convention. You crashed the wrong party. Hey, it's the trick of the program. Take it down.

Take off my dress buddy, you're scaring me. Yeah, now we're having fun. Yeah, that's right. It's that kind of party. Anything goes, extra fun. Woo! Hank, this wasn't on my invitation. Did you make Bill a special invitation?

Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Oh! Well, okie dokie. Everyone, let's play Boggle, huh? It's not usually played with such a large group, but it's Christmas, so... Let's sing a song. Stop teasing me. Bill, I am Lenore and I don't love you.

No Hank, I'm Lenore. I've left you forever because you're lazy and no good. Lenore. We fight so loud all the neighbors can hear. We fight during the day, we fight during the night. Lenore, wait, we can work stuff out. I'm a good husband. Bill, if I wanted to work things out, I would have called. I don't love you anymore. That's it. Now, I do have the rest of that clip, but I do want to talk about how Hank tries to save Bill. And I like how the crowd

kind of buys it because he redefines the drag as like, no, he's not a pervert. We're cutting loose. Anything goes that that's like the furthest their imagination could go. It was like, what if I dress as a woman? That's the craziest thing that could happen at a party. It's such a great comment on masculinity that Hank to save Bill, he has to recontextualize it as like, well, this is like frat boy behavior. It just is like, you know, a crazy party where a man wears a dress. This is not like, which is a man wearing a dress for these purposes. Like it is drag in a way, but he asked him like D he's like, this is like conservative drag.

We're being silly. He doesn't think he's a woman. He's doing a this is like conservative drag. We're being silly. Yeah, Bill's, he doesn't think he's a woman. He's doing a bit. Yeah, yeah. Which it's, I mean, that shows you about the extreme confines of masculinity has to live in there. And that I like that Bill thinks that he's left out. Instantly, Dale is like, I was being left out of something you told Bill about.

This fun drag party. Now, yeah, and the reason Bill gets closure is he gets to hear the words from Hank. And next clip we'll hear that Lenore just left without even saying, Bill, you suck and I hate you. She just got the fuck out without even writing him a letter. So he gets to hear what Lenore should have told him and then he gets to stand up for himself

in a way he never had a chance to. Let's hear the rest of this in the final clip. I don't love you. That's all? That's why you left? It's simple as that? You didn't even have the courtesy to send me a Dear John letter? Well, I'll tell you what I consider that rude, and I'll tell you something I am worth a Dear John letter? Well, I tell you what I consider that rude and I'll tell you something I am

worth a dare John letter. I'll tell you that right now and there are a lot of women who would agree with me. So you know what, you go ahead, you get out, get out, you don't you don't deserve William Fontaine to the Church of Trayv. Okay Bill, that's what I'm doing then. I hit rock bottom there, didn't I Hank? And hard. Then it's all uphill from now on Yep, the winds at your back buddy. Merry Christmas Yeah

Dale comes out. He clearly went home to put on a dress. It's great He even took off his hat for it, which normally doesn't and I love the last sound is is a Dale Yeah, yeah, they're they're landing on that as his catchphrase. He has said like three or four of them though. This this is great This is Hank giving him the closure he wants that and also Hank has these details because He says like we hear you fight You fight so loud the neighbors can hear it. That's how I can tell you exactly why she said it because it was plainly obvious to everybody.

And his big sticking point is like, I at least deserve a letter saying why you left me, not even a face to face confrontation. And Lenore thought he was a lazy good for nothing, which I could, I mean, I could see that Bill was, he is a lazy guy. He doesn't, he doesn't try things, but. Yeah, I don't think the breakup turned Bill into this. I think he just kind of was this guy, but maybe a little happier.

Yeah, he was probably, but like even Lenore also probably had just a bad relationship that, that needed to end. But yeah, that Hank, by telling him this, I love, it is a very realistic pathway to confidence that Bill finds because he's just like, the core emptiness on top of why she left him was that he didn't know why, or part of his denial is not wanting to believe why

she left and the fact that she didn't leave him a letter lets him, and he hasn't spoken to her since, lets him assume she might come back or any one thing. And God, I love the animation of him still in the dress and having kind of feminine movements of saying like, well, you know what? I consider that rude. Yeah. Taps a finger on, on like feminine, like haughty acting, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Any other way he just says like, and he sticks out his chest. He finally has some, some level of confidence back, but. And Hank doesn't know it, but he basically just did like a role playing exercise. Like you might

do in a therapy or like a psychiatry appointment or whatever. I'm, I, I did one for better help. I don't know. Okay. But it does seem like he actually acted out a real, uh, scenario that helped that did help bill by finally, and for Hank, it was, he finally did be like, look, I know why Lenore left you. Let's actually talk about it. Let's deal with this head on and maybe you can stop wearing this dress to pretend to be Lenore. So she didn't leave you. But Bill cannot go back to the party. No, no, no. As this 40 person boggle game is happening. Yeah. I mean, his reputation is ruined with all of the people who work at Strickland propane.

That's for sure. Yeah. Or they're going to sing songs, Elise. Isn't that great that Peggy first suggests Boggle? Oh yeah, then she goes, oh, let's sing a song. Yeah, she realizes like, all right, Boggle, my easy throwback of something to do. It's like, no, okay, gotta, all right, sing a song. Do you want to sing songs? But this episode, very great.

Really establishing the character of Bill. He's not just a disgusting joke There's some depth to him and we see him at bottom and it's it's very emotional too And I think Paul Lieberstein does a great job in 1998 of talking about this very serious issue But also having fun with it and that's hard to do without being offensive Yeah, yeah, and I mean I'm sure there's some bits in this that are offensive by today's standards to some but yeah, I think I think by 98 standards they were dealing with this I think pretty well. I think so too. Yeah, I was trying to to think like Bill calls this rock bottom Is this his lowest point because I would say stealing the tank is

Is this his lowest point? Because I would say Stealing the Tank is lower. I think Stealing the Tank is much lower. That's another fun episode. I'm sure Mike Judge didn't like. I mean, yeah, they put in the line that they cut from their original, what they thought the finale was at the Luan wedding episode, of saying that that episode didn't happen and was a dream that Bill had. But I like those seasons. It's fun how King of the Hill got their own David Mercaniers. Yeah! In the exact same years too, five and six. And also people do steal tanks and go crazy. It happened at least once which is why there's a King of the Hill and a Simpsons parroting that event. Right, right. But yes, great episode and we'll see everyone next month for a firefighting we will go. I'm gonna be a good boy, I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy, I'm gonna be a good boy

I'm gonna be a good boy, I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy, I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy, I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy, I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy, I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy, I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy, I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy, I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy, I'm gonna be a good boy

I'm gonna be a good boy, I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy, I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy, I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy, I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy, I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy, I'm gonna be a good boy They won't let me have a knife. I'm in the middle of killing myself. Do you like iguanas, Mrs. Tobis?

You lied to me, Peggy. Mr. Dautre is a collector of exotic reptilia. You collect throat pillows? I have some pillows on my couch, but that doesn't make me insane. And in answer to your question, I find iguanas to be filthy repulsive creatures. I think we all could use a bath. Hi, I'm Chris Gaththerd and I'm very excited to tell you about Beautiful Anonymous, a podcast where I talk to random people on the phone.

I tweet out a phone number, thousands of people try to call, talk to one of them, they stay anonymous, I can't hang up, that's all the rules. I never know what's gonna happen. We get serious ones, I've talked with meth dealers on their way to prison, I've talked to people who survived mass shootings, crazy funny ones, I talked to a guy with a goose laugh, somebody who dresses up as a pirate on the weekends.

I never know what's gonna happen, it's a great show. Subscribe today, Beautiful Anonymous.