>If you set aside his long-running TV show “King of the Hill,” which is much too loving to be considered satire, Judge’s corpus of work cleaves neatly into two pieces.

Set it aside? Having grown up in that region of Texas it certainly is (wonderfully) satirical to me. It certainly isn't a hateful satire, but "too loving to be considered satire" misses it. In an otherwise very good article I'm also surprised by such a dismissal of a huge part of hit work.

It was too accurate. Growing up in Texas, I couldn't watch it for a long time because I didn't see where the humor was - it was just a show about people who were like my neighbors.

Yeah, I don't know how it plays to out-of-staters, but there comes a point where a weekly KotH was too much.

Sorta like it is hard to rewatch Office Space or Idiocracy. Have to be in the right mood, every 4 or 5 years. OS was filmed in my neighborhood and until the credits rolled I thought Stephen Root (Milton) was a former coworker (physical doppelgänger) where we literally had a TPS form.

Going out for lunch with coworkers, "I hope Judge isn't sitting behind us" became a thing people would say. Freakish accuracy.

When I saw OS in the theater my jaw was in my lap the entire time, because I had worked with a slightly taller version of Peter. Disaffected guy who dressed the same, had the same haircut, talked constantly about leaving, took the wall off his cube to see out the window. Same lip curl when he was about to lose it.

I had the exact same experience, but now that I revisit it after a decade living in California, I find it hilarious.

it's funny cause it's true

Agreed! I grew up outside Fort Worth, and a lot of the jokes, characters, and scenes in King of the Hill (like Silicon Valley) hit painfully close to home

As someone with no experience in that region, and as someone whose taste is much more toward the satirical (Seinfeld, Family Guy, Simpsons), I have a hard time trying to recall anything satirical in KotH.

Instead, I consider KotH to be similar to the Cosby Show, Roseanne, or even All in the Family - a respectful look at the type of family that was not historically portrayed in TV or the movies.

> a huge part of hit work

Freudian slip of the most correct kind. It really was a hit, very odd to ignore it (fellow Texan here).

I know right? People like to focus on Idiocracy because they want to segueway into their issue with modern life they find idiotic. Lapsing over a 13 season home run is just ponderous though, especially since they mentioned Milton and B&B. I suppose the guy is just so prolific many people love him for different works and different reasons. I'm a fan boy of pretty much everything he's done.

Even just the one running thread of "propane and propane accessories" through King of the Hill paints a deep satirical portrait of middle class salesmanship, an equal to (if not a successor/better) "Death of a Salesman". I'd even possible put it up against Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions for levels of grim pathos and determination despite broken systems that don't allow for advancement while claiming that they do.

All of that seems like hyperbole perhaps, but it's an admirable trait to King of the Hill that it can inspire such questions and discussions... and that's just one of the many long-running satire threads in King of the Hill.

> segueway

Just so you know, "segue" is pronounced "seg-way" by itself. No need to throw an additional "way" on the end.

> they completely leave out King of the Hill?!?!

cause this is a PR piece for the new season of silicon valley

It doesn't fit the article's thesis.

I find that it neatly fits the thesis; "King of the Hill" is a delightful satire of the inhabitants of a sleepy Texas town, and it's clearly influenced by Judge's time in Texas the same way that "Silicon Valley" was influenced by his time in the Bay, and Judge himself has confirmed this.

I think that it makes coastal city folk uncomfortable to talk about and celebrate KotH because satirizing urban Texan values, beliefs, and practices is self-seen as aggrandizing city-slicker behavior.

Kenneth from 30 Rock doesn't make them uncomfortable. They don't get KotH because they don't get the humor. Because they don't get lower middle class red state suburban culture. They see it as an absence of culture. They'd rather move to New Zealand (another HN thread that's going on right now) than learn about domestic cultures.

Oh puh-leeeeeeeeze, KotH has a broad appeal and heaps of "city slickers" watched and enjoyed it without irony or disdain for the characters. People haven't been completely retarded by living in cities, most of the stories in the KotH are fundamentally human and very relatable.

Apparently Willy Staley of the New York Times missed all the satire in KotH. Someone in the critical analysis business who understood towns like Garland, TX well wouldn't dismiss the satire in KotH offhand. Shows can be relatable and funny and still be misunderstood.

And I don't think cities necessarily corrupt people somehow. Obviously Garland itself is part of the DFW metroplex! It's probably more that people with a certain brand of cosmopolitan ethnocentrism end up in (or stay in) coastal cities.

People know it's very dry, that's why they like it. You're not giving the viewers enough credit.

We have to ban this account if you won't stop violating the guidelines.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

There is a really great story on Fresh Air about how Mike Judge's neighbors fixed his fence for him. It provided inspiration for the Hank Hill character.

http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?story...

I fucking love Mike Judge, King of the Hill is one of the best shows of all time.

I have frankly no idea what to make of the show. It feels so alien it might as well be european.

Agreed. King of the Hill is amazing and is always underrated.