6 ms·

Interesting read, although it's mostly a (deserved) pat on the back kind of article. But they completely leave out King of the Hill?!?!

brandnewlow 10y ago
It doesn't fit the article's thesis.
- BuuQu9hu 10y ago
  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.
  - humanrebar 10y ago
    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.
    - aanm1988 10y ago
      As opposed to open minded people like you who just post shit like this?
      - sctb 10y ago
        We have to ban this account if you won't stop violating the guidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
    - wcummings 10y ago
      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.
      - humanrebar 10y ago
        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.
        wcummings 10y ago
        People know it's very dry, that's why they like it. You're not giving the viewers enough credit.
  - mateo411 10y ago
    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?storyId=112203927 http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?story...
eplanit 10y ago
>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.
- kenamarit 10y ago
  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
- hawkice 10y ago
  > 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).
- pavel_lishin 10y ago
  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.
  - tomsthumb 10y ago
    it's funny cause it's true
  - hindsightbias 10y ago
    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.
Pigo 10y ago
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.
- WorldMaker 10y ago
  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.
- jnicholasp 10y ago
  > segueway Just so you know, "segue" is pronounced "seg-way" by itself. No need to throw an additional "way" on the end.
joshuaheard 10y ago
The article is paywalled for me, but I will note that King of the Hill dealt with conservative themes in a positive manner, while the NY Times is a liberal paper, which views conservatism with disdain.
nerfhammer 10y ago
> they completely leave out King of the Hill?!?! cause this is a PR piece for the new season of silicon valley
DrSayre 10y ago
Agreed. King of the Hill is amazing and is always underrated.
wcummings 10y ago
I fucking love Mike Judge, King of the Hill is one of the best shows of all time.
throwaway91111 10y ago
I have frankly no idea what to make of the show. It feels so alien it might as well be european.

brandnewlow 10y ago

It doesn't fit the article's thesis.

BuuQu9hu 10y ago
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.
- humanrebar 10y ago
  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.
  - aanm1988 10y ago
    As opposed to open minded people like you who just post shit like this?
    - sctb 10y ago
      We have to ban this account if you won't stop violating the guidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - wcummings 10y ago
    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.
    - humanrebar 10y ago
      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.
      - wcummings 10y ago
        People know it's very dry, that's why they like it. You're not giving the viewers enough credit.
- mateo411 10y ago
  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?storyId=112203927 http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?story...

eplanit 10y ago

>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.

kenamarit 10y ago
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
hawkice 10y ago
> 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).
pavel_lishin 10y ago
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.
- tomsthumb 10y ago
  it's funny cause it's true
- hindsightbias 10y ago
  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.

Pigo 10y ago

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.

WorldMaker 10y ago
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.
jnicholasp 10y ago
> segueway Just so you know, "segue" is pronounced "seg-way" by itself. No need to throw an additional "way" on the end.

joshuaheard 10y ago

The article is paywalled for me, but I will note that King of the Hill dealt with conservative themes in a positive manner, while the NY Times is a liberal paper, which views conservatism with disdain.

nerfhammer 10y ago

> they completely leave out King of the Hill?!?! cause this is a PR piece for the new season of silicon valley

DrSayre 10y ago

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

wcummings 10y ago

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

throwaway91111 10y ago

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