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Comment by brandnewlow | Hacker News Reader

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.

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...

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