"Ceci N'est Pas Une King of the Hill" is the one hundred-fifty-eighth episode of King of the Hill. It was first aired on January 25, 2004. The episode was written by Etan Cohen, and directed by Tricia Garcia.
Summary[]
When Hank asks Peggy to design an art piece for Strickland Propane, she creates the "Probot," a statue made out of propane tanks. Her sculpture is rejected by the city board, but picked up by an art dealer from Dallas. Unfortunately, Peggy finds out that the dealer presents her to the public as an uneducated hillbilly. Meanwhile, Dale starts wearing a suit of armor and uses his newfound invincibility to insult people without consequences.
Plot[]
Buck Strickland drunkenly crashes into Hank's lawn to tell Hank that the Zoning Board has approved their unprecedentedly large storage lot. However in exchange for turning part of Arlen into a storage lot Buck is charged with "beautifying" another part by adding a piece of public art. He tasks Hank with finding the artwork and Hank, accompanied by Bobby, takes several trips to bizarre art galleries at the McMaynerbury Artist Colony per the recommendation of Fred, Hank’s pal and periodic acquaintance over at AAA. After several bizarre encounters with art gallery owners, Hank is at a loss of who to go to for his art. Peggy volunteers to make a piece, and constructs a statue out of propane tanks called the "Pro-Bot." At the unveiling of the Pro-Bot, however, the Zoning Board learns that Peggy is not a professional artist and demands Buck find a proven artist to make a genuine piece of art. Hank informs Peggy that an art-dealer from Dallas, a man named Jazz, is coming to Arlen to help find a piece of art for Strickland. On his way into Arlen, Jazz sees Peggy's Pro-Bot and is immediately taken by it. He finds Peggy Hill and asks to hear her life story, including her childhood in rural Montana. After hearing it he asks her to put on an art show in Dallas, and she agrees to make numerous other "Pro-Bots."
At the art show at Jazz's art gallery Peggy is excited to be treated as a genuine artist but is heartbroken to learn that her art is being advertised as being created by a child-like idiot, with her life story being switched to her being an angry, inbred hillbilly who left Montana young to become a child-bride for a simple laborer. She is further crushed when she learns that the Art Show is also featuring art from Arlen crazy Jimmy Wichard, who is introduced as the "only person who could be called Peggy's peer."
Upon seeing how sad Peggy is at this development, Hank angrily confronts Jazz and demands he sells her art honestly. Jazz however claims that Peggy's statues aren't good enough to be sold without her fake tragic backstory, and that without it he can't sell her Pro-Bots. Angry at this, Hank confiscates the remaining Pro-Bots at the art gallery and moves Peggy's original Pro-Bot back to their house. Upon seeing the original Pro-Bot however Peggy demands Hank destroy it. Hank initially protests but relents and takes Peggy and the Pro-Bot to Strickland, where the tools that can be used to destroy the Pro-Bot are held. As she is about to destroy it, however, she is approached by a crowd of Strickland customers, who mistakenly believe she is building a new Pro-Bot. The crowd confesses that they loved the Pro-Bot and begin asking Peggy if she could build them personalized Pro-Bots. Peggy realizes that while her Pro-Bots may not have been good to high-class art critics, they are good to the regular citizens of Arlen. Hank tells the crowd to wait while Peggy gets something to write down their orders, referring to her as "the artist", much to Peggy's delight.
Meanwhile in the alley, Dale buys a genuine suit of medieval armor, rendering him immune to any attacks with weapons or fists. After using his newfound invincibility to take revenge on former bullies as well as to pick (and win) fights with others, Dale begins to abuse his newfound ability, bullying numerous other residents of the alley and even shoving a child off his bike. Upon seeing this Bill constructs a homemade suit of armor and challenges Dale. In a brief and rather anti-climactic fight Bill successfully defeats Dale by shoving him over (Dale being unable to get up due to the weight of the armor.) He then returns the bike to the child, having ended Dale's tyrannical reign.
Characters[]
- Hank Hill
- Peggy Hill
- Bobby Hill
- Dale Gribble
- Bill Dauterive
- Jeff Boomhauer
- Jazz Colton
- Jimmy Wichard
- Buck Strickland
- Margo
- Minh Souphanousinphone
- Fred (cameo)
Stinger Quote[]
- MacMaynerberry Artist: "Washington. Hitler. Washington. Hitler."
Notes[]
- The episode title is a reference to the surrealist painting "La trahison des images" ["The treachery of images"] by Rene Magritte (1898-1967), consisting of a painting of a man's pipe with the caption "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" or "This is not a pipe." As Magritte said of it, "The famous pipe. How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it's just a representation, is it not?" In short, it's a painting, it's not a pipe. The phrase "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" is considered to be a manifesto of modern art and its nonrepresentational nature.
- This is the first King of the Hill episode to be animated using digital paint and ink.