"Yankee Hankee" is the ninety-fourth episode of King of the Hill. It was first aired on February 4, 2001. The episode was written by Kit Boss, and directed by Adam Kuhlman.
Summary[]
When Hank obtains a copy of his birth certificate, he is horrified to learn that he was not born in Texas.
Plot[]
When Hank decides to get a special Native Texan license plate for his truck after seeing Dale got Texas plates, he first seeks out his birth certificate, certain it will come into play to prove he is a Texan instead of someone from out of state. When Peggy cannot find his birth certificate in their files, Hank decides to call Tilly for a copy. However, Tilly's nervous behavior and abrupt ending of the call catches Hank by surprise.
Thinking Cotton may have his birth certificate, Hank takes a basket of fruit as a house warming gift to his father and asks for his certificate. His question startles Cotton so much that he accidentally makes G.H. cry. Cotton adamantly denies having it, so Hank heads home in defeat. That night, he tells Peggy how he finds it odd that his parents seem to be in on his missing certificate even though they have not spoken in four years. Peggy suggests the possibility that Hank may be adopted which would explain why Cotton treats him so harshly.
Later, Hank goes to Dale for help although his true parentage is still weighing on his mind. After Hank enters his social security number, Dale locates the birth certificate. Hank finds that Tilly and Cotton are indeed his real parents but discovers the horrifying secret they have kept from him when he sees his birthplace is listed as New York, NY. Angrily, Hank confronts Cotton about his place of birth being kept secret from him. Cotton claims to Hank that that this happened because Tilly had always wanted to see New York and he decided to take her out for dancing at the Rainbow Room. During a dance, Tilly went into labor and the pre-mature Hank was born a few hours later. Hoping to keep this conversation between them, Cotton requests that Hank not mention anything to Tilly under the impression that she blames herself for Hank not being born in Texas. Once his son leaves, Cotton calls Topsy with the claim it is time to finish a certain mission.
At home, Hank is depressed about not being born in Texas and even reveals he really had to pray to overcome that Peggy was not born in Texas before they got married. The next day, the guys are greatly teasing Hank about his recent discovery. When he heads inside and is questioned by Bobby about his birthplace, Bobby is elated to hear this as he believes it explains why he enjoys performing so much. Meanwhile, at the Arlen VFW, Cotton and his friends unearth a crate of weapons. When heading to his truck the following day, Hank notices an "I Love NY" bumper sticker and correctly guesses Dale placed it there. Although he tears it off, he does not notice Dale hiding under the truck to replace it before Hank drives off. While driving, Hank hears a trivia question that he forgets the answer to and is so distracted while driving that he is yelled at by someone shouting for him to go back to New York, unaware they see the bumper sticker and believe his New York personality is emerging.
The driving incident appears to affect Hank greatly when he relays it to Peggy during dinner. Trying to get a trip to New York, Bobby claims Hank needs closure and they should head to New York for it. Denying the trip, Hank calls Tilly and explains what Cotton told him. His mother immediately calls Cotton's version a lie and retorts that it was Cotton's idea to go to New York and use the then pregnant Tilly as the way through a privately guarded area so Cotton and Topsy could carry out an assassination on Fidel Castro. Just when Topsy was about to blow a dart, Tilly went into labor and threw Topsy's aim off, causing him to hit a bat boy on the field by accident. As the trio ran from police, Tilly and Cotton ducked into the women's bathroom where the former birthed Hank. Upon learning of his real birth circumstances, the true story impacts Hank even more.
As Cotton is making plans with his friends, Hank bursts in and informs him he knows the truth about his birth and blames him for it. Pretending to be in grief about what happened, Cotton replies that he wants to make it up to him by taking him on a trip to make him a Texan. Blissfully unaware of Cotton's true intentions, Hank agrees. While out at a shooting range, Hank is enjoying this being the first time Cotton has not humiliated him but does not notice his father and his war buddies place his recently fired and unloaded gun into a plastic bag. While getting ammunition, Cotton nearly gives his plot away but covers things when he claims it is part of the Texas restaurant Lopez's deal of dressing like a commando.

Hank is framed by Cotton.
As the group drives through San Antonio, Stinky and Erwin Linker hollow out a cigar to use as a blow gun while Cotton gets Hank intoxicated by making him drink tequila every time he sees a Texas plate. When nearing the Alamo, Cotton has the group stop to get a picture of Hank before the landmark while holding a rifle and that day's newspaper. Once the picture is taken, a bus arrives and drops off a man in a wheelchair, the Jorge Lopez that Cotton has mentioned before. When Hank realizes Lopez is a person instead of a barbecue restaurant, the men strip him of most of his clothes, tie his hands together, and force him onto the Alamo grounds after Cotton comes clean about having planned to use his son as a patsy for their plan to head to Cuba and assassinate Castro.
With the men taking his truck, Hank ducks into the Alamo where he finds a hall of flags of all states that helped defend the Alamo, New York being one of them. Taking the clothing from the David Crockett mannequin, Hank heads to the marina at Corpus Christi and finds the men loading a speed boat. Although he tries to stop them, the men work together to knock Hank off the boat where he is accidentally hit on the head by Erwin's oxygen tank. After one minute, Stinky points out that Hank has yet to resurface and is ordered by Cotton to save him, but Hank emerges at the back end of the boat after using the oxygen tank to breath underwater long enough to remove the boat's spark plugs.
Cotton naturally claims the men can paddle to Cuba, but each elderly man starts to voice doubts due to the medical conditions and appointments they have. Cotton tries to go it alone but realizes he cannot do it. After sending the men back to their homes and families, Hank is with Peggy when she theorizes he is now a native Texan after being "dead in the water and coming back to life." Hank responds that he is not a native Texan, but just a regular Texan. Peggy tries to assert she is a Texan as well, but Hank jokes that he did not see a Montana state flag at the Alamo, to which she reasons that it was not a state yet. As they head home, Hank agrees that everyone can easily be a Texan.
Characters[]
- Hank Hill
- Bobby Hill
- Peggy Hill
- Dale Gribble
- Jeff Boomhauer
- Bill Dauterive
- Tilly Garrison
- Cotton Hill
- G.H. Hill
- Didi Hill (mentioned)
- Topsy Toppington
- Tony Randall (mentioned)
- Joseph Gribble (mentioned)
- Woody Allen (mentioned)
- Erwin Linker
- Stinky
- Radio Announcer (voice only) (voiced by Stephen Root)
- Big Tex (mentioned)
- Fidel Castro (non-speaking)
- Jorge Lopez (debut)
- Buck Strickland (mentioned)
- Jim Bowie (statue)
- Davy Crockett (statue)
- San Antonio Cab Company taxi driver
- Erwin Linker's daughter (voiced by Pamela Adlon)
Stinger Quote[]
- Cotton: "Well, I suppose... Sucker punch!"
Trivia[]
- Dale reads aloud Hank's Social Security number when he types it on the computer, which is revealed to be 135-01-6629.
- Cotton moves into an apartment at "Casa Linda," which is the same apartment complex Dr. Vayzosa resides in the Season 6 episode "The Substitute Spanish Prisoner".
- Hank stood in front of the Alamo to have his photo taken of him holding an M2 Carbine and a newspaper. This is a spoof to the picture of Lee Harvey Oswald holding a rifle and either a newspaper or brochures.

- Hank reveals that he is 41 years old in this episode.
- Fidel Castro visited Yankee Stadium in New York City on April 15, 1959, he attended an exhibition game between the New York Yankees and Washington Senators. This visit was part of Castro's trip to the United States shortly after the Cuban Revolution[1]
- The original ending to "Lucky's Wedding Suit" would have revealed that this episode and the events of "Tankin' It to The Streets" (two episodes that show writer/producer Jim Dauterive hated because they were considered "out of character" for the show) were actually dreams Bill had after eating some bad food at a McMaynerberry Hungarian restaurant.
Goofs[]
- While Hank is in the Alamo, a South Carolina state flag is shown on the wall on the right, but its color is wrong. It shows a palmetto tree and crescent moon on a yellow background, but the background should be blue.
- To look up Hank's birth records, Dale visits www.hankhill.com. It's very unlikely that anyone would have registered Hank Hill's name as a web domain just to host his birth certificate.
- In the previous episode "Chasing Bobby", Hank's Ford Ranger is destroyed, and he buys a Ford F-250. In this episode, he is still driving the Ranger. This is either due to an animation error, or that this episode was meant to air before the previous one.
- This episode implies that Hank has never needed his birth certificate before (otherwise he would have seen it and noticed it said New York as place of birth). This is somewhat surprising, considering there are many situations in life when one may be asked to present an original birth certificate, such as when obtaining a driver's license. However, this is hardly a goof:
- It is possible that he used it, but never looked at it closely since he had no prior suspicions about the instances of his birth.
- A Social Security card can be used in lieu of a birth certificate to obtain a driver's license in Texas and other states, as well as for almost any other purpose requiring proof of identity.
- Hank likely obtained his driver's license in high school (he is shown driving during his high school years in flash backs), probably at age 16. He likely would have been brought to the DMV by his mother, who would have likely presented the birth certificate on his behalf, without Hank ever having a reason to inspect it.
- The narrative surrounding Hank's birth contains numerous historical inconsistencies and incredulous pieces of information, and as with all of Cotton's stories, it is unclear how much of it is meant to be understood as entirely fabricated by Cotton, how much of it might be historical goofs on behalf of the writers, or whether the inconsistencies should be simply explained as aspects of the show's fictional "alternative history":
- Tilly reveals that Hank was born in the bathroom at the Yankees game where Fidel Castro was visiting. However, when Dale looked up Hank's birth certificate online earlier, it had stated that Hank was born in a New York hospital some time past midnight. It's possible that Tilly delivered the placenta at the hospital, and the staff simply marked it as his birthplace, as this sort of thing is common practice. At any rate, she was likely rushed to the hospital right after giving birth.
- Hank using the oxygen under water would possibly not work since medical oxygen masks are not made for underwater use.
- Hank is shown firing the handgun with his left hand. Hank is right-handed.
Gallery[]
References[]