Yard, She Blows!

Yard, She Blows!
Air date	January 23, 2005
Written by	Sivert Glarum & Michael Jamin
Directed by	Allan Jacobsen
Episode guide
Previous	"Death Buys a Timeshare"
Next	"Dale to the Chief"

"Yard, She Blows!" is the one hundred-seventy-fifth episode of King of the Hill. It was first aired on January 23, 2005. The episode was written by Sivert Glarum and Michael Jamin, and directed by Allan Jacobsen.

Summary

Peggy gets a lawn gnome, which Hank hates, but when Hank breaks it, Bobby ends up getting blamed for it.

Plot

Peggy is jealous that Hank always gets complimented on the yard and house, so she attempts to start a garden in the front yard. Hank reluctantly agrees, assuring Peggy she will find her statement. However, every plant Peggy tries to grow quickly wilts and dies, diminishing their house's reputation. Peggy is frustrated that she cannot grow any flowers that feel impressive. At Luanne's suggestion, they stop at an estate sale, where Peggy discovers and buys Winklebottom the garden gnome. Peggy places Winklebottom in her garden in the front yard, which embarrasses Hank as he believes garden gnomes are unsightly.

He attempts to personally block the gnome from view from passers-by until Peggy notices and expresses her feelings. The next person to jog by, Sally, immediately notices Winklebottom, and she implies being a middle-aged spinster/geek. She coos over the gnome and begins to inform Peggy on "garden gnome lore", which Peggy seems to find charming while Hank reacts in his usual manner to what he feels is such an asinine hobby. The jogger also assesses Winklebottom to be a rare hand-crafted 1930's original from Germany, which further impresses Peggy on her own taste.

Peggy and Bobby are next seen reading a large book full of whimsical facts on garden gnomes, thoroughly enjoying themselves. Bobby seems to love the gnome as much as Peggy, and Hank tries to ignore his growing discomfort and embarrassment for the family. Bobby later plays a game in the yard, pretending to be a U.S. Secret Service agent taking a bullet for "President Winklebottom", and he accidentally knocks the gnome against the front walk, cleanly chipping his ear off. When a panic-stricken Bobby presents the broken gnome to Hank, Hank is seen to assess the damage as easily fixable; the break is clean, he has outdoor ceramic glue at-the-ready, but he instead lies to Bobby that the gnome is unrepairable. He then ropes Bobby into his conspiracy get rid of Winklebottom. At first, they try to dump the gnome in a different neighborhood's trash but, out of fear of getting caught, Hank drives them to the Heimlich County Forest and buries Winklebottom in a shallow grave, backing over it several times for good measure.

The next morning, Peggy sees her gnome is gone and begins to panic. Hank and Bobby give a cover-story that they were out and so have no idea what happened to the gnome. Peggy escalates and allows Sally to call the police, who presume vandals stole the lawn gnome and assure Peggy that even if they could find it, she would not want it back after what they probably did to it. Thinking that some hooligans took her gnome, Peggy becomes depressed and expresses that all she wanted was the same kind of compliments that Hank gets for taking care of the lawn. Finally realizing he was self-centered, Hank attempts to take the blame, leaving Bobby's accident out and pretending he destroyed Winklebottom out of a pure hatred of gnomes.

Ironically, Peggy realizes Hank is covering for someone and accuses Bobby of breaking it while playing one of his "weird little games". Hank and Bobby maintain the latter's innocence, but she immediately grounds Bobby. Hank delivers a room-bound Bobby his dinner and "no dessert" but secretly smuggles some pudding in his sock. Bobby suggests to his father that he should try to find a replacement at a German-themed tourist town outside of Arlen. Hank agrees and Peggy says lights-out; when Bobby fails to immediately comply, Peggy shouts it louder.

Inside Gnome on the Range, Hank attempts to buy "one Winklebottom". To Hank's shock, the shopkeeper sarcastically explains that Winklebottom gnomes are extremely rare and worth a fortune. Hank then sees a nearly-identical gnome behind the counter, Figgleforth, and demands to purchase it despite the shopkeeper assuring him the two gnomes have "different personalities". An old lady, Blanche comes up to the counter and insists she saw the gnome first, causing an argument between her and Hank. She grills him on gnome-lore, but Hank retaliates that he emphatically hates gnomes but is doing it to make his wife happy. Neither the shopkeeper nor the elderly lady is impressed, but when the woman's credit card is declined, Hank offers to pay in cash. Elsewhere, Joseph is walking on the sidewalk with a broken foot, with it being implied he gained the injury during his motorbike stunts.

Hank presents the Figgleforth to Peggy, this time honestly telling her it was Bobby's idea. However, Peggy is so glad to have Figgleforth that she believes it was all Hank's idea to buy it to compensate for the Winklebottom's "death", though it was never Bobby's fault in the first place. She makes it up to Bobby by ending his punishment and proudly displays her new Figgleforth in her garden. Despite Hank now accepting her gnome's presence in his yard, Peggy still is afraid of vandals, and Hank is overjoyed that she wants to display it inside instead. In the last scene, Figgleforth is displayed on Peggy's dresser, forcing a perturbed Hank to change inside his closet.

Characters

• Hank Hill
• Peggy Hill
• Bobby Hill
• Dale Gribble
• Bill Dauterive
• Jeff Boomhauer
• Joseph Gribble
• Luanne Platter
• Kahn Souphanousinphone
• Minh Souphanousinphone
• Sally
• Tim
• Mailman Thompson
• Neighborhood residents
• Unnamed police officer (voiced by David Herman)
• Gnome on the Range cashier (voiced by David Herman)
• Blanche
• Lady Bird

Stinger Quote

• Bill: (singing a song) "Hank likes the gnome."

Quotes

• Hank: "Why would anyone do drugs when they could mow a lawn?"

Gallery