King of the Hill Accidentally Explores the Muscle Gainer Subculture
Added 2024-11-15 02:47:43 +0000 UTC“Bill, Bulk and the Body Buddies” (May 20, 2007)
Can one illustration of a buff Bill Dauterive change your entire life in an instant? Well, for some people, yeah. This King of the Hill outing manages to stuff in a whole lot of imagery that will be familiar to a certain gay subculture. It’s inadvertent — and specifically this episode also features explicitly gay characters as a counterpoint to the rude, crude muscle bros, but there’s plenty to talk about nonetheless in Bill’s adventures through body transformation.
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Comments
Watching KotH along with the Talking Simpsons guys, it's jarring to watch this episode from the 11th season compared to the early seasons. With digital animation the characters seem stiffer and the colors are muted. Conversely the show feels less grounded than the early seasons. IIRC Bill's physical was in two weeks at the start of the episode. I doubt someone could transform their body that quickly even with the use of steroids. Bill's organs being outside of his body sounds like a post golden-era Simpsons gag. When I found this episode on Hulu, I noticed that its season only had 12 episodes, compared to the 15-22 episodes in surrounding seasons. It seems like that's a result of the 2007-08 writer's strike. That explains my OTHER complaint about the episode which is the bodybuilders feel underwritten and like caricatures. I don't want them to have a tragic backstory or anything that drastic, but they should at least recognize that Bill is too tired/fatigued to be doing a heavy bench press (and should never do one without a spotter). Leaving Bill with a barbell sitting on his chest would've definitely killed him in real life. Nevertheless I enjoyed the discussion in this episode of the podcast.
PurpleComet
2025-06-17 20:32:42 +0000 UTCI loved this episode. Signed a body dysmorphic fellow
Barry Morse
2025-05-22 18:44:56 +0000 UTC
