King of the Hill/An Officer and a Gentle Boy

An Officer and a Gentle Boy
Season 7, Episode 15
Airdate	March 9, 2003
Production Number	7ABE06
Written by	Dan Sterling
Directed by	Gary McCarver
← 7x14 Board Games	7x16 → The Miseducation of Bobby Hill
King of the Hill — Season Seven

An Officer and a Gentle Boy is the fifteenth episode of the seventh season of King of the Hill, and the one hundred forty-first episode overall.

Starring: Mike Judge (Hank Hill), Kathy Najimy (Peggy Hill), Pamela S. Adlon (Bobby Hill, Cadet), Brittany Murphy (credit only), Johnny Hardwick (credit only) Stephen Root (Instructor Graves)

and Toby Huss (Cotton Hill, Drill Instructor)

Special Guest Voice: Phil Hendrie (Lt. Semone)

Also Starring: Ashley Gardner (Didi Hill), Breckin Meyer (Botwin)

Plot Overview

Feeling Bobby lacks discipline, Hank reluctantly takes up Cotton's offer to send him to his old military academy.

Notes

Stinger Quote

Cotton: What the?! You made a bowl?

Trivia

Allusions and References

• The title is a play on the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman.

• Bobby recites a famous line from the 1992 film A Few Good Men when he sees his uniform and says "You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!"

Goofs

• When the lieutenant wheels his chair away, the green pad that had been on his desk is suddenly gone.

Quotes

• Hank: You're gonna rake leaves until that whetstone is paid off. And every Thursday, you're going to bag 'em and drag 'em to the curb so they can be picked up by garbageman Morehouse.

Bobby: How about he grabs the bags himself? He seems to like it, dad. He's made a career of it.

• Hank: That boy ain't right.

Cotton: Don't blame Bobby. You've been babying him ever since he was a baby.

• Hank: Peggy, I talked to the principal and he assured me that they are tough, but not rough. He spent a long time on the phone explaining the distinction.

• Hank: Come on. Today, you're ironing his cape. If we don't take drastic action, tomorrow there'll be a top hat in the picture.

• Cotton: That's enough, Hank's wife. If you got more feelings to express, get in the kitchen and put 'em in a bundt cake.

• Cotton: In my day, the principal was the meanest son of a bitch God ever put on one leg. He'd lean on a desk with both hands and swing his leg at ya. Then, when you were standing there shocked that a one-legged man had kicked you, he'd bite ya. (wipes away a tear) Oops. Well. Huh. How you like that? Must've over-reminisced and brought up my pain water.

• Cotton: Good Lord! They're going to have to get bigger sticks to beat the frosting out of these fatties.

• Cadet: I don't get it. Why was that supposed to be scary?

Bobby: Well, five more minutes like that and I guess it might have caused some hearing damage.

• Cotton: I wonder if Bobby's being forced to sleep in mud or dung right now? Wait, what's today? Tuesday? Dung.

• Cotton: Where's dinner?

Hank: It's 3:00, dad.

Cotton: I can't eat excuses.

• Cotton: You heard from Bobby?

Hank: Yeah, he's, uh, surviving.

Cotton: Surviving?! He's got too much of you and that one to be surviving at Fort Berk! Even I barely survived and I didn't have Gas Monkey and Sasquatch for parents.

• Cotton: I guess he was just born a pile of mush.

Hank: Well, I guess you could say that. But maybe mush isn't all bad. You can keep stomping on it, but it's all give; it just stays mush. You can't build it up, but you can't break it down, either. In a funny way, mush kinda has the edge.

Cotton: Can you imagine that pile of mush in the POW camps? He would've driven them Tojos crazy. Three days with Bobby and they would've quit the war!