12/21/97

One of the very best.

Jeff

In article ,

Agreed. Both incredibly funny & full of heart, both of which qualities were sadly lacking from the Simpsons Christmas episode that preceded it.

KotH continues to go where the usual Hollywood/New York product never does. Passionate sex for senior citizens treated as matter of fact (well, okay, maybe not by Hank...), and a faith-healing service not treated with total contempt (the first hiccups scene on TV poked fun, of course, but in the second scene the preacher was actually given a pretty decent snippet of a sermon, implication being that maybe what was going on did have something to do with the message of Christmas, after all).

All in all, just have to agree with Bobby--"that was SO Arizona!"

Yeah, I liked that part about Boomhauer setting his Christmas lights, too. It was also funny how Bobby started to talk like someone from Arizona. It was all good! Great first time for a Christmas special.

Also I liked how Dale, Bill, and Boomhauer made fun of Hank's blindness. It was also funny when Tilly's boyfriend took Hank to see that evangelist.

It's a good thing Tilly had enough guts to leave Cotton! :) KoTH just keeps getting better, IMHO!

Joya Nappo [email]

Don't Bother To Pack Your Bags, Or Your Map! -Weezer!

In article CMJ writes:

Uh, that was a joke. That's a classic New York Jewish accent. Of course, a lot of people retire to Arizona, where it's a lot warmer than NY, which probably explains why he lives in Arizona now.

I do agree, it was very funny when Bobby started talking that way.

Not me, I found that part very uncomfortable. I guess the point was that Dale, Bill, and BH never really grew up, and were acting like kids. But I just didn't think it was funny, just mean.

That part was good.

Cotton is another part of the show that bothers me. He just gives me the creeps. I know he's supposed to be a jerk, but he's so far out it's impossible to believe anyone could be like that. Or if someone was, why he would be in a comedy, he's just plain sick. The less Cotton, the better.

However, I do agree with the last part, the show is getting better and better, which isn't easy, since it's been great from the beginning. Just a few nitpicks above from an otherwise great episode.

Rick

In article , [email] (Rick Diamant) wrote:

<snip>

I disagree. They were giving Hank a bad time because his "blindness" was psychosomatic from seeing his mom doing it on his kitchen table. If he had acid poured in his eyes, they'd have been acting much differently. Cut the guys a break!

<snip>

• Don

In article , [email] (Bonus Sock) wrote:

Nope. They didn't know that. Hank only told Peggy, and Peggy would never rat on Hank that way -- certainly not to Bill, Dale, and Boomhauer! It's possible that Peg MIGHT have had a quiet word with Gary when she asked him to drive Hank to visit Cotton...but Gary claimed to have worked out the cause of Hank's blindness for himself, which seems entirely plausible given the timing of the event and all. In the case of Dale and company, it's more likely that Hank stuck to his made-up story about sympathetic blindness in one eye after poking himself in the other, and gave everyone the impression that it was only temporary...without further specifics.

Nah, they're just mean...in that special way that only lifelong friends can be truly mean to one another. I think that's the whole point.

RAB
_______________________________________

"Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion." -- Democritus of Abdera

The hell she wouldn't. :) She told the whole town of Arlen when Hank had constipation! Hec -------------------------------------------------- Dale: Here's how to fix your problem. Take two tablespoons of Bacon grease... Hank: Dale, I'm not eating bacon grease. Dale: You didn't let me finish.

In article , [email] (Hec) wrote:

,

blindness.

that

But I

Not to mention his narrow urethra.

• Don

In article , [email] (Hec) wrote:

And in article , [email] (Bonus Sock) wrote:

I hear you both...but it's not the same thing. It's one thing to be frank about bodily functions or a medical condition; some people are squeamish about such things, like Hank, but others are not, like Peg, and the latter tend to regard it as the sort of thing which ought to be discussed more openly. But psychological matters, or the state of a man's relationship with his mother, are a Whole Different Thing. A lot of people would freely discuss their spouses' regularity (or lack of same) but would never reveal something genuinely personal or sensitive.

I could see Peggy maybe confiding something so personal to Luanne -- under the umbrella of "girl talk" or "woman-to-woman." But if Peggy didn't actually tell Gary (who was an interested party, so to speak) I can't see her ever telling Gribble and company.

Anyway, do you guys honestly think for a second that if Bill, Dale, and Boomhauer actually knew that Hank had seen his mom doing it with Gary, they would have passed up a chance to be more specific in taunting him about it?

(imaginary dialogue) "So, Hank...is it true them Jewish guys have the end of their things chopped off? Oh, I guess you didn't get too good a look at it, seeing as how he was using it at the time..."

RAB
_______________________________________

"Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion." -- Democritus of Abdera

In article , [email] (Richard Bensam) wrote:

"blindness" was

never

That's some imagination you've got there RAB!

I'll accept that The Guys didn't know how it was that Hank came to be blind. However, it appears to me that they did know the condition was temporary ("When I can see again, I'm gonna kick some ass" paraphrase) and self-inflicted (poking himself in the eye).

If Hank were permanently blinded, his friends would NOT taunt him.

• Don

I see how you can feel that way. However, I think you just have to know that type of character better. My grandfather, for instance, acted a lot like Cotton in his heyday. He wasn't quite as loud, but he had the same sass. :-) Lots of fun, though; everybody loves him (partly since everyone knows it was just sass, nothin' more).

The thing to remember about Cotton is this: basically, he's harmless.

It also helps to remember how short he is. :-) To me, that was a stroke of genius.

Gamma wrote:

He's harmless?! Remember, this is the *same* guy who slaps women in the behind and tried to pass this off to Bobby as a good thing to do.....war hero or not, he's a terrible example to Bobby.

Yes, that could account for some of his "sass".

Related question, here: now that we've seen both of Hank's parents in episodes, when are we going to see Peg's?

B.J. Major wrote:

    You're not from the South, are you?
    After WWII, the entire country had a national hardon.  We could do no wrong,
and the men who fought at Iwo Jima and those other famous battles could pretty
much do and say as they pleased and nobody would dare object.  They were welcomed
back as conquering heroes because they had spilled their blood on foreign soil in
defense of Old Glory.  A civilian had no room to talk.  Most soldiers were
honorable fellows who had no trouble readjusting to life afterwards,  but a few
allowed the testosterone-crazed blood madness of wartime to go to their heads
permanently.  Hence the character of Cotton.  My own father was a somewhat less
obnoxious version of the same type of person.
    I also think that was why some veterans returning from Viet Nam had such a
problem with life in
general when they came home.  They had heard the WWII stories growing up, and it
had conditioned them to expect the same type of welcome.  Instead, they got spit
on and jeered.  But that is another story for another post...

G.T. TYSON IV wrote:

Please attribute quotes to the proper person--I wrote *none* of the above. Thanks.

Touche!! I think you have hit it right on the button. As a life member or the VFW I have run into manhy just like cotton. after all these years, they still are unable to take off the uniform and still think their shit don't stink and if you weren't in the war your opinion isn't worth listening to.

G.T. TYSON IV wrote:

And a lot of football coaches were (and may still be) like Cotton. I had a few like him... and a friend's dad was on the Bataan Death March and would go ballistic if he even saw an Oriental.

Paul Hurley wrote:

That is the way I have ALWAYS done mine!

rgds, Scott

Can you refresh my memory as to how he set up the lights? I already taped over that episode.

Thanks, Mike

He has a table by a window in the front of his house. He took the lights, still tangled up in a mess, threw them on the table and plugged them in. that was it.

rgds, Scott

We saw her mom in the sex ed episode, did't we/ Something about a book of flowers.

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