Boomhauer
| Jeff Boomhauer | |
|---|---|
| File:Boomh.gif Boomhauer | |
| First appearance | Pilot episode January 12, 1997 |
| Portrayed by | Mike Judge |
| In-universe information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Police Officer |
| Family | Dr. Boomhauer (father) Ms. Boomhauer (mother) Patch Boomhauer (brother) Meemaw (grandmother) |
Jeff Boomhauer is a fictional character in the animated series King of the Hill. The character is voiced by series creator Mike Judge.[1][2]
Character
Boomhauer is the neighbor of the characters Hank Hill, Bill Dauterive, and Dale Gribble. He is almost always referred to by his surname. His first name was not revealed until the 13th season episode, "Uh-Oh, Canada," when the Canadian woman he'd switched houses for the summer with said, "Hello, Jeff. Oh my, it's the fifteenth all ready?" A video game segment had him addressing the player, saying his name as "Jeffrey Don (or darn ol') Dexter Boomhauer the Third...but you can just call me Boomhauer." [citation needed] In another episode, he's called Jimmy Dean by an elderly neighbor. His primary pursuits are fast cars. He currently drives a 1968 Dodge Coronet; in high school he drove a late 60's Ford Mustang nicknamed "Sally" until the car was accidentally driven into the Arlen quarry by Hank, Dale and Bill while playing a prank on him. Boomhauer spends most of his spare time drinking Alamo Beer with Hank, Dale and Bill in the alley behind Hank’s house. While he enjoys his friendship with Hank, he sometimes has limited patience with Dale (who he sharply refers to as "Gribble") and considers Bill "boring" due to his inferiority complex. Boomhauer favors animal-print bikini briefs, which has been observed a few times in the show when he’s appeared without his blue jeans; he tends to overuse cologne, bragging about his Calvin Klein ck one attracting women "like catnip". Boomhauer is a strict non-smoker who still carries a lighter, implicitly for emergencies or for lending. In an episode where Hank, Bill, Dale, and Boomhauer are stuck in the water because they jumped off a boat, Boomhauer confesses that he dyes his hair ("Hank's on Board"). Boomhauer is missing his left pinky toe, due to an accident he had while he was in the Order of the Straight Arrow ("Straight as an Arrow").
Boomhauer is apparently highly astute and often gives advice to his friends. Once after giving advice to Bobby Hill, Bobby replies by saying “I can see why my dad's always quoting you, Mr. Boomhauer.” In another episode, he mentions that his mother wanted him to become an electrical engineer. Given the opportunity, Boomhauer will demonstrate that he is, in fact, quite cultured. In "Ceci N’Est Pas Une King of the Hill" Hank Hill makes remarks about art that deride its modern state provoking Boomhauer to call him ignorant, going so far as to cite Dadaism and the famed Marcel Duchamp work Fountain. He is the only character who initially understood the meaning behind Kahn's story at Buckley's funeral.
He is a talented artist, mechanic, surfer, and racing driver. In one episode, it is implied that he receives favors from the various women with whom he sleeps. It has been implied that his family is independently wealthy thanks to a winning lottery ticket. His occupation is exposed in the series finale. As he leaves his wallet open on a table, a law enforcement badge is visible, revealing he is a Texas Ranger.
The four main characters, Hank, Bill, Dale and Boomhauer, graduated from high school together. Boomhauer was the starting quarterback for the football team, while Hank was a running back and Bill was an offensive lineman and a fullback; Dale, not being as athletic as his friends, was the towel manager.
Boomhauer is the most modern of his friends, and as such was first to own a cell phone.
Trademark speech pattern
Boomhauer’s speech patterns are nearly incomprehensible to the untrained audience and serve as a recurring theme. He mumbles and invariably uses the words "dang ol’" as an all-purpose adjective, sometimes several times in a single sentence. He uses the phrases "I tell ya what" and "man" frequently. His poor education and heavy Southern accent sometimes lead to misunderstandings about his mental capacity. In one episode, he was admitted to a mental hospital in downtown Houston after he drifted in on the river in a tube and was found in his Speedos, sunburned, drunk, dehydrated, and babbling incoherently. All of the regular characters on the show understand most of what he says. There is a recurring joke in which Hank occasionally cannot understand Boomhauer due to extenuating circumstances such as the complexity of the vocabulary being used (i.e. "legalese mumbo jumbo"), a bad telephone connection or an echo. Often, the closed caption texts of Boomhauer’s mumblings are clearer than his spoken words. An example of a typical line of dialog:
- Yeah man, I tell ya what, man, that dang ol’ internet, man, you just go in on there and point and click, talk about w-w-dot-w-com, mean you got nekkid chicks on there, man, just go click, click, click, click, click, it’s real easy, man.
Boomhauer's speech is reminiscent of the slurred speech of Hunter S. Thompson, who is caricatured, more closely, in King of the Hill by Dale Gribble.
Boomhauer’s speech is satirical of “rednecks” using phrases such as "dang ol'" “dad gum” and “yeah, man talkin’ ’bout.” Nevertheless, he sings clearly, as evidenced by his rendition of “Blue Moon of Kentucky” in Episode 609 (“The Bluegrass Is Always Greener”). The singing was done by country star Vince Gill. Mike Judge has stated that the inspiration for Boomhauer’s voice came from a message left on his answering machine by an irate viewer of Beavis & Butt-Head as well as the voice patterns of an acquaintance in Dallas and an Oklahoma City resident reciting directions over the telephone.[3] Season 1 episode "Hank's Got the Willies" shows Boomhauer and the famously incomprehensible Bob Dylan conversing with one another. In “A Fire Fighting We Will Go,” a story is presented from Boomhauer's point of view and he speaks clearly while the other characters have his speech pattern, indicating that Boomhauer sees his speech as normal and his associates as difficult to understand.
Early promotional spots for the series featured clips of Boomhauer speaking, intercut with text that presented the term "Boombonics" in the style of a dictionary entry, as a parody of Ebonics. The word was broken down into syllables, with proper pronunciation and the definition (see gibberish).
Despite his incomprehensible speech, he is fluent in both Spanish and French, although he only mumbles when speaking English.
Family
Boomhauer has had four relatives that have appeared on the show: his “Meemaw” (a Southern term for grandmother); his father, Dr. Boomhauer; his mother, Mrs. Boomhauer; and his sleazy, womanizer brother, Patch, voiced by Brad Pitt in his only speaking appearance (he appeared again for a split second at Luanne and Lucky's wedding). Mrs. Boomhauer, Patch and Meemaw all have the same speaking pattern as Boomhauer; Dr. Boomhauer has not been shown speaking, only through other characters paraphrasing what he may have said.
Romantic life
Although considered something of a playboy by his neighbors, he has trouble getting over break-ups. When his ex-girlfriend Katherine left him and went off to college, Boomhauer spent two days sitting in his hot tub. Peggy said she has never seen a man so sad and so relaxed, nursing a broken heart. When he meets a jogger whom Bill lusts after, he spent many days (and nights) with her, before he got up the courage to ask her to marry him, offering Meemaw's ring. To his horror, she had been sleeping with another man and only dated him for the sex. Adding insult to injury, she admitted that she hadn't understood much of what he'd said since they met and mistakenly referred to him as "Boomhauser." Crushed, Boomhauer goes speeding down the street with “Barracuda” playing, crying. Bill, no stranger to experiencing heartbreak, manages to pull Boomhauer back from the brink of desperation and motivate him to live life again.
In a season finale, Boomhauer moves to Guelph, Ontario, Canada for 3 months where he falls in love with a French-Canadian woman and grows a beard (which he shaved off).
References
- ^ "King of the Hill". IMDb. Retrieved 2008-11-09.
- ^ "Boomhauer". Fox Network. Retrieved 2008-11-09.
- ^ "Animator Mike Judge" (interview). Fresh Air, 2001-02-26 (rebroadcast 2003-08-15). Retrieved 2009-05-19.
External links
