Transcript
King Of The Hill Is Back with Brian VanHooker (Hour 2)
The Todd Allbaugh Show · Wed Aug 6, 2025
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Good afternoon, everybody.
Todd Albaugh along with Mr. Aaron Zommers on the board back at the World Headquarters in downtown Madison, Wisconsin.
We are live on location at the Black River Beach Neighborhood Center right on the shores of the Black River, which are the backwaters to the Mississippi here in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Welcome everyone to hour number two of the program.
It is Wednesday, the 6th of August, 2025.
It's a great day to be a Wisconsinite and it is.
There you go.
The camel made it in the back of the truck all the way here to a beautiful lacrosse, Wisconsin, right on the western side of the state.
It's a beautiful day here.
Perhaps you can hear in the background the cicadas.
They're horny.
Is
Amherst, when when they're singing so loudly, they're they're in heat or they're they're reading their mating.
Really?
I wish it were that easy.
That's all you gotta do is click.
All right, well we'll see we'll see we can keep the the horny cicadas at bay here in our number two joining us all the way from The the European continent will say and across the pond in a secure undisclosed location He has the senior advisor of Lincoln project a River Falls boy just up the road here in Western, Wisconsin And we love to have a long on Wednesdays.
Mr. Trig V Olson Trig V. Did you know
Like I'm growing up.
I don't remember a lot of cicadas in Richland Center Did you guys have a lot of cicadas in in River Falls?
Yeah, they're they're they're probably hearing over the white gear a little bit, but they're loud We will we'll push on here glad to be here We are here covering the leader ethics event on fusion voting if you missed the seminar proper you can go to leader ethics US leader ethics US
We thank Lee Roche of Leader Ethics.
He's also the former president of the Great Western Technical College here in the western part of the state, La Crosse being the center of it.
And also thanks to my former boss, former state senate Majority Leader Dale Schultz, the co-chair of United Wisconsin, which is also a co-sponsor of today's forum and also a former Democratic
Dane County Sheriff, Dave Mahoney, who is also part of the co-chair of United Wisconsin as well.
And a special shout out to the wonderful and talented Christine Dininger Andrews.
Nobody more talented than Chris Andrews getting it done, helping coordinate all this.
She is the executive director of United Wisconsin.
And Trig Vilsen is also a part of United Wisconsin as well.
Coming up at the bottom of this hour will be joined by Brian Van Hooker of Cracked.com with a retrospective piece
King of the Hill and animated series from what the late 90s or I guess maybe 2000s.
Did you watch that trick me King of the Hill ever?
Yeah, I've saw a couple
episodes Zombers were you a fan of King of the Hill?
still on though,
All right.
Very good.
Well, see, that's that's why we got the young people exuberance around.
That's fantastic.
All right.
So, uh, a fan hooker is coming up at the bottom of the hour.
We're going to get to what's worse than a minute, but Trigby, I know how much you enjoy your adoring public.
And so, uh, listening in the first hour here was a Steve.
in Milwaukee.
Listening on WAUK, Steve says, hey, Trigvie, you need to get more progressive.
Neo-liberalism is killing the middle class.
Any, any, any, any
All right, Steve can Steve can have that one.
All right, very good before we do what's worse trick me I did want to get to work
Did you did you I was disappointed that you didn't pick up on my tweet from over the weekend on that subject.
Did you see that?
No, I didn't
know is it because of you on or you just don't like it or what?
is
I don't know.
I
He's got other things he's got other things going on.
He's got other fires in the kitchen to put out I want to ask you about a couple of things on the serious side or semi-series speaking of your old of your old friend the former governor so a former governor Scott Walker He's still trying to be relevant out there and after what's happened down in Texas with Governor Abbott Republican Genuflecting politically to Donald Trump Trump asked him basic not base He did say I need five more Republican House seats house
on a Texas.
So Abbott is trying to bring the legislature back into the special session in Texas and redraw the lines.
This is outside of the normal 10 year redraw based on censuses and wants wants to help Trump out.
So Scott Walker.
And of course, the Democrats, many of them, the legislature in Texas, have fled to Illinois, much like some of the, or all of the Senate Democrats did in the Wisconsin State Senate during Act 10 to temporarily block Scott Walker's atrocious Act 10 bill, in my opinion, which decimated public unions, in particular, public education.
So Walker tweets out over the weekend when, I guess actually a couple of days ago, he says, when 14 Senate Democrats fled Wisconsin,
in an attempt to block our positive reforms, we held on one and stayed strong.
After our victory, Sean Duffy and his wife gave me an amazing bumper sticker that's a good reminder to hang in there.
And he posts the bumper sticker and it says, One Walker defeats 14 runners.
Ha ha.
So I tweeted back at the governor, I said, and yet Governor Scott at Scott Walker, when you walked into the closed Senate Republican caucus and unveiled your secret plan, I was in the room.
Many GOP senators were not only shocked, but repulsed.
Only my former boss at Dale Schultz 17 had the balls to stand up to you.
And in word and vote, correctly predicting quote, what we are about to do here is create two school systems, one for the haves and one for the have nots unquote.
More importantly, Dale spoke for the overwhelming majority of his district after holding countless public meetings, listening to thousands of his constituents in southwest Wisconsin.
He also maintained a lot of communication with Senate Dems, trying for a bipartisan compromise.
Finally, you governor and Mike Hipsh tricked Dale into coming into your office so
It fits, i.e.
Scott Fitzgerald, could call for the vote to split the bill and pass it.
The Democrats ultimately bought time to expose your scheme, which brought 100,000 people to the Capitol in protest and eventually led to Act Governor Evers defeating you.
Why?
Because as our mutual friend, Act Trigview Olsen, is fond of saying, quote,
Scott never learned the lesson that ACT Governor Tommy Thompson taught me.
There's two kinds of politicians, those that want to do things and those that want to be.
And Scott just wants to be.
Nothing's really changed since we went to Badger Boy State together when he was running for president back then, unquote.
Ultimately, Scott, you didn't defeat anyone or anything except for your dreams and opportunities of our public schools and your own personal ambitions to actually be someone.
You like that?
Yeah.
Yeah,
I would call that skating.
I didn't misrepresent you.
I didn't misrepresent you there.
me.
I
know.
I know.
I know.
I did I did it says we have an ongoing kind of funny thing with Scott Walker, but the more important part is this redistricting Trig V What are your thoughts on this and JP Pritzker the hot the hot the commodity in the dem side right now?
Everybody loves JP Pritzker the Democratic Governor at Illinois He was on Stephen Colbert last night on the late show and Colbert had a map of Illinois congressional maps and he held it up and I believe I could dial it up, but I think Illinois has two of the top
five most gerrymandered districts in the country on the democratics are all in total but they happen to be on the democratic side and and instead of pritzker owning that and being like hey look we have work to do in our state as well and i'm pledging to do that uh in illinois to make fairer maps and then go on to attack abbot and republicans in texas
He tried to make some joke about it, saying, yeah, you know, in Illinois, we just give our maps to kindergartners and they draw it.
But what's happening in Texas is so much worse.
I think Prisker is a terrible representative for this issue, Trig V. I think by not acknowledging that Democrats have done partisan gerrymandering as well, makes him unqualified to be the spokesperson on this.
I mean, I didn't see him when he said it.
At the end of the day, this is just a sad moment for the United States, right?
Like, I mean, it's just guys storm beaches at Normandy for us to have a normal process.
And then we're a generation that's decided to act like we're some third world banana republic.
And that's, you know, what Donald Trump is doing, the bottom line is Donald Trump is at 39% of
approval, just go out and beat him.
I mean, yeah, they're going to try and rig the maps.
The bottom line is Donald Trump's going to try and do everything he can to not hand over power to a Democrat Congress.
The easiest way to beat him is to go out person by person and talk about things like the economy.
Is inflation better now?
You've got the hardcore Magus who will tell you everything's perfect since Donald Trump came into office and inflation is gone.
But most people are feeling the bite of it.
Go out and and and and just swamp them.
There you go.
Trivios and senior advisor Lincoln project.
All right.
It is 15 minutes past the hour of three o'clock.
Time once again for what's worse.
Let's go summers.
Time once again for what's worse no prize.
What do you give away?
No lovely prizes involved simply your chance to have your voice heard across all 10 news talk sports stations the civic media already that work across the state of Wisconsin We are here in the cross at the Black River Beach neighborhood Center I'm feeling hungry trick V before after the show here.
I never eat a big lunch like eat after the show and so
today's today's category timely timely indeed as Mike Lucas has fond of saying all right here we go today's category what's worse restaurants that don't have waffle fries are restaurants that only have waffle fries eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five two eight five five rather seven five two four eight four two try one more time eight five five
752 4842 you could also text us on the civic media app if you don't have it go to your Apple or Android device and Put in civic CIVC media.
It'll pop up it takes less than a minute to download it is free It's what Gail King at CBS calls a deal the civic media app.
All right, Trig V restaurants that don't have waffle fries or restaurants that only have waffle fries what's worse
They're the kind of places that have hamburgers with fried eggs on them You don't like it.
You don't enjoy a hamburger with a fried egg.
I Don't eat eggs that oh my gosh.
That's right.
I forgot and and waffle fries Yeah, that's what waffle fries say to me kind of place that would put up
I'm a
man
I know you are
but you're not a freedom fry kind of guy.
No, I'm fine
Good.
Good.
What's worse, restaurants that don't have waffle fries or restaurants that only have waffle fries, 855-752-4842 or text us on the Civic Media app.
We'll come back, answer those important questions and more.
We are live on location in La Crosse at Black River Beach Neighborhood Center on the Civic Media radio network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
Pursuing truth wherever it may lead and having fun doing it Welcome back to the town all ball show on the civic media ready to work We're live on location in La Crosse, Wisconsin on the banks of the Black River at Black River Beach Neighborhood Center right in the midst of cicada mating season You can hear can it is it coming through the Mike's bombers
definitely
It was definitely easy.
I'm sorry.
I apologize.
You think when you go on the road, you think, well, you got to have electricity.
And we travel with a battery pack as well as we have electricity here at this neighborhood center.
And then you got to have open sky for the satellite.
And we got that.
And my things to check off now, I'm going to have to add, is it cicada mating season where we're going?
annoying.
We're surrounded by horny cicadas.
What can we say?
All right, what's worse?
Restaurants that don't have waffle fries or restaurants that only have waffle fries.
855-752-4842.
855-752-4842.
And you can text us on the Civic Media app.
Robert in McFarlane, listening on WMDX says, I can't remember.
the last time I was offered waffle fries.
I was fairly recently.
Somewhere I met with Jane and Greg and I were we're did a road trip.
One of the restaurants said that as an option as an option.
What else do we have here?
Linda listening in Middleton on WMDX says only having waffle fries is worse.
I prefer chips.
No fries.
Now, Zomers, if you had that, when you go in and I'm not talking like, you know, free to lay or whatever, I'm talking when you go in and the place makes their own.
chips, those are very good.
Oh, yeah.
Those are fantastic.
Agreed.
Megan in some prairie listening to the MDX says good fries are not defined by their cut.
But a sad fry is usually an indicator of a bad restaurant.
Okay, very good Matt listening in Richland Center over a great great UPS drivers there Says that only waffle fries is worse any fries are overrated and only ordered by people who still eat ketchup Grown up and order the cheese curds grow up.
I was
at
that
cheese curds now look now Matt, you know how much I appreciate your listenership I I respectfully disagree some of the best fries that I've ever had and continue to have
If you're in Madison, Matt, go to go to a Dottie's dumpling dowry on campus on you've been there for summers or not.
Oh, geez, we got to go there for lunch.
Dottie's dumpling dowry on on Francis Street on campus.
Order yourself a burger and the fries.
They're they're a hand cut fries made from fresh taters, spuds right there.
It's oh, is there they're fantastic.
And also look, I
not going to get any argument for me.
I love a good cheese curd, but I don't think that every fries terrible.
But also, and look, I'm just going to say it, I'm a brand kind of guy that comes to ketchup.
I want the Heinz.
I want the Heinz ketchup.
I don't want a sure fine or anything like that because there's a difference.
There's a difference.
What's worse, restaurants that don't have awful fries and restaurants that only
have Waffle Fries, 855-752-4842.
855-752-4842.
Robert in McFarland listening on MDX as the Parthenon on State Street has the best fries of all time.
I haven't had those in years, but
Yeah, I agree with that.
Kurt Beckham Madison on MDX says, good fries should have malt vinegar, not ketchup.
Look, I love a good malt vinegar as well.
I'm just, I'm, I'm an open, I'm an equal opportunity fry kind of guy.
What's worse, Zommern's restaurants that don't have fries are waffle fries are ones that only have waffle fries.
think I I'll say this with the caveat that I love waffle fries and I think that the texture of them and the way they can break open and have more like the potato is more apparent and I'm here for potatoes I love that but if they only have waffle fries I mean what about sweet potato fries those are amazing
well that you all good sweet potato fries okay as well I I'm gonna go because I do like variety
You know, Tom Raysbeck, one of our old workers in the Schultz office.
Raysbeck used to say, Todd, life is all about options.
Options.
So I'm going to say restaurants that only have waffle fries is worse.
Oh, Ted and Appleton.
Ted, thanks for calling in.
Quickly, restaurants that don't have waffle fries or restaurants that only have waffle fries, what's worse?
as it has to be a restaurant but it be a certain red and white convenience store that used to have waffle fries and they don't make fries anymore.
Really?
They don't?
I didn't know that.
They discontinued
it?
Yeah, they don't.
Yeah.
Why
is
that?
Did
you ask?
Nobody can give me an answer from the store.
And I don't know Don, and I don't know Don that low personally, so I can't
hear him.
Well, we're in the cross.
We're a hop skip and a jump from the headquarters, right?
We should go over and here's
the thing.
Follow your target to him.
Tell him to bring back the waffle
fries.
The
jalapeno poppers
and the waffle fries a quick trip.
All right, we can ask Yeah, here's the thing my advice 10 next time you go to a quick trip and you fill up I love a good quick trip when you go in and they say see you next time Look at them and say not until you get the waffle fries
back
Alright, thanks tenor appreciate your lists or ship but keeper between the lines there have a great afternoon Thank you very much.
All right, very good great addition of what's worse So we'll be back with another one tomorrow at the old headquarters in Madison Stay tuned come up next Brian van Hooker with a look at the reboot and the past from King of the Hill Come on back is the all ball show on location on in the cross on the civic media Ready to welcome back to the top all ball show live on location here in
beautiful across Wisconsin and the banks of the Black River, the backwaters to the Mississippi River.
We are the Black River Beach Neighborhood Center.
We were here the first hour covering the Fusion Voting Seminar.
Many thanks to the hosts who put this on today.
Leader Ethics here in Wisconsin led by Lee Roche and also the United Wisconsin folks, co-chairs Dale Schultz and Dave Mahoney.
Many thanks to them as well.
And to Trigby Olson, time to lighten things.
up just a little bit here, and many apologies.
It's only gotten worse summers as the show has gone on.
The cicadas in the background, I'm not sure if they enjoy some afternoon delight, if that's the height of the mating period for cicadas, but it's gotten louder as the show is going on.
Have you been able to hear that?
I'm fearful that at any moment I'm gonna turn around there's gonna be a cicada right behind me looking to uh well anyway moving on time once again to bring back one of our favorite people from the great folks at Cracked.com joining us via stream yard on one of the great reporters writers there Brian Van Hooker Mr. Van Hooker how the heck are you?
It's so hard to hear you talk over the cicadas
It's nice to talk to you too.
I assume that's what you're asking.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
I said you can plan for a lot of things, electricity, satellite coverage, Wi-Fi, you know, cover, you know, so you don't get rained on or whatever.
But I never considered, wow, I should check to see what the cicada made him.
Hard to
cover for biblical plagues.
That's
really
the...
Those are harder.
But these are the times we live in.
Uh, remind folks about a while since you've been on the show.
Glad to have you back.
Remind folks, uh, uh, where you're at and how you got into writing for, uh, for cracked.com.
It'd be so kind.
Yeah.
Uh, I have, uh, I'm the senior features writer at crack.com.
I've been there for a few years now, two or three, three, maybe I used to write for a place called male magazine.
And when they shut down, uh, I had done a piece about the, uh, the onion.
They're nine 11 issue.
And I knew some people who.
connected me over at Cracked and it kind of just worked out and I've been there ever since and I do lots of like pop culture reporting lots of um some listy stuff things like that uh but so like lots of interviews things like that like we had a big thing for king of the hill uh like you know right now we as the return of the show so I talked to like the showrunner and a few of the stars and the writer so like it was really um those the kinds of things I do there so
It's a great segue here into A King of the Hill.
This is an animated series.
Was it on Fox, right?
It was on Fox back in the day.
Now it's
on
Hulu.
Oh, now it's on Hulu.
So I mean, you know, full disclosure.
I saw maybe, I don't know, a dozen-ish full episodes, another dozen-ish partial episodes.
It's not familiar, but for people that might not remember the show, fill people in, the premise of King of the Hill, when it ran originally, and what's bringing it back.
Well, I mean, the premise is kind of like, there's not a huge premise to this show.
It's about this guy, Hank Hill, who lives in Texas, a fictional town in Texas called Arlen.
And it's just about him and his friends and his family, and
this very kind of low concept show that basically could have been Live action had they wanted to but it just it ended up being an animated show and it's from Mike judge who did beeps and butt head and office space and Yeah, it was just a great show that lasted 14 seasons it went away in say 2013 ish maybe give or take and had been gone since and
After years and years of talking about a reboot maybe I think like eight years when we first heard about a potential reboot It came back and it was great.
I'm somebody who's kind of not always for these Reboots and re sequels and everything just because I feel like I don't need and listen on to the same thing, but I can tell you for fans of the original I'd be very surprised they weren't Happy with the new one because it's great.
It's really strong
So, and keep me honest here, because I don't want to bring politics too much into this, but the title character here, the main character of the patriarch of King of the Hill, he seems like he could have been kind of a borderline MAGA guy, kind of an outdoors macho dude, but also slightly self-aware enough to doubt himself as well.
Is that an overreach?
I mean, I would say they specifically don't get directly into his politics.
in the show um it's clear at least especially in the old version that he is definitely a republican um but if you know if i were to have to categorize him anywhere where he is now it's much more common sense much more maybe like a never-trumper kind of thing it's hard to say exactly they specifically kind of avoid that but not in a way that feels forced but um yeah i mean he's definitely a kind of maybe more right than left but also or at least
what that used to be, not so much what it is
now.
Also, very much like common sense, do the right thing, don't be mean to people.
So in a way that was like very common sense back then feels a little bit more partisan now, which seemed
strange.
Yeah, I mean it is strange.
We're talking of Brian Van Hooker, Senior Features Writer at Cracked.com about his articles here.
All right, Van Hooker, let's get into the first one here.
Hank Hill's best grilling related burns on King of the Hill.
Well, I mean, Hank Hill is a character who is like his job is at least back in the original take.
He's retired in the new version.
He was a seller of propane and propane accessories.
He was very
fervently in favor of propane and no other source of heat for grilling.
So this one article I did was just a collection of him throwing shade at other sources of cooking.
I mean, a big one is charcoal.
There's an episode of the show where his family members secretly get hooked on charcoal and start like eating char grilled meats behind his back and he's very upset about it, feels betrayed.
All right, here we go.
You brought charcoal into our house.
I didn't know what it was.
Luann asked me to hold it for her.
I thought it was drugs.
They're soot under my boy's nails.
You don't get that from a clean burning fuel.
You don't get the rich smoky flavor either.
Shut your mouth.
Now, we're gonna sit here and pray.
and kill from a king of the hill here on charcoal.
Now this is funny to me in particular because last night I had to go down to beautiful Monroe, Wisconsin and friends and I went together and we bought a quarter steer and a quarter hog and we had to go to Hoasley Meats and pick up the meat and then we took it to Curt and forced his big freezer and Curt said let's grill a fresh burger and he has a gas grill but he's back into charcoal.
And he likes he has he has a tank of propane and like a flamethrower I guess he's a weeds and he fired that son of a gun up and just The thing was on fire ready to go in like three minutes.
It was crazy And I hadn't had a I hadn't had a charcoal burger in years and to the point of the character there it does taste better
I I gotta say I really like I'm fine with both
But I mean, I do really love a good charcoal burger, like something that's just a little bit burnt.
I really love that.
That flavor is
great.
Yeah.
All right, next item here.
I was
going
to
skip ahead.
There was a great episode of the show that also featured George Foreman, the late George Foreman, where he had a guest appearance in the show where Hank kind of.
Was polite but also made clear that he didn't take George Foreman's grills all that seriously So that was another one where he kind of pokes fun at George Foreman's grill anyway I'll let you guys play the foot.
All right.
Here's a king of the hill on the George Foreman grill How'd you feel about carrying my grill in your shop?
Oh?
Sorry, we have a strict policy about that
No novelty grills.
Novelty grill?
Yeah, you know, no offense, but your grill is kind of like an iron.
You calling my grill an iron?
I've been hit below the bell before, but nothing like this.
I think it's a great product for dieters or little girls who want to play barbecue, but you can't compare it to a propane-powered grill.
Fights on!
What?
No.
I said, fights on.
What's the matter?
Smelling all that propane causes your brain damage?
That's what it does, you know.
No, that is not accurate.
Those studies were all done on sick monkeys.
And at least my grill hadn't sold in housewares.
Thank you.
And was that actually the late great George Foreman doing his own thing?
That was him.
He got to give
him some love for like being so willing to poke fun of himself because that
was
definitely him.
Well, and that was the thing about George Foreman is, I mean, he used to go on Letterman all the time and, and he was a salesman.
It didn't matter whether it was self deprecating.
Hey, if it was selling more of his product, he'd do it, right?
Oh yeah.
He was, he was a character for sure.
He was, he was very good spirit in that one for sure.
There are also an episode where he pokes fun at Mesquite with his neighbor.
I'll just leave that one to Hank, but that
one's very funny too.
All right.
Very good.
Here's Hank Hill on Mesquite grilling.
Uh, howdy, Conn.
Howdy, howdy, howdy.
Here you go.
I thought you might enjoy 7.5 gallons of pure premium propane.
Are you kidding?
No, I cook with mesquite.
Give meat a nice taste of wood.
And I cook with propane.
Gives meat a nice taste of meat.
Thank you.
Very impenetrated on his grilling there.
Yeah,
and then there's another example of this.
This is the thing I sincerely agree with and whether or not it's okay to have a burger well done or a steak well done for that matter.
So this was Hank's take on that, which of course, obviously it's not okay.
Like that's your ruining it.
So here we go.
Hank Hill on burgers.
Here we are.
Firm but with a little give.
Yep.
These are medium rare.
What if somebody wants theirs well done?
We ask them politely yet firmly to leave.
That's really funny.
See, I'm somebody who does not like my meat well done, nor my burgers.
But anyway, I like a
medium
rare.
So that's a good way to because then you can taste the flavor of the meat.
Otherwise, I mean, you
rare everything pretty much.
Yeah, I'm totally well chicken, though.
You want to make sure that.
You don't want pink in the middle of your chicken.
Yeah.
My bacon
I can throw well done as
well.
Right, exactly.
What else we got anymore on this particular story, Brian Van Hooker?
No, no, no.
If you want to know more about Hank, I mean, that's sort of him in a nutshell is his love
for
propane is his, like, it's a running joke throughout the series, but it's very sincere with the character, his love for propane.
And it is much cleaner and easier to do.
You just fire up the old propane grill and you're set to go.
Brian VanHooker of Crack.com, a senior feature writer there at Cracked.
I'm going to come back here in a minute and talk about the other article, Brian.
Four times King of the Hills Dale Gribble was mostly right about a conspiracy theory.
Now, is this from the old, the original show, or is this something new in the
new show?
of the original show.
All right.
All right.
That's fine.
I guess we had a couple of minutes yet.
Zommer.
Should we start this?
Have a minute.
All right.
Well, we'll see.
Well, let's let's save it.
Brian Van Hooker, because we want to we want to tease forward.
That's what they that's what they tell me.
They want more teasing forward.
So.
OK.
So, you know, I'm not sure if I need to unbutton my top button.
You're looking for a 30 year old
show.
Look at the camera and say we're teasing you for Hank Hill.
Sure.
Come on back.
It's a kid.
By the way, the cicadas have have suddenly gone quiet.
I'm not sure if this is like their afterglow time or
this.
Yes, this is the ones I start teasing.
The cicadas shut up.
Come on back.
We'll wrap up the show with Brian Van Hucker live from Black River Beach Neighborhood Center on the banks of the Black River in La Crosse, Wisconsin on the civic media radio network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website,
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The Old Miss.
Rusty, look at that.
The Black River Beach Neighborhood Center here in beautiful La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Many thanks to them for their hospitality and also many thanks to Pat Critello for being on the show today.
Pat Critello every morning from six until nine on mornings with Trig V. Olsen.
No, it's mornings with Pat Critello as it turns out.
Trig V. Olsen, those senior advisors of the Lincoln Project.
Many thanks for him as well.
Lee Roche from Leader Ethics.
one of the hosts for today's fusion voting seminar also former president of western wisconsin technical college dale schultz former republican senate majority leader co-chair of united wisconsin also a part of today's forum and of course the aforementioned the wonderful the talented mr brian van hooker senior features writer for cracked dot com coming up the top of the hour cbs or abc news depending upon which station you're listening to whether update a check of sports with a great sports reporter mike clements
and then another edition of the Maggie Dawn Show every afternoon from two until four, followed by Pete Schwabba and Night Light.
All right, Brian Van Hooker, talking King of the Hill, the series highly acclaimed animated series, very successful back in the 2000s, back for another run, this time on Hulu.
But back to the original series, you have this article entitled, Four Times King of the Hill's Dale Gribble, was mostly right about a conspiracy theory.
As they say, do tell Brian Vanhooker.
So back, I mean, the character of Dale is a kind of crazy conspiracy theory guy.
In the new show, they kind of took a little time to figure him out because he's basically like, you know, the culture from where this show was started in the late 90s and early 2000s, the cultures become much more conspiracy theory oriented.
So they kind of, yes, it's a little bit by necessity because you couldn't have him.
you know, storming capital or anything.
So they really kind of, but if you look back in preparation for the show's re-release, we did a lot of looking back at the classic series and I did some research on some of Dale's biggest conspiracy theories.
I want to mention too, a King of the Hill podcast helped me with this one.
This guy's podcast called Bois, a King of the Hill podcast that does interviews and a bunch of other stuff.
Good guys.
Anyway, did some research on Dale's crazy conspiracy theories and which ones kind of ended up being true, if only by virtue of technology having advanced and us becoming more and more monitored.
So
anyway, here's one.
It's about weather control.
This is one of Dale's conspiracy theories.
All right, here we go.
Hey, I know what's wrong with your truck.
It's your quote unquote pollution controls.
I heard on talk radio, you don't even need them.
They're just neg-head government plot.
How is cutting down on pollution a government
plot, Dale?
Open up your eyes, man.
They're trying to control global warming.
Get it?
Global.
So what?
That's code for UN commissars telling Americans what temperature it's gonna be in our outdoors.
I say let the world warm up.
See what Butros Butros Golly Golly thinks about that.
We'll grow oranges in Alaska.
Dale, you giblet head.
We live in Texas.
It's already a hundred and ten in the summer.
And if it gets one degree hotter, I'm going to kick your ass.
From King of the Hill.
Listen to that.
I mean, it's funny, but also it's funny because much like a lot of people that write comedy satire or whatever, I mean, now that that just seems like a conversation at the coffee shop.
Yeah, it's a little antiquated in the idea that this would just be purely for humor and not just the normal way people talk.
Although, to be honest, as crazy as it sounds, because weather control seems nuts to me, I mean, there was that story not that long ago saying that there was this company in California that was gonna test this cloud creation thing, which again, seems science fiction crazy to me, but apparently there's real efforts to...
What is it called seed cloudy or cloud
seeding?
All right
Brian van Hooker from crack.com next next next clip here
I'm assuming this is gonna
be the last one.
Yeah, I was gonna skip ahead to one called the beast because this basically describes our entire existence now but back in 97 or whatever this fear it seemed ridiculous.
So anyway
Alright, here's the BEAST clip from King of the Hill.
Well, I'm not gonna let my credit and good name be done
in by a damn computer error.
Computers don't make errors.
What they do, they do on purpose.
By now, your name and particulars have been fed into every laptop, desktop, mainframe, and supermarket scanner that collectively make up the global information conspiracy otherwise known as the BEAST.
Dale, I'm having a problem with one videotape.
Not some kind of high-tech
boogeyman.
You just be careful.
Computers have already beaten the communists at chess.
Next thing you know, they'll be beating humans.
Again,
again, Brian Madhooker.
That could be a, you know, a conversation at your local rally.
But still, I mean, pretty much common knowledge at this point that we're being monitored at all times.
So
I just are you on are you on tiktok?
No, no, thankfully I've avoided that one.
Yeah, see that I've been I have been up until about two weeks ago and he said, no, you got to get on tiktok.
So now I'm on tiktok.
And now I now I feel like I'm just the person helped me set it up.
I said, well, now the Chinese are going to know everything about me.
And he already said they already do.
But now they get to see Todd's TikTok answers, so that's
better.
There ain't much there, I can tell you that.
What's always there is great writing, great insight.
You can find it at Crack.com.
Look for Brian Van Hooker's work there.
He is the senior features writer at Crack.com.
Brian Van Hooker, thank you very much.
We really appreciate you stopping by.
Thank you.
I appreciate you having me.
Always always a pleasure.
All right, everybody a great show today We again we appreciate the Black River Beach neighborhood Center for being our host today and fusion voting also United, Wisconsin and leader ethics many thanks to Chris Andrews for helping set it up as well Stay tuned Maggie Dawn is next whatever you're fighting for whatever you believe in do not give up keep banging your drum We'll be back at the world headquarters of Madison tomorrow.
Stay safe everybody.
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