Seeing as how I was born in the south, much of what happened on King of the Hill hit home — outdoor beer drinking, multiple varieties of ketchup (and catsup!) at the Country Buffet — but what made King of the Hill a successful show for Mike Judge was that he himself actually seemed to like the characters, crazy as they were. Therefore, the viewers could like them and feel a connection.
Now I live in California, so maybe I’ll get a kick out of the skewering he gives his main characters in his new show. While the connection was there for Hank, Peggy, Bobby and even “Rusty Shackleford” himself on Hill, there is not an ounce of love between Judge and The Goode Family. We watched the first episode the other night, and we didn’t even make it all the way through.
And this is what has been happening lately, it seems, when “entertainment” pieces are written to make a political point. Nobody bothers to make the characters the least bit sympathetic. I am someone who finds people trying to raise vegan dogs hilarious — it’s so unnatural that it’s ridiculous on its face, projecting human social distinctions and moral judgments onto an animal that understands little more from us than the sound we make when we want to see him — but somehow, the bitterness made even these jokes fall flat.
Oh, well. When everybody says the show failed because people were against right-wing humor, they’ll be wrong. It will fail because it is mean and shallow, and we all want to care about the characters. For this to succeed, the writers would have to try to find common ground with the people they’re trying to make fun of… but that can be dangerous. Because what if they end up liking some of those people?