King of the Hill/The Trouble with Gribbles

The Trouble with Gribbles
Season 5, Episode 18
Airdate	April 22, 2001
Production Number	5ABE19
Written by	Jim Dauterive
Directed by	Shaun Cashman
← 5x17 It's Not Easy Being Green	5x19 → Hank's Back Story
King of the Hill — Season Five

The Trouble with Gribbles is the eighteenth episode of the fifth season of King of the Hill, and the one hundred second episode overall.

Starring: Mike Judge (Hank Hill), Kathy Najimy (Peggy Hill), Pamela Segall Adlon (Bobby Hill), Brittany Murphy (Luanne Platter), Johnny Hardwick (Dale Gribble), Stephen Root (Bill Dauterive, Lawyer)

and Toby Huss (Small Claims Judge)

Also Starring: Ashley Gardner (Nancy Gribble), Castulo Guerra (Federal District Judge), David Herman (Berle Arlington, Director, Dr. Mark Seldon, Jeremy Toblick)

Special Guest Voice: Phil Hendrie (Tom, Deliverer)

Special Guest Voice: Robert Stack (Reynolds Penland)

Plot Overview

When Nancy wants a facelift due to her insecurity of her age, Dale hatches a plan to pay for it by filing a lawsuit against the Manitob Tobacco Corporation claiming that his second-hand smoke has made her unattractive. Unfortunately, they counter-sue, forcing him to put lies into action.

Notes

Stinger Quote

Luanne: Hug your babies tight.

Seen, But Not Heard

• Boomhauer

Music

• The Moody Blues - "Nights in White Satin"

Arc Advancement

Characters

• Nancy turns 40.

• Luanne, who is still doing her Manager Babies show, is given Nancy's morning slot doing the weather.

Trivia

The Show

• Robert Stack also starred in Mike Judge's Beavis and Butt-Head Do America.

Behind the Scenes

• Robert Stack's last acting role.

Allusions and References

• The title of the episode is a play on the title of the Star Trek episode "The Trouble with Tribbles".

• Smoking Sammy Salmon is based on the Big Mouth Billy Bass. The song Sammy sings is a parody of "Don't Worry, Be Happy".

Memorable Moments

• Happy that his plan works, but having to play up for the bug, Dale pretends to cry while dancing to the song from Smoking Sammy.

• When Penland asks his lawyer if they could lose their counter-suit, the lawyer stands up and leaves the room, closing the door before answering "Yes."

• When Dale points to who he says is the most beautiful woman in the world, Peggy thinks he's pointing at her and smiles before Dale corrects her.

Goofs

• When Nancy displays her dress to Dale, he can be seen lighting up a cigarette. After a couple of shots, it's inexplicably gone.

Quotes

• Dale: The odd thing is I hate dirt, but I love mud.

• Dale: I blame the mirror. I've seen a mirror turn an ordinary man 10 feet tall. And another turn the same man 3 feet short. That man was me.

• Dale: I filed a $5,000-dollar suit in small-claims court against one Reynolds Penland, Chairman and CEO of the Manitoba Tobacco Corporation. I will allege the second-hand smoke from his fine product has wrinkled my wife, jeopardising her job because she is unattractive to weather-watchers and her marriage because she is unattractive to me.

Hank: You know, who you ought to be suing is the Arlen school system. How one of their graduates could come up with a plan this dumb is beyond me.

• Reynolds Penland: Don't underestimate this guy. He's the only customer in our database who's earned every single item in our gift catalogue. You've got to smoke 90,000 cigarettes just to get the sateen jacket. Now, let's be honest. He should be dead by now.

• Dale: The lawyers subpoenaed my records. That's the first step. The second step will be to kidnap everyone I've ever known and erase their memories. The third step will be to kill me!

Hank: Dale, they're suing you. They're not gonna kill you.

Dale: Wake up, Hank! These people kill 400,000 of their own satisfied customers every year!

• Dale: Nancy's a terrible actress. Remember how her Eliza Doolittle "did little" for the critics?

• Nancy: I don't know how much more of this I can take. When he's not coming up with a new way to tell me I'm ugly, he's talking about how much money he's going to make off of my disfigurement.

Peggy: You are not disfigured. You are very pretty. Hank, tell her how pretty she is.

Hank: Uh, well, you've got beautiful eyes, and a great figure, and you got--

Peggy: Thank you, Hank. That's more than enough.

• Reynolds Penland: Gribble, I'm offering you the deal of the century. $75,000. In return, we accept no liability and you keep your mouth shut.

Dale: You have no idea who you're up against if you think I can begin to keep my mouth shut.

• Judge: Mister Gribble, again I say this not only as an officer of the court but as a caring human being. Please do not represent yourself.

• Dale: Mister Gribble, I hold in my hand People magazine's "Fifty Most Beautiful People" issue. Are you familiar with this Time Warner publication? No. May I remind you that you are under oath? And that the subscription label on this magazine bears the name of your optometrist.

• Dale: So sorry, Nancy. I just wanted to make you believe you were ugly so if you testified you wouldn't have to lie.

Nancy: Oh. That's so romantic.

Dale: It's romantic and cunning. I'm the whole package.