I'm with Cupid
Leading boys into Manhood.
My wife and I were back watching King of the Hill this week. We watched episode 6 from season 6 entitled I’m with Cupid. In the episode, Bobby struggles to manage his post-breakup emotions and behavior with Connie.
Bobby is the son of Hank and Peggy Hill, he is goofy, compassionate, and sometimes slow-witted. He recently broke up with his girlfriend and next-door neighbor Connie. She is the daughter of Khan. Khan is a bitter soul searching for quick success. His daughter is extremely gifted in both intellect and manners. She’s kind and assertive. The episode takes place around Valentine’s Day, in the beginning, the ex-couple appears to be handling the break-up like responsible adults. As Bobby’s best friend Joseph says, “they’re so sophisticated.” Then enters Bill Dauterive.
Hank and Peggy have a night out on the town and ask their neighbor and long-time friend, Bill Dauterive, to check in on Bobby. Bill is a Military Barber, who is divorced, mopey, and out of shape. When I was a child I would called him a loser, but really, he lacks faith. At dinner, Bill shares the misery from his divorce, after dinner Bill takes Bobby back to his place and continues to influence Bobby’s thoughts on his breakup, by the time Hank and Peggy get home they find Bill and Bobby sitting on the couch eating ice cream and crying over their past loves.
Over the next few days, Bobby becomes more and more depressed while also expressing more and more desperation in his relationship with Connie. Bobby sinks to a new low by showing up to Joseph’s party in a Cupid costume to win Connie back. Needless to say, he embarrasses himself in front of all his classmates. Hank doesn’t understand how Bobby went from being fine to being upset about Connie. He wants to help but he doesn’t feel capable. He asks Peggy what he did to win her over, in typical Peggy fashion she made it about herself and said “nothing, I did it all.” Hank then enlists another neighbor and long-time friend Boomhauer to help. Out of all Hanks’s friends, Boomhauer is the most responsible, he is a fast talker and disciplined, his biggest vice, however, is women. When Peggy finds out about Hanks’s plan, she explains how bad it is and they take off to find Bobby and Boomhauer.
Meanwhile, Boomhauer takes Bobby to the mall, and they are hanging out in the shoe department. While there, Boomhauer promises to show Bobby the secret to women. Bobby watches Boomhauer hit on woman after woman with short presumptive one-liners, and woman after woman turns him down. He even tries to put on a woman’s shoe for her, but when she finds out that he isn’t a store employee, she is mortified and runs away. Finally, Boomhauer “scores” a woman’s number, and turns to show Bobby. Bobby confusingly responds “but you just got shot down by 23 other woman? …..so this is your big secret?” Boomhauer asks Bobby to keep it down so no one else hears.
By the time Hank and Peggy get to the mall, Bobby has left Boomhauer and made friends with a girl his age. He does this by being himself; goofy and compassionate. He is balancing a spoon on his nose and when she questions him about it, he responds with honesty and humility.
I like this episode because it explores different insecurities in both Bobby and Hank while also showing their commonalities. Both Hank and Bobby are kind, caring men, who seem to lack confidence when it comes to the opposite sex. Spending time with Bill brought the insecurities that already lived inside Bobby out. Bobby, unlike his father, isn’t strong enough to just ignore the feelings he knows he shouldn’t have. Once they were in his head, he couldn’t let them go. Hank, who is insecure himself when it comes to women, is a faithful and loving husband and should have trusted his instincts and guided Bobby rather than sending him off with Boomhauer. If he had done this, Bobby would have had more confidence in his original feelings prior to being corrupted by Bill. Either way, Hanks’s positive influence over Bobby won out because, in the end, Bobby understood what Boomhauer was doing was wrong and didn’t follow him. He found out that he doesn’t need any tricks or gimmicks he just needs to be himself. Hank often struggles in guiding his son because they seem to be so different, Bobby’s biggest interest is comedy and Hanks is Propane, but while their interests are different their character is similar. Bobby may be a little selfish and disrespectful at times, but he is a dutiful son who is always learning from his father’s behavior. Peggy may think she did all the work, but Hank was the man she wanted because of his authenticity, compassion, and work ethic, the same qualities Bobby carries. Hank won Peggy over because he was himself.
If you’re a father with sons as I am, I think the lesson from this episode is, that if you want to raise a man, then make sure he follows other men. And there is no better man to lead his son than his father.