Hank figures out that the internet is a strange, strange place in this week’s episode of King of The Hill, “Lost In Myspace”.
We open at Strickland Propane, where everyone is Very Very Bored. It’s “Goldilocks season, honey,” According to JoeJack, as it’s not quite winter and not quite summery enough for cookouts. Donna From Accounting is busy watching clips of people humiliating themselves on a youtube-esq website. Hank tells them they’re wasting their time and to get busy doing other things – Donna complains she’s bored, and Hank tells her she’s got a spate of expense reports to do.
As he’s forcing his employees back to work, Hank catches sight of regular customer Pat Ritchie buying a tank of propane across the street at Thaterton’s (THATERTON!). He finds out that his loyal customer has ditched him for one of his oldest enemies because they became friends on MySpace.
Hank has no idea what this MySpace dealie is, but he takes his concerns to Mister Strickland. “Dang, I knew Pat Richie cheats on his wife, but I never thought he’d cheat on me!” wails Buck. He wants to know what this MySpace stuff is. “I don’t know, sir,” responds Hank, “I think it’s a cult.” Well, even if it is a cult, Buck wants the company to have one. Hank asks Donna to set one up, since she knows so much about the internet, and she happily agrees to.
Out in the alley, Hank’s still bothered by all of this MySpace stuff. Bill explains that his internet friends are wonderful – “the kind of friends you talk to when you’re drunk”. Hank just plain disapproves, so Dale turns back to the subject of his upcoming truffle hunt. An enthused Bill wants to participate desperately, even after he finds out they’re not looking for chocolate truffles.
Back at Strickland, business is suddenly booming thanks to the MySpace. They have over 40 friends, and Hank soon finds out why – Donna’s posting funny videos of Strickland’s employees on the site, including footage of her embarrassing herself drunkenly in a club. Hank’s humiliated by the footage and demands she pull the videos. “There was nothing there about propane and propane accessories!” (DRINK!) he bemoans. Buck, however, loves the business they’re doing, even if people are showing up simply to ogle the strangeness of Strickland’s employees. He gives Donna a Vice Presidential title and puts her in charge of the website fully.
Donna’s plan of action is to post company-generated videos of Strickland’s employees humiliating themselves, versus snagging videos of Strickland’s employees from the web. Hank is beyond Not Pleased; he’s disgusted.
At home, Hank tells Peggy of his disgust, but she loves the web; she’s been sockpuppeting as Ted Danson on MySpace for years (?!). “People will tell Ted Danson anything,” she says, quite wisely.
Meanwhile, Bobby, Dale and Bill are out in the woods, hunting for truffles. “Am I handsome?” Bobby asks. “Do hunters ask each other that?” Dale looses the pig into the forest, but she runs away. Turns out she’s just a rental, and they frantically go in pursuit of the poor lost pig.
Meanwhile, Hank’s trying to interact with a customer, only to have his attempt at face-to-facing interrupted by Donna, who tells her to go to the MySpace. When Hank heads there again, Donna’s posted a picture of the full gang, captioned “Guess which ones I’ve slept with!”
At the Hills’, Dale’s borrowing Ladybird in his continued quest to hunt down the lost pig. He offers up Joseph as collateral, but Peggy’s all right with him taking Ladybird, “Just be sure to hose her off first.” “Hose Joseph down, too!” he cries out as he leaves.
Back at Strickland, everyone’s arguing about the revealing contents of Strickland’s MySpace. The heated arguments intensify, until Donna demands they all save their personal business for their blogs. Hank, however, has Had Enough of Donna, or more specifically, had enough of using the internet as the sole conduit of their communication. Donna uses her Big Wheel Internet status (she has over 4,000 friends on HER MySpace) to try to cow Hank, but he won’t have it. She soon vows personal revenge.
Bobby, Dale and Bill have, meanwhile, decided against looking for the pig. Since Ladybird’s an experienced hunting dog and should have a sensitive enough nose, Dale takes her to That’s Amore to get the scent of truffle in her blood. Dale accomplishes this by grabbing a truffle out of the waiter’s hand and holding it under her snoot so she can get the scent.
At Strickland, Donna’s suddenly treats Hank with respect. Hank is confused, until a flashmob made out of her MySpace friends show up to wail on Hank. Unfortunately, Mister Strickland, believing them to be enthusiastic customers, and in going out to greet them is beaten for his trouble.
Dragged inside after the mob dissipates, he and Hank quickly fire Donna, who, naturally, vows further revenge.
The following day, Buddha deletes the MySpace, only to have it immediately resurface as an anti-Strickland page, Donna having hijacked control of it and changed the password. Hank frantically tries to figure out how to “shut it off”, but in spite of the fact that Donna apparently had relations with half of the staff, no one knows where she lives or even what the heck she does outside of work.
That night, Hank’s trying to figure out a way to get through to Donna. Peggy tries to use “Ted Danson” as a way to get through to her, but she immediately recognizes the sockpuppet as a Hank ploy and blocks her. Peggy suggests using any other of her disturbing friends as a throughway (“Can this stuff hurt my computer?”), but Hank decides to take the less direct approach – by reading through her blog.
And Donna’s put every single mundane detail of her life into that blog, causing Hank to nearly fall asleep at the computer desk.
Back in the woods, Ladybird finally picks up the scent of something. She digs out what Dale quickly realizes is a magic mushroom, which the suddenly re-appearing pig gobbles down. The pig, of course, begins to trip, and Dale, Bill and Bobby save its hide.
At Strickland, Hank has located the final post on Donna’s blog and figures out she’s headed out to dinner at Goobersmooches with a new acquaintance. He gathers the rest of the crew up and they all head to Goobersmooches to confront her.
At the restaurant, they confront Donna over the MySpace and her behavior at work. She explains that she was simply bored with her job and wanted something more creative to do. Hank declares that they should talk things out face to face and stop humiliating themselves/solely communicating through the internet. He invites Donna back to work, and she quickly dumps her date and accepts the offer.
Back at Strickland, Donna has employed a sockpuppet-based (the felt kind, not the literal ones) stress-busting offensive, and she re-designs the Strickland MySpace to be much more business-like. Hank disapproves of a flashing gif she’s created, and she promises to take it down. They share a smile of understanding as Enrique’s puppet kisses Hank on the cheek and we close out another week.
Tag: “Who wants to get kicked in the ding-dongs?” - Donna
A bit of a “meh” episode. Donna’s mania was extreme and negative, to say the least, and she treated company property as her own private playground, and yet Hank invited her back to work? He was nearly beaten up thanks to her! For a show with a strong basis in reality (and when, in reality, people have been fired for posting less provocative pictures on their own private MySpaces), the show dropped the ball.
The pig subplot was, meanwhile, surprisingly whacky but in the best of ways. Only a Dale-based get-rich-quick scheme could go so far afield so quickly, and it was nice to see him teamed up with Bill and Bobby.
Not the worst offering of the season, but doesn’t rise to proper heights, either. Simply put, middling fare.