What’s a secret skill or ability you have or wish you had?
Behind the Propane Man 1
I first started imitating Mike Judge’s characters toward the end of 1993. I was 12 years old, in seventh grade, and struggling with social anxiety and low self-esteem. I wanted to be funny, but I was awkward, overweight, and lacked confidence. I knew little about the world beyond my suburban neighborhood and elementary school.
For the first half of seventh grade, I was bullied. I lived in fear, convinced that everyone in middle school hated me. I was even kicked in the face during a fight. Have you ever been kicked in the face? It hurts. I was one of those kids who carefully mapped out they’re routes through the school hallways to avoid bullies, clinging to a small group of friends while constantly worrying they would abandon me.
Then, I discovered Beavis and Butt-Head.
To me, they were just like me someone who laughed at everything around them, regardless of whether the world laughed with them. They found humor in everything and at the time everyone loved them, they could not get enough of them and I was one of them. I wanted to be like them. I started imitating their voices and laughter, absorbing their personalities. Mike Judge’s humor felt like my humor, and it all made sense to me.
Imitating them boosted my self esteem, I did not initiate their actions, just their voices and comedic style. I started performing my impressions for friends at school, and people laughed. That laughter restored my confidence, so I kept doing it, at school, at home, everywhere. My Beavis and Butt-Head impression became my way of expressing myself, and I practiced it so much that I rarely used my real voice.
During a school field trip to see a play, a classmate turned to me and as I was doing my impression and he did not seem impressed, instead he played into me, I will always remember what he said.
He said that I sounded nothing like Beavis and Butt Head and that I was stupid for trying to sound like them and that it was pathetic that I continued to try and sound like them because I thought that it would make people like me. He told me to stop doing it because I was only making a follow myself.
But I could not, my impression was my comfort zone so I kept going until I met someone who would become my life long friend, Mike.
Mike was one of the cool kids and I was a dork, through my constant efforts of trying to be funny I caught his attention and he wanted to be friends with me. Being a Dork and a misfit I wanted Mike to like me so when ever I saw him I wanted to be funny and I tried to be.
Our friendship eventually progressed to the exchange of phone numbers which was a bigger deal back in the 90’s then it is in modern day, because it meant that someone wanted to communicate with you.
We spent hours talking on the phone, and I would only speak in my Beavis and Butt-Head voices, for four months. I often wonder if he never called me out on it because he genuinely enjoyed it or if he was just curious to see how long I would keep it up.
Eventually, I stopped imitating Beavis and Butt-Head constantly and it was primarily because of Mike’s influence, Mike and I are still friends to this day.
When King of the Hill premiered in 1997, I was 16 and a junior in high school. My Beavis and Butt-Head obsession had faded, but I still admired Mike Judge’s work. At first, I watched King of the Hill with skepticism, but over time, it grew on me.
In the early 2000s, when DVDs were at their peak, I rediscovered King of the Hill and became obsessed. I owned seasons 1-7 and watched them repeatedly. Eventually, I started imitating Hank Hill and to my surprise, it came naturally to me.
When King of the Hill became available on Netflix, my addiction intensified. I could not eat or sleep without watching it. When Netflix removed the series, I started DVRing episodes from Adult Swim I called it my stash then, my wife gifted me the entire series on Apple TV, allowing me to stream my own playlist of King of the Hill.
For over 25 years, I have watched King of the Hill daily. I don’t consider myself an expert or a dedicated fan. I am just someone who grew up on Mike Judge and just happened to look like Hank Hill and could sound like him.
I never did anything with my ability to channel Mike Judge’s characters, I only did the voices for family and friends. I don’t consider myself an expert on King of the Hill and I am not some crazy person who thinks that Mike Judge’s mind is my own. I acknowledge that at an important time in my life Mike Judge’s sense of humor had a major influence on me.
I had never intended on doing anything with it, I just considered it to be useless knowledge and a useless talent.
I had always wanted to be a comedian and actor, and my dad had always supported me. I won an award in high school for a comedic student film I made and later went to community college for journalism and acting but I dropped out. Years later, I enrolled in a vocational school for local radio and television. While it did not offer legitimate credentials unless I paid for them, I stuck with it and turned a long-shot opportunity into a six-year career as a soundboard operator, producer, YouTuber, blogger, podcaster, and even a mascot for special events.
At the same time, I performed stand-up comedy at open mics and acted in local film productions. But nothing ever truly worked out for me. I never found success by any official standards.
On April 15th 2020 I was let go from the Radio Station that I worked at, they said that it was because of budget cuts during COVID, but I was actually replaced bye A.I.
I hadn’t given up on my dreams but I did fade away, I stayed off of Social Media for 3 years, I was in one short film but I felt out of place but I felt like a fraud because I was no longer working in Media Production and that was how everyone knew me.
During those 3 years I felt hopeless I was a shell of who I used to be, hiding from the reality of who I had become because it made me feel like I had failed myself, I was not who my 12 year old self would want me to be… I would constantly ask myself “What was it all worth?” “Was this what it was all leading up too?” Because it felt like nothing.
On September 16, 2023, everything changed.
The local Halloween stores opened for the season and it gave me an idea, I wanted to find a cheap pair of fake glasses that looked like the glasses that Hank hill wears and if I did I would make a video of myself cosplaying Hank Hill, just to see how people react. I went to the Halloween Store and took my 11-year-old son wholes Halloween with me and I found a pair of fake glasses that looked close enough for $7.99.
That night, I wrote the first two episodes of Propane Man Confidential.
I did not want to just quote King of the Hill; I wanted to cosplay as Hank Hill reacting to modern-day culture. Hank reminded me of my father and grandfather, and in some ways, I wished I could be Hank Hill. I did not want to say anything that would impact King of the Hill’s continuity but I wanted to stay true to the show. Out of respect for Mike Judge, I avoided discussing other King of the Hill characters outside of what was already established and I also made a conscious decision to avoid politics or anything else that the show had already established.
I was just a cosplayer, impersonating a character I deeply admired. My goal was not to reinvent Hank Hill; it was to pay tribute to Mike Judge by showcasing my impression and ability as a writer and actor. I knew that whatever I did would be “Ship” and not “Cannon” but I wanted to create something so close to “Cannon” that it would impress Mike Judge.
After brainstorming what I was going to do I came up with the idea that Hank was secretly being recorded by Dale and that Dale was secretly posting Hank’s rants about modern day culture on the internet.
My first topics were “Social Media Challenges” and “Unreal Meat” because I thought that they were relevant enough and something that Hank would have something to say about.
The next day I went to my parents house, I had my son record me on my phone as I stood infront of the wooden fence in the backyard of my parents house holding a can of ginger ale as a prop, I did not even bother combing my hair.
I was not trying to make any grand statement, I did not even have a clear goal. I simply wanted to see what would happen if I did it.
American A.I. 