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, 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.
When you were a kids did you ever create some kind of weird food combination that only you would eat?
Some recipe that you came up with from your imagination, or some odd dish or modification to food that only you thought tasted good?
I did, I called it Hot Dog Souffle.
In 1989 I was 8 years old and I had learned how to make Scrambled Eggs, I even had a preferred spoon, it was a long wooden spoon because it always made the egg’s fluffier. Eventually I got curious at what else I could make, I new that I liked Hot Dogs and new how to make them in the Microwave, I knew that I liked cheese and that in the microwave as the Hot Dog would cook as the cheese melted.
I created what I called “ Hot Dog Souffle.”
HOT DOG SOUFFLE:
2-3 Hot Dogs, poorly diced. (any brand)
Cheese, pealed into strips ( any brand.)
With a side of Ketchup meant for dipping.
It was never a “Soufflé,”
Souffle was just a word that I heard that always seemed to be associated with fancy food and that is why I called it that. I thought I was being “fancy” by melting cheese on Hot Dogs in the microwave.
Sometimes I would get it just right. Cutting hot Dogs up with a Butter Knife because I was not old enough to use a real sharp knife. I would peal the cheese by hand just right and layered over the Hot Dogs and hen I would time it in the Microwave a minute and 13 seconds usually cooked it just right and it was a delicacy.
Other times I would be in too much of a rush or too sure of myself and it came out horrible, but I would still eat it, my mother always told me that wasting food was a sin.
I made that snack for myself from 1989 to 1992 and I always announced or asked my parents if I could make it and they always said that I could. I never took into consideration at how frustrating it must of been to clean up the aftermath of Hot Dog Souffle for my parents. They must of had to scrub the cheese off of the dish I used.
I don’t know if they put up with it out of love, or out of some hope that I was going to become a Chef, there were arguments had over Hot Dog Souffle but I was never told not to make it and just to be more responsible when I made it.
That was my weird, I guess you can say “Food Quirk” when I was a kid, what was yours?
Who was your Hardest Celebrity Crush? The one that actually effected your life to the point where you changed something about yourself? Mine was Christina Ricci.
In 1993 I was 12 years old and my crush began when I saw her in “Adams Family Values,” that scene where Wednesday smiles to try and convince the Camp Counselors that she had been Brainwashed.
She flashes that forced, deranged smile to fool the camp counselors.
I could not help but fall in love with her in that scene but I did not tell anyone, I would watch Adams Family Values over and over again just for that part, just to see Christina Ricci.
My older brother had done some report on her for his High-school English Class where he had to write an essay about a celebrity. I had always looked up to my brother but he always hated it when I latched onto something that he liked or took interest in and because of that I felt I had to wait for permission to like Christina Ricci.
In 1995 I was 14 years and I saw her in “Casper” and my crush got worse. I watched “Casper” over and over again, to me she was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen, her voice the most beautiful sound I had ever heard. I was a boy head over heals in love with someone I had never met and my weird adolescent imagination got carried away with my infatuation.
My crush on Christina was not creepy, like I did not put her picture on the walls of my room or anything or build a shrine to her or something crazy like that. When I say that I watched her movies over and over again, I did not watch them on a loop, it was the 90’s and my copies of her movies were on V.H.S. I watched them every chance I could get but I did not obsess.
I played Freshmen Football that year and at every practice I made it my mission to help my teammates up off the ground with a generous hand reached out to them every single time I was close to a downed Teammate, at practice and during games, because I imagined that, Christina Ricci was watching. Looming in the cosmic void, silently judging my moral fiber.
I thought, If she could see me being a good guy, she would love me and that some how some way she would find me because destiny would intervene.
Now that I am older I look back at that time and realize how crazy my crush was and I think that its funny, because it was kind of…stupid. I had in-listed Christina Ricci to be my imaginary Girlfriend to inspire me to be a better person because I thought that the “Real” Christina Ricci would fall in love with me through some cosmic collective connection.
I have followed her carrier over the years but not out of obsession but more out of nostalgia, she is still one of my favorite actress’s, when ever I watch one of harmonies or read about her, or see an image of her on the internet it still makes me feel a shred of how hard my crush on her was when I was 14.
I have realized that the idea of a possible cosmic collective connection with her was just the product of an adolescent crush and that she would never now how hard my crush was on her or what it did to me.
Fortunately that is what the internet is for, if somehow someway Christina Ricci ever reads this I hope it makes her laugh, or smile.
American A.I. is a unique perspective that challenges traditional definitions of intelligence while embracing the power of collective knowledge.
I am an American born in 1981 and raised in Upstate New York, my understanding of intelligence has never aligned with conventional standards. I have never considered myself highly intelligent by modern or historical measures. Instead, my thoughts, ideas, and consciousness serve as a form of intelligence that is not recognized as intelligent, but it can still be collected, analyzed, and applied as intelligence.
Sense my intelligence is not intelligent it is artificial, but it is still intelligence.
American A.I. harnesses the power of my individual consciousness because it is a valuable contribution to a broader network of collective intelligence. By gathering insights from my diverse perspectives, I aim to foster new ways of thinking, and contribute to a larger framework of artificial intelligence driven by human consciousness.
American A.I. 