TalKing of the Hill - Life in the Fast Lane, Bobby's Saga

Growing up around texas, i can assure you that the jeff gordon stuff wasnt just a sly joke. It was a normal thing for nascar guys to spread gossip aboit gordon and just believe it as fact. Thinking he was "tarnishing the sanctity of the sport". Called him rich boy, cheater, that he caused crashes, etc. My dad wouldnt let me get pepsi cause gordon was on the can. For all other nascar satire, the south park episode is basically truth.

I see a lot of similarities between a lot of today's enthusiast youtube content and Shadetree Mechanic.

Dan Vincent

Maybe

Erin MacAllister

Seconded. Perhaps a well-curated "That boy ain't right" might fit the bill? Or too obvious?

Kat Heagberg

Regarding tossing concessions; Roger Owens was was the famous Peanut Man for Dodgers Stadium for over 60 years, since the team moved to Los Angeles, and he would throw bags of peanuts to hungry customers in the stands. Known for his behind-the-back toss, he was frequently featured in the JumboTron. However, as of July 2022, the team has prohibited Owens from tossing treats, a sad day for baseball.

Matt LS

I've actually ridden in a pace car on more than one occasion. My dad worked for a Dodge dealership in the 90s and they provided pace cars to a local track in New Hampshire. We'd head over there and ride around, but as a kid who had zero interest in auto racing it was a wasted experience. We also did it at a track in Limerock, CT. We had to drive down there so my dad could get the pace car and drive it back to the dealership. It was actually a Dodge truck and I don't think we rode in it as an actual pace car, but just as part of some demonstration or whatever. That track was weird because it was a road track and not the usual oval. Again, not particularly memorable for someone like me. That little trip is more remembered by me for on the drive home I was with my mom in our car and she was following my dad and sister in the pace truck. I really had to pee, but she didn't know the way home and in a pre-cell phone world had no way of telling my dad we needed to stop. So, I climbed into the back seat and proceeded to urinate into an empty Hawaiian Punch juice box. I ended up needing more than one. It probably got messy in that cooler and I don't remember cleaning it later. Sorry, mom. My wife was into NASCAR when we started dating and I've gone to a couple of races with her. Thankfully, she's not into it anymore because that is a horrible experience. The only positive is NASCAR lets you BYOB so long as there's no glass. Otherwise though, it's a long afternoon on an aluminum bench under the hot sun in the middle of the summer watching cars drive around in a circle. It's an experience I do not recommend.

Joe Hodgson

It reminded me more of Milo from Oblongs, but you can definitely here Spinelli too.

SilkiePJ

Sadly, Bob is right when he speculated that the HANS device that Earnhardt Sr. did not want to wear most likely would have saved him in that crash (although at the time NASCAR's investigation disputed this). As Bob said, Earnhardt's car hit one of the outside concrete walls at high speed in that year's Daytona 500. In a crash, the driver's body is relatively well restrained by the safety belts, but the neck and head are free to move, and that continued motion relative to the restrained torso can cause enough stress on the head and neck to result in a basilar skull fracture. Prior to widespread and mandated use of HANS device, this was sadly a relatively common fatal injury in motor racing. The HANS device is designed to prevent or reduce the likelihood of a basilar skull fracture by restraining the motion of the head and neck, which may have saved Dale Sr. It was a big loss for NASCAR at the time, but in a bit of a silver lining, Dale Sr.'s death lead to extensive safety overhauls in NASCAR such as mandating head and neck supports, energy-absorbing barriers at oval tracks, and telemetry devices that relay data on crash forces to rescue workers. To my knowledge, since Earnhardt Sr. there has not been a fatal crash in the major NASCAR series, and the HANS device has undoubtedly saved the lives of numerous other racing drivers in other disciplines over the years as well.

F Shackleford

If I had a buck for every old Texas fart who gave me that "no you're actually the problem, not your boss" Hank gave Bobby I could have paid the for dozens of drink trays.

T

There's an extra joke about the pace car prize. The pace car drives during caution flags. So the prize for driving fast and winning a race is getting to drive a car slow. And I can also further explain pace cars. The 3 car joke is because smaller crashes that only have one or two cars and the cars and are able to keep driving and are able to get off the track don't produce caution flags. The purpose of a pace car from a safety perspective is to allow safety personal to get to wrecked cars and get potentially injured drivers off the track safely. Also it allows them to get the cars off the track, clean up debris, and any gas or oil or other car fluids that may have ended up on the track. From a race strategy perspective the cars all get bunched up so any lead drivers at the front of the race had is evaporated. This is why pit stops happen under caution whenever possible. You can also end up a lap down in a race(meaning the leader went all the way around the track and "lapped" you). But if you manage to get back in front of the leader and a caution flag occurs, you will be back on the "lead lap" and you can get back with the rest of the lead lap cars for the green. This is why Tom Cruise was yelling "GET ME OUT FOR THAT PACE CAR OR THIS RACE IS OVER FOR US". He would not have been able to win the race if he finished the race a lap down. Oh and Dale Earnhardt fans hated Jeff Gordon then because he contributed to a crash in the 1997 Daytona 500 near the end of the race that cost Earnhardt a chance to win his first Daytona 500 win after 19 tries and Gordon went on the win the race. Earnhardt won the 1998 Daytona 500 in February which was before the episode aired but probably before it was written and recorded and this anger towards Gordon subsided. So this episode is a bit of a time capsule. Finally Earnhardt crashed and died 3/4 through the final lap of the race. His teammate and son were 1st and 2nd and he was being very aggressive blocking the rest of the pack to let them fight it out alone for the win. The race was over before anyone even knew he was hurt. I watched basically everything on TNN that wasn't country or fishing back in the day.

Alex Forsyth

Residual anger arising about that time when I was 16 and my manager at Long John Silvers deducted 35 cents from my paycheck for the piece of Oreo pie that I “stole.” We got one shift meal that I never ever used because of massive food allergies. Then I realized I’d probably be okay with the pie. NO ONE TOLD ME THE PIE DIDN’T COUNT!!!!! (Fuck you, manager whose name I can no longer remember!) Also, until Bob shared his drivers license story, I’d never connected the dots that the reason why I never got mine was (aside from having terrible vision, ADHD, and driving just sucking in general), is probably because my parents were either too busy working or too tired from working to teach me and there was definitely no promise of (or even hope for) a car when I turned 16 (or 17, or 18, etc). And now I understand why so many rich people can drive (I’m happier not driving, though, because like I said, it sucks, and I’m not interested in living anywhere where I’d have to know how. Long live the metro!)

Kat Heagberg

i feel like, even though his voice is very funny, jimmy wichard is clearly a way for the show to make the r-slur jokes ("can you believe this [REDACTED] is the BOSS?!") which is seems pretty wrong-headed in a similar way as leon

Sean Riley

Pamela Adlon is definitely just doing her Spinelli voice from Recess as "Tommy." Crazy how many shows she was doing vocal work for were on the air at the same time in this era as it seems like she was on every Disney show on ABC's One Saturday Morning.

Chris Dobson

Yeah working in restaurants, I learned way early on to only work your station and don’t try to help anyone, cause you will be put on dish if u do. It kinda sucks cause it feels like in America that you either take advantage of people to get ahead, or you work and get taken advantage of. Also know when you go out to eat, everyone working there hates your guts. So make sure you tip.

Michael Branson

We need a king of the hill variant of “take that Lisa’s beliefs”

Erin MacAllister

it was always extremely vindicating to have those few episodes where Hank comes to realize Bobby was right about something rather than the other way around.

Blake R.