Why does Hank hate charcoal? King of the Hill showrunner answers the internet's 3 biggest questions

Also, does Dale know? And where is Luanne?

Ever since the early 2010s, the most pervasive question associated with King of the Hill has been “Do I look like I know what a JPEG is?” thanks to a series of viral videos that remixed a classic moment from the show dozens of different ways. That question, of course, is rhetorical, as American everyman Hank Hill (Mike Judge) had no idea what a JPEG was, and 21 years later, he probably still doesn’t.

But there are other, non-rhetorical questions that the internet has about King of the Hill. So when Polygon got a chance to chat with current showrunner Saladin Patterson ahead of the show’s 15th season, we hit him with the internet’s biggest questions about Hank Hill and his fellow citizens of Arlen, Texas.

His answer to why Hank hates charcoal is especially surprising.

Warning: Spoilers for season 15 of King of the Hill below

3 Does Dale know about Nancy’s affair with John Redcorn, and that Joseph isn’t his biological son?

When the original run of King of the Hill began, it was immediately established that Nancy Gribble (Ashley Gardner) was having a long-term affair with Indigenous American healer John Redcorn (Victor Aaron/Jonathan Joss). It was also incredibly clear to everyone in the neighborhood, except her oblivious husband Dale (Johnny Hardwick), that Nancy and Dale’s son Joseph (Brittany Murphy/Breckin Meyer) was Redcorn’s biological child.

Nancy ended the affair in season 4 of the show’s original 13-season run, but when the series returned in 2025, the affair between Nancy and John Redcorn had already resumed sometime during the eight-year gap between the series finale and the revival. In season 15, Nancy once again ends her affair, looking to better her marriage with Dale. But with so much evidence of Nancy’s affair — from Joseph’s appearance to Dale catching John Redcorn climbing out of Nancy’s window — does Dale, on any level, know about any of it?

“My answer is going to be an answer that existed in the previous version, too,” Patterson tells Polygon. “There's an episode in the previous version where Dale's given some pretty strong evidence that Joseph is not his son, but the cognitive dissonance of it all is that he wraps his head around the idea that [aliens stole Dale's DNA to make Joseph].”

The showrunner riffs on something series co-creator Greg Daniels once said to explain Dale’s refusal to accept reality.

“The way Greg Daniels explained it in the original episode, which I think still applies now, is that Dale's characteristic of being a conspiracy theorist means he's going to look at evidence and create a reality that is bonkers to most people,” Patterson says. “For conspiracy theorists, it's their way of navigating little bits of truth here and there. Dale sees the evidence we all see — he saw John Redcorn climbing out of his window — but his conspiracy theory mind is able to create a reality that makes sense based on the truth that he believes.”

2 Where is Luanne?

When King of the Hill returned for its 14th season, only two major supporting characters were absent: Luanne and her husband Lucky. Played by Brittany Murphy, Luanne was a part of the show from the very first season, as the biological niece of Peggy (Kathy Najimy) who moves in with Hank and Peggy. In season 8 of the original run, Luanne meets Lucky, voiced by Tom Petty, and they eventually get married and have a daughter named Gracie.

The original run of King of the Hill concluded in 2009, and later that year, Murphy died at age 32. Then in 2017, Tom Petty passed away at age 66. As such, when King of the Hill returned, neither character was brought back, nor were they mentioned. All we see of them in season 14 is a photo on the wall of the Hill house.

In season 15, we learn a little bit more about them. In the finale, which flashes back to years earlier, when Hank and Peggy are discussing Hank taking a job in Saudi Arabia, it's established that, for his final year of high school, Bobby went to live with Luanne. The acknowledgment is a brief but beautiful tribute to the character, establishing that she helped Hank and Peggy the same way they helped her years earlier.

Still, we don’t know where she is currently in the show, which is why “Where is Luanne?” remains a persistent question online.

“My honest answer is, a few things may have happened,” says Patterson. “It's something that we talk about — ‘we,’ meaning me, Greg [Daniels] and Mike [Judge]. We have not landed on that yet in terms of what happened to them. Right now, it still feels right not to close a door, but also not to lock ourselves in too much. As of right now, they are not a part of the storytelling world. They still exist in the world, obviously, but we're waiting for inspiration, because that's something that has to be handled in the most respectful and creatively interesting way, especially if we're going to be talking about recasting and things like that. We don't take that lightly. It's going to have to really, really be worth it.”

1 Why does Hank hate charcoal?

Hank is an incredibly loyal man, and as a seller of propane and propane accessories, he’s unwaveringly dedicated to the clean-burning fuel. Still, his enthusiasm for propane and his often-stated hatred for charcoal seems downright personal, which is why so many people still wonder, “Why does Hank Hill hate charcoal so much?”

Patterson is convinced he has the answer.

“Hank was a jeans salesman at Dress Barn or something like that, when Buck Strickland found him and wanted to make him a propane salesman,” Patterson explains, “So in my mind, prior to that, Hank did not necessarily have the love of propane. It was something that he was introduced to when he became a propane and propane accessories salesman. So there's a reality where Hank may have used charcoal as a kid. Cotton probably cooked with charcoal. But I think Hank became a proselytizer of propane when he discovered the benefits of it.”

Adds Patterson: “I think Hank is a true convert, and just like any other true convert, he became a zealot. So he really does believe in the superiority of propane.”

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King of the Hill season 15 is streaming now on Hulu and Disney Plus.