We haven’t been subtle about our love for King of the Hill. Arlen is full
of interesting characters that manage to be both ridiculous and relatable.
One of the things we love seeing are the messes that Hank’s degenerate boss,
Buck Strickland, always seems to end up in. But that doesn’t mean every mess is simply funny.
Sometimes we see the absolute worst side of the man and it can really make our skin crawl.
I’m Kyle with WickedBinge and these are Buck Strickland’s Worst Deeds.
We’ll begin with the least awful and slowly work our way to the most horrid.
Now let’s get started, there Old-Top.
At #5 we have Being an “Environmentalist”
Buck does a lot to try to impress women, but pretending to care for the planet
was one of the lowest and laziest methods to get attention. The episode began with Buck already
making some bad calls, having been exposed by the media for his dumping of toxic waste
where he thought no one would find it. In an effort to save the company’s image,
Hank has everyone make an effort to be more green. The entire time
they deal with limiting the air conditioning, carpooling and recycling. Throughout all of this,
Buck is heard and seen complaining like a little kid. So when he’s given a chance
to opt out of the hard work and buy carbon offsets, it’s an easy choice for him to make.
This led to both Buck and Dale being driven by greed.
Dale because he wanted the money with none of the work put in,
leading to no trees actually being plated. Buck because he wanted to show off his fabled love for
the environment by holding a benefit concert in what he was calling Strickland Woods. All
because he ran into a couple of attractive women that were meant to head to a benefit in Austin.
Once Buck learned that no trees were planted, he refused to come out in the open about it,
even though he could have easily blamed Dale for that particular mishap.
Instead he goes to find where there are a lot of trees and pays the owner of that
property so he can keep his lie going. It was one of the unfortunate times that
Buck did not get what he deserved, unable to face punishment even when Hank tries explaining to the
audience what really happened. It was a mess that could have easily been avoided if Buck
wasn’t lazy in the first place and disposed of the toxic material in a safe manner.
#4 Price Wars and Fraud
Buck is used to putting others through a lot of headaches.
He places stress on his wife with his affairs and risky behavior,
places stress on his employees with the price wars he insists on participating in
and he eventually drags the attendees at a propane convention through the same stress.
When Buck decides to hire American Chopper, he doesn’t take the time to think things through
and ends up causing a riot at the convention. And all this was after having fired Jo Jack so
he could try to stay above water with costs. He was selling his product for
less than it was worth, and it resulted in lack of pay for his employees.
If that wasn’t bad enough, he then spent money he essentially didn’t have to hire speakers,
not even bothering to go into detail on what their appearance would require.
And when Hank tried to correct the situation, Buck read it as starting an illegal cartel.
Things did eventually get back to normal, but only because Hank was
able to warn them so no one went to jail. After the dust settled, he had hired Jo Jack back,
but nearly jumped at the chance to dive back into his destructive price
war habits until Hank stopped him. He truly never learns from his past sins.
#3 Holding His Employees Hostage
Buck is a huge fan of the ladies and this of course led to a love of strip clubs.
One in particular he visited on a regular basis. But when he decided to get into a dispute with
the owner… upset about the low quality breakfast buffet, which really emphasizes
the classiness of the establishment, he was banned and left to go back to work.
He whines about not being able to have fun, actually breaking into tears
at the discussion over the meeting and refusing to go back inside for his car
keys if it meant him having to be responsible and boring. This eventually leads to Hank trying
to liven things up a little with the purchase of ice cream for the employees. But how could
he have predicted Buck would become obsessed with the light atmosphere of the Frozen Cow?
After Buck becomes intoxicated with the light hearted atmosphere,
he spends every waking moment he can at the Frozen Cow. He tries every flavor, knows all the songs,
and even has Hank bring him new pants so he can change in the middle of the store. When Hank
tries to get him to act reasonable and come back to Strickland Propane, promising it can be fun,
Buck’s response was to completely change the place using the business model the Frozen Cow uses.
Luckily they didn’t lose much profit, but Buck clearly had lost his mind. His excitement to
make his business a haven for himself led to him holding the employees hostage for games,
karaoke and a surprise sleepover. He was even upset with his employees not having
as much fun as him to the point that Buck made a literal wet blanket to throw on the person
being the most depressed at the sleepover. Now we’re not experts on torture here,
but we’re fairly sure sleep deprivation and conditioning behavor through fear
counts… Especially when being forced to pal around with Buck Strickland whenever he demands.
#2 Placing Bobby in Danger
When Bobby takes a job as a caddy, his goal is to do
as little work as possible. So it seemed like a dream come true when he was hired
by Buck Strickland. Instead it caused conflict for Hank’s work and home life.
Buck is already not an appropriate role model for the young Hill, but
since Bobby was raised thinking Buck was a sensible business man and someone worth
looking up to… ironically, thanks to his dad… He began mimicking everything Buck said and did.
Now we aren’t saying Buck had planned to treat Bobby like garbage from the beginning. In fact,
we would even say that Buck was happy to have a kid look up to him that he wasn’t actually
responsible for. But that all went downhill when he took Bobby out of town and he tasked the young
man with keeping his pills and extra money. Essentially making him take part in a scam
by faking a heart a attack if he started losing at gambling. Really, taking a child to an environment
like this, let alone making him wait outside in a filthy alley, is incredibly low. Even for Buck.
As with most situations Buck creates, Hank was able to swoop in and save the day,
but it didn’t change that he placed a child in a dangerous and unpredictable situation.
Luckily, Hank actually allowed Buck to get a little comeuppance in the end, encouraging the
men chasing buck to get a couple good hits in. Honestly, he deserved quite a bit more.
#1 Trying to Frame Hank for Murder
This is, without a doubt, the lowest Buck Strickland has ever dropped to. In fact,
this is the most screwed up, sociopathic thing anyone has
done on King of the Hill… And Cotton has killed fiddy men.
We mentioned Buck’s love for women in an earlier listing,
but it came up again when his wife was fed up to the point that she demanded a divorce.
They rekindled their love for one another after seeing all the changes Peggy made to Sugarfoots,
with everything she had altered being something that had sentimental value for the couple.
But this led to Debbie, Buck’s lover, being neglected and looking to take out Ms Liz and Buck.
This ordeal led to Debbie’s body being found and a large hunt for who could have been responsible.
And Buck’s response? Frame Hank since he thought his wife might have done it.
In doing this, Buck records Hank saying things that can easily be taken out of context,
plants evidence in his truck that could lead to Hank’s arrest...
And tosses the gathered ‘evidence’ at the front door of the police station.
Luckily the Texas Ranger that came in was smart enough to actually figure out what happened.
But Buck wasn’t even sorry about what he had done. He stated everything out in the open
about his framing, even telling Hank it wasn’t anything personal, but he wanted to make sure
Ms Liz wouldn’t be arrested for Debbie’s death. And poor Hank. He just accepted it, rationalizing
the whole thing by saying if Peggy was in danger of being arrested he might have reacted harshly.
Buck definitely should have been punished in some way for
his interference with an on-going investigation,
but unfortunately it was one of the many times where Buck got off pretty much scott-free.
But, really, the most screwed up icing on the cake here is that Buck was willing to ruin the
life of the guy who has been nothing but loyal and helpful to him for the last twenty years.
And really, this is definitely proof that Buck is a total sociopath.
He doesn’t deserve to have Hank in his corner and hopefully his sins catch up to him.
But what do you think? What are Buck’s worst deeds? Let us know
and check out our other King of the Hill videos. We talk about Peggy’s worst deeds and also rank
all the characters of Arlen on the morality spectrum. But most importantly, stay wicked!