King of the Hill’s Revival Makes Surprising Change to Dale

King of the Hill has made a surprising change to how it handles Dale Gribble for the modern era with its new revival series, and it’s somehow made Dale clearer than ever before. King of the Hill is set nearly a decade from the events of its original show’s run with Fox, and the world around it has dramatically changed since then. King of the Hill has always been a show that’s on the borderline of certain views, but used that to tell compelling stories about Hank and his changing views about the world. It was different for Dale though.

Dale was always the outlier in that his more extreme views made him a hilarious foil to the more grounded perspective that Hank and the others has. But after spending years living in Saudi Arabia, Hank returned to the United Statesd to find out that Dale is no longer the outlier that he used to be. He’s not only more on the fringes with his views compared to before, but has reached a new level of influence as more people have begun to share his ideals.

How King of the Hill Changes Dale

It was always a question as to how the new episodes of King of the Hill would handle someone like Dale because not only does the series avoid politics, but many of the views shared by the public mirror a lot of Dale’s conspiracies. In a smart move, King of the Hill Season 14 reveals that Dale has become more influential as he now has an audience but has since revealed that his views go even further than what the general public has. Hilariously with the premiere episode, it’s even revealed that he was temporarily voted as the Mayor of Arlen during the “pan-dumbic” as he put it.

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Dale is a more extreme version of himself than seen in the original as he outright kidnaps Hank in an episode after mistaking him for a Saudi Arabian spy (because Hank starts loving soccer), but it falls in line with the Dale we know. He’s even less trusting of those around him, and thus has even wilder conspiracies like George W. Bush’s secret brother “Jub.” But the biggest change is that influence and that he’s actually made money off the fact that there are those who are now interested in the same things he talks about.

Dale Makes Money Off His Conspiracies Now

At certain points throughout the new King of the Hill season, Dale reveals how he’s since expanded on his media offerings. The original series saw him attempt this with a failed radio show and more, but he’s much more successful these days. He not only has a Substack with his views that people can follow along with, but it’s later revealed that he also has a Patreon account for his exterminations as well. So while Dale is much like a greater majority of the public, he’s still very much one more step outward.

But while King of the Hill has made Dale a little more fringe in terms of how he thinks, Dale thankfully is still the same in other ways. He still has not put together that John Redcorn is Joseph’s real son (something Joseph hasn’t connected either despite being much older), and still believes in those around him. So while others have become more like Dale, the new season is still finding a way to evolve Dale and keep what made him so special from the original series.