The 14th season of the Emmy Award-winning animated sitcom King of the Hill premieres on August 4. The new revival comes over 15 years after the show first ended, this time airing on Hulu and Disney+, instead of Fox.

With a new season of King of the Hill on the way, I thought I’d look back at an old episode from 2007 that had an interesting look at what is considered to be feminine.

Entitled ‘The Peggy Horror Picture Show’, the episode opens with Peggy Hill meeting her niece Luanne, and friends and neighbours Linh and Nancy, for a clothing exchange. Peggy finds that none of the others want her clothes as they aren’t fashionable. She also can’t fit into a pair of Nancy’s boots because of her large feet, which Peggy feels make her seem less feminine.

At home, her husband Hank asks her how the exchange went. Peggy asks him if he thinks she’s feminine. Hank thinks she is feminine but has a narrow view: “Well, sure you are. You’re a wife and a mother,” he says. Not seeing how upset Peggy is, Hank offers to buy her some new shoes.

Peggy calls her favourite shoe shop, Lubbock’s Very Big Shoes, but discovers it has gone out of business and has been replaced by a dog bakery. She looks online and finds a new place, Clarissa’s Closet.

When she visits, she is overjoyed to discover stylish shoes in her size, even discovering one pair that is too big. At the store, Peggy meets a woman named Carolyn, and they become fast friends.

They spend the following day bonding and exchanging beauty tips, Peggy teaching her how to eat without smudging her lipstick. Hilariously, she can’t remember where she got the idea from, with it either being “from watching shark attacks on the nature channel, or a Bette Davis movie.”

Carolyn says, in another funny line, it will help during her weekend shows: “I need to be able to snack between sets so I don’t pass out during the particularly emotional numbers.”

After Peggy drops Carolyn home, Carolyn talks to her mother about Peggy. She removes her makeup and wig, revealing she is a drag queen. She believes that Peggy is a drag queen, too.

Later, at another store, Peggy is thrilled to have a friend who can keep up with her (bumping other patrons away in order to get the best deals). She then asks Carolyn about her weekend shows. Carolyn invites her to do a duet when Peggy impresses her with her scarf technique. They then go to Peggy’s house to practice a dance routine, and Carolyn realises Peggy is a woman when she meets her son Bobby and sees a picture of Peggy when she was pregnant.

At his apartment, Jamie (Carolyn) tells his supportive mother that he has figured out Peggy is a woman. His mum corrects him: “You mean a biological woman. Just because you were born a male doesn’t make you any less of a woman. Let no one clip your wings, baby.”

Nonetheless, he feels he cannot allow her to be part of what is supposed to be a drag act. That evening, Peggy is getting in her car to leave when she meets Nancy and Minh and invites them to see the show. A short while later, Hank and his friends are drinking in their usual spot in the alley when Jamie arrives. Posing as Carolyn’s friend, he asks if Peggy is home, but Hank says she has left to fix an issue with her outfit before heading straight to the venue.

At the All the Queen’s Men club, Jamie finds Peggy and reveals that he and the other show participants are drag queens. Peggy is confused until she realises that Jamie thought she was a man. This causes Peggy to break down and leave, just as Nancy and Minh arrive.

At home, Nancy, Luanne, and Minh try to comfort her. However, their comments only make her feel worse. Hank arrives home and asks Peggy about the act. Peggy explains, but Hank is confused by the story and suggests that she call Carolyn. This only upsets her further. Hank decides to call Carolyn to set up a meeting with Jamie.

Hank meets Jamie at a juice bar and tells him the story, not knowing that he is fully aware of the situation. Jamie says Carolyn is very fond of Peggy and tells Hank that a talk will help Peggy.

Later, Carolyn heads to Peggy’s house and grabs a reluctant Peggy and the bag of clothes that Luanne, Linh and Nancy had rejected. At the club, all the drag queens have gathered for a clothes exchange and fight over Peggy’s clothes.

Peggy is confused as to why they would like her clothes, thinking they would be “more impressed by women who are fancier, daintier, girlier.”

Carolyn explains, “drag queens model themselves after strong, substantial, fearless women—women who aren’t afraid to wear purple gauchos and MC Hammer glasses, women who only need one name to describe themselves, like Liza, Barbara, and Cher. You, my dear, are simply Peggy.”

Her spirits raised, Peggy happily takes part in this clothes exchange.

I found the King of the Hill episode to be funny and sweet, and Carolyn’s discussion with Peggy at the end summed it up nicely. The episode also has some nods to other LGBTQ+ films and people.

The episode title is an obvious nod to The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). Carolyn’s style is modelled after Patrick Swayze’s character in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995), which is about three drag queens from New York on a road trip. In the final scene of the King of the Hill episode, one of the drag queens is modelled after artist and icon Frida Kahlo, who was openly bisexual and gender non-conforming.