George Foreman’s Best Fight Was Against Hank Hill
This weekend sees the release of Big George Foreman, a new biopic about the famed heavyweight boxing champion, grill magnate and occasional Garfield voice actor.
The movie obviously delves into his fights with Joe Frazier and the “Rumble in the Jungle,” Foreman’s iconic bout with Muhammad Ali, but we’d argue that one of Foreman’s best matchups was against an opponent who wasn’t even a boxer. We’re, of course, talking about Hank Hill.
King of the Hill’s Season Seven episode “Boxing Luanne” finds Luanne challenging George’s daughter Freeda Foreman to a fight, unaware that her pugilism career up until that point has been an orchestrated sham. Not wanting his niece to get annihilated in the ring, Hank approaches George Foreman at a department store, where the champ is hawking his iconic grill. George actually agrees to help Hank and convince Freeda to bow out of the fight — until, that is, propane snob Hank refers to George’s baby as a “novelty grill.”
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As George flips out, Hank’s efforts to calm him only make things worse, as he says that the Foreman Grill is “kind of like an iron” and “a great product for dieters or little girls who want to play barbecue.” Foreman counters by declaring that propane gives you “brain damage.” Hank tries to block the attack by defensively claiming that “those studies were all done on sick monkeys.” When Hank slams the Foreman Grill for being sold in housewares, George tries to attack Hank with a spatula — although why exactly a former heavyweight champion would need a cooking utensil to take on a doughy propane salesman remains unclear.
Foreman is eventually subdued by his son, George Foreman III, so the scuffle never comes to physical blows. But, hey, at least it wasn’t a PR stunt for a wildly corrupt African dictator, unlike some other famous fights.
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