In the Spanish Dub of ‘King of the Hill,’ Peggy Is A Terrible English Teacher

On Los Reyes De La Colina, Peggy Reyes’ poor Ingles provided Latin America with many anuses of amusement.

It should come as no surprise to American animation fans that Mike Judge’s classic cartoon sitcom King of the Hill is a big hit south of the border. After all, The Simpsons may very well have more fans in Central and South America than they do in the United States. For whatever reason, animated shows survive the crossing of translation barriers better than any other genre, and the distinctly Texan humor of King of the Hill tickles the state’s next door neighbor. Through the international power of comedy, Texans and Mexicans can put aside their Alamo-sized differences and enjoy King of the Hill side by side over some monterrrrrey chack.

Of course, translation errors as they relate to a certain overconfident substitute language teacher are a pivotal part of King of the Hill’s comedy, so, in the Spanish language dub of the series that aired throughout Latin America, Peggy teaches her own embarazading version of English.

In the Spanish dub of King of the Hill, the Hill family is called the Reyes family (instead of the Colina family, as the literal translation would dictate), Hank is called Hector, Bobby is Beto, Luanne is Lola, Cotton is Carlos, Bill Dauterive is Blas Davalos, Dale Gribble is Diego López, and, best of all, Boomhauer is Benavides Buenavista. While Spanish and English are switched in the series for the purpose of Peggy’s mispronunciations and poor translations, everything else about the show remains the same — Hector sells propano and grills bife poco hecho.

However, there is one glaring issue with the Spanish translation that alters the canon of King of the Hill in Latin America. Season Six contains the single most consequential instance of Peggy’s poor Spanish getting her into trouble with the episode “Lupe’s Revenge,” in which Peggy accidentally kidnaps a young Mexican girl during a school field trip south of the border, and Peggy’s failure to understand or communicate in little Lupe’s native tongue leads to a dramatic criminal case wherein the Mexican legal system learns that Peggy is no more a kidnapper than she is a fluent Spanish speaker.

Instead of massively retconning or rewriting the entire premise of the series, the Spanish language dub of King of the Hill addresses the issue of Peggy Reyes actually visiting a Spanish speaking country by skipping the episode entirely — in both the broadcast syndication and the DVD release of Los Reyes De La Colina, “Lupe’s Revenge” is in its native English with Spanish subtitles added in.

I guess that makes more sense than pretending that Americans all speak Spanish and Mexicans speak English — or, alternatively, if Peggy actually understood Lupe perfectly, her life and her career would have actually been tostada.