Boomhauer From 'King of the Hill' Was Inspired By An Angry Fan
The inspiration for a vocal performance can come from pretty much anywhere; originally, Dan Castalenetta's Homer Simpson began as a loose impression of the legendary Walter Matthau, and Andy Serkis came up with his Gollum voice after watching his cat cough up a hairball. For his long-running animated comedy/propane propaganda series King of the Hill, Mike Judge was influenced by … some random dude who apparently hated him.
Judge obviously voiced several characters on the show, including Hank Hill himself, but perhaps most memorably, he also provided the voice of Boomhauer, the often unintelligible lothario who kind of sounds like if Bob Dylan were a Texan auctioneer.
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Amazingly, the story behind the Boomhauer voice goes way back to the days of Beavis and Butthead. Judge got an angry answering machine message from a "deranged hillbilly guy" who was pissed off about Judge's MTV cartoon -- mainly that it was "On too often and that it doesn't start right on the hour." Oh, and for some reason, he thought that Beavis and Butthead was called … Porky's Butthole?
The caller's "incomprehensible" speech pattern ended up serving as the basis for Boomhauer's voice, as did a friend of Judge's who slipped into a Louisiana accent while drinking and an Oklahoman who once gave the animator a rambling set of directions. But it was the tape of that irate phone message that Judge listened to "a lot" in order to "get the voice down." So next time you want to complain to a creative in the entertainment industry, maybe try not to give them the idea for an iconic character in the process.
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Top Image: 20th Television
