Jumpin' Crack Bass (It's a Gas, Gas, Gas)

Jumpin' Crack Bass (It's a Gas, Gas, Gas) is the second episode of King of the Hill Season 2, 17th episode overall. James Carville has a guest voice role as the Honorable Judge Roland McFarland.

Synopsis
The story begins with Hank and Bobby digging for worms. Bobby wonders why they are doing so when they can just buy bait at the store, and Hank calls it "cheater bait" and gives a speech about fishing with worms to back it up. He then hears someone fumbling around in his truck, so he rushes over and finds a man attempting to hotwire his truck. He places the culprit Billy Ray Walters under citizen's arrest. Later, at Arlen County Court, judge Roland McFarland, known for his unique sentences, sentences the suspect to live in the cab of an import truck for three months. Hank comments on the just and accurate ways of the judge.

After the trial, Hank went to pick up his truck from the impound, only to discovered that it has been disassembled due to the police checking if he hid any drugs. Back at the Hill house, while Hank is looking for something, in something that is extremely out of her character, Luanne comes and tells Hank she retrived the schematic to his truck and had already lined up the parts. Hank states because of the stress, he needs to fish now, which forces him to use a small rental car from Megalo-mart.

Hank then goes fishing with the guys. He uses his worms while everyone else uses manufactured bait. Boomhauer, Dale , and even Bill catch many fish while Hank catches none. Desperate to catch a fish, he visits Layaway Ray's Bait N' Tackle which he hadn't visited recently. The owner, Ray Holiday is just preparing to burn the place for fraudulant insurance claims purposes down when Hank arrives. The owner tells him about Jack, an illiterrate man who was raised "in the hills" who reportedly sells the "best bait around" although on the street out of his truck. Hank is hurried out and drives away just as Ray burns down his shop and explodes from his outdoor gas tank.

Driving down a dark road in the city, Hank comes across a man with a truck. The two engage in conversation, and Hank asks for bait. Mistaking it for a drug code name, the man, a drug dealer, gives him a few vials of crack cocaine. Hank drives away with the contraband, when the view pans out to reveal to the viewer that Jack's real truck was just a little further down the road.

Equipped with his new "bait", Hank goes fishing again. The fish keep coming for him, and his friends are amazed. They ask to try the "bait" but Hank denies them. Eventually, Hank notices that the same fish keep coming over and over. Hank tries to get the fish to go away but won't leave the proximity of the boat. Frustrated, Hank physically tosses the fish but comes swimming back, jumping over the boat and knocking Bill into the water.

Later, Hank becomes more inclined to go fishing as well as protect the "bait" from his friends because of all the fish he gets. Dale goes so far as to breaking into the Hill's garage to find the "bait" but is forced out by Hank carrying a running a weed trimmer. One day when Hank goes fishing again, this time however the fish keep avoiding Hank and the bait. When Hank gets home he gives Dale the vail of bait where at first is excited but immediately becomes skeptical. Hank tells him that the fish aren't biting anymore or going anywhere near the boat. Dale explains to him using knowledge he learned from his extermination school, he says Hank introduced a new element into the eco-system, and with each passing time Hank fishes, the fish themselves become more immune to the crack cocaine until it doesn't work. Dale then tells Hank that his solution is to get something stronger. He then sets out to get stronger "bait" from the same drug dealer. Dale follows him, desperate to get the new bait for himself, and the two end up caught by the sudden arrival of the police and the two men and the dealer end up arrested.

Hank is tried at Arlen County Court, with Judge Roland McFarland, who now is familiar with Hank, presiding over the case. Hank pleads with the judge saying that he's only a fisherman and that he had no knowledge that he was buying illegal drugs. The judge decides to give Hank one last chance to prove himself by going on a fishing trip. If the crack cocaine works as bait, he will be free to go on account that he was mistaken but if he fails both he and Dale will be sentenced to 24 months in prison. When the two are escorted out the next case is shown, Ray is on trial for insurance fraud.

On the fishing trip, Hank, Dale, the judge, and an officer wait for Hank to catch a fish. The crack cocaine still does not work, with Dale attempting to fool the officials with a frozen fish and gets threatened with a doubled sentence if he attempts to cheat again. As the day comes to a close Hank notices that he still has worms in his tackle box. With no other options he puts one on his hook, and Dale states that he would be cheating and they'd be spending double the time on their sentence. Hank replies that he was cheating with the "bait" in the first place, that he got greedy for wanting to catch as many fish as he could. He gives in saying that they're going to prison and if this was going to be his last day fishing in a long time, he would rather do it the right way. At the last minute, Hank gets a bite and pulls up a fish, a small one, but still a fish, allowing both Hank and Dale to be let off.

Other Languages

 * Jumpin' Crack Bass (It's a Gas, Gas, Gas)/Other Languages

Quotes

 * Jumpin' Crack Bass (It's a Gas, Gas, Gas)/Quotes

Trivia

 * The title of this episode is a reference to the song "Jumpin' Jack Flash" by The Rolling Stones.
 * When Bill is knocked out of the boat by the fish, he's shown to be able to stand in the water with only his lower half submerged. This would mean the lake is only 2-3 feet deep and would hardly classify as a lake. Additionally it would be very dangerous to use a motor in water that shallow.
 * Dale at one point says to Hank "Don't lie to us friend because when you lie you make an ass out of you and me." However the phrase actually goes "Don't assume because when you assume you make an ass out of you and me." Dale is shown to make mistakes like this often throughout the early part of the series.
 * One of Hank's exclamations in this episode, "Sweet Gene Vincent!" is the title of a song by British punk rocker Ian Dury. Gene Vincent was an American early rock&roll/rockabilly artist from the 1950s.
 * While Ray is explaining that cannot compete with Mega Lo Mart, he's ironically seen using Mega Lo brand wipes while preparing to burn down his bait shop.
 * It is stated by Ray that Jack (who sells bait out of his truck) grew up in hills having never went to school and lacks writing ability. His lack of education is revealed when the side of his truck is shown to read "Jack's Bate", an intentional misspelling.
 * When exclaiming the vast amount of fish he caught, Hank references "Ripley's Believe It or Not!"
 * Ray is later seen working at the Mega-Lo-Mart in Propane BOOM! Episode and also in Mega Lo Dale he is seen doing jumping jacks in front of the store with the rest of the employees. he is never addressed by hank

Stinger Quote
Hank: "That's it. I'm going fishing."

Goof

 * When Dale comes around the corner in the bad neighborhood to buy "bait" with Hank, for the first frame, he has gray hair.
 * The font that Hank's "Bass Pro Shops" hat is written in is alternately red/black between shots.