| abstract
| - The protagonist of the show, Hank is a propane salesman who loves his job nearly as much as he loves his family. He's pretty introverted and can't cope with emotion very well, but he's clearly the most level-headed of the cast. Voiced by series creator Mike Judge. Tropes associated with Hank:
* Aesop Amnesia: Half the episodes in the entire show couldn't happen if Hank didn't forget the many, many times he learned to accept Bobby for who he is, or realized that his father was a selfish jackass.
* Alliterative Name
* Big Applesauce: Hank was born in the ladies' room at Yankee Stadium. He is not pleased to learn about it.
* Big No: "BWAAAAAH!"
* Born in the Wrong Century: Wonders when people stopped believing in hard work, honesty, decency, modesty, and plain old common sense.
* Of course, Hank's definition of decency, modesty, and common sense are all rather skewed.
* Calling The Old Lady Out: Does this to his mother several times, from cheating on boyfriends to wondering what she saw in Cotton. Oddly he's very slow in doing this to the much worse Cotton, mainly out of fear.
* In one of the first episodes he told him to his face that he hated the old man. The problem is, it impressed Cotton.
* Chaste Hero: Hank is one despite being married and in his forties (since "chaste" does not mean the same thing as "celibate"). He has the same obliviousness to female attention, whether from his wife or any other woman. He is quite embarrassed by any display or mention of sexuality (male or female), and runs out screaming when he accidentally enters the porn section of a video store; in what is perhaps the best illustration of this side of his character, when he meets two young female nudists, he winds up giving them a sales pitch on the benefits of propane heating for their summer home.
* And he was traumatized by an attractive Stalker with a Crush female cop who pulled him over on a trumped-up charge just so she could grope him. He wound up humming Battle Hymn of the Republic under his breath the whole time to get himself through it. (However, this is probably a more realistic reaction than what male characters usually get slapped with on television.)
* Lampshaded in one episode where Buck says, "Oh, don't worry Hank, I know you don't have sex." A clearly annoyed Hank says, "Well, that's not quite..." before deciding to leave well enough alone.
* Hank does display some more "standard" male traits now and then; in "Luanne Virgin 2.0", when he sees Peggy in a wet baptismal gown, underwear visible, he takes her back to their truck for you-know-what.
* Expy: Hank is theorized to be a younger, much smarter version of Tom Anderson from Beavis and Butthead.
* Fantasy-Forbidding Father
* Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Melancholic.
* Flanderization: In early seasons, though Hank was still very strait-laced, he did have some more "normal" moments such as his being an avid guitar player and a fan of classic rock. These interests vanished as the series progressed, leaving him with little other than being uptight.
* Freudian Excuse: Some of Hank's unwillingness to show emotion stems from him breaking his ankle during the state football game when he was a teenager. He believes that it was punishment from God for the way he showed off and bragged about the touchdowns he made before the accident, and thus refuses to show any other emotion out of fear that something similar will happen.
* Having an Abusive Parent didn't help. Whenever Hank showed any emotion his father would come down hard for it, calling it a sign of weakness. Cotton even called Hank a sissy for telling him he loved him when on his deathbed.
* Good Ol' Boy: Of the sympathetic, generally positive variety.
* Good Old Ways: If something is not traditional, Hank considers it wrong, and he doesn't have to think any further about it. This is often Played for Laughs, but Hank's adamant rejection of deviation occasionally strays into Unfortunate Implications.
* This goes so far that when Peggy tells Hank that her new friend "Caroline" is a man in drag, he simply doesn't understand the concept of a man wanting to dress like a woman. Not only this, Hank goes on thinking Caroline is a actually a woman despite the explanation, because it's the only circumstance he can realistically fathom.
* Good Parents
* Hypocrite: Chided Dale about having Joseph enrolled in a private school by saying he was doing it more for himself, but then Dale turned it around and asked if Hank was more worried about Joseph, or that the high school football team was losing its star player.
* Literal Ass-Kicking: When Jimmy Wichard puts Bobby's life in danger, he almost exclusively assaults Jim in the posterior with his foot.
* In another episode, where Hank was constipated and Peggy recommended that he try acupuncture. Hank said that if anyone tried to do that on him, he would kick the guy's ass. Later he reluctantly tries the procedure. He quickly becomes dissatisfied and goes to kick the acupuncturist's ass with the needles still in him.
* Men Are Uncultured: Played with in that he's clearly pretty intelligent; he just thinks of high culture as snobby, effeminate, moronically redundant, and needlessly extravagant.
* Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Bill's nervous breakdown in "Pretty, Pretty Dresses" were somewhat instigated by Hank. The first few times he tried to talk to Bill about Lenore never coming back, he stopped when Bill was about to cry. This wasn't because he didn't want to hurt Bill's feelings, but because Hank doesn't "deal" with emotions. After destroying the gifts and tree Bill had gotten for Lenore, he was more then happy to finally get home after Bill told him he didn't feel anything with absolutely no emotion. The viewer could tell that Bill was far from okay, yet Hank took it as a sign that everything was okay and left. The next day, Bill started acting like he was Lenore himself.
* Not So Above It All: Became addicted to a video game based on propane because it allowed him to ascend to ranks such as "manager", even though he was aware that his time playing the game should've been spent helping Bobby prepare for the Presidential Fitness Test. Hank only snapped out of it thanks to Peggy collaborating with the game's designers to destroy it.
* An earlier example is when he and Bobby get swept up in Y 2 K fever in "Hillennium". Peggy briefly becomes frazzled as well, but that was because she realized her current computer was a piece of junk and none of her musings were on hard copy.
* Not So Different: Hank and his Japanese half-brother, Junichiro.
* Only Sane Man
* Only Sane Employee: Hank's job at Strickland Propane.
* As well as his role in his group of friends.
* And in his family.
* Papa Wolf: A good way to make the typically straight-laced Hank lose his temper would be to threaten Bobby.
* Parental Substitute: To Luanne, albeit begrudgingly.
* Perpetual Frowner
* Real Men Hate Affection: Unless it involves his dog Ladybird, his lawn, or his truck.
* Tellingly, these are all things that can't emote back. Or in Ladybird's case, can't emote back in a way that would make Hank uncomfortable. Hank doesn't mind expressing affection as long as he doesn't have to deal with a human response.
* The Spock
* Weirdness Censor: Hank sometimes refuses to believe things that are so unusual or exotic as to not make sense to him. In the case of Peggy's drag queen friend Caroline, Hank continues to believe Caroline is a woman even after the explanation.
* "Well Done, Son" Guy: He really does want his father to show him some hint of approval. His totally unwarranted loyalty and admiration for Buck Strickland seems to stem from the need for some kind of father figure who's at least slightly less of a Jerkass than Cotton as well.
* With Friends Like These...: Multiple times Hank gets exasperated by the idiotic antics of his friends, but when push comes to shove Hank proves that he really cares about them when they get into really bad trouble.
* What the Hell, Hero?: Peggy does this to Hank multiple times. Such as:
* When he punished Bobby for cigarette smoking by making him smoke a whole carton (which led to all of the Hills becoming addicted to tobacco).
* When he was pretty much making a ventriloquist dummy to function as the son that Bobby isn't.
* His willingness to exploit Kahn's manic depression by withholding his medication in order to get him to construct a state of the art grill for Strickland Propane.
* Setting up Luanne with a guy he picked out just so he wouldn't have to deal with her being overly emotional after Buckley broke up with her, and so he could get his den back.
* Refusing to admit his father is an inconsiderate jerk after he's insulted Peggy numerous times and Hank has quietly laughed along with him, and after he started turning Bobby into a misogynist just like him.
* When interviewing perspective job applicants at Strickland, Peggy chastises Hank for some of the (illegal) questions he's going to ask the applicants, such as whether or not they are Christian. She also gets on his case about his refusal to hire a qualified female applicant.
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