Reaching “iconic status” is something that every video game franchise, creator, and even the characters within desire. Sometimes, it’s a long game, as you have to work your way up to being an iconic character, not unlike Mario, who’s frankly iconic because he’s been around so long, and has been in SO MANY games over the years. For Larian Studios, they took a dive into D&D and made characters so wonderful that they became iconic on their own merits in record time. Then, there are systems like the Nintendo Switch, which became iconic because they literally “changed the game” in all the ways that matter.
The reasons we’re bringing this up are that recently, Hulu dropped the 14th season of King of the Hill, which was a return a LONG time in the making. The 13th season was canceled at Fox a long time ago, and the streaming platform, along with the show’s original creators, brought the series back with a key story element: a time jump. It had been a good while since Hank Hill had been to Arlen, Texas, we won’t explain why, just watch the show, and a key element of the story was his coming to terms with how much things had changed since he had been gone.
One of the key changes was that his son, Bobby, was now a full-grown adult and was having to deal with adult life in many ways, including having a full-time job that he was trying to make a career of. A noble endeavor. In the fifth episode of the revival season, we see the following: Bobby is with two of his friends, relaxing, and on the table before them…is a Nintendo Switch:
You can tell it’s the Switch because of its iconic shape, the dual-colored Joy-Cons, and the overall vibe that it exudes.
This is a cool thing because it shows that even in the suburbs of Arlen, the Switch is king. Pun intended. It’s important to note that the animation for these episodes was done a while ago, so the Switch 2 hadn’t come out yet, or even been revealed. Thus, the animators and story writers were making things when the Switch continued to dominate charts and drop all sorts of great games on gamers like Bobby Hill and Joe Gribble.
That’s iconic status right there, when a gaming console is so popular that even a mature-style animated series like this recognizes its game and wants to show it off.
Now, if Nintendo had released a title about propane, then maybe it would’ve gotten a whole episode dedicated to it…
