The only screenshot of the episode I could get.
We’ve all heard of the 1997 series on Cartoon Network, King Of The Hill. This still aired on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block, but I encountered something dark with the series long ago. I was in a Goodwill store to buy some VHS tapes. I came across a box set of random tapes. It seemed to be wrapped fairly badly, with what looked like grease marks and stains on it. Naturally, like anyone would, I decided to open the package. Inside was something that I could not explain.
It was a King of the Hill tape, but I had not seen one like it online. It was like some little kid had drawn on the front cover with fuck. The title was just "KING OF THE HILL" with what looked like a poorly drawn illustration of Hank and Dale on the front. I bought the tapes for 2.22 cents. There was something odd, though. There were no names or anything, but on the back it had a list of five episodes, all with blunt titles.
Episode_0000
Episode_0001
Episode_0002
Episode_0003
Episode_0004
Strange. I’ve never heard of episode 0000, was it a secret episode or something? I was about to find out. I gave the tapes a watch over, and to my surprise the episodes were all perfect quality, and seemed to have no flaws. It was as if it was a real tape, just with a home made cover. I hadn’t played episode 0000, I was, but forgot.
Two weeks later, I remembered episode 0000, I took the tape and put it in the VCR, and started watching. The episode had the regular opening, but the theme song was backwards with a little static. The episode started with the Hills driving home from an unexplained event. The way the characters acted was a little off, Hank was very angry, Peggy was depressed and Bobby seemed to have genuine hatred for his parents. When they got home, Hank asked Bobby something, but when the screen cut to Bobby,
he had no face.
Bobby started talking, but his voice sounded muffled. It had to be the most disturbing thing I had ever seen, and it must have been on screen for at least twenty seconds before the screen went black and the VHS turned off, which alone was weird because VHSs do not usually turn off by themselves.
Just to be sure, I tried fast forwarding through the episode, and saw it didn’t turn off. The camera was still on Bobby, with no face. Bobby went to his room, and sat there until the door was smashed open by Hank. Hank started cursing four letter words. My parents would hear it, so I turned the volume down and skipped that scene. The next scene was Hank and Dale. The odd thing was that the two were drawn in a extremely hyper realistic style. It then cut short to the sound of static and a large scream followed by the sound of two people choking. The sounds were so realistic, it made me almost physically sick. The weird thing was how Hank and Dale reacted to it- or rather didn’t. They stood there as the sound of static and screaming grew louder and louder, as the camera stayed still on them both.
Still as a photo.
Silent as ever.
It got louder and louder, I kept the sound on low and proceeded with the episode.
The scene cut to Hank taking Peggy by the back of the neck down the hallway to the backyard. Hank took a propane tank off the grill and shoved Peggy’s mouth down the valve. The screen then went silent for a minute showing the propane valve in Peggy’s mouth.
When the scene started moving again, Peggy’s eyes slowly close as Hank slowly said “Forgive me for using propane to do this, Buck Strickland.”. But it didn’t sound like Hank’s normal voice. The screen turned to static, but the soundtrack was still playing. The soundtrack sounded like burning along with Peggy’s ear-splitting scream. When the camera started up again, the camera was zoomed in on Peggy’s face.
Her face was charred black like ‘Buster the test dummy’ on mythbusters after being in a explosion. Her face was deformed, distorted. It was so scary I had nightmares for the rest of the night. The episode finally came to an end, and I was thankful. The credits were completely silent, and seemed handwritten.
Needless to say, I was scared out of my mind, and sleep was out of the question. Recently, I’ve been looking for this episode all over the internet, but not even one website seems to have it. If you recognize this episode, please let me know.
Credit goes to Snozberry