John Redcorn

Infobox character | colour = #ffaa44
name = John Redcorn


caption = John Redcorn
portrayer = Victor Aaron
Jonathan Joss
creator =
gender = Male
first = Pilot (episode 1.01)
last =
cause =
age = 36 (episode "Nancy's Boys" aired April 30, 2000), early 40s otherwise
born = 1961 or 1964
occupation = New Age Healer
title =
family = unnamed sister
spouse =
children = Joseph Gribble (through an affair with Nancy Gribble)
Kate (through a relationship with a woman named Charlene)
relatives =
footnotes =

John Redcorn (originally voiced by Victor Aaron, later by Jonathan Joss), is a character in the animated series "King of the Hill". He is addressed or referred to as "John Redcorn" or "Mr. Redcorn" by every character in the series, and very rarely just "John."

Background

A former roadie for Winger and "Licensed New Age Healer", he is Nancy Gribble's Native American masseur, her former 14-year lover and the biological father of Joseph Gribble.

John Redcorn drives a Jeep Wrangler, and was the lead singer of the band Big Mountain Fudgecake, for which Lucky played guitar and Dale was briefly the manager. Following the breakup of the band, Redcorn began singing toned-down children's versions of his songs at the Strickland company barbecue and was instantly popular.

The Affair

In the first four seasons, before Nancy rekindled her love affair with her husband, she and John Redcorn were seen almost constantly in each other's company. The implication is that their relationship was more substantial than a purely sexual dalliance. The Souphanousinphones figured it out very soon after moving to Arlen. Peggy was one of the last to realize it; Hank tells her 12 years into the affair, having assumed she knew but, like everyone else, refused to ever mention it.

Both Nancy's husband Dale and Joseph are completely unaware of this, although this fact is obvious to everyone else in the neighborhood, due to Joseph's close resemblance to John Redcorn. Also, in the episode, "The Son That Got Away", Nancy asks Dale, "Do you want a beer babe?" to which both Dale and John Redcorn answer "yes". In reply, Dale says, "How did he know I wanted a beer?" Luanne seems to be the only other character besides Dale and Joseph to not know of this as she has never acknowledged it and Nancy didn't list her among the people that knew about it. Despite Dale's dedication to various conspiracy theories, Dale is completely unaware of Joseph's true parentage due to his belief that Redcorn is gay, although he once suspected that Joseph's father was an alien. No matter how obvious the affair between John Redcorn and Nancy was, Dale never deduced it; indeed, once, after having caught the two in bed, he merely apologizes for interrupting their "migraine treatment" and rushes out. In one episode, Dale even caught Redcorn sneaking in through the window. At first it appears that Dale has finally figured it out, but he really thought Redcorn was doing something with his (Dale's) new lawnmower. "Get away from my mower and start massaging my wife." John Redcorn then mentions to Nancy that Dale is "taking some of the fun out of this." In "Hank Gets Dusted," John Redcorn, in trying to get filmed on a reality show, actually directly says to the camera that "I slept with [Hank's] best friend's wife for 13 years," with Dale standing inches away; Dale assumes that John Redcorn was referring to Bill's ex-wife. It is implied throughout the series that both he and Joseph are willfully ignorant of the affair, due to Dale's absolute devotion to his wife and the deep bond which he and Joseph share.

John Redcorn still cares about Nancy and he was hurt when she ended their affair. During one of his less inspiring moments, John Redcorn lamented to Hank "I can't believe Nancy left me..." [indicates Dale] "for THAT." Hank simply replied "She didn't leave you for that, John Redcorn. She married THAT two years before she met you."

In the Season 5 episode "Spin the Choice", John Redcorn accepts the U.S. government's offer of 12 acres (5 ha) of unincorporated land to settle a lawsuit in which he sought to reclaim the 130,000 acres (530 km²) of land taken by the USA from the Anasazi tribe. Due to his belief that the government had cheated John Redcorn's people, Dale proved instrumental in helping John Redcorn file his lawsuit, using the Freedom of Information Act and encouraging John Redcorn when others turned against him. Feeling guilty, John Redcorn started to reveal to Dale the details of his affair with Nancy and stated: "Fourteen years ago, I was refilling my jeep when I first met Nancy..." implying that they first met at a gas station. He was not able to finish the admission, but in the end John Redcorn willed the land to Dale, as a token of their friendship and as a way to pass something down to Joseph, to whom John Redcorn wishes he could tell the truth. When (in the same episode) he was given the chance to renew his affair with Nancy, he refused out of a sense of loyalty and gratitude to Dale, concluding that Nancy's husband was a genuinely good (if naive) man and that he could not betray someone who had worked so selflessly to help him.

In a recent episode, John Redcorn finally attempted to get back together with Nancy. She was partially receptive to his advances, but later did the right thing and stayed with her husband.

Joseph

Joseph seems unaware that John Redcorn is his biological father. In an early episode, when Joseph refers to "my dad's truck", Bobby hesitantly asked "You mean Dale Gribble's truck?", (which might indicate that even he was aware of Joseph's real parentage). John Redcorn attempted to reach out to Joseph on more than one occasion and instill a sense of pride in him, but Joseph has little to no emotional attachment to him. As far as Joseph is concerned, Redcorn is just a friend of his parents. Despite his physical resemblance to John Redcorn, Joseph is really more Dale's son than he is John Redcorn's, sharing the vast majority of Dale's personality traits, as well as Dale's love of explosives and conspiracy theories.

Other children

In the episode John Redcorn finds out he had a daughter, named Kate, by a woman named Charlene, during the same period that he was having an affair with Nancy Gribble. This woman had fallen for Bill and had moved her family in with him; likewise, Kate and Joseph fell for each other which disturbed all the characters aware of the children's shared parentage. At the end of the episode Charlene and her two kids leave Bill and move in with John Redcorn.

External links

* [http://www.fox.com/kingofthehill/ FOX Broadcasting Company: King of the Hill]