The deadpan-yet-heartfelt comedy of “King of the Hill” sets it apart from every other animated sitcom. But there’s one gag the series delivers with its signature straight face that’s darker and much more specific than usual. That’s because it’s based on an actual farming accident.
That joke plays out in 1999’s Season 4, Episode 1 of the series, titled “Peggy Hill: The Decline and Fall.” In the episode, Hill family matriarch Peggy (Kathy Najimy) is recovering from a skydiving accident and encased in a body cast up to her neck.
She gives herself a pep talk during her hospital stay where she says, “If that poor farm boy whose arms were ripped off by a thresher could dial 911 with his nose,” then she can still do her part to help take care of her father-in-law Cotton Hill’s (Toby Huss) newborn baby despite her injuries.
That aforementioned “poor farm boy” was actually a real 18-year-old named John Thompson, who was working on his family’s farm in North Dakota when the gruesome incident occurred in 1992.
John Thompson did, or dialed, the impossible
John Thompson’s shirt got stuck in a piece of mechanical equipment that, according to an AG Week interview, didn’t have a safety mechanism activated on it at the time. Next thing he knew, he was regaining consciousness … and realizing his arms had been completely severed from his body.
“I didn’t know what was going on,” he explained to AG Week. “I’m sitting there trying to figure out how to get up. Then I just put my back against the tractor tire and pushed myself up.”
Because Thompson was alone with his dog on the farm that morning, his only chance at survival was using the phone. Despite the shock, he attempted to dial, initially using his nose and then by holding a pencil in his mouth. Once successful, he sat in his family’s bathtub to keep the carpet from being stained with blood while waiting for help to arrive.
“I was bleeding out,” Thompson said. “By the time I got to the hospital, they said, ‘You shouldn’t be alive because there’s no blood in you.'”
After examination, he and his recovered limbs were flown to a Minnesota hospital where they were reattached.
How is John Thompson today?
Now middle-aged and living a regular life, John Thompson has discovered the sitcom homage according to a 2026 post he made in r/Television titled “‘King of the Hill‘ referenced my real-life farm accident — this is actually me.”
“I recently found this clip… and didn’t even realize they were referencing my story,” he wrote in the post. “Just thought it was wild to see it mentioned in a show like this.”
He replied to one commenter, “Spring planting is coming up so getting my story out to make sure everybody’s safe on the farms and know what not to do.”
Users noted that several other shows and properties paid tribute to Thompson, too, including Adult Swim’s “Robot Chicken.” In other comments, Thompson claimed things could’ve gone measurably worse for him than they ultimately did that day and asserted nowadays he is living his best possible life with the use of both his arms.
This story originally appeared on TVLine
