While other adult animations such as The Simpsons and Family Guy love to revel in the topical dysfunction of the modern family, King of the Hill always had its own, much more sincere look. One of the best examples of this is someone with one of the least ideal situations for a family life, Dale Gribble. For years, Dale's wife, Nancy, has been cheating on him with John Redcorn and even had John's child, Joseph.

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While Dale was never the wiser, raising Joseph kindly and sincerely as his own, for better or worse. With a unique parenting style of some personal issues of his own, Dale has had a mixed history as a father.

10 Terrible: Becoming The "Smoking Bandit" To Impress His Son

Dale Smoking in a Restauran

Dale Gribble is far from the type of parent to try and teach his son to stay away from cigarettes. In fact, he once tried to use smoking as a parental advantage. In a much more desperate version of a kid trying to impress other kids by smoking, Dale tried to gain his son's respect by becoming Arlen's symbol of smoking.

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When a smoking ban begins sweeping across restaurants, Dale starts a media inspired protest to smoke in an as many restaurants as possible, all for the small chance that he'd earn his son's respect. All he did, however, was teach his son that smoking and disobeying authority was cool.

9 Great: Giving Joseph Some Money To See A Movie

Peggy and Dale

In the episode, "Peggy's Headache," Peggy Hill discovers that Nancy has been cheating on Dale with John Redcorn and that Mr. Redcorn was, in actuality, Joseph's real father. Disgusted that everyone on the block had simply went along with the lie, she tries to confess things to Dale personally. However, she's stopped in her tracks in one of the most revealing instances of Dale's fatherhood.

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When Joseph and Bobby ask him for some money to go see Encino Man, Dale feigns giving them only half of his money. He then acts surprised to find another bill in his wallet and gives them the other half to get some snacks. It's a quiet gesture but one that proved to Peggy how destructive losing Dale would be to his family.

8 Terrible: Educating Joseph With Smoking Propaganda

Bobby and Joseph Dumpster Diving

King of the Hill didn't do a lot of PSA episodes; but in season 1 at least, they decided to tackle smoking. In "Keeping Up With Our Joneses," Bobby Hill and Joseph stumble across an unused cigarette in a dumpster and get caught by Hank trying to smoke it. While this would spark a hectic journey for the Hills, the Gribbles had a much simpler, much more controversial answer.

Dale Gribble is both a habitual smoker and one who religiously keeps up with the ad campaigns and PR materials of his brands of choice. This is unfortunately at full display in this episode when he decides to use a report clearly curated by smoking companies to educate his son on smoking.

7 Great: Taking Joseph Hunting

John Redcorn Gifts Joseph a Hunting Knife

While Dale may not have the maturity or life experience to really educate Joseph on practical matters, he puts in more than a little effort to spend time with his son. This is clearly exemplified in the episode "Good Hill Hunting," where deer season hits Arlen, and father-son duos everywhere embark on their own hunting trips. In the Gribbles' case, Dale and Joseph actually have a very fun and intimate time.

Here, Joseph actually shows signs that he's been listening to his dad when he shares his own conspiracy theory during the trip. Later on, the two even work together, i.e. Dale dropped his gun, and Joseph caught it, to catch their own deer.

6 Terrible: Switching Sons With Hank

Bobby and Joseph in Green Light

It's been known for years that Hank and his son, Bobby, are a very different people. Secret family issues notwithstanding, this wasn't the case for Dale and Joseph, that is, until Joseph started getting into sports. While Hank and Joseph are more athletically oriented, Dale and Bobby have always been more sensitive and eccentric.

This little parallel is at full display in "Of Mice and Little Green Men" where Hank and Dale subtly switch sons after Joseph gets into lacrosse, and Bobby gets into a local, stage play. However, when Hank and Bobby began to reconnect, Dale struggled to find any commonalities with Joseph, going as far as to tell Joseph that he wasn't his real son but, in fact, the offspring of an alien.

5 Great: Sending Joseph To A Prep School

Dale and Nancy in Western Outfits

This one didn't start as a good thing. In the episode, "The Courtship of Joseph's Father," Dale actually tries to profit off of Joseph's inherent athletic ability by transferring him over to a local, preparatory academy full of rich kids. However, clashing with the significantly different culture of the academy's parents, Dale inevitably humiliates himself when he tries to blend in.

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This causes Dale to foolishly though sweetly surrender Joseph to one of the wealth families in an effort to give Joseph a better life. This, of course, isn't how adoption works, but the two do sweetly reconnect when they realize that what they really wanted wasn't a fancy school but each other.

4 Terrible: Forcing Joseph To Work For Hank

Dale Shadowing Joseph

Dale trying to profit off of anyone in his family isn't a new thing. For years, he's lived comfortably by mooching off of his own wife; and when Tom Landry Middle School's career fair arrives, he starts planning to do the same with his son. In the episode, "Business is Picking Up," Joseph ends up shadowing Hank at Strickland Propane after Bobby refuses to sign up during the career fair.

While Joseph was simply just curious about joining, Dale makes the program a life-or-death situation for his son. Actively shadowing Joseph during his own shadowing, Dale starts pressuring Joseph to be a better employee, convincing the kid that the family's future and even his parent's marriage was on the line.

3 Great: Reading Stories To Joseph

Dale Reads To Joseph

Reading stories to help children sleep is a classic tradition among families, and one that Dale Gribble celebrated well into his own son's teens. In the beginning of the episode, "Dale to the Chief," Joseph has a hard time getting to sleep and asks his father to read him a story, something that Dale gives little objection to.

However, Dale doesn't pull out Goodnight Moon or The Cat in the Hat. Dale brings out a copy of the Warren Commission Report, the investigative dossier on U.S. President John F. Kennedy's assassination. It's a weird bedtime story, but it made for a sweet bonding scene that was nothing less than a Gribble family moment.

2 Terrible: Teaching Joseph To Fall To Peer Pressure

Dale Dressed as a Native American

This is far from one of Dale's proudest moments. Peer pressure is something that most children struggle with, and it horribly affects Joseph when he becomes involved with a group of aggressive hoodlums. After Joseph receives a vision advising him on the struggles and horror of trying to fit in with the wrong pack, he turns to his father for help who, in turn, horribly misinterprets it as a challenge.

When the group of hoodlums hatch up a plan to break into the panda exhibit at the school, Dale convinces Joseph to not only join in but to lead the pack by personally attacking the panda.

1 Great: Giving Joseph A Proper Sex Talk

Joseph and Nancy

Dale Gribble, as well as the King of the Hill cast in their entirety, infamously struggle with sexual maturity. As residents of a small, Texas town, everyone struggles with the proper vocabulary to talk with anyone, especially their own kids, about relationships. However, Dale is left with very little choice when Joseph starts moving things quickly with his new girlfriend.

Despite being concerned over his son, Dale struggles to find the right words to talk with him and somehow convinces himself in the end that he has dementia. Before being committed, Dale finally sums up the courage to give Joseph a sincere and tactful speech about sex.

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