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Even Cartoons Get It

Why are you looking at me like that? You act like you haven’t seen me in a while or something.

This past Sunday, lacking anything to entertain myself, I tuned into an episode of King of the Hill. The fates must have been smiling upon me that day because it turned out to be one of the most libertarian episodes of any show I have seen. The title of this little delight was Trans-fascism; here’s the description from Yahoo TV:

When the Arlen City Council bans the sale of foods containing trans fats, Sugar foot’s Restaurant goes out of business. Hank, who feels the ban is an infringement on freedom, encourages Strickland to fix things. Strickland’s solution to the problem is to sell his delicious, trans-fatty foods on a lunch truck so he can evade the law. Bribery and police corruption ensue, and Hank begins to have second thoughts on his activism to repeal the ban. However, before he can back out, a rival lunch truck (Rooster’s Roost) terrorizes the Sugar foot truck, and a turf war develops. The fierce competition convinces Hank to stay on board with Sugar foot’s until they can shut Rooster’s down. With the help of a reporter, Hank puts his best investigative skills to the test and becomes determined to unearth evidence to bring Rooster’s down and show the city council that sometimes the world just needs tasty, unhealthy fare.

Unfortunately, that description misses the point entirely. What actually happens in the episode is a testament to all the emergent ills that come from any governmental prohibition, such as:

• The forbidden good is sold on the black market, and rivaling competitors turn to violence (though in the form of fruit throwing) because they have no legal recourse to settle disputes.
• Corrupt police take bribes to turn a blind eye.
• The intended outcome of the ban backfires when Bill, believing that the government only has his best interests in mind, gorges himself on other snacks the city will allow.
• Even the citizens and politicians who pushed for the ban are caught breaking the laws they so desired.

While I’m certainly not advocating the piracy of television shows, you may or may not be able to watch the full episode if you happen to type the search string “Trans-fascism” into Google video.