Foreign languages have never been Peggy Hill’s strong suit. Her status as a Boggle champion proves she’s got a decent grasp of English, but beyond her native language, it’s all “Ehs-pah-nohl” and Arabic to her.
At her best, Peggy confused the Spanish words for “years” and “buttholes,” and called a judge “slutty” instead of “your honor.” At her worst, she mistakenly kidnapped a young girl from her home in Mexico, only to be let off the hook following an impassioned speech best described as an acid-fueled game of Spanish Mad Libs.
Despite accomplishing the feat of making any novice’s Spanish sound good, her Arabic is still somehow worse than that of her alleged second language.
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King of the Hill’s revival season finds Hank and Peggy re-acclimating to their hometown of Arlen, Texas, after spending eight years living in Saudi Arabia on some good ‘ol propane-related business. Peggy thought she had a good grasp on Arabic from her time abroad, at one point boasting about it being a good thing she “picked up the language,” but a native speaker very much begged to differ, and translated Peggy’s attempt at haggling for a bag of dates on the King of the Hill subreddit.
Seller (exasperated): Ya khalti, khudhiha walla khalini /يا خالتي، خذيها وللا خليني/ (Translation: Oh auntie (ma’am), take it or leave me.)
Peggy: Alright, I’ll take that as a sign of friendship and welcome to your country. (Peggy then walks away with a bag of dates)
Seller (Shouting and raising his fist): Himara! حمارة (Translation: (Female) donkey!)
Peggy: Thank you.
“Oh, will you look at these dates, Hank?” Peggy said of her score. “So plump. And I saved a riyal by haggling.”
She obviously didn’t “haggle,” but stole the bag and ran off, which no one on the show’s subreddit found very surprising.
“The hilarious thing is that we get the gist of the dialogue (and the fact Peggy proudly underpays the merchant then walks away) even without knowing any Arabic,” wrote one fan. “But it’s better now that I know the insult is ‘donkey!’”
“I don’t know much Arabic, but I know from experience you do not want to be called himar,” joked a second.
Even worse than being dubbed a donkey, Peggy’s “deal” probably wasn’t even that good. “I love that she’s so proud to have saved a riyal,” added another fan. “At current exchange rates, that’s like 20-30 cents.”
We can only hope that Peggy will use her savings on Arabic lessons.