John Redcorn III (born October 17, 1961) is a fictional character in the
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
animated series
An animated series is a set of animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can have either ...
''
King of the Hill
''King of the Hill'' is an American animated sitcom created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It aired its original non-syndicated run from January 12, 1997, to September 13, 2009, and centers on the Hills, an Am ...
''. He is invariably addressed or referred to as "John Redcorn" or "Mr. Redcorn" by every character in the series, and is never addressed or referred to simply as "John".
Description
A former roadie for
Winger and "Licensed
New Age
New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars conside ...
Healer", John Redcorn is
Nancy Gribble
''King of the Hill'' is an American animated sitcom created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels. The main characters are Hank Hill, Peggy Hill, Bobby Hill, Dale Gribble, Bill Dauterive, Jeff Boomhauer, Luanne Platter, Nancy Gribble, Joseph Gribble, ...
's
Native American[University of California, Los Angeles American Indian Culture and Research Center, ''American Indian Culture and Research Journal'' (American Indian Culture and Research Center, University of California, 2003 Item notes: v.27 2003)]
23
masseur
Massage is the manipulation of the body's soft tissues. Massage techniques are commonly applied with hands, fingers, elbows, knees, forearms, feet or a device. The purpose of massage is generally for the treatment of body stress or pain. In Eu ...
, her lover of 14 years (the two split up during the show's fourth season) and the biological father of her son
Joseph Gribble. Both Nancy's husband
Dale Gribble
Dale Alvin Gribble (born July 12, 1953) is a fictional character in the Fox animated series ''King of the Hill'', voiced by Johnny Hardwick. He is an exterminator, bounty hunter, owner of Daletech, chain smoker, gun fanatic, and paranoid belie ...
and Joseph are completely unaware of this, although it is obvious to everyone else in the neighborhood due to the time John Redcorn spends with Nancy and the close resemblance between Joseph and John Redcorn. John Redcorn has a sister, whom Nancy seems to assume told everyone about their affair. A recurring gag is that whenever Dale makes a comment about being Joseph's father, John Redcorn shows up. In season 5, episode 4, it is implied that John Redcorn is
Puebloan
The Puebloans or Pueblo peoples, are Native Americans in the Southwestern United States who share common agricultural, material, and religious practices. Currently 100 pueblos are actively inhabited, among which Taos, San Ildefonso, Acoma, Zu ...
, as the "
Anasazi
The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as the Anasazi, were an ancient Native American culture that spanned the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, a ...
" are referenced as his ancestors.
In episode 38 (season 3, episode 3),
Peggy Hill
Margaret J. "Peggy" Hill ( Platter) (February 6, born 1954) is a fictional character in the Fox animated series ''King of the Hill'', voiced by Kathy Najimy. She is the matriarch of the Hill family and the wife of series protagonist Hank Hill, m ...
, still oblivious to the relationship between John Redcorn and Nancy, goes to him for help with a real headache. When her husband, series protagonist
Hank Hill
Hank Rutherford HillSeason Five, Episode Ten: Yankee Hankie (at time 04:42 of 22:30) Birth Certificate has his name listed as Hank Rutherford Hill (born April 15, 1953) is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Fox animated tele ...
, confronts John Redcorn, John Redcorn says he would never "heal" Peggy the way he heals "the wives of others", implying that he has slept with many married women.
John Redcorn drives a tan
Jeep Wrangler
The Jeep Wrangler is a series of compact and mid-size four-wheel drive off-road SUVs manufactured by Jeep since 1986 and is currently in its fourth generation. The Wrangler JL, the most recent generation, was revealed in late 2017 and is produ ...
and becomes the lead singer of the band Big Mountain Fudgecake, for which Lucky Kleinschmidt plays guitar and Dale is briefly the manager. John Redcorn has had a long-time desire to be a professional musician. The band isn't very good, and after it doesn't take off, it breaks up. Dale re-works John Redcorn’s image as a performer of children's songs and establishes him as "The Native American
Raffi
Raffi Cavoukian, ( hy, Րաֆֆի, born July 8, 1948), known professionally by the mononym Raffi, is a Canadian singer-lyricist and author of Armenian descent born in Egypt, best known for his children's music. He developed his career as a " ...
", as Dale puts it. John Redcorn begins singing toned-down solo acoustic children's versions of his songs at the Strickland company barbecue and becomes instantly popular. It was revealed that Big Mountain Fudgecake got back together near the end of the episode "Earthly Girls are Easy". When driving, he is often heard playing
Pat Benatar
Patricia Mae Giraldo (''née'' Andrzejewski, formerly Benatar; born January 10, 1953), known professionally as Pat Benatar, is an American rock singer and songwriter. In the United States, she has had two multi-platinum albums, five platinum alb ...
songs, including the hits "
Hit Me With Your Best Shot
"Hit Me with Your Best Shot" is a song recorded by American rock singer Pat Benatar and written by Eddie Schwartz. In 1980, it was released as the second single from her second album ''Crimes of Passion'', which became her biggest-selling album. ...
" and "
Heartbreaker
Heartbreaker(s) or The Heart Breaker(s) may refer to:
Film and television
*''The Heart Breakers'', a 1916 film starring Andrew Arbuckle
*''The Heart Breaker'', a 1925 film directed by Benjamin Stoloff
* ''Heartbreaker'' (1983 film), an American f ...
". He is also notable for playing music from the band
Foreigner, such as "
Hot Blooded
"Hot Blooded" is a song by the British-American rock band Foreigner, from their second studio album ''Double Vision''. It was released as a single in June 1978 and reached #3 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart that September. The single was a ...
" and "
Double Vision
Diplopia is the simultaneous perception of two images of a single object that may be displaced horizontally or vertically in relation to each other. Also called double vision, it is a loss of visual focus under regular conditions, and is often v ...
".
John Redcorn is often seen reading a book about Native American rights in North America, entitled ''This Land is Our Land''. A recurring gag is that when he begins speaking about matters related to Native traditions and their spiritual meanings, his long black hair is dramatically whisked up in a breeze. Despite his dedication to his heritage, it has sometimes backfired on him. When
Bobby Hill becomes interested in Native American rights, John Redcorn seems pleased (although his original intention was to get Joseph interested in his heritage). However, Bobby discovers that John Redcorn's ancestors engaged in
cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, b ...
, which then causes a mortified John Redcorn to have to explain to everyone how that practice was discontinued centuries ago.
As a recurring gag, Dale sees several signs of the affair but always draws the wrong conclusions. On one occasion, he finds him trying to sneak inside to have sex with Nancy but thinks he is trying to steal his mower; when Dale reports having a vision of a Native American making love with his wife and Joseph (in full Native American ceremonial garb) being handed to him, he then assumes that means he is part Native American himself; when John Redcorn says straight to a TV camera that "I slept with Hank's best friend's wife for 13 years" with Dale inches away, Dale thinks he means
Bill Dauterive
William Fontaine de La Tour Dauterive (born June 22, 1953) is a fictional character on the Fox animated series ''King of the Hill''. He is the Hills' overweight, divorced, and clinically depressed neighbor, voiced by Stephen Root and named for s ...
's wife and not his. John Redcorn's access to Nancy is caused primarily by Dale ignorantly allowing him to be her
masseur
Massage is the manipulation of the body's soft tissues. Massage techniques are commonly applied with hands, fingers, elbows, knees, forearms, feet or a device. The purpose of massage is generally for the treatment of body stress or pain. In Eu ...
and often trusting her to him to keep her away from other men who may have affairs with her. It is revealed in Season 6 that Dale believes John Redcorn to be
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
, which partially explains his contentment with letting him be alone with his wife so often.
John Redcorn has a predictably difficult relationship with Dale; though he considers him a good man, he is jealous of his relationship with Nancy and Joseph, and exasperated by how Dale's eccentricities influence Joseph. He seems depressed that he was not more of a father to Joseph, which is later partially resolved when Nancy reveals to Joseph that since they all are "from the Earth", John Redcorn and Joseph are in fact related. In "Nancy Boys", after Dale helps him with a lawsuit against the Federal government, John Redcorn calls Dale "a true friend" and cites this as a reason for agreeing to split up with Nancy; he made a similar comment to Hank regarding Peggy in an earlier episode. However, later in the series in the episode "Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow", he would (unsuccessfully) attempt to reconnect with Nancy.
John Redcorn and Joseph are especially estranged. Whenever John Redcorn tries to engage Joseph and introduce him to Native American practices and rituals, Joseph doesn't show any interest. John Redcorn shows special interest in forging a real bond in "Spin The Choice", to no avail—until Nancy takes Joseph aside and sets him straight; it is implied she finally tells him about his true parentage. While he still considers Dale his father, Joseph starts to treat John Redcorn as a mentor in "Vision Quest".
In the season 12 episode
"Three Men and a Bastard", John Redcorn finds out he has a daughter named Kate by a woman named Charlene during the same period that he was having an affair with Nancy. John Redcorn had forgotten about it since, and Nancy was not happy when she learned about his double affair. Charlene then falls for Bill and moves her family in with him; likewise, Kate and Joseph fall for each other, which disturbs 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, although they are never seen or mentioned for the rest of the series.
John Redcorn is 6'4".
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Redcorn, John
Adultery in television
Animated characters introduced in 1997
Fictional characters from Texas
Fictional Native American people
Fictional rock musicians
Fictional singers
King of the Hill characters
Male characters in animated series
Television characters introduced in 1997