Boomhauer

Boomhauer's occupation was not made clear throughout the series. The season 13 episode "To Sirloin with Love" reveals that Boomhauer has a Texas Ranger badge in his wallet.[3] In an early episode, "Nine Pretty Darn Angry Men", season 3 episode 7, reveals that Boomhauer worked as an electrician until he was put on worker's compensation for unknown reasons, leaving open the possibility that his electrician work was a cover or predecessor to his law enforcement career. In "Three Coaches and a Bobby," Hank and the guys run into their old high school football coach. Coach Sauers asks Boomhauer how the family is, and Boomhauer says "Man they're doin' fine, man. Man lil' dang old down in old Florida man, like ol' lottery winner, man, like all, just no problems, man." Coach Sauers responds "I'm sorry to hear that." It's possible that Boomhauer has a rich benefactor. During the final season of the show, it is revealed that Boomhauer's first name is Jeff (and Fox has his middle name as Dexter), and it is strongly implied that he is a Texas Ranger when he shows a Texas Ranger badge in his wallet. The style of camera usage during the scene suggests that the badge is legitimate.

On the FX website that shows King of the Hill, it says that “Boomhauer likes Seinfeld… ‘dat’ show about nothin’ and he works in a deafening loud factory that makes barbed wire.”

Boomhauer's speech patterns are nearly incomprehensible to the untrained audience and serve as a recurring theme. He mumbles, usually quite fast, and invariably uses the words "dang ol'" as an all-purpose adjective, sometimes several times in a single sentence. He also uses the phrases "I tell ya what" and "man" frequently. His heavy Southern accent sometimes leads to misunderstandings about his mental capacity; it has been made clear that he is an intelligent person who expresses that in an inimitable way, such as a memorable occasion where the group's anger at Bill leads to Hank finding out he has the word "Bill" tattooed on his head, and Boomhauer chuckles as he says "life will throw you dang ol' curveball man, like dang ol' Sandy Koufax" (a reference to the legendary Hall of Fame pitcher who was known for the unhittable pitch Boomhauer described). In the fourth-season episode "Naked Ambition", he was admitted to a mental hospital in downtown Houston after he drifted in on the river in a tube and was found in his Speedo, sunburned, drunk, and dehydrated, while his speech pattern was misinterpreted by a police officer as incoherent babbling (in this same episode, he is seen painting a self-portrait in a highly accurate rendition of the style of Vincent van Gogh). All of the regular characters on the show understand most of what he says. In one such instance, when a furious Dale has become involved in a dangerous situation in the episode "Dog Dale Afternoon" and Boomhauer begs him via megaphone to surrender, Dale snaps "Boomhauer, if I ever heard anyone reading a script, that was it."

There is a recurring joke in which Hank occasionally cannot understand Boomhauer due to extenuating circumstances such as the complexity of the vocabulary being used (i.e., "legalese mumbo jumbo"), a bad telephone connection, or an echo. Often, the closed caption texts of Boomhauer's mumblings are clearer than his spoken words. An example of a typical line of dialogue:

Yeah man, I tell ya what, man, that dang ol' internet, man, you just go in on there and point and click, talk about w-w-dot-w-com, mean you got the naked chicks on there, man, just go click, click, click, click, click, it's real easy, man.

Boomhauer's speech is satirical of "rednecks" using phrases such as "dang ol'", "dad gum" and "yeah, man talkin' 'bout" and has the cadence and style of a Cajun accent. Nevertheless, he sings clearly, as evidenced by his rendition of "Blue Moon of Kentucky" in Episode 113 ("The Bluegrass Is Always Greener"); this same episode reveals that he also has a talent for the banjo and the accordion. The singing was done by country star Vince Gill. Mike Judge has stated that the inspiration for Boomhauer's voice came from a message left on his answering machine by an irate viewer of Beavis & Butt-Head (who assumed the show was called Porky’s Butthole[4]) as well as the voice patterns of an acquaintance in Dallas and an Oklahoma City resident reciting directions over the telephone.[5]

The season 1 episode "Hank's Got the Willies" shows Boomhauer and the famously incomprehensible Bob Dylan conversing with one another. In "A Fire Fighting We Will Go", when a story is presented from Boomhauer's point of view, he speaks clearly while the other characters have his usual speech pattern, indicating that Boomhauer sees his speech as normal and that of his associates as difficult to understand.

Early promotional spots for the series featured clips of Boomhauer speaking, intercut with text that presented the term "Boombonics" in the style of a dictionary entry, as a reference to "Ebonics" (AAVE). The word was broken down into syllables, with proper pronunciation and the definition (see gibberish).

Although he only mumbles when speaking English, he is fluent in both Spanish and French.

Boomhauer has had four relatives that have appeared on the show: his "Meemaw" (a Southern term for grandmother); his father, Dr. Boomhauer; his mother, Mrs. Boomhauer; and his sleazy, womanizer brother, Patch, voiced by Brad Pitt in his only speaking appearance (he appeared again for a split second at Luanne and Lucky's wedding). They live in Florida. Mrs. Boomhauer, Patch, and Meemaw all have the same speaking pattern as Boomhauer. Dr. Boomhauer has not been shown speaking, only through other characters paraphrasing what he may have said. He is the uncle of Patch's son, Patrick Boomhauer.

Boomhauer's typical romantic life included one-night stands with several young women. Peggy Hill once mentions (likely in jest) his longest relationship was a three-day weekend. Occasionally, he had girlfriends that he dated for more than sex. When a woman breaks up with him, he is notably devastated. In the episode "Uh-Oh, Canada", Boomhauer moves to Guelph, Ontario, and has a 3-month relationship with a French-Canadian woman.

When demonstrating his abilities with women to Bobby, he was shown to lurk in a discount shoe store and hit on every women he sees, suggesting he is either not as good with women as his friends think or that he is some variety of pick-up artist.