I Sell Propane and Propane Accessories

About

"I Sell Propane and Propane Accessories" is a catchphrase used by propane salesman Hank Hill from the animated television show King of the Hill. The phrase is popular online in a variety of meme formats, including image macros, Demotivational Posters and as a snowclone. The phrase rose significantly in popularity starting in early 2010.

Origin

Hank Hill, the protagonist of the animated series King Of The Hill, (KOTH) is a propane salesman at Strickland Propane in Arlen, Texas. He is exceptionally proud of his job and holds propane in high regard, proudly using the phrase, "I sell propane and propane accessories" when anyone asks about his job.

Hank first uses a variation of the phrase in the Pilot episode, saying, "I provide the people of this community with propane and propane accessories," (shown below, followed by further examples from the series).

The phrase itself, specifically the redundancy of saying "propane and propane accessories," is used as a pastiche of the overbearing attitude of many salesmen and tradesmen. While Hank is not like this, he uses the phrase almost subconsciously as an immediate response to questions about his employment status.

Spread

One of the earliest available examples of a KOTH meme referencing Hank's love of propane is a demotivational poster uploaded to eBaum's World^[1] on December 21st, 2007 by "jacobeatscake," although the meme does not use the phrase specifically (shown below).

Around September 2009 throughout 2010, search interest increased significantly for the term "i sell propane and propane accessories" as internet users began making further memes and continued referencing the phrase and Hank Hill's love of propane in general. Many of these posts were made to anonymous imageboard 4chan^[2] (example shown below).

The most common use of the phrase is as a snowclone following the pattern, "I Sell X and X Accessories," each x replaced with another word. The format began around 2010 and has continued to inspire new results over the course of the decade.

On November 24th, 2010, FunnyJunk^[4] user SuperJesusPump posted a photoshop of Hank Hill's face on Pokemon Squirtle's body, titled, "I sell Pokemon and Pokemon accessories" (shown below).

On January 28th, 2011, FunnyJunk^[3] user slapyourshit posted a photoshopped Law For Kids PSA titled, parody titled "Propane and Propane Accessories" in which Hank warns the school about a propane leak but nobody listens, resulting in tragedy (shown below).

On August 26th, 2012, Redditor u/kopo27 posted an edit referencing Breaking Bad to /r/BreakingBad,^[5] garnering over 450 upvotes in nine years (shown below, left). In 2017, Pinterest^[6] user Colton Edwards posted a Berzerk themed version of the meme (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References