The Souphanousinphone family move in next to the Hills, and Hank and Kahn get at each other's throats.
This episode contains examples of:
- A Dog Named "Dog": Literally, as Kahn's dog is named "Doggie".
- An Aesop: Bigotry is a two-way street.
- Regardless of nationality, people are people, warts and all.
- Asians Eat Pets: Everyone freaks out after they suspect Kahn and Minh of eating dogs: first Doggie and then Ladybird. Hank and Kahn almost get into a fight before Bobby and Connie confess that they tried to get the two dogs to befriend each other, only to have them run away.
- Bait-and-Switch: The beginning with the guys seeing a white man and his teenage son helping unpack at the new house. They introduce themselves and ask what brings them to Arlen. They reveal they're just hired movers for the Souphanousinphones.
- Characterization Marches On:
- Minh is much nicer here compared to her later appearances. She unintentionally offends Peggy by calling attention to the size of her feet ("What big feet you have, like boat!"), walking around in her big shoes, saying she feels like a little girl in mama's shoes. She does apologize for it later, though.
- Peggy talks about the secret recipe of her "Apple Brown Peggy" and mentions how she'll pass it along to her son Bobby, which embarrasses him. This is the same kid who in later seasons not only has zero qualms about baking, but is quite good at it.
- Hank, who gives Kahn a propane tank, enjoys Kahn's burgers, cooked with mesquite. Yep, the same Hank who has a religious dedication to propane and pretty much shuns any other way of grilling, especially charcoal. Compare this with a later episode that has him praying for forgiveness when Peggy and Bobby start eating charcoal grilled burgers.
- Comically Missing the Point: The "Chinese or Japanese" conversation, with Kahn stating he is from Laos, which of course goes over the guys' heads.
- Commonality Connection: Shown after Hank and Kahn yell at their children for letting the dogs loose and both simultaneously telling them to go to their rooms. They talk about how they both deny their children desserts, which finally has the two men forming a bond.
- Condescending Compassion: Peggy is like this, just assuming the family are totally clueless about everything.
- Crushing Handshake: Hank doesn't make a good first impression with Kahn when he meets him and hurts his hand.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- Hank not only eats one of Kahn's mesquite-grilled burgers, he actually enjoys it and admits to Peggy (while mistakenly referring to Kahn as Japanese) that the Japanese make everything better; "First the automobile, then the color TV, and now the hamburger." Later episodes would show Hank so devoted to propane that he won't touch anything cooked by any other means. Hank would also become such a patriotic American that he believes domestically-made products are superior to imports and even sent Bobby to his room for suggesting that he buy a Japanese TV set.
- Connie is only referred to as Kahn Jr, even by the rest of the neighborhood. She states her father wanted a boy.
- Everyone Has Standards: The Stinger has Minh trying out Peggy's various foods, but gets disgusted with her rabbit stew, stating rednecks will eat anything.note
- Hypocritical Humor:
- Boomhauer has no leg to stand on when he says you can't understand what the Chinese are saying.
- And also from Hank: "...just 'cause I'm from Texas that means I'm a redneck. Chinese people and their stupid stereotypes."
- Idiot Ball: Hank grabs it in the second half, falling for Dale's beliefs that Kahn and Minh are dog-eaters.
- Ink-Suit Actor: The older mover seen at the beginning looks a lot like Mike Judge. This is even lampshaded in the
DVD Commentary done by Bill and Dale. - Innocent Bigot: The guys and Peggy, especially Hank and Peggy, fall into this. They're not malicious towards them because of their culture, just have skewed ideas of who they are (and not helped by the fact they keep thinking they're Chinese or Japanese when they're really Laotian).
- Innocently Insensitive: One of the women at the barbecue says that she's always had a problem "keeping down" Peggy's Apple Brown Betty which starts to trigger Peggy's resentment toward Minh.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Kahn offends Hank by calling him a narrow-minded redneck, but you can't argue with that considering Hank's skewed view of Asian people.
- Mistaken for Dying: Dale's paranoia gets the better of him when he accuses Kahn and Minh of eating dogs and how they keep it under wraps by saying they kill people with poison darts, with the victims thinking it's a mosquito bite. Then when they go off to the rescue, Dale does get bit by a mosquito and at the end, he begs Kahn for the antidote.
- Mistaken Nationality: Hank and the guys have never heard of Laos, so they just assume Kahn is either Chinese or Japanese.
- Noodle Incident: Apparently the Souphanousinphone family has been on the run after being kicked out of Laos and Anaheim due to Kahn's Jerkass tendencies.
- Political Overcorrectness: The reason why Peggy makes Hank go to Kahn's BBQ so people won't think he's racist. Hank lampshades it best: "What the hell kind of country is this if I can only hate a man if he's white?"
- Shoe Size Angst: Invoked when Minh unintentionally offends Peggy by walking around in her big shoes, with Hank having to reassure her that he loves her the way she is, then he steps on her feet.
- That Came Out Wrong: After the BBQ with Dale saying that dog is indeed meat, with Bill agreeing as he licks his fingers. The others give him a disturbed look, but Bill points out he's just getting the awful taste off his fingers.
- Trademark Favorite Food: More like trademark favorite spice. Minh uses nutmeg in her cooking, which is how she improves the recipe in the Apple Brown Peggy and suggests Peggy uses it more in her cooking.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: Hank does this when he sees Minh chopping meat, thinking she's cutting up Doggie.
- Women Are Wiser: Subverted. Peggy and Minh, who pushes their husbands to get along and seem to hit it off, that is until Minh perfects the Apple Brown Peggy recipe, which causes some envy in Peggy.
