YMMV / King Of The Hill S 13 E 1 Dia Bill Ic Shock

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Did Bill think he needed a wheelchair because Doctor Weissman resigned him to his fate, or did he buy a wheelchair he know he didn't need for the sake of wanting attention?
  • While Doctor Weissman is definitely a Jerkass, one has to wonder if he was really dismissive of Bill's condition, or if he was trying to Scare 'Em Straight into making changes by making him realize how scary diabetes truly is, and that he needs to take his condition seriously. Bill himself even briefly ponders if Weissman was giving him Tough Love.
• Catharsis Factor: The episode ends with Bill showing some stones and kicking Doctor Weissman's ass.
• Strawman Has a Point: While Doctor Weissman was definitely a total jerk in the way he talked to and treated Bill (and his own nurse), and his assumption that there was no possibility of Bill dieting or exercising (callously brushing off the nurse's suggestion of nutritional counseling) was grossly unprofessional, it did have some evidence behind it. Bill had just been hospitalized for a blood sugar spike brought on by gorging on cookies — less than a week after he was first diagnosed with diabetes (a diagnosis which was also the result of Bill gorging on junk food and collapsing from a blood sugar spike) and told by a different doctor to start eating right and exercising. And then on his hospital paperwork, Bill wrote "Jell-O" under "Are you taking any medications?" to remind himself to ask for it. Pretty much any doctor would conclude that getting Bill to make any meaningful lifestyle changes would be an uphill battle.
  • With that said, the doctor should also have understood that this was made out to be a rather drastic change for Bill and that such changes are going to be difficult for a person, especially one who has—in Bill's case—been living like this for what's implied to be his entire life. Furthermore, both Doctor Weissman and the previous doctor Bill went to failed to empathize how minor Bill's changes needed to be, with even moderate improvements to his diet or (as he does in the episode) a consistently higher amount of physical activity being all that is needed.