Grand Theft Arlen

Season 11, Episode 8, Aired

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Hank becomes obsessed with a video game about propane. Meanwhile, Bobby trains for the Presidential Fitness Test.
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Fan Episode Reviews (7)

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  • the simplicity of this show amazes me

    9.0
    "Superb"
    By futuramarama, Oct 31, 2010
    unlike other animated sitcoms, this one rarely, if ever, had plots that were 'out there', or crazy twists. this is a good example of it. hank becomes addicted to a Grand ThefT auto-like game. bobby trains for the presidential fitness test and actually does good while training. but hank could not care less because of the addictive nature of the game. peggy is worried about hank and so she wants to find a way to break him of the addiction. will she?

    a good episode, bobby's plot was kind of boring but i liked the main plot so much i did not care a whole lot. B-moreless

  • Taste the meat, AND the heat!

    9.0
    "Superb"
    By Edgeman, Feb 22, 2010
    Hank and Peggy learn from Bobby that the middle school now has a "virtual P.E.", an alternative to gym where kids play video games all day, for kids who don't want to take gym. Hank immediately takes Bobby out of it, despite Bobby's objections and fear of humiliation at the upcoming President's Fitness Test. Hank offers to train Bobby for the Test, and then confronts Principal Moss at the school. Moss explains that the class was started because parents wanted more computers in the classrooms, and that rather than paying for the games, the middle school allows programmers from the community college to test their games in the class. Two of the "teachers", two geeky gamers, take an interest in propane when they disrespect Hank by confusing him for the janitor, and bugging about him about his hat.

    As Hank helps set up a training program for Bobby, Joseph comes over to ask Bobby for help with his virtual P.E. homework, which is a video game about propane. The two student teachers had designed a Grand Theft Auto-type game called "Pro-Pain", which contains virtual versions of Strickland Propane, and the main character is designed like Hank, in both appearance and speech.

    Hank is outraged at the theft of his face, and Strickland is attempting to sue for copyright exploitation. He orders Hank to play the game, in order to look for anything that Strickland owns the rights to. Hank is, at first, horrified by the game and its use of violence, such as gun play, beating up innocent bystanders, carjacking, and running down innocent people. His mood softens when he realizes that a player can play in "Manager Mode", and learns that he doesn't HAVE to beat up innocent people to play the game. Hank swiftly becomes addicted to Pro-Pain in hopes of rising up in character ranks. Strickland, however, learns that the game is entirely in the public domain, and suing the programmers would bring him no money, so he orders Hank to stop playing. But Hank has become too engrossed at this point to even contemplate it.

    With Hank playing Pro-Pain, Joseph has been helping Bobby train for the President's Fitness Test, and to their amazement, Bobby is actually making progress. He manages to get his feet off the ground doing a pull-up, and he does at least one push-up. Bobby is invigorated by his breakthroughs in fitness, but Hank is too busy playing to notice. Bobby is too ecstatic to notice Hank is ignoring him, but Peggy does. She chides Hank for getting so swept up in the game, and points out that during his game time, the lawn now has a brown spot, and Bobby is now enthusiastically working out. Peggy gets Hank to stop playing by calling him a "technosexual" for owning fancy electronics.

    The will to game, however, is still strong in Hank, which manifests at work when he tries to play Pro-Pain at his desk, and at home when he tells Bobby to get his Game Boy during training. Then he learns from Bill Pro-Pain is on the internet, and that people can play against one another. Hank rushes back to the computer, much to Peggy's anger. Her attempts to break Pro-Pain's control on him falls on deaf ears. Desperate, Peggy turns to the programmers who made the game. While they assure her that Hank will probably stop playing when the game falls out of style, Peggy tells them that "nothing falls out of style with Hank." The two explain that the only two things that can stop a gamer are boredom and humiliation (and seizures).

    As Hank begins wiping out the other players on Pro-Pain, including Bill and Joseph, he encounters one player who is impossible to kill. No matter how many hits, Hank can't kill him, and is then killed himself. Peggy reveals that she is the other player, and is invincible. She tells Hank that the programmers put her into "Commissioner Mode", a rank with no else above her and total invincibility. However, once she blows her player up, it will delete the game for good. Hank begs her not to do it, but she does, and Pro-Pain is gone forever. Free from its control, Hank thanks Peggy.

    The day of the Fitness Test, Bobby impresses his parents by doing a pull-up, but fails because he couldn't do two more. Dejected, Hank cheers Bobby up by telling him, even though he only did one, that was one more than most of the other kids. The two decide to set up training for next year.

    This is one of those episodes which plays on Hank's hypocritical side, where he chides Bobby for playing games instead of going to gym class, yet he gets addicted to a game based on propane. While Bobby, in a bit of a reverse of some episodes, actually finds himself enjoying his father's words of wisdom, instead of rebelling against it like he usually does.moreless

  • Funny.

    9.0
    "Superb"
    By cactusjack39, Feb 13, 2009
    This was a solid episode that was also very entertaining. I don't think that I was bored once. It had some funny comedy, good plots, great writing and great bits here and there. The show was very refreshing from other episodes that have been aired. My favorite aspects of the show had to where Hank suddenly gets hooked on the video game. It was really entertaining to see him get addicted and go beyond his comfort zone. He finally understood what it felt like to be hooked on the video game bug. Overall it was a great episode and was nice. Thank you.moreless

  • My favoirte episode from this season.

    9.4
    "Superb"
    By hsimpson44, Jul 10, 2007
    This is prouble my second favorite episode, right after "Hank's Bully." In this episode, Hank gets addicted to a vidoe game called Pro-Pain which is similar to GTA. Meanwhile, Bobby tries to prepare for the Presidental Fitness test. Hank gets so caught up in the game, he stops training Bobby so Joseph takes over. Hank quits the game, but when he you can play against others online, he starts playing again. Peggy teams up with the games designers to make a special mode for her, where she is un-beatable. He tries to kill Peggy and cant. She reveals why and Hank wants to play. She doesnt let him. Instead, she pushes a button destroying the game for good. Hank realizes he was dumb and helps Bobby. Bobby does a pull-up, but still fails the test because he had to to 3 of them. Overall great episode!moreless

  • Not bad not bad

    8.8
    "Great"
    By aaron304142, Jun 25, 2007
    This was a pretty good episode but I expected it to be a little bit better. I thought it was great that they had Hank out of character it was a great plot and it was written very very well. It was good to see Bobby acutually do ok at sports. But my favorite part would have to be when Hank was first playing the game and didn't know what to do and when Bill was playing Hank and said I can't wait to go home to wife and my son who love and the he dies. Pretty dang funny.moreless
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