Tricycle | Awake in the World

Those of us who track Buddhist references in pop culture took notice when Fox TV’s animated series “King of the Hill” presented an episode this spring in which Bobby Hill, the tubby twelve-year-old scion of Arlen, Texas’s Hill family, is recognized as an incarnate lama.

In the episode, a group of lamas who are looking for an incarnation of their teacher show up at a party given by the Hills’ Laotian neighbors. When Bobby Hill picks up a cane belonging to the previous incarnation the monks decide that he is the chosen one.

From the official synopsis:

Bobby starts meditating and peacefully solving conflicts within the neighborhood�Hank is appalled and tells Bobby, “There will be no enlightenment in this house.” He takes Bobby to see Reverend Stroup to get him back in touch with his Methodist roots.