That’s the genius of Hank Hill as a character. That one paradox sums up the central conflict of the show, and by extension, the central conflict of American masculinity.

Hank grew up in a more simple world. He did everything right, by the standards of his time. But ironically, those very cultural mores on which he based his life are becoming more and more out of place in modern America.

Hank constantly has to come to terms with the contrast between the values that he has built his whole life around (e.g. Hank was a star football player but his son is into less masculine pursuits) and the new world he finds himself in. Often times the best he can do is just live and let live.

Which brings us to the propane.

Hank is obsessed with doing things the right way, the manly way, the American way. Yet when it comes to the most masculine and American of pursuits, barbecue, Hank completely and utterly fails to live up to his own standards. Propane is the inferior medium. Charcoal is superior in every way.

But poor Hank has built a large part of his identity, even his livelihood, around propane.

It’s this underlying paradox which makes Hank relatable and likable. If not for his unjustifiable propane fetishism he would be the “perfect” American male (at least in his own paradigm). Instead, with this one detail, we immediately see him for what he really is: a flawed individual, desperately trying to keep up, to find meaning and order in an ever changing world. A world he are less and less equipped to understand. Just like the rest of us.