r/KingOfTheHill • u/Mr_Dr_Prof_Jordan • 4d ago

Can we appreciate Stephen Root for a second?

I was just rewatching “O Brother, Where Art Thou.”

I’m cracking up because he’s doing the Buck Strickland voice and I’m in tears.

Between KOTH, Barry, Dodgeball, and Idiocracy; an absolute legend.

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u/alek_hiddel 4d ago edited 4d ago

One of my absolute favorite moments is when he voices the Buddhist monk that declares Bobby is not lama in Won't You Pimai Neighbor?

The line is something like "a difficult choice, but it is mine, and I made it". In that moment it is clearly Stephen Root. But he doesn't play it up into a racist stereotype. He conveys humility, strength, and the absolute conviction of a man speaking the word of god. So much wisdom in that simple little moment that could have easily been overplayed, or exaggerated into "Apu" territory. But no, treated with a delicate nuance far beyond early 2000's television.

Edit: "Tough call, but it's mine, and I made it" The exact line.

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u/feralfantastic 3d ago

That whole voice of god thing really benefited him in The Empty Man, when he was the mouthpiece for horrible eldritch beings beyond time and space.

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u/alek_hiddel 3d ago

I feel like there’s 2 ways to play god in a performance. You can either cast like Alan Rickman and make him elegant as hell, or give him a calm voice with an absolute confidence. Like a voice that knows the universe itself will bend to your command. Root pulled it off here, and similarly you had the chill cell mate/god talking to Brenden Frasier towards the end of Bedazzled.