If Those Kids Could Read They'd Be Very Upset

Origin¶

The line is from King of the Hill, season 13, episode 14, “Born Again on the Fourth of July,” which aired on April 14, 2009.

Bobby Hill is standing outside a school holding a hand-made protest sign. Principal Moss, voiced by Dennis Burkley, observes the scene and delivers the assessment that the demonstration is entirely wasted on its intended audience — because they could not read the sign in the first place.

The joke in the show is about the futility of Bobby’s protest. As a meme, it became about something rather more pointed.

What it means / how it’s used¶

The phrase is used to insult a group in writing while claiming they cannot read it. The poster makes a disparaging statement about some community, then appends the line as a mock-reassurance that no offence can possibly have been caused.

It is nearly always used affectionately or in jest, aimed at:

• Rival fandoms and sports supporters.
• Communities the poster belongs to themselves.
• Groups defined by a hobby, platform, or preference.
• Occasionally, non-human subjects entirely.

The construction belongs to a family of jokes built on feigned illiteracy — including the widely used “that sign can’t stop me because I can’t read” — where the humour comes from a written insult being addressed to an audience the joke pretends cannot access it.

How it spread¶

The line sat unused for eleven years. Its first documented meme use was on Facebook on May 7, 2020, which took 9,900+ shares within a month.

Reddit followed the next day: a May 8, 2020 post took 30,000+ points, and a sports version on May 12, 2020 took 20,000+ reactions. The format spread rapidly across Facebook, Reddit, and Instagram through that summer.

King of the Hill has had a substantial second life online, with a devoted following that treats the show’s dry, understated humour as unusually well suited to meme use. Its revival on streaming platforms — and the series’ eventual return — kept a steady supply of clips in circulation.

Notable examples & variations¶

• Rival-fandom and sports-supporter jokes.
• Self-deprecating versions aimed at the poster’s own community.
• Versions where the “group” is animals or objects.
• Crossovers with the “that sign can’t stop me” format.
• Text-only use, which is now the most common form.

Legacy / cultural impact¶

The phrase has become a standard piece of internet vocabulary for a backhanded, deniable insult, and it is used far more widely than the show that produced it.

It also illustrates a recurring pattern with King of the Hill: the series aired from 1997 to 2010 to solid but unspectacular attention, and has since been comprehensively re-appraised online — its lines quoted constantly, and its subdued, small-town realism cited as a strength it was rarely credited with at the time.