"My Name is Earl," 10-18-06

Cafe Society
1

Pretty good, I thought. Earl gets married! And has his eyes closed for his wedding photo, of course. And she sure could make good Rice Krispie squares.

Who’s up for an obscure “Star Trek: The Next Generation” reference? Bill Erwin, who played Dr. Dalen Quaice, Dr. Crusher’s aged former mentor, was the old guy at the senior center who boasted, “I once tongue-kissed a Jamaican girl.”

Giovanni Ribisi can be on the show any damned time he wants. The man is a genius. I love his character!!! “I wasn’t talking to you, Randy.” Later, “This may seem kinda ironic, coming from where we’ve been, Earl, but if you don’t sleep with my mom… I’m gonna have to kill you.”

Earl: “You know, Randy, you don’t have to live wherever I live.”
Randy, baffled: “What do you mean?”
Earl, with a sigh: “Never mind.”

I sure hope Phish Tahko will burn a CD. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go set up my strobe light and dance to “Mr. Roboto.”

2

I couldn’t help but think of Donnie Darko every time Earl’s wife / Ralph’s mom was on the screen.

3

I take it she played in the movie then? Who was she, the school teacher?

4

The whiny one who bought into the motivational speaker’s teachings, yeah.

5

I like that Earl and co. look exactly the same in every flashback (save for his ‘as a kid’ ones). Never is Earl in his early 20s and looks it in these things… nope… always the same Earl, the same Randy, etc.
Did I miss the explanation as to why Joy was at the old folks home? I assume community service?

6

Apparently Joy’s public defender thought that Joy would look better to a jury if they saw that she was a"caring, compassionate member of the community," which is why she had Earl there to take pictures of her being nice to old people.

7

“Take a picture, I’m about to hug one of these old coots!” I nearly laughed myself off the couch when they were playing Red Rover. Clunk Shuffle, shuffle :stuck_out_tongue:

8

What was that move that Joy was teaching the old coots at the beginning?

StG

9

Catalina was on screen for about thirty seconds. That’s better than nothing, I guess.

10

Sure, but she had one of her great hrowaway lines: “Men don’t like it when you sleep with their mothers. That why my brother killed my father.” :eek:

Giovanni Ribisi is absolutely brilliant, isn’t he? Maybe it’s the Scientology, but that dude has got some crazy eyes. And the little strut he does, and the facial expressions… but mostly the eyes. I actually got a chill when he told Earl he was gonna kill him. You know at the beginning of the show when Earl says he’s the guy you avoid when you take your family to 7-11? Nah – Earl has too genial a vibe to be scary. Ralph on the other hand, as played by Ribisi, is clearly a genuine menace to society.

11

Wait for me! Domo Arigato!

I liked how Earl was trying to get his “beer goggles” on. And if I’m not mistaken, the lead singer of Phish Tahko was Mr. Hinkles(?), the guy that lived up stairs from Monica and Rachel on Friends.

Poor Mom…“You don’t have to look at me! I have porn and ESPN! I can put a plate of popcorn shrimp on the nightstand!”

12

I love his comparison of his new family to his old. “Even tucking in the two boys was easier mainly because they drank themselves to sellp”

I really enjoyed this episode. Especially Crab man trying to tell the crowd he was not being literal about tearing the roof off the house.

13

Sometimes I doubt your commitment to SparkleMotion.

14

sellp? Read that as sleep.

15

I really liked the fact that the original list entry Earl was working on involved the lead singer for Phish Tahko, when the song that inspired them and the only song they played was the instrumental “Frankenstein”. It’s the small touches like that that make the show for me.

16

You can also see his train of thought, because the next one on the list was “Slept with Ralph’s Mom”, so one memory (the creation of the band) triggered the next (their first gig afterparty).

Probably the weakest episode of this season, but still good.

17

I remember him mainly for playing “Kramer” on the sitcom-within-a-sitcom of “Jerry”. (And he really did steal the raisins.) He also had a one time bit on “Mad About You” as a security guard that Reiser was trying to get by to steal back his film.

And… the guy he was playing pingpong with at the old folks home was one of the old people that the Seinfeld gang “adopt” in one episode. He was the one with the old record collection that Newman and Kramer take.

For a lead singer, he sure didn’t sing much.

18

Great, dark episode, but I have the horrible feeling Jason Lee is going to name his next kid “Phish Tahko.”

(The walker gag was a little too close to home to be funny for me–I spend a lot of time in an assisted-living facility!)

19

And some ripped abs.

20

Ahhh, that’s where I recognized him from. I knew he looked familiar.

I loved that bit – and I was watching with a good friend who spends a lot of time at one, also, because her parents live at a retirement home. They aren’t in the assisted living area, but there are plenty around with walkers and such. My friend volunteers a lot over there, teaching an exercise class, and a little line dance class for a small group of ladies. Very minimal moves, but enough to get them happy and involved.

After we saw that scene (Red Rover…) she said that one of her little old line dance ladies once suggested doing a routine with walkers.

BTW, the name she gave her little group is “The Hot Flashes”.