The Smarmy Carny

Just when you thought network TV was about as low as it could get, Hollywood's ineffective and misdirected attempts to push environmental issues this week brought network television to a new low.

NBC celebrated "Green Week" this week. It was one of the oddest campaigns or ratings stunts of television history, all under the motto "Green is Universal" — perhaps a reference to NBC Universal, the company that owns NBC, Universal Studios, and other media companies.

Probably the only successful change is that NBC's "The More You Know" PSAs were environmentally focused. They are, after all, PSAs, so they can easily fit the theme. Granted, the environmental topics pale in comparison to the standard TMYK themes of domestic violence and drug use, but that's no matter.

The worst of Green Week is that NBC has directed their shows to adopt an environmental theme in this week's episode. What this accomplishes is that each show on NBC suddenly creates an awkward, contrived environmental situation. These environmental themes have been shoved into this week's episode, regardless of the episode's plot or the show's season-long plot arc.

• ER — The ER experiences a blackout after an unseasonably hot Chicago Day. Sam spends some time with a conservationist doing an energy usage study on County General and Morris has a run in with door of a Hummer.
• Heroes — The Heroes logo turns green — literally — for the week.
• Life — Charlie randomly decides to purchase a solar farm because of a dream he had.
• My Name Is Earl — The Warden instructs Earl to toss in some environmental teachings into their "scared straight" program.

The silly theme only thrives in silly, random shows that enjoy being silly, random shows like Scrubs and Deal or No Deal. One of the worst examples is My Name Is Earl: The warden randomly orders that Earl insert an environmental theme into their "scared straight" program for young children. Furthermore, the awkward, forced moments degrade the episodes' content and don't do much to increase awareness of any sort. These are theme's we've heard for the past 15 years. I'd expect environmental snippets like this in a children's program, perhaps, but not in programming geared toward adults.

I'd love to see the writers of any show stand up against this theme — not the environmentalism theme, mind you, but the NBC-mandated "Green Week" theme. No wonder the writers are on strike this week.

TV Envy also has a great article on NBC's Green Week this that delves into the subject that is worth the read.

There was another bit of Spanish in this week's episode of My Name Is Earl, Frank's Girl. Throughout the episode, Joy and Catalina get into a war over . . . pooing themselves, of all things.

After Joy exacts her revenge on Catalina and takes a picture of the result, Catalina pops her head outside of the women's bathroom door and shouts:

Esperamos que no te daba asco este cuento, nosotros pensabamos que era chistoso!

The "unilingual" viewer assumes that Catalina is yelling at Joy and is possibly promising her own revenge. What Catalina is actually yelling at Joy, however, is:

We hope that this tale doesn't disgust you. We thought it was funny.

At least the writers of Earl know when they may be close to crossing the line on their humor.

My Name Is Earl has done it again. Previously, we have seen several Spanish-language jokes that break the fourth wall, and now they're expanding their efforts to Japanese.

In this week's episode, The Frank Factor, we see the origins of the various characters before they all end up together. As Catalina has freshly landed in the United States, she is walking along the side of the road just as Darnell (a.k.a. Crab Man, f.k.a Harry Monroe) is dropped off by FBI agents. She walks up to him and starts speaking Spanish to him in a concerned tone. She says:

¿Disculpe, disculpe — señor? Mira, yo sé que ésto no tiene sentido con este programa porque como hemos visto yo vine después de "Y2K", pero en realidad quién quién pone atención a esos tipos de cosas?

The viewer is left to believe that the new arrival is concerned about finding a place to live, to eat, or may just be concerned with what to do now that she has finally reached the United States. What Catalina has actually said is this:

Excuse me, excuse me — sir? Look, I know that this doesn't make any sense with this show because we have seen that I came after [in the episode] "Y2K", but in reality who — who pays attention to those types of things?

Catalina is talking about the fact that in the Y2K episode, she is seen starting her journey to the United States while Earl and the gang are meeting Darnell at the Crab Shack for the first time. In this episode, the timeline/canon is broken because Darnell has just been dropped off by the FBI van and certainly has not started working yet, however Catalina has already arrived in Camden County. The writers have skewed the show's timeline to have the origin stories line up better for this episode, and they wanted us to know that they are aware that we viewers notice these sorts of things. My wife also translated the phrase as "I2K", and I have to assume this is a mispronunciation of the Y2K flashback episode. Another blog has also verified this mispronunciation.

The episode also has two Japanese lines spoken by Patty's Japanese "client". He speaks only Japanese in the scene, and none of the characters are aware of what he is saying. Randy keeps cracking up about him speaking "gibberish".

Update: I was finally able to get a partial translation of the Japanese. After Patty introduces Yoshi to Earl and Randy, the Yoshi character says a phrase in Japanese, and right before they exit the scene, he speaks again. Here are the two lines in Japanese:

tenkeiteki na nihonjin no yaru ga kirai da. demo agent ga kore wa yaru no hou ga ii to itta

kare wa dokyun ga kare wa zenbu nandemo shite wo wakan nai no. ikou!

Though this seems to be poor grammar according to the people translating, the two lines are roughly translated as:

I really hate doing Japanese stereotypes, but my agent said I should do it.

He's a dumba**. He has no idea what he's doing. I'm going!

I'll keep posting updates as I get them.

The blog Spanengrish Ramblings posted the following translation, which varies a bit from what I got:

I really hate doing Japanese stereotypes, but my agent said I should probably do it.

Where is he? He's always doing this to me. Let's go.

Let's hope that My Name Is Earl keeps up the great work and inside jokes to multilingual viewers!

Just like last year, this season's final episode of My Name Is Earl included another inside joke for the Spanish-speaking public.

Earl visits multiple people in a desperate attempt to find a positive character witness for Joy. After failing with one of her old friends, her minister, and a celebrity, Earl tries to convince Catalina to be a character witness despite the abuse that Joy has heaped on Catalina.

Joy responds by saying the following sentences in Spanish:

Gracias por ver nuestro programa. Los vamos a extrañar este verano. ¿No te parece cómico que Earl piensa que yo le estoy diciéndole cuánto yo odio a Joy pero en realidad yo les estoy diciéndole cuánto los quiero?

Since the only understandable portions of the speech are "Earl" and "Joy," the non-Spanish-speaking audience is left to believe that Catalina goes on a brief tirade about Joy and her lack of character.

What Joy really said, however, was much more fun:

Thank you for watching our program. We are going to miss you this summer. Don't you think it's funny that Earl thinks I'm telling him how much I hate Joy when in reality I'm telling you how much I love you all?

The show has included a few Spanish language jokes from Catalina. Check out the My Name Is Earl category for the others.

NBC has released the first 10 minutes of the My Name is Earl season 2 premiere as a treat to the online community.

As far as Earl goes, I've seen better scenes than these, but the plot for the episode is set up, and I'm guessing that the remainder of the episode will ramp up the fun factor.

NBC has been catering to the online community, it seems. Between seasons, NBC.com hosted The Office: The Accountants webisodes that center on Kevin, Angela, and Oscar. The ten webisodes covered a story arc involving a missing $3,000 and their attempts to find out who might have stolen the money.

On the finale of My Name Is Earl this week, another Spanish-language joke was included for latinos and the rest of the Spanish-speaking viewership.

A drunken Joy receives her certification to give body piercings and blathers, "I'm legal, [to Catalina] unlike you." Catalina points her finger menacingly at Joy and says:

Con esto concluimos nuestra primera temporada de Earl. Estamos muy agradecido acompañamiento. Anticipamos verlos el proximo otoño.

After Catalina says this, Joy laughs heartily and passes out onto the floor. Again, the tirade appeared to be an insult (probably profane) thrown in Joy's face. And, once again, the comment was actually directed at the audience. Here's the translation:

With this, we conclude our first season of Earl. We are very grateful for your viewership. We hope to see you next fall.

The show has included a few Spanish language stunts. Read up on the other jokes at the My Name Is Earl category.

On this past week's episode of My Name is Earl, Earl tries to cross off "Burnt down the Right Choice Ranch" by building an ostrich pen for them, and Catalina (the latina hotel maid) chips in and helps out. Earl's ex-wife Joy shows up and insults Catalina, who immediately starts spouting off some Spanish. Joy counters with "I'm sorry, I don't speak 'maid.'"

Quiero agradecer a todo el publico latino que los acompaña cada semana, y para los que no son latinos les felicito por aprender otro idioma.

Given the circumstance, it seemed horribly obvious (to non-Spanish speakers) that Catalina was somehow telling Joy how horrible she was. I was so curious about what Catalina had said, I had my wife translate for me:

I want to thank all the latino audience for tuning in each week, and for all you non-latinos, congratulations for learning another language.

It pays to learn Spanish, or at least to marry a latina.

Other episodes have included Spanish language jokes. Check out the My Name Is Earl category to catch up on the others.