My Name Is Earl/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Actor Allusion: Burt Reynolds played Chubby and Norm MacDonald played his son Little Chubby, doing his Burt Reynolds impression from Saturday Night Live.
    • In an episode where Earl sets out to hold a real job, he goes from warehouse dock worker to dreaming of being a salesman. Especially towards the end, the episode turns into an Affectionate Parody of Rudy, which is made all the more funny because one of the salesmen who tortures Earl is played by Sean Astin, and Charles Dutton lampoons his Magical Negro role from that movie as well. "You're six-foot something, a hundred and something..."
    • In an episode featuring Danny Glover, he had to say "I'm getting too old for this crap."
    • In an episode, Earl and Randy take a test where you fill in the bubbles. Randy uses the bubbles to make a sailboat.
    • One episode saw Darnell dancing around and handing out office supplies, which the actor previously had done in a series of Office Depot commercials as "The Rubberband Man".
    • Mindy Sterling playing Seth Green's mom.
  • The Danza: One of Earl's list entries, a depressed veteran named Jerry, is played by Jerry van Dyke.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!: Among others Burt Reynolds, Roseanne, Dog the Bounty Hunter, Geraldo Rivera and most prominently, TV's Tim Stack.
  • Real Life Relative: Willie the One-Eyed Mailman is played by Ethan Suplee's father, Bill Suplee.
  • Screwed by the Network: Italian network "Italia Uno" ("Italy One") has changed the show's timeslot from late evening to early afternoon. And bowdlerisation wasn't even considered. Ironically, they actually managed to show the entire series uncensored and without as much as a complain to be heard of. Not a bad thing for the fans of the show.
  • Throw It In: Never in the script, but Ethan Suplee frequently works with the director to have Randy doing some sort of Funny Background Event that is entirely within his character while Earl is busy with his list item (jumping on a trampoline, trying out the stripper pole, etc).
    • In the COPS episode one the scrawny police officer accidentally clipped his face with the squad car door when rushing inside the convenience store Randy and Earl were held up in. The actor didn't miss a beat and went on with the scene.
    • Willie the One-Eyed Mailman was played by Ethan Suplee's actual dad. Greg Garcia said when they met the guy and saw his mustache, they knew they had to work him into the show.