Teacher Earl is the title of the fifth episode of Season 1 of My Name is Earl. Earl decides to teach English as a Second language to cross "Made fun of people with accents" off his karma list. Meanwhile Ralph, an old friend and partner in crime, is released from prison; Earl tries to teach him about karma, but things do not go as planned.
Episode guide[]
- You know the kind of guy who does nothing but bad things then wonders why his life sucks? Well, that was me. Every time something good happened to me something bad was always waiting around the corner. Karma. That's when I realized I had to change. So I made a list of all the bad things I've done and, one by one, I'm going to make up for all my mistakes. I'm just trying to be a better person; my name is Earl.
Earl decides to teach a class of foreign people how to speak English to make up for #27 on The List: "Made fun of people with accents.". He tries teaches them English, and after securing their abilities to be able to repeat "My name is Earl", he tries to teach them basic directions. However, it is unsuccessful.
Whilst in the Crab Shack lamenting to Randy, Earl is surprised to see his old friend Ralph Mariano, with whom he used to steal. Ralph had been in prison and was unaware of Earl's new turnaround. Earl, wanting to have fun with Ralph, decides not to tell him as he was the one who encouraged Ralph to steal in the first place; when they were children Earl helped him get a gumball by smashing open a machine with a baseball bat.
Earl decides the best way to deal with Ralph's stealing is to take everything back he stole whilst Ralph was asleep. Earl runs around town taking back a prom dress, takes money to a store clerk, Vali, who was in Earl's English class, and removes the empty cans from the pool that they threw in. Suddenly, Joy approaches Earl, angered that he was teaching an English class as one of his students, Kim Lee, had opened a competitive nail salon three trailers down from Joy's Custom Nails. To get an edge, she added "We speak English" to her sign, but became annoyed that Kim was now learning English. Ralph overheard them and questioned Earl on the List and, realizing that he had to tell him, explained that he no longer wanted to steal things. Ralph was upset and left.
Over breakfast the next day, Earl explained everything from karma to his lottery win to Ralph, who agreed to follow a similar path to Earl so he too could have a better life. Earl managed to get him a job in a lamp shop, then decided to go back to his teaching job. However, he noticed that Kim Lee was missing, unaware that she was being talk improper English by Joy - 'Okay, so when you're doin' somebody's nails, say "I give you big infection."' Earl went home after class and Ralph revealed that he had moved in next door. Happy, Earl went to see him but was angered when he saw that Ralph had stolen hundreds of lamps from his new job. He explained that being good wasn't working out for him, he was good all morning and after scratching 20 lottery tickets, he didn't win anything. Earl tells Ralph that getting rewarded for doing something good takes time. Ralph doesn't care and says he was born to steal. Earl explained that he could not hang out with him if he's going to keep stealing and being bad, and he told Randy that they needed to go. However, Randy did not want to leave and so Earl was left watching whilst Randy and Ralph enjoyed themselves with stolen goods.
The next day Earl received a call from Ralph who said they were breaking into a house and Randy had got stuck going down the chimney. Earl left to help out, but it was revealed that Ralph had called from his motel room, just next door to Earl and Randy's. Then, he knocked Randy out by smashing a lamp over his head. He tied Randy up and took him into Earl's room and tried to find the lottery money. However, he was unsuccessful. When Randy woke up, Ralph questioned him to the whereabouts of the money, but Randy refused to help him. Meanwhile, Earl arrived at the house Randy was supposedly stuck at, telling the occupant that he needed to check out her chimney. Her suspicions were arisen when he began to call "Randy!" into the chimney, and she soon left to get her gun.
Earl's class arrive to help him and Randy
Earl arrived back home after realizing Randy was not stuck up a chimney, but was assaulted by Ralph who knocked him out then tied him up with Randy. Randy revealed that he had not been able to hold out and told Ralph that Earl kept the key to the safe deposit box where the money was on him at all times. Ralph took it, dressed up as Earl and left. However, after calling karma for help the foreign students from Earl's class arrived, remembering the directions to his house that he had given them in class. They untied Earl who called the bank and told them not to let Ralph get the money. In turn they called the police who was unsuccessful in catching Ralph (mainly due to the fact that 2 officers were present, as Kim Lee's father was seeing about what Joy thought Kim Lee to say). Earl decided not to tell them where he was because they were still friends, and in exchange Ralph gave him the key back. At the Crab Shack Earl and Randy celebrated with all the foreign students, and Earl crossed #27 off his list.
Notes[]
- When Randy leaves the bathroom, look at his hair. You can see the fake mullet attached to his hair to protect his head when it gets hit.
Flashbacks[]
- A flashback shows Earl and Randy making fun of three foreign people
List[]
- Earl completes the following items on his list in this episode:
- - #27 Made fun of people with accents.
Featured music[]
- "Bad Company" by Bad Company
- "Rock Candy" by Montrose
- "Blues Eyes Woman" by The Go
- "Flirtin' With Disaster" by Molly Hatchet
- "One Love" by Bob Marley and the Wailers
- "Amos Moses" by Jerry Reed
Memorable quotes[]
- Earl Hickey: All right, guys. Let's try some basic directions. To get to the library, you need to take a left at the light. Ok?
- Vali: My - name - is - Earl.
- Earl Hickey: These people were not gonna find the library.
- Ralph Mariano: You know in the joint the guards pay me 12 cents an hour to do their taxes for them? Man those guys are going to be screwed!
Cast[]
Starring[]
- Jason Lee as Earl Hickey
- Ethan Suplee as Randy Hickey
- Jaime Pressly as Joy Turner
- Nadine Velazquez as Catalina
- Eddie Steeples as Darnell Turner
Recurring[]
- Giovanni Ribisi as Ralph Mariano
- Abdoulaye N'Gom as Nescobar-A-Lop-Lop
- Noah Crawford as Young Earl
Guest starring[]
- Sunkrish Bala as Foreign Doctor
- Patty Maloney as Woman with Chimney
- Pramod Kumar as Vali
- Wahn Lee as Kim Lee
- Phoenix Smith as Young Randy
- Tanner Maguire as Young Ralph
- David Aranovich as Russian Busboy
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My Name is Earl Season 1 | Season 2 >
| ||||||
| #00 Bad Karma | ||||||||
| #01 | Pilot | #07 | Stole Beer from a Golfer | #13 | Stole P's HD Cart | #19 | Y2K | |
| #02 | Quit Smoking | #08 | Joy's Wedding | #14 | Monkeys in Space | #20 | Boogeyman | |
| #03 | Randy's Touchdown | #09 | Cost Dad the Election | #15 | Something to Live For | #21 | The Bounty Hunter | |
| #04 | Faked My Own Death | #10 | White Lie Christmas | #16 | The Professor | #22 | Stole a Badge | |
| #05 | Teacher Earl | #11 | Barn Burner | #17 | Didn't Pay Taxes | #23 | BB | |
| #06 | Broke Joy's Fancy Figurine | #12 | O Karma, Where Art Thou? | #18 | Dad's Car | #24 | Number One | |