By Sabrina Cognata
Lordy, my favorite episodes of MY NAME IS EARL are their COPS themed shows. Truly, after watching tons and tons of episodes of COPS it’s realistic to understand that any sort of crazy concept the writers can come up with will work. I mean, once I watched a midget try and climb a telephone pole to get away from the police—COPS is wonderful.
Earl & Randy are in prison. Earl’s still a convict & Randy’s working as a prison guard. The other convicts are giving Randy hell as he’s trying to turn off the communal television at 8 p.m. After one of the convicts swallow the knob off the TV set Earl & Randy’s other episode of COPS. It takes place on the 4th of July—Camden’s first Independence Day since the September 11th attacks and the police are out in full force.
If anyone saw last season’s MY NAME IS EARL episode of COPS they’d realize that most of this episode of a petty rip-off of the hilarious hijinks that went on back then, but for continuities sake it works to play off what went on in it past. It begins with Joy (Jamie Pressly) attacking Earl with a weed whacker because he hasn’t brought her any of the money she’s demanded that he make. After she beats him she sends him back to the Fair to make her some money. As she so aptly screams, “I’M THE QUEEN & YOU’RE THE WORKER BEE. YOU’RE SUPPOSE TO FEED ME, DO ME & DIE!”
Officer Stuart (Mike O’Malley) collects his ride along partner Kenny (Gregg Binkley) a closeted homosexual with a crush on Officer Stuart. Most of the exchange goes along the lines of humor entangled with Kenny’s crush on Officer Stuart and his attempts to start something romantic.
Meanwhile, Joy & Crabman attempt to have their tryst. The reasons Joy keeps sending Earl on these wild goose chases after money and trouble is to keep him busy while she fools around with Crabman. Things that Earl does in an attempt to make money are: trying to win the hour with the prostitute so that he can sell the hour off, stealing a goat to sell, stealing a bumper car to re-sell, & eventually Earl and Randy steal a bunch of anti-terrorism equipment accidentally delivered to the Camden County Police.
After Earl steals the anti-terrorism equipment they use it to putz around Camden making trouble for everyone involved. One hilarious moment is when Earl and Randy use the infrared heat camera to check out how hot Joy is downstairs. In the viewpoint of the infrared camera you can see that everyone’s crotches are on fire. Hilarity. Crabman uses the time where Earl starts making sweet love to Joy to escape from the trailer. The yellow towel he’s wearing on his head looks like the turban the Sikh gentleman in the trailer across the way wears. They call the police on the Sikh. When the police arrive they notice the equipment that Randy’s wearing and the cops arrest Earl and put him through some terrorism techniques to get Earl to admit to being a terrorist. The episode ends with Randy stealing the cop car that has Joy & Earl in the backseat. Kevin, the camera operator, happens to be in the car, just like last season, they have to kidnap him because he overhears their getaway plans. On their way to deal with the Kevin situation, the cops catch Earl, Joy & Randy—but the town drunk drives the bumper car near a batch of fireworks and everyone stops and feels patriotic.
Back at the prison, the inmates feel a kinship to Randy, as he’s earned their respect. The inmates stop giving Randy such a hard time & life in the joint gets a little bit easier for Randy.