TVSquad

Remember that shout-out to Television Without Pity on last week's My Name is Earl? It's been in the works for a very long time. In fact, it looks like the character on Earl was created first on TWoP. This blogger figured out how the writers did it. Here's how it went down: In 2005, someone registered on TWoP forums with the screen name of "Whojackie". That person posted about 15 times before last week's episode aired. Then, on January 17th, one day before the episode aired, someone named "Bramlet06" posts how he/she wishes Earl would give winks to the audience more. "Whojackie" chimes in, noting that he tends to read out loud as he's posting. Then he goes off on television writers who try cheap gags and says, "No, I don't think shows should do more meta that cater to the online bloggers and I'm sure everyong at Television Without Pity agrees with me." If that line sounds familiar, it's because the character, Dead Josh, said it during a flashback on Earl as he typed on his computer. Two days later, posts from Joy and Crabman show up on TWoP notifying people of "Whojackie's" death.

I've gotta say that I like how Greg Garcia and company did this. They didn't monopolize the forum, but they just used it once to coincide with a show where they were giving the website a shout-out.