My favorite television show is My Name is Earl, on NBC. It is my favorite for many reasons: the comedy, the morals or lack thereof, and the brutal honesty portrayed regarding all of the stereotypes the show represents. It takes comedy based on human ignorance, but adds intelligence to the episodes to keeps most viewers coming back for more each week. The show does not skirt around the issues; whether it is race, handicap, or religion, it confronts the issue head-on with innocent honesty, as it the writers “play stupid” and get away with it. When we are able to find some remote humor in these stereotypes presented, and not go off the handle because we are offended. We can be more accepting to the stereotypes the show may be playfully mocking.
The premise of My Name is Earl is about a petty crook in small-town U.S.A. who wins the $100,000 lottery, and immediately gets hit by a car. In the hospital he watches a Carson Daily Show about karma, and learns that karma is what makes good things happen to good people, or bad things happen to bad people. This helps him decide to take his lottery winnings and use it to correct all the bad things he has done in his life. He starts a list of things he has done wrong and needs to make right. Using his lottery jackpot, Earl sets out with new meaning and purpose in his life( My Name is Earl, n.d.).
This show contains multiple stereotypes in each episode. Most of them start out as implicit, but once they are recognized by the characters or the viewers, they become explicit. This is the cycle of most stereotypes we have in our society, from implicit to explicit, because eventually they are acknowledged or confirmed in some way.
One implicit stereotype is the show’s setting in Camden County, which could be any town in the middle of the U.S. It does not tell which city, or state, because we all know of a little town like this, filled with underprivileged citizens who will probably never make anything of their lives. It is a close-knit community where there are no strangers. The viewers are able to identify with this town because we all know of a place that fits that description.
Earl Hickey, the main character, is stereotyped as a local loser who is in and out of jail, and is seen as never going to amount to anything. A troublemaker since his school years, he is leading a life that has him on course for prison. However, he has a “heart of gold”, and means well most of the time. Divorced three times, Earl lives in a motel room with his younger brother Randy. After his revelation on karma, Earl finally sees that he needs to turn his life around and become a better person.
Randy Hickey, Earl’s younger brother, is also implicitly and explicitly stereotyped: Randy is the town imbecile. Randy acts as if he is borderline mentally retarded in some of the situations he gets himself into. Randy looks to his brother as a hero and role model, and considers Earl the “guardian” of his adult life. Randy explicitly makes fun of Japanese people, saying they talk “gibberish” and yells out “we’re stealing from the deaf” in the middle of a robbery of a deaf woman, knowing she can’t hear them from the next room.
Randy portrays another explicit stereotype when he wants to fulfill his life long dream of being a cheerleader. Since high school, he has had this dream, and Earl stopped him by telling him how it would make him look a girl, or like a sissy. This transgression becomes an item on Earl’s list, so he helps Randy fulfill his dream by enrolling them both in a cheerleader camp.
The owner of the camp, Kimmi Himler, was a former cheerleader captain in high school, until an attack by the school’s badger mascot deformed her face. This implicit stereotype goes against the stereotype that all cheerleaders are beautiful. Kimmi did not want Randy to be able to join the cheerleader camp because he is an adult male (implicit stereotype), and said there was a law saying he couldn’t join. Earl had reviewed the laws beforehand, and he proved that what Kimmi was saying was not true. Randy is allowed to join the camp and is put on a squad with all of the other girls from Camden high school.
Because Randy is dimwitted, he is not able to remember the girl’s names, so he makes up explicit stereotypical names for the others on his squad. He calls the pregnant teen, “Preggers”, the overweight girl “Chunk”, the girl with braces is “Headgear”, and the African American girl is called “Black Girl”. Because Randy is not mean spirited and acts like a child, these stereotypical names are accepted by the girls on the squad, and they continue to rehearse their routine. Although these names are completely unacceptable in everyday life, most people can be guilty of using a descriptive type word when they can not remember another person’s name.
Randy’s squad ends up getting a standing ovation from all of the audience after his performance of the cheerleading routine. Everyone had stereotyped the groups as a bunch of misfits who wouldn’t be able to cheer. An even bigger stereotype to overcome was that of an overweight, middle aged man performing as a cheerleader, yet he was able to execute the routine perfectly.
Another implicit stereotype is that of Earl’s ex-wife, Joy Turner. Joy is a bleached- blonde, trailer-living, bubblegum-chewing, skank-clothes-wearing, cheating thief who is out to get all of Earl’s lottery winnings. She is the picture of all that “white-trash” represents. She makes fun of every person she comes in contact with, based on their looks or if they have more or less social status than she does. Joy may be small-minded, but her creativeness gets Earl, Randy, and her husband Darnell out of many situations.
Darnell Turner is Joy’s husband, who is implicitly stereotyped as an uneducated, drug using black man. He works at the local bar, The Crab Shack, and everyone calls him “Crab Man”. Darnell is a highly educated African American, lives in the federal witness protection program, and was a former assassin in a secret government organization. He tries to protect his identity, but he makes occasional references that indicate just how intelligent he really is.
Catalina is a friend of all of the characters. She is the stereotypical illegal immigrant who shipped herself to the U.S. in a crate from Bolivia. She works as a maid at the hotel, and as a stripper at a local strip club. She marries Randy in order to get a green card when she fears she may be deported. These are some example of the implicit and explicit stereotypes of immigrants.
The social stereotypes in this show are those that are based on how people appear to others. If someone is wearing revealing clothing, they are stereotyped as promiscuous. If you are speaking about a cheerleader, one would expect the person to be a pretty female. If you are referring to people who work for the circus, they may seem unusual-looking and not normal like we see everyday people.
The cultural stereotypes shown are those based on race and ethnicity. If we have a language barrier while speaking to another person, we assume that they are not from our country. If we see someone dressed in another cultures’ clothing, we think they might be visiting from abroad. We instantly jump to conclusions about individual differences because we expect everyone to be similar, or just like us.
The economic stereotypes are those where we may look down at people who are less financially stable than ourselves. Alternatively, we may have resentment for those who are filthy rich, assuming they may have gotten their money the easy way. Or we try to justify the hard criticisms we have about them by making ourselves feel better for not having as much as they do. Some economic stereotypes would be that people who live in trailer parks are poor and dirty. Another would be a belief that people who live in mansions are snobs and life is easy for them. Also we think people who work in unsavory jobs like garbage men, strippers, or prostitutes are “lesser” people than us. These positions may put us in a certain mindset about these people, and we judge them based on their economical situation or our own morals.
The religious stereotypes are those shown in this show as the Camdonites. They were a “mock-Amish” religious community who lost all of the parishioners because the rules of the religion were too strict to follow. I think we all have similar thoughts and stereotypes towards any religion other than our own, because it’s different from how we practice our own religions. Anything different is up for discussion of the differences of how we have our own way of doing things.
I think that most stereotypes are based on our own insecurities and fallibility. We stereotype one another because it’s easy to do, and it makes us feel better about our own shortcomings. Sometimes this is done innocently to give a basic description of someone, and other times it is done with malice to hurt another person, but the majority of the time is simply labeling others.
Good and bad stereotypes can serve a purpose in our lives. Stereotypes can be good when they prevent someone from making the same mistakes that another person has made in life. If someone goes to prison for stealing, you can show your children the example and say that is why you do not steal. It shows real consequences for our actions toward others, and they can picture the consequences of bad actions. I know that I have personally driven my children through the worst parts of the town I live in, just to show them the importance of continuing their education, so that they will never have to live in squalor like the residents they see. Stereotyping someone can be good also if labeling a person intelligent will give them more credit when talking to others, creating the impression that the person will have something useful to say.
Bad stereotyping and using words that are derogatory is not appropriate. When someone is stereotyped as “fat”, it is very hurtful to that person as well as any other person who is overweight. The only way this could be good is if it is the harsh reality of the words that may set in for someone who may be jeopardizing their health, and they make the decision to lose weight. Some people are in denial about their weight and may need that brutal honesty, but most of the time this stereotyping does nothing more that damage self-esteem, sometimes driving a person to depression. When stereotypes are nothing more than labels that hurt people, they serve no purpose. When a stereotype is used as an example, perhaps a tool with which to better ourselves, then it can turn into something positive.
We stereotype and see stereotypes everyday in our society. We market and advertise to brunettes to go blonde because it’s a stereotype blondes are sexy and have more fun. We market to women with gray hair to color their gray and be more attractive and youthful looking. The beauty industry plays on the stereotypical fear of women not being pretty or young anymore, and that it’s best to keep that youthful look. The $160 billion dollar industry (Greenfield, 2009) knows that these stereotypes work. They play off our insecurities, and it works. Many ad companies will imply that if you have a certain need, then their product will satisfy it (Petracca & Sorapure, 2008). Stereotypes make a huge difference in our world; they sell to our fears and frustrations. Stereotypes are to be recognized, questioned, approved or disapproved, with the realization that although they might help conversations or sales, or simply be entertaining, normally they are just an ugly reality (Browne, 2008).
References
Browne, R. (2008). Profiles of Popular Culture. Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press.
Greenfield, L. (2009). Sociological Images: Seeing is Believing. Contexts. Retrieved on May 25, 2009 from http://contexts.org/socimages/2009/05/15/the-beauty-industry-spending-and-routines/
My Name is Earl. (n.d.). The Internet Movie Database. Retrieved June 2, 2009 from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460091/
Petracca, M. & Sorapure, M. (2008). Common Culture. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Picsearch. (n.d.). Pictures. Retrieved on June 3,2009 from http://www.picsearch.com/.
