Some sh0ws have at least one really scummy character that will turn on just about anyone no matter if someone does them a favor or is even slightly nice to them. It’s simply their nature since they kind of have to be this way or simply not exist. Ralph from My Name is Earl was by far the worst character on the show since the fact is that he would turn on anyone when he had the chance, especially if there was something in it for him. The funny thing is that he was a good friend to the main character played by Jason Lee, and yet he would continue to do the wrong thing over and over. The thing about this was that at one point, Earl Hickey, played by Lee, was the head honcho of the small group of thieves that had known him for a while, which included Earl’s brother Randy, his ex-wife Joy Turner, and of course, Ralph. Once Earl went straight in order to embark on his karmic quest, which was the main point of the show, Ralph kind of kept on doing his own thing.
Giovanni Ribisi played this part to the extent that people couldn’t help but dislike Ralph since despite fitting in perfectly with the show, he was still a criminal at heart and couldn’t help himself more often than not. He’d gladly sell out his friends and then expect to be welcomed back only a short while later, if not in the next second. From burning down a favorite hot dog cart to fooling an elderly woman into thinking that he was her long-dead husband, Ralph had next to no shame as he would do anything when it came to being a crook. In fact, the only one that could keep him in line for more than a few minutes was Earl, and even that didn’t work all the time.
Ralph wasn’t an overly intelligent individual, nor was he really that skilled at much of anything but surviving since he was more of a scavenger than anything, taking advantage of anyone and everyone that he could in order to get by. One of the worst parts about Ralph was that he would whine and complain when he wasn’t getting his way but would leave everyone else out in the cold when everything was going his way. The fact that he was kept around kind if proves that he was someone that people enjoyed seeing, but from a good and bad character standpoint, Ralph was by far one of the worst without a doubt. Looking back at the many things he did while on the show and the fact that even Joy, the most stubborn of the bunch, could reform at least enough to keep herself out of jail for a stretch, shows that Ralph was a thief by nature and that it was more than a habit. There were times that Ralph’s presence made sense and was kind of enjoyable, but watching the guy get his comeuppance more than once was also highly entertaining since he comes off as the kind of mooch that a lot of people can’t stand.
The whole idea of the show was that Earl would go on changing his life and those around him slowly but surely as he righted the many wrongs he’d done over the course of his life. While those around Earl were either taking in the fact that he was a changed person and were even benefitting in various ways from Earl’s newfound belief, Ralph was kind of exempt from the whole thing. There are characters in the movies and on TV shows that are just meant to be bad, it would appear since this is how they’re seen and it’s how they’re the most appealing. They do add an element to the show they’re attached to in a lot of ways since in this case, Ralph was a lingering element of Earl’s past that wasn’t really affected by Earl’s new belief, and therefore he served as one of the worst characters of the show. The only guy that could really challenge him for the worst character would have been Creepy Rodney, a recurring character played by Clint Howard.
But to be fair, Creepy Rodney was more sad and pathetic than devious since while he did steal from other thieves he was even lower than Ralph, which meant he was easier to pity than anything. With Ralph, it was fun to see his misadventures since he was the one that usually set himself up for failure, while Rodney looked as though life had simply tossed him out of the bad luck tree and he’d managed to hit every branch on the way down. Ralph is the kind of guy that would be using Rodney as a cushion on his way down.
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