Ahhh... My Name Is Earl (Channel 4, Thursday, 10pm) is still funny, still brilliant and still strangely touching. Last night, our unlikely hero decided to cross off number 91 on his karma list ('Made fun of Maggie Lester for having a moustache'). This saw Mr Hickey tracking down Maggie at a carnival where she was performing as a bearded lady.

Of course, with Earl making his way to see a carnival gal, he encountered the rest of the 'freak' show. Of course, this ensured a barrel of laughs... but not in the way you'd think. Earl wouldn't be cruel to people who are different would he? Well, he wouldn't... but Joy would.

In this episode of ...Earl, we saw our karma adventurer meeting the freaks, who were: A very tall man; A very small man; A man with a horn; A very fat lady; A boy with pincers and of course, Maggie Lester who had a beard. A lesser show would have seen a plethora of smirking sniggering faces point and prod at the carnie folk, but this being Earl, the sniggers were subdued as he had some making up to do. Of course, that's not say this show isn't without its cruel streak.

Joy's brush with the law from previous episodes (the accidental taking of a hostage and a 'gay kermit the frog' incident) saw her meeting the lawyer who was gonna keep her out of jail. However, the lawyer was a woman... and joy didn't take kindly none to having some woman representin' her. Not only that, this woman was deaf. When the lawyer type spoke to her (after an impassioned plea from Joy) in her... well... we can only describe it as a 'deaf voice', Joy pissed her sides laughing. "I'm sorry, if you could hear how you sound, you'd laugh too" (or words to that effect).

Basically, the format was the same. Thankfully, this tried and tested format is a brilliant one. Loads of great jokes (both verbal and visual) and a good heart buried beneath. The 'freaks' were encouraged to be proud of themselves and the show climaxed with a super slo-mo montage of the freaks jumping from a diving board with Earl. Sounds a bit daft. It wasn't. A great show that still shows no sign of letting up. Long may it last. [Mof Gimmers]