Original airdate: October 16, 2008
At the crab shack, Randy and Earl sit with Catalina sampling Darnell’s new dessert menu, while Joy sits with her kids, who are trying to complete their homework assignment to draw something beautiful. Earl Jr. is stumped, but Dodge has drawn Catalina, which makes Joy furious. Over at the bar, people are watching a cheerleading competition on TV and mocking the male cheerleader, which makes Earl remember the time he caught Kenny with a flier for cheerleading tryouts and bullied poor Kenny into not going. Earl decides he needs to make it up to Kenny (even though, as Randy points out, he’s already made general amends with Kenny), so he seeks out a cheerleading camp and shows Kenny a video about it; apparently they’re okay with having a grown man attend as long as he doesn’t get freaky with the girls (and, as we all know, Kenny is gay as the day is long).
Kenny appreciates Earl’s offer but explains that he wasn’t the one who wanted to be a cheerleader; it was actually Randy, who foisted the flier on Kenny to avoid being found out by Earl. Earl tries to convince Randy to go to the cheer camp, but Randy is embarrassed and hides in Kenny’s bathroom. Kenny wisely points out that Randy pretty much exclusively does what Earl does, so Earl pretends to also have a secret desire to cheer in order to convince Randy to go to the camp. Meanwhile, in her unrelated storyline (and what’s up with all the unrelated Joy storylines this season?), Joy tries to doll herself up so that Dodge will find her beautiful. It doesn’t really work (much like this storyline).
Randy and Earl arrive at the cheer camp, which of course is full of adolescent girls. It’s run by the perky Kimmi (guest star Jenna Elfman), whose own cheerleading career was ended by a nasty badger attack that has left half of her face scarred. The teams are divided up by hometown, and when Earl and Randy locate the Camden squad, they discover that the girls are a bunch of misfits right out of an ’80s teen comedy (the fat one; the pregnant one; the one with headgear; the, er, jive-talking black one). They despair for Camden’s chances in the final cheer-off, but Randy is so gung-ho that he inspires everyone to work hard and put together the best routine they can.
Seeing that the Camden crew has some spunk to them, though, Kimmi decides that Earl and Randy aren’t welcome after all, so as to eliminate any threat to her daughter’s historically dominant team. Desperate not to crush Randy’s hopes, Earl seduces Kimmi, pus-filled eye and all, and convinces her to let the brothers stay. Back in Camden, Joy despairs that Dodge’s inability to find her beautiful is a precursor to his no longer needing her, so Darnell pushes a fan onto Dodge’s head, causing the little boy to need his mommy. Whatever.
At cheer camp, Joy brings half of Camden out to mock Earl in the squad’s final performance, and he has to finally come clean to Randy that he hasn’t really dreamed of cheering all his life like Randy has. Earl says that Randy has to learn to do things on his own, and finally convinces Randy to head out with squad while Earl stays behind. But all of the Camdenites jeer, and Randy looks like he’s about to cry. So Earl comes to the rescue of his brother one last time, and the Camden squad delivers a killer routine. Earl reflects that after having Randy as his own cheerleader all his life, it was time for him to return the favor and give his brother some much-needed support.
