My Name Is Earl centers on a small-town redneck and petty crook, Earl Hickey, who wins $100,000 in the local lottery. As he prepared to celebrate his good fortune, Earl was hit by a car, and lost the lottery ticket in the process. Reviving from this double catastrophe, Earl awakened to see TV personality Carson Daly waxing poetic about "Karma" on a talk show. Instantly, Earl experienced an epiphany, convincing himself that he could replicate his good luck of a few hours previous by helping out a deserving soul each week -- and, in so doing, he would make up for the many sins (258 by his own count!) that he had committed in his lifetime. Assisting Earl on his do-gooding mission was his brother, Randy, while throwing the occasional roadblock in his path was Earl's trailer-trash former wife, Joy (Jaime Pressley).