One of the overarching mysteries left hanging at the end of "My Name is Earl" pertains to the parentage of Earl Jr. Initially fairly pregnant when she convinces Earl to marry her, Joy gives birth to a son named Dodge, whose parentage is also unknown until Earl sets out to find his father in "Dodge's Dad." But while Dodge's paternity always seemed up in the air, Earl Jr.'s was pretty clear, since Joy had been seeing Darnell at the time.
The end of the show's final episode, "Dodge's Dad," finishes on a cliffhanger when a DNA test ultimately reveals Earl to be Dodge's true father and Earl Jr. not to be Darnell's son. In his Reddit AMA, Garcia explained that while the writers never decided on Earl Jr.'s paternity, "the talk in the writers room was that Earl Jr.'s Dad was going to be someone famous." Specifically, Earl Jr. was intended to be the product of a fling with someone passing through Camden County. Since the writers never landed on a name, fans have been free to speculate through the years, although Garcia floated the names of Lil John and Dave Chappelle as two possibilities. Inspired by Garcia's suggestion, one Redditor even went to great lengths to academically sleuth out the answer, ultimately arriving at one of the Baha Men, who beat out Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, and Dr. Dre as candidates.
