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This season, “My Name is Earl,” due to its storyline, has been renamed “My Name is Inmate 28301-016.”

Yes, Earl’s (Jason Lee) still in the slammer as the season begins, put there after confessing to ex-wife Joy’s (Jaime Pressly) crimes in last May’s season finale. Things aren’t going well for poor Earl: When his cellmate escapes, he’s treated to the obligatory beating from the guards. Early explains prison life thusly: “The only thing that alleviates the boredom is when one prisoner tries to kill another one.”

Hey, but you know what? In tonight’s hourlong episode, Earl’s storyline is pretty uninteresting and Joy’s – in which she brings Earl “a straight version of one of those AIDS quilts,” including a scene of her cheating on him, and offers to take care of Randy (Ethan Suplee), who gets, impressively, dumber by the episode (tonight, he’s clueless as to how to set his digital clock and forgets to look in any direction before crossing the street) – is the entertaining one.

(It makes you wonder how Randy got by when Earl was married to Joy and therefore not on hand to help him cross every street, but that’s clearly nit-picking.)

And Earl? Earl’s helping a fellow inmate earn some Scout badges. What dreary whimsy.

No wonder Pressly has the Emmy.

- “My Name is Earl:” 8 tonight; NBC Channel 4.