Wow, i'm surprised to learn of your reaction, Mark, that animation was the funniest damned thing i've seen on the show this season IMO and yes, in case your wondering I even found Catalina hot in claymation form.
That whole ep was brilliant IMO, one of the best eps of the season.
I also liked Crabman's hair moving around, it reminded me of Medusa in Clash of the Titans lol.
I just loved the whole message in this ep and the way Christian Slater explained it was pretty profound in an ex-stoner turned hippie evironmentalist sort of way lol.
Speaking of jiggling, they also brought back the meta-dialog in Spanish with this episode. Catalina's animated self says something about how she was cleaning, but since this animation is so expensive, wouldn't you rather see her dancing.
Who cares what the motive was behind it, it was funny and funny is funny and on this show the animation sequences fit like a glove.
On any other show i'd be willing to say that yes it felt off but this was classic Earl, I would even go so far as to say it was one of the best eps of the series thus far. A positive message, Christian Slater who always makes me laugh merely by appearing onscreen and one hilarious claymation sequence made for great comedy, to me anyway.
It reminded me of that episode of Home Improvement when Tim had the dream that everyone was a marionette lol.