13 Background Distractions That Completely Ruined Movie Scenes

6. Hi Def Rocks - My Name Is Earl

Another one taken from the world of TV, but no less appropriate here, this is one of the rare intention distractions that qualifies for this list. There's a grand tradition of comedy films putting hilarious details in the background - Airplane and the Naked Gun series were the kings of the background sight gag, but they were far from the only examples, as directors and writers looked to reward engaged viewers with details other watchers might not notice.

And the sadly cancelled My Name Is Earl was one such example from the TV world, making a habit of adding in smart Easter Eggs designed to engage only a select group of viewers, such as those who spoke Spanish (Catalina would directly address the audience in unsubtitled Spanish.)

The most famous running sight gag, which was somewhat destructive, particularly before High Def made spotting hidden background messages a simple thing, was the infrequent references to HD hidden in plain sight. Without an HD screen, the lettering, as in the image above, would of course be too difficult to make it, leading to intense frustration.

However, thanks to the wonders of HD TV, which is now the norm, as opposed to the exception, fans can now enjoy the joke a bit more, even if it completely upstages the foreground action, such as the HD Draft beer in the Crabshack, or Randy holding up the "Hi Def Rocks" message above.