In case you (mercifully) never started watching it, or (wisely) abandoned it around the time the Betty theme song happened, allow me to sketch out for you the evolution of The L Word: In Seasons 1 and 2, it was a sincere, straight-faced, though increasingly ridiculous lesbian soap opera. In Season 3 the show turned into a lesbian melodrama that was written on a Tilt-a-Whirl made out of stupidity, and by Season 4 the show and drama had, in effect, died but yet episodes still managed to hobble on air. Now, in Season 5, the show is basically a comedy, which is I guess what happens when TV writers look around and realize all the characters and situations they've created are cartoons.

Anyway, on Sunday night, to celebrate its new, comedic self-awareness, The L Word featured both its first sharp, somewhat funny joke ("You're like the Fonz of lesbians, right?"), and lesbian Turkish oil wrestling.

To put that clip in perspective, here's a list of things that happened on The L Word before it got around to Turkish oil wrestling:

--Goth carnival/childhood incest memories

--A mutual masturbation scene involving a cruise ship jacuzzi and one of the members of Betty

--Multiple prison hook-ups

--A prison shower scene that included both the phrase "don't drop the soap" as well as the dropping of said soap.

--At least one sensual use of a toilet

--Theraputic construction of dioramas

--More sex scenes in a stylist's chair than you can count.

In short, I think "lesbian Turkish oil wrestling" should replace "jump the shark" in the pop cultural lexicon. As in, "When did Weeds start lesbian Turkish oil wrestling?"