J-Unit, Mr. Mxyzptlk (pron. mix-yezz-pittle-ick, in the comics) was a "prankster" from the "Fifth Dimension" who could travel to our dimension only once every 90 days. The only way to force him back to his dimension was to get him to pronounce his own name backwards (kill-tip-zee-zim).

I'm guessing they didn't want Howie Mandel reprising the role from "Lois and Clark", so they just made him an Eastern European prankster.

I'm a comic book fan. Mxyzptlk is an imp from the 5th dimension with reality warping powers. The way to get rid of him is to trick him into saying his name backwards. The "search his name backwards" is a little nod to that.

Note that Mxy was a product of the 60s -- comics' silver age -- which yielded characters like Beppo the Super Monkey, Streaky the Super Cat, Comet the Super Horse, Bat-Mite, Ace the Bathound and B'wana Beast, the African Jungle superhero who is white.

I still don't get how Clark out ran his own momentum. He should've Mikhail out of the PA room, but had enough time to run back onto the field before Mikhail actually flew across the room and smashed into the display case. Do we have any physicists to comment on that one?

J-Unit, you are so right about the Red Zone ads. They even announced the sponsorship over the PA as Chloe was going to jam the frequency. Do national brands often sponsor small town, high school sports?

Clark's comment about how Jonathan could never really understand what's it like to hold back in every contact with others was great. Wonderful revelation about the nature of his interaction with the world.

Clark didn't tell Lex about Jason/Lana. He'd already figured it out for himself. I always thought - okay, tried to believe - that Lex had an older brotherly affection for Lana. Now... can't really hold on to that fantasy anymore.

As cheesy as it seemed last night, national brands do sponsor high school sports, particularly ones that are state champions. My high school was sponsored by Pizza Hut and Pepsi for basketball and football. They even built a new gym, gave us a fancy video score board and tried to get us to change our mascot from the Rangers to the Stars, but that didn't happen.
Lex is definitely in love with Lana, which I think has been apparent for ages and inevitable. He always wants what Clark has, his health, his family, and his woman. Poor Lex.
And is it just me, or does anyone else wish Chloe had stayed dead. She's so annoying. Clark needs new friends. Lana's a slut, Chloe's a doormat, Lex is, um, evil, and there isn't even the token best friend black guy on the show anymore.

I just don't see how Lex could seriously be in love with Lana. He's too old. He dates business women and doctors. How could a high schooler possibly compare to a grown, sophisticated woman? I-I don't even want to know.

Why is Pete a "token?" We're only 13% of the national population. There simply aren't enough of us to be prevalent everywhere. I don't know Kansas's demographics, but the situation doesn't seem unrealistic at all. If it were Atlanta or New York one might wonder why we don't see more Blacks in the crowd shots. And Pete was an integral part of the storyline. Frankly, last night there was a gaping Pete hole that needed to be filled. He should have been there to back Chloe up and fight off Mikhail.

So, how is that "token" if his part is relevant versus trivial?

Lady J, I mean no offense to the necessity that was Pete. But the TV show formula clearly states that there is always a "token" black character side-kick to make the show as politically correct as possible. Exhibit 1-8: Do you watch Veronica Mars? Gilmore Girls? The West Wing? Las Vegas? Scrubs? Medical Investigation? Less Than Perfect? CSI?
These are just shows (not to even mention reality shows) off the top of my head that would be completely white were it not for the black sidekick.
So it is not the character that is trivial, but the color of their skin.

PS In 2003 Kansas was 5.7% black

PSS To break it down even further,
in Clark County Kansas there is .3% black people, in Lane County there is 0% black people,
in Krypton County, just kidding...

I'm not offended. This phrase keeps bobbing around and I don't get it. By this television formula Clark is then the "token" protagonist, Lex the "token" villain and Lana the "token" damsel in distress. But no one attaches that term to the White characters. The very phrase trivializes the person's presence. It implies that the Black character has no purpose except to be Black. And it is used with such snide derision.

I've been the lone dark face almost constantly for the past 13 years. Most of my friends are white, as are most of my co-workers and acquaintances. If someone ever called me - or thought of me - as their "token" Black friend, it would really mess with my world view.

...Maybe I am offended.

You could never be a "token" black friend, because you live in the real world, and I'm going to assume your friends don't think of you as such. I don't mean to trivialize the character, just the color of their skin. You are right, Lana is the token damsel in distress ect, but the fact is I have been involved in casting commercials and shows for a few years now and it is very prevalent in casting that you are always looking for the token minority, because you don't want to risk offending any of your viewing audience. When black or other minority characters aren't in productions, there is always a back lash, so producers usually pick a character to be the minority to avoid it. Remember the no black people on "Friends" backlash? SO the producers put Gabrielle Reese on first for a couple episodes and later Aisha Tyler. The character Pete would have been on "Smallville" regardless of what color he was, and Chloe could have easily been the black character. So don't be offended, be glad that people care about not offending you and are trying to represent all types of people in an hour of fiction.
Go to http://www.poppolitics.com/articles/2002-09-09-tvghetto.shtml
for an example of the backlash I am talking about.

Well, then this takes the questions in a new direction. Now, I've been Black a long time so I've heard some different expressions used. Most often I've heard the phrase "token" used in respect to real people - usually in business settings (i.e. Clarence Thomas is the "token" Black Supreme Court Justice). You're the only one to ever suggest a line of division to me.

I have to wonder if producers assign a character to be played by a non-White actor is that an earnest effort to represent all types of people or is it a self-serving effort to keep watchdogs off their backs? Because those are conflicting motivations. It's possible that the various people involved in the production had a range of motivations, but these two seem to directly contradict eachother.

Here's the next question, and again I'm trying to understand not accusing, if "token" is a shorthand phrase in a process that is intended to be positive, why ever use it outside of the backroom? It certainly sounds trivial in use. I'm in book publishing and recently people in my office have been raining down "Af-Am" like the phrase doesn't apply to people. African-American as a category is still about people, and yet these people crib the phrase into this bizarre jargon. I can only hope they don't go out and call Black people Af-Am in the streets. But how can they not when they say it to those of us in the industry without a thought?

Backlashes or outcries don't interest me much. Many's the time I have walked into a room and caught a boatload of double-takes. I know that a lot of White people still don't often encounter or interact with Black people for whatever reason. When "Friends" came along, it so happened that I was already a fan of a similar show called "Living Single" about six Brooklynites in a brownstone.

Oh, this is too much. What I meant to say - without veering any further off the topic - is that the very fact that people attach "token" to the non-White player is telling. It's used for a reason and I want to understand just what is the real reason for such a distinction. I want to settle whether or not it's a good thing - which instinct tells me it is not. Whenever "token" crosses my radar it clearly implies "never would have gotten in otherwise."

I was REALLY disappointed in this episode. That character just wasnt Mr. Mxyzptlk, but theres gotta be a reason the writters gave him that name, so hopefully we'll find out what it was that Lex and Mikial were looking at after they got off the Luther-vator in episodes to come.