Television Without Pity

Television Without Pity (often abbreviated TWoP) is a website that provides detailed recaps of certain television dramas and reality TV shows, often by mocking them, as well as forums in which members can discuss a myriad of television related topics. The site began by recapping the television show Dawson's Creek and was originally called Dawson's Wrap; later it broadened its scope and changed names to Mighty Big TV before settling on the current moniker. The site is notable for popularizing usage of the word "snark" to describe its typical style of sarcastic review. Their official motto is "Spare the snark, spoil the networks," a takeoff on "spare the rod, spoil the child."

Those who choose to post at their forums must follow a myriad of rules, most of which are unspoken. Specifically in The Amazing Race forum, posters risk being banned if they openly disagree with the current mods (see Miss Alli). Posts are often deleted and edited {especially if they aren't literary masturbation over Miss Alli's bias for stunt-casted Rob Mariano}. This has resulted in a mass exodus of original TwoP posters to other forums such as Survivor Sucks.

The site's mascot is Tubeelzebub ("Tubey" for short), a demonic television set replete with horns and a pointed tail.

Shows Currently Re-Capped by TWoP

The board's staff actively posts detailed tongue-in-cheek reviews of episodes for the following shows:

• 24
• 7th Heaven
• Alias
• The Amazing Race
• America's Next Top Model
• American Idol
• The Apprentice
• Battlestar Galactica
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
• Carnivale
• Charmed
• Desperate Housewives
• Star Trek: Enterprise
• ER
• Everwood
• Gilmore Girls
• Joan of Arcadia
• Lost
• The O.C.
• The Real World
• Six Feet Under
• Smallville
• The Sopranos
• Survivor
• Veronica Mars
• The West Wing

In addition, readers are encouraged to chat in their forums about these and other shows.

Conventions

The board's close-knit community has led to a somewhat bizarre and esoteric vocabulary that can be daunting to new readers. They even provide a lexicon in their FAQ to deal with their vast collection of acronyms. Another convention often used by TWoP recappers is giving characters humorous or ironic nicknames rather than using the actual character names in show summaries; for example:

• For 24, the character of Kim Bauer (daughter of the main character played by Keifer Sutherland) is referred to exclusively on the site as "Spawn of Kiefer" or simply "Spawn".
• For Lost, the character of Kate is frequently referred to as "the acclaimed actress Kate Beckinsale", because of Evangeline Lilly's notable resemblance to Beckinsale in the first episode.

Now or Never T-Shirts

Every month, in conjunction with clothing vendor Glarkware, Television Without Pity prints a set of limited edition t-shirts with an obscure reference to one of the shows covered by their reviewers. Past examples have carried the following text:

• "Chung! Chung!", a reference to the sound made between scenes in Law & Order.
• Oceanic Airlines, a reference to the fictional, clichéd, doomed air carrier of Lost and various movies.
• The Rambaldis - U.S. Gov. Inter-Agency Baseball League, a jersey ostensibly from the secret organization in Alias.
• Perfectly Cromulent, a reference to The Simpsons.
• Who's Your Spy Daddy?, a reference to Alias.
• Not a Robot, a reference to Battlestar Galactica.

External links

• Television Without Pity
• The TWoP Lexicon from the site's FAQ
• glarkware :: television without pity - vendor for the site's "Now or Never" limited edition t-shirts.
• Discuss Television Without Pity
• TWoP Criticism - honest discussion about TWoP.
• TwoP Sucks Forum: No More Sheeple! - a forum to discuss TWoP