RIP MNIE on TWoP

This post is for a select group of people.

Everyone else can read it if they want, but just know:

it's aimed at a group for whom the words 

"whojackie," "the list" and "meta" mean something very specific.

Okay.

So.  There was this awesome online site called Television Without Pity.

It was a sometimes enlightening, sometimes infuriating,

but always entertaining place to hang out

and discuss favorite -- and not so favorite -- shows on TV.

One show that fell firmly in the "favorite" category for me 

and many others was the 2005 - 2009 show My Name is Earl.

Starring Jason Lee,

it was profane and hilarious and surprisingly heartfelt,

and I loved it from the very first episode.

It followed loser Earl Hickey, who, after a brush with death,

decided to turn his life around and do right by the people

 he had previously done wrong.

I and my fellow fans enjoyed discussing the show on TWoP post-airings,

but for the season two episode, "Kept a Guy Locked in a Truck,"

we were in for an awesome surprise.

"Kept a Guy Locked in a Truck,"

or as we would later dub it, "our episode," 

told the story of how Earl was trying to make amends

to a dead guy, Josh, by throwing him a funeral.

(Yes, that's John Waters playing the funeral director.)

Unfortunately, it seemed Josh had no friends to attend said funeral,

until Earl finds out he actually had a wide circle of online friends.

And one of the groups of friends?

Posters on TWoP.

Earl noted that Josh posted on TWoP under the name "whojackie,"

and he was shown in a flashback typing while saying aloud 

(in that self-important tone of voice

 familiar to anyone who has ever posted anywhere):

"No, I don't think shows should do more meta jokes

 that cater to the online bloggers

and I'm sure everyone at Television Without Pity Dot Com 

agrees with me."

Augh!! Shout-out to TWoP!!

And when we hit the thread

for discussion and internet high-fives...

... poster hlisy noted that that very post we

just heard Josh say in the episode

was right there on the page!

"Whojackie" had been posting almost since the beginning!

We responded to whojackie as though he was creator Greg Garcia,

(which he was)

but Garcia kept the joke going by replying 

as though he were other characters from the show,

 Joy and Darnell, who supposedly now had Josh's computer;

"Joy" invited us all to whojackie's funeral.

(Joy and Darnell, 
played to perfection by Jaime Pressly and Eddie Steeples.)

Poster BStu also found that keepin' it meta by emailing "Joy"

got a reply in character, so we soon were all joining in the fun;

for example, I had this exchange with Joy:

Dear Joy:  Thanks for the invite to whojackie's funeral.  

Unfortunately, I'm all the way in California,

 and don't think the Big Grey Dog would get me there in time. 

I did donate some money in his memory, 

because he was an okay guy: he may have gone off-topic sometimes, 

but he was never a troll.

I have a quick question for Crabman:  is he still selling any "produce"?

 I heard he was quite a good "gardener."

Your friend on the Wide Wide World of Web, LiberryLady.

And my answer from Joy:

Hey Liberty Lady.  I know a wrestler named Lady Liberty. 

Anyway, Darnell don't sell weed no more if that what you're hinting at.  I can give you another dude's name if you want.

("Liberty Lady" would show up as a character later on, btw. And no, I didn't take Joy up on her offer of the other dude's name.)

That money I was talking about?

We ended up doing a "memorial drive" for whojackie,

and donated the money to Make-A-Wish. 

The story didn't end there!

After a few months, whojackie asked if anyone was available

to participate in the dvd commentary for the episode,

and the lovely NoirCommeMoi and I volunteered and did so.

(Greg Garcia, NoirCommeMoi, me, Jason Lee, Ethan Suplee.)

NoirCommeMoi and my write-up of the recording starts here; 

this blog post has already gotten waaay long,

so check it out on the WayBack Machine if you're interested.

And speaking of the "WayBack Machine"...

Y'know, the end of TWoP isn't the burning of the Library of Alexandria.

We were talking about TV shows, after all.

But we made each other laugh, 

we supported each other in tough times, 

and just like in the Earl episode,

we were a community of friends.

I'll be sad to see all of our pages and pages of conversation go.

But other posters and I have done a little bit of saving;

every page of the My Name is Earl thread

 has been archived on the Wayback Machine. 

So, goodbye, everyone at TWoP!

You'll be missed!

I hope I'll see you over at previously.tv

It doesn't have the history,

but the conversations are still going on.



ETA:

TWoP Member Name:  LiberryLady
Member Since:  21 Nov 2003
Member Title:  Stalker
Active Posts:  8065

Adventures In The Wide, Wide, World of Web

When meeting folks you've only known via the internets is discussed,

people's expectations tend to fall into two camps:

Here there be ax murderers!!!

or,

sounds like a party!

I fall in the latter group.

I've made internet friends over the last eleven years, and it's all because of this guy:

Max Fischer, have my babies.

I adored the movie Rushmore, so when Wes Anderson's third movie,

The Royal Tenenbaums was getting ready to come out, 

I went internet sleuthing for some info.

I first came across The Rushmore Academy...

... and then The Yankee Racers.

These forums taught me a fundamental fact about the life on the web:

You can get very comfortable and friendly with people

with whom you initially shared nothing more 

than an interest in a movie or TV show.

"YOU like the short-lived, live action Tick television series?  I do too!"

After some technical difficulties with my beloved Yankee Racers

pretty much ended that forum,

I drifted over to Television Without Pity.

I noodled there for a year or two, 

until I became deeply, fiercely infatuated with season two of The Office.

(If I ever could have french kissed a show, it was this one.)

The Office forum had a "Meet Market," 

a thread where fans can just chat about anything and everything, related to the show or not.

And chat we did.

In the Chili's Meet Market thread we discussed important topics:

babies and jobs, sex and abstinence, death and marriage;

where we stood on gun control, the health care act, and marriage equality.

We also wrote about topics a bit more trivial,

such as whether caramel or chocolate is better.

(NO CONTEST:  the answer is "chocolate.")

Several years ago,

I met one of my local Chili's Meet Market peeps in the real world and we've become friends.

So when we were presented with the opportunity to meet

a third, out-of-town friend at Disneyland,

we were enthusiastic about the prospect.

It was odd explaining why I needed a day off...

(... "I've got this friend... I want to see... at Disneyland? 

Whom I know from... the internet?")

... but I had vacation days, so Dan and I carpooled to meet Julie.

"Howdy, folks!  Welcome to the Sweatiest Happiest Place on Earth!"

Despite a temperature that was only slightly lower than the surface of the sun,

we had a great time.

We talked, rode rides, sweated,

 talked, sweated, ate, 

sweated, talked, shopped, 

 talked (and sweated) some more.

And although we couldn't first recognize each other in a crowd 

without specific descriptions, 

("I'm in the lavender shirt, at the Jolly Holiday Restaurant,")

we were as easy with each other as folks

who had spent the last seven years meeting over coffee instead of online.

So here's to internet friendship!

It's (mostly) not creepy.