10 TV Shows That Made Fun Of Their Fans

Lots of shows today point out the vitriolic nature of online comments, but this episode of The West Wing from 2002 got super specific with it, and like a lot of Aaron Sorkin's writing, it was essentially him venting his frustrations.

For some background, back when The West Wing was airing Television Without Pity was pretty popular, a fan community where viewers could post recaps and commentary on their favorite shows. For the first two seasons of The West Wing, Aaron Sorkin was actually paying a lot of attention to his critics on Television Without Pity, often responding to them directly and defending his work. 

But it got out of hand when he publicly insulted one of his writers in a pretty lengthy post, telling everyone the script this writer won an Emmy for was terrible. Sorkin probably thought he could leave the comment on this small forum and no one would pay attention to it, but this quickly became a big story.

So Aaron Sorkin worked this crisis into the show in this episode where Josh discovers a fan community dedicated to him. He tries leaving a response but it all goes south, just like what happened to Sorkin in real life. In a somewhat bitter way, Sorkin makes fun of these message board dwellers with Josh asking, "What's wrong with them" and Donna responding "Nobody knows."