[Ads-l] Antedates for "Team X"? (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Jeff Prucher]

 I had forgotten about TWOP! I made this comment on the LL post, but it seems relevant here, too -- in the West Wing episode "Debate Camp" (season four, episode four, first aired Oct. 16, 2002), several characters form "Team Toby" to attempt to help the character Toby Ziegler reunite with his ex. Note here that there is no rivalry here, unlike the Team Edward/Jacob pattern.
IIRC, Aaron Sorkin had an uneasy relationship with his online fanbase, which showed up in an earlier 2002 episode ("The U.S. Poet Laureat"). So it wouldn't surprise me if there was cross-pollination between the TWOP forums and WW usage.
(Side note: the thing being dropped from (')shippers is "relation-".)
    On Tuesday, November 19, 2019, 11:44:39 PM PST, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:  
 
 > On Nov 19, 2019, at 1:41 PM, MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY CCDC AVMC (USA) <0000099bab68be9a-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> wrote:
> 
> CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED
> 
> Ben suggested that "Team X" moved into popular culture usage in 2005.  I kind of remember that in the Television Without Pity Forums, this usage existed before then (specifically in the recaps of "The West Wing", when Josh started to date Amy, but shippers were on "Team Donna" as opposed to "Team Amy”).
>  The TWOP forums are no longer active, and existing archives are not particularly easy to search.  I wasn't able to find this usage in cursory searches.  But old discussions of television shows that had active online fora (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, etc.) would be a likely place to antedate 2005.
> 
> 

I don’t remember that West Wing triangle specifically, but I do associate my early encounters with (metaphorical) Team X with posts by (‘)shippers; I think I must have learned that term (i.e. the “wor”-truncation) around the same time as the extension of “Team X”.  I could check the glossary in my copy of Michael Adams’s _Slayer Slang_ if I knew where I’d put it. 

LH 

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