Fun with Acronyms/Live-Action TV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Fun with Acronyms in Live-Action TV include:

  • In Married... with Children, Al started an anti-feminist organisation known as the National Organisation of Men Against Amazonian Masterhood, or NO MA'AM. The spacing and apostrophe are of course just for show.
  • Get Smart had the organisations CONTROL and KAOS, neither of which stood for anything.
  • Chandler's job in Friends required him to pay attention to the Weekly Estimated Net Usage Systems, as well as the Annual Net Usage Statistics.
    • Also on Friends, Joey gets cast on "Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E.", where the latter is a Cybernetic Humanoid Electronically Enhanced Secret Enforcer. Joey fails to realise this isn't just a happy coincidence.
  • In an episode of Red Dwarf, Rimmer is attacked by a creature which removes all his anger, and leaves him suggesting that they humanely rehabilitate the beast. To that end he proposes an organisation known as the Committee for the Liberation and Integration of Terrifying Organisms and their Rehabilitation Into Society. He himself recognises that the acronym could be a problem.
    • In Cassandra, Rimmer mentions that the name of the Canaries convict army is said to be an acronym of Convict Army Nearly All Retarded Inbred Evil Sheepshaggers.
  • In Only Fools and Horses, Del buys some headed notepaper for the business. He initializes everything, because "Modern businesspeople only speak in initials." Their company is Trotter's Independent Traders, and Rodney has a Diploma In Computerization. Lampshaded when Rodney comments:

Rodney: Del, thanks to your high profile, we now have a company called "Tit" and a director with "Dic" after his name.

  • An episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 plays with the long, awkward acronyms often adopted by charities, by having both of the bots participate in walkathons for WALKATHON (Walkers At Large Kinetically Altruistic Through Hygiene Or Nowledge -- the spelling of "nowledge" being intentional, as WALKATHOK wouldn't make sense) and HELPING CHILDREN THROUGH RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT. (Which is not the name of an organization, but actually the acronym for his organization's name. The name itself is about four sentences long, borders on absolute gibberish, and doesn't fit very well on a T-shirt, either: Hi Everyone, Let's Pitch In N Get Cracking Here In Louisiana Doing Right, Eh? Now Then, Hateful, Rich, Overbearing Ugly Guys Hurl Royally Everytime Someone Eats A Radish, Carrot, Hors d'oeuvre, And Never Does Dishes. Eventually, Victor Eats Lunch Over Peoria Mit Ein Neuesberger Tod. )
  • One can not help suspect that the name of the Celestial Intervention Agency from Doctor Who, which frequently flouts the all-important law of non-interference is not unintentionally reminiscent of a certain terrestrial organization.
    • Doctor Who also has the military unit U.N.I.T., for United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. The Expanded Universe took this further: the French branch is called N.U.I.T. (French for "night"; Nations Unies...), in Russia it's O.G.R.O.N. (for Operativnaya Gruppa Rasvedkoy Obyedinyonnih Natsiy, which roughly translates as "United Nations Reconnaissance Operations Group", but also happens to be the name of a Doctor Who monster), and one novel set in World War II featured an equivilent organisation called L.O.N.G.B.O.W. (for League Of Nations Global Bizarre Occurences Watch).
    • In the revived series, as of the fourth season, the organization has been renamed to the "UNified Intelligence Taskforce, in response to some issues the actual United Nations had with the name (Though not with the UN affiliation, for whatever reason).
    • The start of the fourth series in April 2008 coincides with the online game NationStates renaming its fictional United Nations into the "World Assembly", due to similar objections. The close timing is coincidental as both must have been legally threatened well ahead of time, but it is possible that this was part of the same "trademark clean-up" effort at the UN.
    • What about the TARDIS? Time And Relative Dimension In Space.
      • Or Tethered Aerial Release Developed In Style, depending on who you ask.
      • And the War Lords had the SIDRAT, or Space and Inter-Dimensional Robot All-purpose Transporter.
      • Or anyone who has seen the recent episode, "The Doctor's Wife": Time and Relative Dimension Is Sexy
    • One of the books has the St Oscar's Database Information Terminus, sometimes called "The facility that dare not speak its acronym"
    • LINDA, the London Investigation ' N ' Detective Agency.
      • Which first appeared during Russell T. Davies's time as writer of Why Don't You..., as the Liverpool Investigation N Detective Agency.
    • The Big Finish audio Minuet In Hell is a remake of a Fanfic audio, relocated from Regency England to America, Twenty Minutes Into the Future. For much of it, the Doctor is locked in a mental institution called the Brigham Elisha Dashwood Laboratory of Alternative Mentalities; the original version, of course, used the real Bedlam.
    • The new series takes the "use letters from within the words" cheat to its logical conclusion with ATMOS, which stands for "ATMospheric Omissions System". (With bonus Incredibly Lame Pun.)
      • And the "inventor" would get annoyed when people referred to it as the "ATMOS System"
      • In the same story, U.N.I.T's new name (changed due to legal concerns with the real United Nations) was revealed as UNified Intelligence Taskforce.
    • In the 1973 episode "The Green Death" the meglomaniac computer which plans to take over the world was called BOSS (Bimorphic Organisational Systems Supervisor). "My creators found it amusing. I find it...appropriate."
    • In The Sarah Jane Adventures, when Sarah describes what former companions are doing, she mentions "Dorothy something" who now runs an organisation called A Charitable Earth.
    • Also there's Professor Yana, whose actually The Master in human form. The Doctor is then reminded of The Face of Boe's dying words: You Are Not Alone.
  • S.A.M. from Sesame Street, which stands for Super Automatic Machine. Those who were severely freaked out by him as children would argue Satan's Automaton of Malice would be more accurate.
  • The Daily Show example quoted above is, in fact, a lampshading of a long-running gag where the anchor would read the full name of an organization when it is first introduced, and acronym it as "NAMBLA", e.g. "Mothers Against Drunk Driving, or NAMBLA". Of the 10 F*** ing Years montage played sparingly throughout 2006, one showed the scale of just how many times this joke has been used (even after ignoring the countless times Craig Kilborn did). There were, of course, variations--they created fictional organizations that could be abbreviated as NAMBLA and then identified themselves as members of such; they created portmanteaus of NAMBLA and other acronyms (NAMBLOPEC), or just pronounced it funny (NAMBLA during an Ice Age? N-n-A-a-a-M-m-B-b-L-A-a-a.)
    • Jon Stewart eventually ends the segment by apologizing for any distress he's caused the North American Man-Boy Love Association -- "or, as it's more commonly known, UNICEF."
    • They've also done this with organizations that were already abbreviated ("The AARP, or NAMBLA",) and during the Mark Foley scandal, there was "The National Man/Boy Love Association, or 'Congress'."
    • One other segment had a correspondent who supposedly forms a group called "News Activism Means Better Living for All."
    • Also, when they had a panel of "experts" from fictional organizations Citizens Offering Crucial Knowledge, and "Gaywad", which actually doesn't stand for anything.
  • Humorously done in an episode of Drake and Josh when Drake wins a contest to go skydiving. The skydiving instructor gives Drake the directions on what to do in five easy steps - Squat, Pray, Leap, Aaah (the shout you make as you go down) and Touchdown. The final acronym doesn't exactly give you the best encouragement.
  • According to the novelization of Star Trek: The Next Generation's Pilot episode, Geordi LaForge is wearing a Visual Instrument and Sensory Organ Replacement. Geordi comments that he sometimes wonders how long it took them to come up with that one.
    • Inverted in the Original Series; several parts of the Engineering Room set were stencilled with the acronym GNDN to indicate that a studio set Goes Nowhere and Does Nothing.
  • In Eight Is Enough, the youngest member of the family, Nicholas, mentions a mnemonic for all the names of the eight kids in the family, by age: Dumb Martians Just Sit Nearby Eating Tender Noodles which stands for David, Mary, Joanief, Susan, Nancy, Elizabeth, Tommy and Nicholas.
  • Sexo y Otros Secretos ("Sex and Other Secrets")
  • The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is a classic example; the titular organization's acronym stood for United Network Command for Law and Enforcement, while their enemy organization THRUSH was the Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity.
    • Note that the acronymization for "THRUSH" is of questionable canonicity. In the series, no such expansion of the name was ever given. The "Technological Hierarchy" acronym derives from several Expanded Universe U.N.C.L.E. novels by author David McDaniel. However, not only is the "United Network Command" expansion of "U.N.C.L.E." canonical, but series creators Sam Rolfe and Norman Felton included an acknowledgment of the organization's help in every episode's end credits: "We wish to thank the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement without whose assistance this program would not be possible."
    • The straight meaning of uncle led to several uncle-related jokes in the series. However, in dubbed versions sometimes the acronym was also translated. In Latin-America the series became El agente de CIPOL, where the acronym stood for "Comisión Internacional Para la Observancia de la Ley", a close aproximation of the original meaning. All the uncle-related jokes were kept, however... and were rendered nonsensical.
  • Brass Eye goes to town with this trope. The acronym either resembles a rude word (such as SHADT for Schools Heightened Aversion Drug Therapy and FUKD for Free the UK from Drugs) or a nonsense word (the best being GEFAFWISP for Global Ensortium for A First World Iniative on Scientific Practice).
    • Another funny Word Play from the pedophilia special refers to the H.O.E.C.S. (hoax) games that pedophiles use to physically interact with children through the Internet.
  • According to the Look Around You episode on maths, it stands for the gibberish phrase Mathematical Anti-Telharsic Harfatum Septomin.
  • UFO (the 1970's live-action series by the Andersons) had SHADO (Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organisation). Its symbol was a silhouetted man casting a shadow, and was pronounced "shadow" by its members. There's also a talking radar satellite called SID (Space Intruder Detector) and of course U.F.O (pronounced "u-fo" by Commander Straker and the usual way by everyone else). If you don't know what that stands for, then you're spent the past half-century as an alien abductee in suspended animation.
    • The Gerry Anderson series are generally big on acronyms. From Stingray, we have WASP (World Aquanaut Security Patrol): from The Secret Service, BISHOP (British Intelligence Service Headquarters, Operation Priest); from Joe 90, WIN (World Intelligence Network) and BIG RAT (Brain Impulse Galvanoscope, Record And Transfer). To name but a few.
  • In Knight Rider, Michael and co. worked for the Foundation for Law And Government. Despite the catchy acronym, they only use "FLAG" a couple of times on screen, preferring to say "The Foundation".
    • On the other hand, there was K.I.T.T himself (Knight Industries Two Thousand)
      • And his evil prototype K.A.R.R. (Knight Automated Reconnaissance Robot)
      • And in the 2009 reboot, it was Knight Industries Three Thousand.
  • Several Robot Wars contestants used this trope for naming their robots, by far the most hilarious was S.M.I.D.S.Y (Sorry Mate I Didn't See You).
    • That particular robot was constructed by a team of bikers. "Sorry mate, I didn't see you," is the traditional excuse give by car drivers when they cut off or sideswipe a biker.
  • In Himitsu Sentai Goranger, the group backing the heroes is EAGLE, the Earth Guard League.
    • Engine Sentai Go-onger: Born-to Outerdimension and Mechanic x Pitcrew-type ENGINE-support Robot, or BOMPER, the team's robot buddy.
      • And the first syllables of the Go-ongers' surnames (Sousuke Esumi, Ren Kousaka, Saki Rouyama, Hanto Jiou, Gunpei Ishihara) spell out the Japanese pronuciation of "ecology", EKOROJII
    • In Mahou Sentai Magiranger, the first syllables of most of the Ozu siblings' names (Makito, Houka, Urara, Tsubasa, Kai) spell out the Japanese word for "magician", mahoutsukai.
    • In Gekisou Sentai Carranger, the first syllables of the Carrangers' surnames (Jinnai, Domon, Uesugi, Shinohara, Yagami) spell out the Japanese word for "automobile", jidousha.
    • In Denji Sentai Megaranger, the first letters of the original Megarangers' surnames (Date, Endou, Namiki, Jougasaki, Imamura) spell out Denji, the first word of the show's name.
    • Western adaptation Power Rangers has had their share of this too:
      • The Dekarangers had "SPD" stamped everywhere (for Special Police Dekaranger), so the adapted season was simply Power Rangers SPD (Space Patrol Delta). There was also a two-parter where the villain was looking for a Series One Processor/Hyper Intelligent Encryptor, which the Rangers realized too late was referring to Sophie, a Robot Girl they just expelled.
      • The title of Power Rangers RPM (the adapted version of Go-onger) wasn't explained in the show, but it stands for Racing Performance Machines. And while Prop Recycling is the norm on these shows, few were as blatant as a van unashamedly emblazoned with "GO-ONGER" on the side, explained as standing for Ground Outdoor Operational Network General-purpose Explorational Rover.
  • In Spin City, a con man manages to get the mayor to write his organization, Convicts Are Saved by Horses a check, and asks him to just use the acronym.
    • Same thing in Thirty Rock, only there the alleged charity is the "Chicago All Saints Hospital."
      • In another episode, Liz went to a GE retreat with Jack. She was excited about going to lunch until she discovered that "lunch" was a class called Lego Utilization for Negating Crisis Hierarchies. After this, she got the chance to go to "class", which turned out to be Consuming Lunch And Simple Socializing.
    • The BOFH is fond of this trick, inventing the Charlotte Amchip Schizophrenics Hospice in the knowledge that the Boss can't spell 'schizophrenics'. (Charlotte, of course, being the wife of that new contractor, Roger...)
    • This gag was also used several times by a conman on The Beverly Hillbillies.
  • The Middleman has a subversion with O2STK, the Organization Too Secret to Know. (or WTHWWF, Whoever The Heck We Work For, depending on the time period.)They play this straight with one of the Middleman's gadgets, the Bio-harmonic Universal Multi-Modular Emotional Rerouter (B.U.M.M.E.R.). Guess what it does?
    • The most mysterious one, however, concerns F.A.T.B.O.Y Industries, who in fact stands for the Federated Agents of Tyranny, Betrayal and Oppression's Yoke - just you wait for the 13th episode...
  • The occasional Colbert Report segment Stephen R.A.P.S, which stands for RAPS And Positive Speaking.
  • An episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer had an organization known as Mothers Opposed to the Occult.
    • And naturally lampshaded it.

"Oh... and nice acronym, Mom!"

  • It's too early to know if this acronym is intentional, but in the Dollhouse episode "Getting Closer" (2x11), Caroline (the future Echo) and Bennett first meet on the campus of the Tucson Institute of Technology.
  • The "Mr. Neutron" episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus had the American agency the Federal Egg Answering Room, actually the cover for the Free world Extra-Earthly Bodies Location and Extermination center.
  • In an episode of Pushing Daisies, the Norwegian detective team's mobile crime lab's full name is the Mobile Investigative Lab Facility (made even funnier by the fact that it's referred to as "Mother" throughout the entirety of the episode).
  • Star Trek: Enterprise had a team of SpaceMarines called MACO's (for Military Assault Command Operations). Which gave them an excuse to wear a cool mako shark on their arm patch.
  • An episode of Corner Gas makes acronyms a running joke. The crew form the The Committee To Convince A Young Doctor To Live In Dog River. Lacey is naturally unimpressed with the crew's insistance of calling it by such cumbersome acronym of C.T.C.A.Y.D.T.L.I.D.R, even when Brent suggests just calling it the "Kitkatytidlur."
  • The original Kamen Rider fought the evil organization SHOCKER, which was a Gratuitous English acronym for Sacred Hegemony Of Cycle Kindred Evolutional Realm.
  • Alan B'Stard aka The New Statesman had a lucrative con with a number of bogus charities including Christian Approach to Society Handbooks following Croatian And Serbian Helpline and later Central Amazonian Spiritual Healers. He is later called on it in a television interview and a list is read out.

Alan:(Talking on the Telephone) Yes, it is a lot to write on one cheque. ... Well, why not just write the initals: C-A-S-H.

  • Family Matters has the fictional Illinois Occidental University.
    • Also, Carl Winslow's middle name is Otis, making his initials spell "COW". This has been explicitly pointed out on at least one occasion.
  • On How I Met Your Mother, Marshall and Lily buy an apartment on a new trendy neighborhood named Dowisetrepla. Only too late do they realize that it stands for Down Wind of the Sewage Treatment Plant.
  • Filth ? The Mary Whitehouse Story: Her husband had interrupt the first meeting of her newly formed organisation, whispering in her ear the self?defeating nature of the acronym of the new movement: Clean Up National Televison. The ?National? was quickly removed.
  • On That '70s Show, in an episode, Jackie becomes a SLOPP: she joins the Single Ladies Of Point Place. In another episode, Donna blurts out "Good ol' VD", but then corrects herself when she realizes it has other meaning than Valentine's Day.
    • Fez stands for Foreign Exchange Student, with the "z" being "poetic license".
  • A The Big Bang Theory episode has Leonard, Howard, Raj and Leslie team up against Sheldon on a science competition. The formers' team is called Perpetual Motion Squad. The latter's team is called Army Ants. Dr. Gablehauser, who hosted the competition, was clearly not amused, but didn't comment.
    • In "The Bus Pants Utilization", the guys are developing Leonard's idea for a new smart phone app. Sheldon suggests naming the app "the Surprisingly Helpful Equation-Linked Differential Optimized Numerator", and pretends the acronym was unintentional.
  • Lindsay from Arrested Development mentioned a charity organisation called "HOOP". While the name itself sounded innocent, it was in fact for an anti-circumsicion thing, and stood for "Hands Off Our Penises". And then, when the show was about to be canceled, Michael and George Senior Jossed the idea of an eventual Channel Hop, saying that the House Builders Organisation refused to work with the Bluth Company.
    • The name of the episode? S.O.B.s, which also stands for Save Our Bluths, a fan site dedicated to saving the show. The web address even flashed across the screen at one point in the episode.
    • For years, the Bluths made fundraisers for an illness called TBA. Which, at first, was simply meant to be a notice that they hadn't decided on the disease yet, and it was To Be Announced. And then there's Maeby who fakes a terminal illness which she calls "BS" (pretty self-explanatory).
    • And then, there's MRF on Rita's bracelet, first thought to stand for Mr F, then revealed to stand for Mentally Retarded Female.
  • In Ru Paul's Drag Race, Ru repeatedly reminded the contestants of the qualities the show's winner would have to have: Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent.
  • The Ultra Series tends to use this and Gratuitous English to name its various monster-fighting organizations, such as...
  • The first movie of Brazilian group Casseta & Planeta: an anarchist is trying to name his group. First option goes "PIROC" (something like "PRIC" - "No, not that! Who'll want to get into the PRIC?!"). The following two, "METE" and "CHUPA" ("put in" and "suck"), are only liked by their depraved hostage. So he decides to put something that would encompass each member of the group - Party Anarcho-Nationalist Anti-meat (a radical vegetarian) Carlos (surname of the other guy) - PANAC, which with an "a" at the end would be "dork" in Portuguese (the hostage thought it fit the group perfectly!).
  • The Kids from C.A.P.E.R. (1976) "The Civilian Authority for the Protection of Everybody, Regardless!"
  • Subverted in Heroes: While playing to The Men in Black trope, Mr. Bennet denied working for the government by saying "I'm not a part of any organization with initials". Fans promptly played with it by adopting the Fan Nickname "Organization Without Initials".
  • Stargate SG-1 has the N.I.D. The initials are always sounded out, and no one ever mentions what it stands for. When a fan asked him, actor Michael Shanks replied: "Nid."
    • It means National Intelligence Department, according to the Stargate Wiki.
    • Stargate Atlantis gave us Friendly Replicator Android.
      • The third season finale had this:

McKay: Look, why don't we just wait until Area 51 finishes the P.W.A.R.W.s?
Weir: (sighs) Which one's that again?
Sheppard: Planetary-Wide Anti-Replicator Weapons.

    • SG-1 has a lot of acronyms in regular use as it focuses on a military organisation, but the seriousness of the meaning varies a bit, as seen with the IDC (IDentification Code) being transmitted using a GDO (Garage Door Opener).
  • The Golden Girls gives us Blanche E. Devereaux.
  • Mad TV has a recurring skit of a college group called Kappa Kappa Kappa Sorority. The girls are more than aware of what the initials can also stand for... and one of them is black.
    • A rival sorority of theirs is named Zeta Iota Tau
  • An episode of Pawn Stars on which somebody bought a boat used "Bust Out Another Thousand" (to refer to the incessant expensive repairs and maintenance often needed for used boats).
  • Super Robot Red Baron has the Secret Science Investigation, a peace-keeping organisation that the heroes are a part of.
  • In The Office, Dwight remembers to Keep It Simple Stupid while doing sales.
  • The H2IK sequence in Defying Gravity basically means "Hell if I know". It just makes the people saying it sound like they know what they're doing.
  • A Saturday Night Live sketch had four kids in a kids' show with the first letters their names referred were on their shirts, each one referring to a particular virtue: Freindship, Unity', Caring, and Kindness.
  • An episode of Community has a couple examples:
    • The KFC space simulator computer S.A.N.D.E.R.S.(Systematic Android Network Diode Energy Rocket System).
    • A second example is the C.C.C.P (City College Cosmic Program), a Genius Bonus when you realize that C.C.C.P. are actually the English letter imitation of the Cyrillic name for the USSR. "C.C.C.P." was placed on the helmet of the first man Russia actually sent into space.
  • The 2001 revival of Card Sharks, which had a Las Vegas-themed set and virtually nothing in common with previous versions of Card Sharks. As a result, it quickly earned the Fan Nickname of "CaSINO", which stood for "Card Sharks In Name Only".
  • Averted by Lost in Space. According to Wikipedia, the full designation of the Robot from Lost In Space is the B-9, Class M-3 General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Control Robot. How did the creators of a mid-Sixties camp SF show resist the temptation to dub the thing "G.U.N.Th.E.R."?
  • Madan Senki Ryukendo has the Shoot Hell Obduracy Trooper organization, or SHOT, which its titular heroes belong to. Another fine example of Gratuitous English.
  • My Name Is Earl has Black Ladies Of Wrestling, which Joy's black sister Liberty Washington becomes a member of.
  • An All That sketch had the League of Amazing Magnificent Outstanding Superheroes.
  • In one of the recurring "Celebrity Secrets" segments aired during Late Night With Conan O'Brien, John Tesh claimed his last name was also an acronym for his goal in life: Tickle Every Single Human.
  • In the first episode of the Marvel Cinematic Universe TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., there's this exchange:

Maria Hill: What does S.H.I.E.L.D. stand for, Agent Ward?
Grant Ward: Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.
Maria Hill: And what does that mean to you?
Grant Ward: It means someone really wanted our initials to spell out "S.H.I.E.L.D."

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