How many times have you gone to Wikipedia today, only to get their “Imagine a World without Free Knowledge” message? It’s happened to me four times already (I STILL don’t know the complete biographical background on the dad from “Webster”), and I’m pretty sure it’ll occur nine more times before the day’s out. But I’m not mad; I can wait to know what movies were shot in South Dakota. It’s for a good cause.

Today is SOPA Day on the Internet. Hundreds of websites, including Wikipedia and Reddit, are protesting the very bad Stop Online Piracy and Protect IP acts because, well, they’re very bad. Matt wrote about it back in November, and Señor Fancy Lawyer Man Danger Guerrero would like to add:

I can’t stress strongly enough to all of you how terrible the whole SOPA/PIPA thing is…Not only will this bill throw a giant wrench into the Internet, it also has SERIOUS Constitutional ramifications. It gives mass copyright holders (Disney, record companies, Viacom, etc.) the ability to restrict people’s speech and take away their property (websites) without due process.

That’s my favorite kind of process! So, contact your local representative and tell them, SOPA STINKS. After you’ve done that – ONLY after you’ve done that – check back here to see how the Internet has been reacting to the threat of censorship, through the use of TV shows and characters. I’ve added a few of my own, as should you. Find an image, add text here, and copy the link in the comments. We’ll include the best in the slideshow.

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Me too, Professor. Me too.

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Even the ponies, and presumably bronies, know.

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Neither does Randy Marsh.

THIS is the best one.

I made the following images, and you should too!

Vulture pointed out the similarity between Dark Knight Rises villain Bane and Futurama’s Decapodian doctor, John Zoidberg, and now I can’t stop thinking that Bane should just say WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP the entire movie. It’s not like you can understand him, anyways. (Vulture)

Kate Upton Did Something Fun With Kids — When I was 19, I was getting stoned and playing Super Smash Brothers for endless hours at a time, not making the dreams of children come true. You’ve got my vote, Kate (see below). (With Leather)

Stephen Colbert May Join the Race for the Republican Presidential Nomination — Remember when Roseanne announced she was going to run for President? Would you have voted for her? If not, what celebrity would you piss all over democracy for? (Uproxx)

Hustle Blood: Big Boi’s 20 Best Guest Appearances — As much as I enjoyed Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty, I would pay a lot of money to see a reunited Outkast live. I just need to hear “BOB,” and watch the crowd awkwardly try to keep up with the lyrics. (Smoking Section)

SHUT. DOWN. EVERYTHING. Abobo’s Big Adventure Has Officially Begun — One sentence from this post features the words “dragon,” “tears,” “NES,” “killing,” and “kidnapped.” I am intrigued. (Gamma Sqaud)

DROP EVERYTHING! The New Bill Murray/Wes Anderson Has a Trailer — Let’s do this: 1) Rushmore, 2) The Royal Tenenbaums, 3) Fantastic Mr. Fox, 4) The Life Aquatic, 5) Bottle Rocket, 6) The Darjeeling Limited. (Film Drunk)

May These Breaking Bad and Hunger Games Valentines Be Ever In Your Favor — “Yo! We’ve got some great chemistry, bitch” is the “I choo-choo-choose you” of “Breaking Bad” Valentine’s Day cards. (Uproxx)

Side-by-Side Comparison of Average-Sized Woman with a Supermodel Will Blow Out Your Mindhole — Mindhole. Blown. (Pajiba)

12 Stars Who Got Their Start on “One Life to Live” — Thank you for Nathan Fillion and Tommy Lee Jones. You can have Ryan Phillippe back. (The FW)

The 10 Boldest Comedians of Our Time — “Throw the Jew Down the Well” is still one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. (Buzzfeed)

The United States of Binge Drinkers — One out of every four Wisconsin residents is a drunk says SCIENCE. I went to the Wisconsin Wikipedia page, and one of the first things you see is a painting of the first white man to explore the state. He’s wildly shooting his guns in the air to scare away the Native Americans, who in turn are about to destroy the guy with spears. It’s like a real-life “Parks and Rec” mural. (The High Definite)

Every Musical “Guest” Who Ever Appeared on “South Park” — I’m still afraid to say Biggie Smalls’ name three times in a row. (Screen Junkies)

And here’s a video of all the POV shots from “Breaking Bad.” It’s a MUCH better visual effect than that thing Zach Braff used to do all the time, when everyone around him moved quickly, while he remained still. METAPHOR.

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Since we’re still new to Warming Glow, I thought it would be useful to provide some context to the television opinions expressed about the current television landscape by looking back a decade and exploring the nine best shows of 2001. Obviously, not all of these shows began their runs in 2001, but they were all airing, and each one had a strong 2001 season (the missing 10th series was “Friends,” but by 2001, it was crap). Also, retrospectives are fun, and if you haven’t caught all of the series below, they’re each worth checking out (and number 8 and number 5 can each be knocked out in a weekend).

9. 24: The first season, in 2001, of Keifer Sutherland’s overwrought, over-the-top but intensely action-packed series was maybe the best, and ended with one of the more surprising deaths of the decade. Unfortunately, it was mostly downhill from there.

8. Undeclared: Not quite “Freaks and Geeks,” Judd Apatow brought a similar comedic sensibility to college in this short-lived, cancelled to soon series that introduced American to Charlie Hunnam and Jay Baruchel. Seth Rogen was pretty great in it, too.

7. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Slightly cheesy, all kinds of kick ass, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” was a coming of age show about self-and-sexual identity crises, and, of course, vampires. It’s everything that Twilight isn’t. Unfortunatley, it also had one of the worst theme songs of the decade. Ugh

6. Curb Your Enthusiasm: Larry David combined uncomfortable and aggressively anti-PC humor into a show that merged huge laughs with one of the least likable characters on TV. In all the right ways, of course.

5. The Office (UK): Ricky Gervais’ original “The Office” series popularized comedy of discomfort. It was absurdist tragedy combined with Andy Kaufmanesque humor and populated with small, joyous victories that you’d miss if you left the room to avoid the awkward almost too-hard-to-watch situations.

4. Futurama: This brilliant Matt Groening sci-fi animated series is perhaps the most heartfelt cartoon of all time: Smart, sophisticated, and thanks to a five-year hiatus, it’s the one of only two shows on this list that is still running, but unlike the other one, it’s as fresh and smart as it ever was. The “Jurassic Bark” episode could also bring the strongest man to his knees.

3. Six Feet Under: 2001 was the freshman season of “Six Feet Under” and its very best, as Alan Ball confronted death head on, exploring the different ways in which people deal with grief. Eventually, it also gave us the most painful, gut-wrenching series finale of the decade.

2. West Wing: In 2001, “The West Wing” was still under the stewardship of Aaron Sorkin (before John Wells gutted it), and he gave us pitch-perfect writing, emotional resonance, and President Bartlett shoving Bible quotes down a homophobic radio host’s gullet in one of the best scenes of the decade.

1. The Sopranos: The cable drama that put premium cable on the television map: No longer was it about airing late-night soft core skin flicks and feature films before they were edited for network television, “The Sopronas” paved the way for many of the best series of the entire decade. But it wasn’t just groundbreaking: It was a phenomenal series in its own right, even though the glacially paced later seasons gave way to one of the most frustrating finales in television series history (below, spoilers obviously)

Imagine them eating in slow-motion, and you've got about three selections from this list.

Did people in the 1960s, when TV was a relatively new source of entertainment, predict that at the end of the “Mr. McBeevee” episode of “The Andy Griffith Show,” the previously-unseen-by-everyone-but-Opie titular character was going to appear? Like we would now. You see, Mr. B is a “Not So Imaginary Friend,” and because of Opie stating that he has 12 hands…The point I’m trying to make is: recognizing tropes have made us more cynical about TV, and that’s why I love them.

One of the reasons why shows like “Community” and “South Park” are so good is because they rarely go the easy route and do something that’s been seen a million times before. Their success comes from the way they subvert tropes, unlike, say, “Two and a Half Men” or “Family Guy,” both of which have been doing the same exact stories with the same exact jokes that “The Honeymooners” did in 1955. Just not as well.

On the following pages are 10 of my least-favorite TV tropes. If ever you’ve groaned at a character screaming in horror when they realize who their bedmate is, or turned the channel when someone thought they were high or drunk when they were actually just given a placebo, this list is for you. (Note: this is not the 10 WORST – it’s 10 that really bug me, even if some of my favorite shows use them. Please list your least favorites.)

#10. Ugly Guy, Hot Wife

TV Tropes Excerpt: “A very common trope, particularly in animation and sitcoms, is for a woman to be far more attractive than her significant other. This is largely a result of Hollywood-style casting for women’s roles in which average-looking women are virtually unknown, leaving a large amount of hotties needing work.”

Notable Examples: Peter and Louis Griffin on “Family Guy,” Kevin James and Leah Remini on “The King of Queens,” Homer and Marge Simpson on “The Simpsons,” Harry Goldenblatt‎ and Charlotte Yorke on “Sex and the City” (This one’s so overused that I’ve put it down at #10, because it’d be too obvious of a #1 choice, no matter how obnoxious the idea of James Belushi schtupping Courtney Thorne-Smith is.)

#9. We Want Our Jerk Back

TV Tropes Excerpt: “A common Sitcom plot where the total Jerk Ass learns his lesson, turns sweet and benevolent — and becomes absolutely intolerable, making the other characters yearn for the original personality. Eventually the character in question will revert to normal, and the reaction will either be relief, or realization that he really is worse in his obnoxious form.”

Notable Examples: Bender from “Futurama,” Peter Griffin from “Family Guy,” Roy from “Wings,” Reese from “Malcolm in the Middle,” Toby from “The West Wing,” Fun Bobby from “Friends” (This one’s frustrating because you know the character who goes from jerk-to-friendly will be back to acting like an asshole by the end of the episode. It’s a 22-minute/44-minute plot stall.)

#8. Annoying Laugh

TV Tropes Excerpt: “In some cases, the Annoying Laugh is used in place of actually fleshing out a character, since the type of annoying laugh can lead the audience to assuming the character basically is just as annoying as his or her laugh happens to be.”

Notable Examples: Janice from “Friends”, Kitty from “That ’70s Show,” Vince Masuka from “Dexter,” Urkel

#7. Spicy Latina

TV Tropes Excerpt: “This character is very hot-blooded and confrontational, and often times has a rough background where they had to learn to defend themselves.”

Notable Examples: Vanessa from “Six Feet Under,” Carla from “Scrubs,” Ana Lucia from “Lost,” Gloria from “Modern Family,” Santana from “Glee” (Replace every Spicy Latina — with the exception of Gloria — with a Sassy Black Nurse, and you’ve got yourself an improved show.)

#6. Exotic Animal in Urban Setting

TV Tropes Excerpt: This one doesn’t have a definition because it’s not a trope that exists. YET. It’s been bugging me lately because of the horse from “2 Broke Girls,” who the writers finally got rid of during Monday’s episode. No, they didn’t kill the thing, but rather sent him to a stable, out of the broke girls’ Brooklyn backyard. In a show full of stupid characters, Chestnut might be the worst. Except for Peach. She’s the WORST.

Notable Examples: Marcel the Monkey from “Friends,” Bear from “B. J. and the Bear,” Chestnut the Horse from “2 Broke Girls” (“Lancelot Link” is excepted because IT’S ABOUT TALKING MONKEYS)

#5. Dumbass Has a Point

TV Tropes Excerpt: “A character who’s normally Book Dumb, The Ditz, or possibly even the Ralph Wiggum comes up with a valuable insight. The character most often heard belittling their intelligence sighs heavily and concedes, ‘I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I agree with him.’”

Notable Examples: Cosmo from “The Fairly Oddparents,” Patrick from “Spongebob Squarepants,” Brittany from “Daria,” Nathan from “Misfits,” Bill from “NewsRadio” (And this one’s been on my mind because of the George Clooney movie, The Descendants, and specifically, the character of Sid. He’s a lunkhead who asks inappropriate questions and laughs at Clooney’s mom (his sort-of girlfriend’s grandmother) having Alzheimer’s, but when it’s time for him and George to have a heart-to-heart, it turns out he’s actually very wise and misunderstood gentle idiot. UGH. NO. Just keep them dumb. That’s how we like ‘em.)

#4. Will They or Won’t They?

TV Tropes Excerpt: “Two characters, often combative but with obvious Unresolved Sexual Tension, resist going into a full blown relationship for a rather long time. Usually the two characters will be presented so that “they will” is the conclusion to root for; only rarely is the question of whether the writers think they should in any real doubt.”

Notable Examples: Ross and Rachel from “Friends,” Ben and Leslie from “Parks and Recreation,” J.D. and Elliot from “Scrubs,” Mulder and Scully from “The X-Files,” Sam and Diane from “Cheers,” Niles and Daphne from “Fraiser” (Most shows — particularly sitcoms — go down this route at least once. I don’t know why, either.)

#3. Psycho Ex-Girlfriend

TV Tropes Excerpt: “This is someone The Hero used to be with, but broke it off. Said Ex does not take rejection well.”

Notable Examples: While I was thinking of obnoxious tropes (like this one!) and writing this article, my fiancée was watching “The Good Wife” on CBS. During a commercial break, a promo for an upcoming hilarious new episode of “Two and a Half Men” aired, and one of the clips showed Ashton Kutcher’s ex-wife, Bridget (why, Judy Greer, why?), crashing her car into his house, because she’s cray-cray. There are hundreds of examples of this, from both good shows and bad, and they’re all equally annoying.

#2. Jerk with a Heart of Gold

TV Tropes Excerpt: “A person you would expect to be a big Jerkass turns out to be the nicest person you’ve ever met, or at the very least has some redeeming qualities behind their tough demeanor. Occasionally, they’ll actively try to make it a Hidden Heart of Gold.”

Notable Examples: Kim Kelly from “Freaks and Geeks,” Dr. Morris from “ER,” Dean from “Supernatural,” Dan from “Night Court,” Spike from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” Major Charles from “M*A*S*H” (I honestly can’t think of a show that doesn’t use this trope. Thing is, sometimes we want our jerks to remain jerks and not team up with the good guys. That’s what ruined Spike as a character on “Buffy.” It’s not always a bad thing for characters to be just evil.)

#1. SLOW MOTION to Signify DRAMA

Every slow motion scene on TV is part of the worst trope EVER. (With the exception of this one, from “Spaced.”) I hate slow mo. I bet it was created by the same monster who gave the green light to “Shasta McNasty” and canceled “Terriers.” I’m on to you, Mr. Forced Drama. Go listen to your the Fray CD, very slowly.

You can follow the new scenes as they get posted at this link, although that seems a little excessive. Don’t get me wrong: I like “Futurama,” but I don’t think we need FIFTY days of build-up to it. I mean, Christians only take 40 days to get ready for Easter, and that involved the Son of God getting nailed to a cross to absolve the sins of all mankind. I don’t exactly think “Futurama” deserves the same kind of pageantry. (Although, like Jesus, it did come back from the dead.)

[Comedy Central Insider via TDW]

Here at Warming Glow, I’ve made a habit of praising the brilliant voice work in “Archer,” particularly the dry, deadpan delivery of H. Jon Benjamin in the title role. Yet Benjamin is just as believable as the schlubby burger joint owner on “Bob’s Burgers” as he is an international super-spy. I realized that I don’t know jack about voice actors aside from a few names in the “Simpsons” credits, so I tapped Josh Kurp to make a list of ten names you should know. You may be surprised the way some of these people get around like HPV. They’ve got longer IMDb pages than Christopher Walken. –Ed.

Dan Castellaneta

The world knows him as Homer (and Grampa, and Mayor Quimby, and Groundskeeper Willie, and Barney Gumble, and Gil, and…), but Dan Castellaneta has done plenty of other voice work, including portraying another senile old man, Grandpa Phil on “Hey Arnold!” He was also Earl on “Cow and Chicken” and replaced better-known actors in animated series based on their famous films, like taking over for Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown in “Back to the Future: The Animated Series” and Robin Williams in “Aladdin.”

Not-So-Memorable Role: Partlow in My Giant

Richard Steven Horvitz

Four years after appearing in the ill-advised “The Monsters Today” (starring Jason “Not James” Marsden as Eddie Munster), Horvitz began his voice acting career as my second favorite talking TV robot: Alpha 5 from “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” (note: if you combine all the various “Power Rangers” series, there have been over 700 episodes). This role largely required him to say “Aye-yi-yi-yi-yi!” a lot and sing “Deck the Halls” in Alpha’s Magical Christmas. After the show was canceled in 1995, he began a successful stint with Nickelodeon, voicing Daggett on “The Angry Beavers,” getting Beaver Fever in the process, and Zim on “Invader Zim,” as well as Billy on “The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy”. (My favorite talking TV robot, by the way, is Karishma from “Karishma Kaa Karishma,” which I really should have included in my now incomplete remakes list.)

[Editor's picks for talking robots: Bender from "Futurama," the Robot from "Lost in Space," and Rosie from "The Jetsons." I won't be held responsible for Kurp's weird taste.]

Not-So-Memorable Role: Additional Voices in Mulan

Pamela Adlon

I can’t be the only person who didn’t know that Spinelli from “Recess,” Bobby from “King of the Hill,” Lucky from “101 Dalmations: The Series,” and Marcy from “Californication” (as well as the woman who tells Louis C.K. that she fantasizes about hitting her son because she’s bored on “Louie”) are all the SAME PERSON. Adlon, who broke into the business playing Dolores in Grease 2, has had a crush on T.J. Detweiler as Spinelli, gotten gout as Bobby, had an episode banned because of 9/11 as Lucky, and had sex with this man as Marcy.

Mind. Blown.

Not-So-Memorable Role: McNugget #3 in The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald: The Visitors from Outer Space

RENEWED: “Futurama,” for two more 13-episode cycles. The once-canceled Fox sitcom is enjoying its second life on Comedy Central, averaging 2.5 million viewers per episode after factoring in DVR.

CANCELED: “The Real Housewives of DC.” The White House-storming iteration of “Housewives” struggled to find viewers and won’t be renewed, according to Radar. That’s one down, and six — O.C., New Jersey, New York, Atlanta, Miami, and Beverly Hills — to go. Baby steps, people.

RENEWED: “The Real World,” for two more seasons. Presently airing its 25th season and casting for the 26th, MTV ordered seasons 27 and 28 yesterday. No word yet on where the casts will be living and filming, but I’d like to recommend somewhere hot. Like, say, the center of the Earth. Or maybe the sun.

CANCELED: “Lights Out,” FX’s boxing drama that drew viewers at the rate of “Terriers” but wasn’t half as good. Wanna know why it failed? The protagonist has the exact same voice as Tony Danza.

Once again, please welcome Josh Kurp. You may remember him from his list of the worst characters on the best TV shows. Or not. Enjoy his Christmas list.

It’s rare to find an unquestionably great Christmas episode, especially one that gently parodies previously existing holiday tropes. That’s why “Community’s” recent “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas” has been rightly praised. But sadly, it was seen by only 4.29 million viewers, the second lowest for the show this year, and about a third of what “The Big Bang Theory,” its timeslot competitor, pulls in. Like the widely-quoted line about people starting bands after purchasing the Velvet Underground’s first album in 1967, I’ll bet at least half of that total is composed of wannabe TV writers, so hopefully they learned how to effectively blend humor with holiday sentimentality, and not do one of the five oft-used plotlines below.

1. A Christmas Carol Parodies

In case you haven’t heard, TV’s been around for quite some time. Considering most sitcoms and dramas over the past 40 years or so have had a Christmas episode every season, it’s likely that they’ve mocked A Christmas Carol at some point. The story’s so universally known that it’s an easy way for writers to pen an episode that will probably be liked because of its universal appeal, but not particularly appreciated. The A.V. Club recently did a list of 23 adaptations, but they left out “The Simpsons,” “The Suite Life on Deck,” “American Dad,” “Pepper Ann,” and scores more.

And as long as we’re talking about parodies…

When I read the description for this CNN report about a dog named Spot who keeps waiting in the yard for his owner to come home even though the owner was killed five months ago by a drunk driver, I fully expected to cry like a little bitch. I mean, I’ve watched the CBS news story about Ella the Rottweiler at least a dozen times now, and I still sob every time. THAT DOG LOVES ITS OWNERS SO MUCH!

But fear not, dog lovers: this video isn’t one-tenth as moving as Ella. I mean, it’s still sweet, but I’m not reduced to a weeping mess. However, I give the Spot story bonus points for lending itself to a “Futurama”/Internet meme crossover Photoshop (via Robopanda):

[video via BuzzFeed]

Ace of Cakes (Food) — Season premiere. In the bold tradition of “Homicide” and “The Wire,” Duff Goldman’s “Ace of Cakes” shows the gritty world of Baltimore at its toughest.

Futurama (Comedy Central) — This gets the banner photo only because I found this wonderful picture of Bender. Otherwise it would have been some kind of “Ace of Cakes”/”The Wire” Photoshop, and that would have been time-consuming and possibly stupid. Because I don’t think I’ve got the skill to depict Omar shooting up a cake shop.

Pranked (MTV) — It’s like “Punk’d,” but without Ashton Kutcher and spelled correctly.

Boston Med (ABC) — This is supposedly pretty watchable, but I try to minimize how much time I spend watching ABC. I’m not in a Nielsen home, but I want to be prepared just in case I am someday.

Rookie Blue (ABC) — Of all the network dramas to debut this summer, “Grey’s P.D.” is the only one to get a significant audience: the first episode had seven million viewers. That’s twice the number of the most-watched episode of “Mad Men.”

100 Questions (NBC) — I kinda feel sorry for this show: surrounded by repeats, and forever doomed to live in the shadow of the example set by “Seinfeld,” which also had a summer debut. Of course, I’d probably have less sympathy if I watched it and didn’t like it.