Tawneee, (pronounced with each "e" as a separate syllable), is a minor character in Thud!. She is an exotic dancer at the 'Pink Pussycat' Club and the girlfriend of Nobby Nobbs. In all likelihood, given her occupation, she is a member of the Guild of Ecdysiasts, Nautchers, Cancanieres and Exponents of Exotic Dance. As Nobby points out, "Tawnee’s actually only her pole name ....‘She says no one would be interested in an exotic dancer with a name like Betty. She says it sounds like she’d be better with a bowl of cake mixture.” This line is an obvious reference to Betty Crocker cake mixes.
She has been a dancer from childhood, winning the "Dancer of the Year Award" in Miss Deviante's ballet and tap class at age ten. Betty (or Tawneee as she was referred to both in and outside of work since no one thought she looked like a Betty) has been described as being a spectacular beauty, able to cause the destruction of a local pub by simply smiling at one of the patrons. She is also known for a general lack of brainpower and inability to understand words with more than one syllable. It is probably these two factors which led her to court the debatably human watchman.
Angua explained to Cherry Littlebottom that Nobby has been able to catch Tawneee because she is so beautiful that she seems completely unattainable to any man with half a brain. They met when Nobby caught her eye while slipping an IOU into her garter belt and Nobby only asked her out because he was so used to rejection he would have simply regarded another one as just another day. She is a victim of The Jerk Syndrome (only jerks dare to approach her, while sensible men think they have no chance with her). Not being approached by the opposite sex gives her the impression that she is unattractive, so she finds fault in her features and credits the reason for her good tips at work to her dancing skills. Nobby, is far too stupid to think she is out of his league, so she jumps at the first chance she has to be in a relationship after he comes to her notice when he slips an IOU into her belt instead of a bill. She likes Nobby because he is the only person who treats her normally -
Despite her looks and her job, she knows nothing about sex, or anything else for that matter and doesn't understand that being an exotic dancer might be considered indecent by some. In the end, she has a long chat during a "girls' night out" with Angua and Sally von Humpeding who explain life the universe and everyhing to her.
Her lack of kitchen skills causes Nobby to consider a breakup, which must occur sometime between Thud! and Snuff.
Tawnee is possibly a reference to Tawny Kitaen, who was the model for many of Whitesnake's videos in the '80s. Tawny Kitaen even went on to marry David Coverdale. The choice of names is Pratchett poking fun at the whole concept of a stripper needing an appropriate name like Candi or Tawnee and not normal names like Betty, while knowing full well that there was a famous stripper named Betty Howard in the 1950s as well as the iconic 40s/50s burlesque performer Betty Page, whose dark beauty inspired the Goths as well as acts of modern burlesque strippers such as Dita von Teese).
The Pink PussyCat Club is a play on the Playboy Club with its "Bunnies" but is also likely a play on the combination of the names of the "Kit Kat Club" and the "Pink Panther", the former a political Whig club in London in the 1920s and the other the movie starring Peter Sellers.