Wikipedia in culture

References to Wikipedia in culture have increased as more people learn about and use the online encyclopedia project. Many parody Wikipedia's openness, with characters vandalising or modifying articles. Still others feature characters using the references as a source, or positively comparing a character's intelligence to Wikipedia. Also, the encyclopedia many times is not used as an encyclopedia at all, but instead serves more as a character trait or even as a game. Wikipedia has also become culturally significant with many individuals seeing the presence of a Wikipedia entry as a status symbol. [cite news |author= Jennifer Ablan |title=Wikipedia page the latest status symbol |url=http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN2232893820071022?sp=true |publisher=Reuters |date=2007-07-08 |accessdate=2008-11-22] and there is a soon-to-be-released documentary, , which is about Wikipedia, its history, and its impact on culture. [cite web |url=http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/04/cheers-and-boos-as-wikipedians-see-themselves-on-film/ |title=Cheers and Boos as Wikipedians See Themselves on Film |accessdate=2008-07-08 |author=Noam Cohen |date=2007-08-04 |publisher=New York Times]

Incidents

Landmark

Fox News Channel once reported, "If you think the middle name of British Prime Minister Tony Blair is 'whoopdeedoo,' you'd not only be wrong, but you probably got your information from Wikipedia." The report went on to talk about a tool which allows users to track IP addresses used to edit Wikipedia, and listed many surprising locations that have been discovered editing articles related to their locations. An example used in the report was an IP connected to Wal-Mart, which on one occasion had been used to change a statement about Wal-Mart's wages being lower than competing stores (instead stating its wage was almost double federal minimum wage). The report concluded that, although editing of an article by the entity associated with it may damage Wikipedia's credibility, in the long run, the organization might gain credibility because of how quickly such edits are reverted.

In television episodes

Radio

Contextual

Citations of Wikipedia in culture

In the Homestar Runner cartoon "", Homestar Runner mentions that "'Kipedia said vulcanized was the way to go" in reference to the type of nails used to build a deck. [cite web|url=http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php/No_Hands_On_Deck%21 |title=No Hands On Deck! |accessmonthday= October 15 |accessyear=2006 |year=2006 |work= [http://www.hrwiki.org/ Homestar Runner Wiki] ] [cite web|url=http://www.homestarrunner.com/deck.html |title=No Hands On Deck! |accessmonthday= October 15 |accessyear=2006 |year=2006 |author=Chapman, Matt |coauthors=Chapman, Mike |work= [http://www.homestarrunner.com/ Homestar Runner] ] At the time the cartoon was released, the Wikipedia article on decks made no reference to nails or vulcanization. [cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Deck_%28building%29&oldid=63676894 |title=Deck (building) |accessmonthday= October 15 |accessyear=2006 |year=2006 |work= [http://www.en.wikipedia.org/ Wikipedia] |language=English]

The cartoon "FoxTrot" features Peter being criticized by his teacher for copying a homework assignment directly from Wikipedia. Peter replies, "Who's to say I didn't write the Wikipedia entry myself?" Fact|date=November 2007

During a debate on Québécois nationhood in the Canadian House of Commons on November 27, 2006, Conservative Member of Parliament Scott Reid mentioned Wikipedia. [ [http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=39&Ses=1&DocId=2544166 "Hansard"] , November 27, 2006.]

In the July 2007 issue of National Geographic Magazine, an article on swarm intelligence, both in nature and as a method used by humans, mentions Wikipedia as an example. [ [http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0707/feature5/ "Swarm Theory"] by Peter Miller, "National Geographic Magazine", July 2007]

The British satirical magazine "Private Eye" has a section entitled "Wikipedia Whispers" which uncovers stories about how Wikipedia entries are altered. Stories include examples of how people have altered their own articles to make themselves look better, and vandalism on Wikipedia that becomes reported as fact.

Hip hop artist Pharoahe Monch mentions Wikipedia in the song "Welcome to the Terrordome" from his 2007 album, "Desire". The lyrics are: "Take a walk through all this misplaced media / They got my name spelled wrong on Wikipedia."

Inaccuracies on Wikipedia in culture

Wikipedia was satirized in "The Onion" with a front-page article ("Wikipedia Celebrates 750 Years of American Independence", July 2006), alluding to perceptions that the publicly editable site is an unreliable source of information. [cite web|url=http://www.theonion.com/content/node/50902 |title=Wikipedia Celebrates 750 Years Of American Independence |accessmonthday= October 15 |accessyear=2006 |year=2006 |work= [http://www.theonion.com/ The Onion] ]

Various people including Jeremy Clarkson, [cite web|url=http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,12529-2289849,00.html |title=Lexus GS 450h SE-L Independence |accessmonthday= October 15 |author=Clarkson, Jeremy |accessyear=2006 |year=2006 |work= [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/ Times Online] ] Sir Ian McKellen, ["Empire Magazine", May 2006.] Patrick Stump, Mitch Albom and Marcus Brigstocke have criticized Wikipedia's articles about themselves. [cite video | people = Marcus Brigstocke | title = Marcus Brigstocke - Planet Corduroy | medium = DVD | publisher = Sony/BMG | location = The Shaw Theatre, London, England | date= 2007-11-26 ]

In 2007 Lyttle Lytton Contest, where the object is to come up with an opening sentence for a novel, a phrase from the article on Fukutsuru ("Fukutsuru died in 2005 but his frozen sperm lived on for people's benefit") won the prize in Found category. [cite web |url=http://adamcadre.ac/07lyttle.html |title=The 2007 Lyttle Lytton Contest |accessdate=2007-06-12 ]

John Oliver mocked himself and several public figures in his standup comedy special "Terrifying Times".Fact|date=September 2008 He claimed that his Wikipedia page listed his middle name as Cornelius.

Wikipedia as a character trait

In 2006, commenting to "The New York Times" on the demands on Central Intelligence Agency analysts to produce instant information, John E. McLaughlin, former acting U.S. Director of Central Intelligence, stated, "intelligence analysts end up being the Wikipedia of Washington".cite news | first = Tim | last = Weiner | title = Langley, We Have a Problem | publisher = The New York Times | date= 2006-05-14 | url = http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/14/weekinreview/14weiner.html?ex=1305259200&en=514d19d937472c12&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss | accessdate = 2007-06-26 ]

An altmuslim.com review of a new television series, "Sleeper Cell", about terrorists noted that the characters routinely gave detailed background of events in the history of Islam and stated, "no one, and I assume even terrorists, talks like a walking Wikipedia."cite web | first = Wajahat | last = Ali | url = http://www.altmuslim.com/perm.php?id=1629_0_25_0_C | title = Sleeping Cell | publisher = altmuslim.com | date= 2006-01-16 ]

Games that can be played on Wikipedia

Games can be played using the Wikipedia website, usually consisting of travelling from a "start article" to a "finish article" using internal links. Something Awful coined the term WikiGroaning to satirize undue weight between Wikipedia articles as judged by the size of an article on a trivial pop culture subject such as a Pokémon character versus the size of an article on a serious academic subject such as an ancient king. [ cite web | url = http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/wikigroaning.php | title = WikiGroaning ]

Miscellaneous

Wikipedia is parodied at several websites, including Uncyclopedia.cite news | title = The brains behind Uncyclopedia | publisher = .net |date=2007-05-03 | url = http://www.netmag.co.uk/zine/discover-interview/the-brains-behind-uncyclopedia | accessdate = 2007-11-19 ] [cite news |url = http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/142615 |title = Online parody of Tucson not always funny, but interesting |work = Arizona Daily Star |date=2006-08-18 |accessdate = 2006-08-22]

In the July 2006 issue of "Mad", in the Fundalini pages section there was a short joke with a mock picture of Wikipedia called "WonkyPedia". WonkyPedia featured its own logo, in which the letters on the puzzle globe were replaced with MAD characters and the letters M A D. The article shown was on Lincoln's assassination. The URL followed the appropriate pattern: "http://en.wonkypedia.org/wonky/". The same parody returned in the next issue as "Wakipedia". The phrase it advertised was "The Free Encyclopedia (you get what you pay for!)".

Likewise, "CRACKED.com", the online publication affiliated with former "Mad" rival "Cracked", has satirized Wikipedia's . [cite web
url=http://www.cracked.com/?name=News&sid=1293|title=More Accurate Wikipedia Warnings|accessmonthday= November 16 |accessyear=2006|author=Sack, Brian|year=2006|work= [http://www.cracked.com/ CRACKED.com] ]

In the American version of the video game "", Wikipedia is a selectable mantra, equippable by the game's characters to learn skills. [ [http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/game/920605.html Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga FAQs] ] [ [http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/920605/36886 "Digital Devil Saga Mantra Grid, Version 2.0 - 5/18/05" by Starion] ] However, it appears it was only a mistranslation made by the translators since the name is not present in the japanese version.

On the TV show "The Loop", Wikipedia was mentioned on one episode.

On the June 5, 2006 episode of "The Howard Stern Show", wack packer Eric the Midget called in and complained that his parents had read about a stunt that he did for the show, that involved him measuring his penis, on Wikipedia (which he called "Wackipedia"). Stern read the section of the article regarding penis measuring on the air. Also, Gary Dell'Abate commented on the air he and the "Stern Show" staff enjoy the picture of Lynch in this article.

In May 2006, British chat show host Paul O'Grady received an inquiry from a viewer regarding information given on his Wikipedia page, to which he responded, "Wikipedia? Sounds like a skin disease."

On the show "X-Play", Morgan Webb looked at the Wikipedia article of Point Blank DS, and then looked at the article on their show. After reading it, the logo in the top left corner of the page spoke to Morgan in typical X-Play fashion. It also pointed out that since the show's inception, they have made 337 fart jokes. When asked why it could talk the logo stated that Wikipedia had become self aware in 2004 due to the massive amounts of information provided by the public.

On the E! network program "The Soup", during the "Reality Show Clip Time!" segment a clip of "Flavor of Love 2" was shown in which someone mentioned Google as a point of research on September 8, 2006, to make fun of this, host Joel McHale said "Well at least it's better than saying 'Wikipedia Wikipedia Wikipedia'" Another time he said he looked up something on Wikipedia and saw a dance.

Something Awful once featured Wikipedia's article on Knuckles the Echidna as an ALOD (Awful Link of the Day), satirizing the amount of detail that sometimes goes into seemingly irrelevant topics. The link description adds that the article at the time was longer than each of the articles about Echidnas, the Internet, the internal combustion engine, William Shakespeare and Western Culture. The topic was also satirized in the front page, which featured a fake Wikipedia style article about Albert "Al" Calavicci from the TV series Quantum Leap written by Something Awful contributor David Thorpe. [cite web|url=http://www.somethingawful.com/index.php?a=4103 |title=Quantum Geek |accessmonthday= October 15 |accessyear=2006 |year=2006 |author=Thorpe, David |work= [http://www.somethingawful.com/ Something Awful] ] Thorpe elsewhere linked the existence of such articles to Aspergers Syndrome, stating "Don't make fun of Aspergers. If it weren't for Aspergers, we wouldn't have 20-page Wikipedia articles about Knuckles the Echidna." [cite web|url=http://www.somethingawful.com/index.php?a=4107&p=12 |title=Return to the Science Fair, page 12 |accessmonthday= October 15 |accessyear=2006 |author=Parsons, Zack |coauthors=Thorpe, David |year=2006 |work= [http://www.somethingawful.com/fashion Fashion SWAT] |publisher= [http://www.somethingawful.com/ Something Awful] ] Wikipedia was also mocked in a December 4 update on Something Awful. The update detailed the life of a talk page on Wikipedia, and mocked the neutrality, copyright, naming, quality, and personal disputes that the pages are beholden to. The update also linked Wikipedia usage to Aspergers once more, with one fictional editor claiming to have a case of the syndrome twice as powerful as that of another fictional editor. [cite web|url=http://www.somethingawful.com/index.php?a=4288 |title=The Dark Side of Wikipedia |accessmonthday= December 18 |accessyear=2006 |author=Parsons, Zack |year=December 4, 2006 |publisher= [http://www.somethingawful.com/ Something Awful] ]

The comic strip Sally Forth has mentioned Wikipedia a few times.

Comedian Zach Galifianakis claimed to look himself up on Wikipedia in an interview with The Badger Herald, [cite web|url=http://badgerherald.com/artsetc/2007/03/22/comedian_galifianaki.php |title=The Badger Herald |accessmonthday= March 22 |accessyear=2007 |year=2007] stating about himself, "...I'm looking at Wikipedia right now. Half Greek, half redneck, around 6-foot-4. And that's about it... The 6-foot-4 thing may be a little bit off. Actually, it's 4-foot-6."

In his "pickoff" in which he makes predictions on the winners of NFL games, Peter King said of the Thanksgiving night game between Indianapolis and Atlanta in 2007 "The sleep-inducing qualities of turkey are overrated, as I learned this week on Wikipedia. There is more tryptophan in cheddar cheese than turkey." [ [http://www.fannation.com/peter_king_challenge/picks The Peter King Challange] ]

The December 3, 2007 episode of "Jeopardy!" had a category entitled "'ick'-ipedia", where all correct responses contained the letters "ick".

Wikipedia in cuisine

A restaurant on HouHai lake in Beijing [http://ourfounder.typepad.com/leblog/2007/10/jimmy-wales-gro.html reportedly] serves a dish called "Wikipedia stir-fry" on its menu.

Wikipedia in motion picture films and movies

Truth in Numbers: The Wikipedia Story

"" ^{[http://underdogpictures.com/wikidoc/wikipediasite.htm]} is an upcoming documentary film which aims to document the growth and effect of Wikipedia on the Internet and its attempt to keep a record of all human knowledge [Gibson, Michael Ferris. "Main Page - Truth in Numbers: The Wikipedia Story - a Wikia wiki." http://wikidocumentary.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page 25th of September, 2006. Wikia Incorporated and the Wikimedia Foundation. Date of access: 17th of May, 2007.] as well as exploring how the concepts of free software and collaboratively-created information systems (particularly Wikipedia itself) are fundamentally changing media, academics, politics, culture, as well as many other spheres. [Anderson, Jeremy and Scime, Lauren. "Web Design @ Object Adjective: Very Special Design" "Open Wiki Project Summary". http://www.objectadjective.com/casestudies/truthinnumbers.htm Publication date: 12th of March, 2007.] The movie was scheduled to be finished in 2007 and be released in America and worldwide in the spring of 2008, but this has since been pushed back to 2009. Among the main casts are Jimmy Wales, KRS-One, Lawrence Lessig, Ward Cunningham and Brewster Kahle will play in the film as themselves. ["Truth in Numbers: The Wikipedia Story (2008)." http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0960864/ Nicholas Hemming Hill. Underdog Pictures, Movie release date: Spring, 2008.]

Wikipedia in web comics

On May 7, 2005, the comic strip FoxTrot showed one character appending his older sister to unflattering Wikipedia articles. In a similar joke, the web comic "Penny Arcade" also satirized Wikipedia with a comic strip depicting Skeletor vandalizing the He-Man article. [cite web|url=http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/12/16 |title=I Have The Power |accessmonthday= October 15 |accessyear=2006 |year=2005 |author=Krahulik, Mike |coauthors=Holkins, Jerry |work= [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic Penny Arcade Comic] ] [cite web|url=http://www.penny-arcade.com/2005/12/16 |title=I Have The Power |accessmonthday= October 15 |accessyear=2006 |year=2005 |author=Krahulik, Mike |work= [http://www.penny-arcade.com/ Penny Arcade News] ] The web comic PvP featured a similar gag with the character Marcy adding embarrassing information about Francis, though she denies it's vandalism, claiming truth. [cite web|url=http://www.pvponline.com/article/2832/aug-12-2006 |title=Strip for August 12 2006 |accessmonthday= October 15 |accessyear=2006 |year=2006 |author=Kurtz, Scott R. |work= [http://www.pvponline.com/ PVP Online] ] [cite web|url=http://www.pvponline.com/article/2833/aug-13-2006 |title=Strip for August 13 2006 |accessmonthday= October 15 |accessyear=2006 |year=2006 |author=Kurtz, Scott R. |work= [http://www.pvponline.com/ PVP Online] ]

On December 12, 2005 comic of UserFriendly, Greg, who is first defending Wikipedia against criticism, is seen about to vandalize Wikipedia after finding out he is listed under "hairy dork".

The November 8, 2006 installment of Dinosaur Comics features T-Rex [http://www.qwantz.com/index.pl?comic=879 presenting a solution] to Wikipedia's vandalism problems; the article about Chickens would be designated for vandalism, leaving all other articles intact.

Bunny strip which features Wikipedia. The tombstone reads: "RIP Jeph Jacques" with the bottom caption: "The Moral of the story is you cannot always trust what you read on Wikipedia."

Questionable Content references Wikipedia several times. Hannelore, a character who suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder, cut most of her hair off after reading Wikipedia's article on head lice. [cite web|url=http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=663 |title=Number 663: At Least She Didn't Go All The Way |accessmonthday= October 15 |accessyear=2006 |year=2006 |author=Jacques, Jeph |work= [http://questionablecontent.net/ Questionable Content] ] Wikipedia was also referenced when Penelope, a character who is bitter against romance, stated that her edits to the De Beers entry kept getting reverted (she attempted to add a conspiracy theory to the article suggesting that the company had subverted humanity's mating drive in order to sell more diamonds). [cite web|url=http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=774|title=Number 774: Also Certain Web Comics |accessmonthday= January 29 |accessyear=2007 |year=2007 |author=Jacques, Jeph |work= [http://questionablecontent.net/ Questionable Content] ] Wikipedia was also parodied, taking the form of a mock product similar to SpaghettiOs. [cite web|url=http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1023|title=Number 1023: Part of a Balanced... Something |accessmonthday= November 28 |accessyear=2007 |year=2007 |author=Jacques, Jeph |work= [http://questionablecontent.net/ Questionable Content] ]

The webcomic Applegeeks has jokingly referred to Wikipedia as a replacement for traditional education twice. [cite web|url=http://www.applegeeks.com/comic_archive/viewcomic.php?issue=236 |title=Issue 236: Noodliness |accessmonthday= October 15 |accessyear=2006 |author=Haque, Mohammed F. |coauthors=Panagariya, Ananth |year=2004 |work= [http://www.applegeeks.com/ Applegeeks] ] [cite web|url=http://www.applegeeks.com/lite/index.php?aglitecomic=2006-05-19 |title=Issue 010 |accessmonthday= October 15 |accessyear=2004 |author=Haque, Mohammed F. |coauthors=Panagariya, Ananth |year=2006 |work= [http://www.applegeeks.com/lite/ Applegeeks Lite] ]

On July 4, 2007, xkcd published a comic showing a protester holding up a sign during a political rally that says " [CITATION NEEDED] ", a tag often used on Wikipedia to indate unverified statements. The tooltip of the comic, often part of the joke, shows the additional comment " THE CONSTITUTION".

The "xkcd" issue #214 points out the "problem with Wikipedia": that wikilinks to related topics can cause "three hours of fascinated clicking". [cite web | last=Munroe | first=Randall | authorlink=Randall Munroe | title=The Problem with Wikipedia | work=xkcd | url=http://xkcd.com/214 | accessdate=2007-04-06] Another issue which showed Randall Munroe's Google search history following the AOL search data scandal revealed that Munroe searched the Wikipedia domain for "surviving a raptor attack". [cite web | last=Munroe | first=Randall | authorlink=Randall Munroe | title=Search History | work=xkcd | url=http://xkcd.com/c155.html | accessdate=2007-04-06] xkcd comic #333, entitled "Getting Out of Hand," shows a couple in bed together, with one of the two stick figures reading the Wikipedia article on foreplay on a laptop. [cite web | last=Munroe | first=Randall | authorlink=Randall Munroe | title=Getting Out of Hand | work=xkcd | url=http://xkcd.com/333/ | accessdate=2007-10-24] Returning to the Wikipedia theme, xkcd #446 depicted a fictional "In popular culture" section in the "Wood" article, riffing on the tendency to include minor pop culture trivia in articles, with tooltip text theorizing that "the blogosphere will implode" if the tooltip text is mentioned in an "in popular culture" section for an article on the "In Popular Culture" sections. [http://xkcd.com/446/ In Popular Culture] , xkcd, July 7, 2008]

The webcomics "PartiallyClips" and "Fanboys On Line" criticised Wikipedia's current policy of deleting many articles on webcomics. [cite web | last=Balder | first=Robert T. | authorlink=Robert T. Balder | title=King and Jester | work=Partially Clips | url=http://www.partiallyclips.com/pclipslite.php?id=1483 |accessdate=2007-04-12 Caption above the comic reads, "End the Wikipedia pogrom against webcomics."] [cite web | last=Balder | first=Robert T. | authorlink=Robert T. Balder | title=Wilkipediatrics | work=Fanboys On-Line | url=http://fanboys-online.com/index.php?cid=134 |accessdate=2007-04-12 ]

Superhero-parody webcomic PassFailStudios featured a strip on how Professor X's mutant-location machine Cerebro worked. The final panel showed Xavier searching Wikipedia for mutants.

[http://impy.aorange.com Impy and Aevy] has a set of comics using a parodied form of Wikipedia called [http://impy.aorange.com/index.php?date=2007-05-07 Wonkypedia] .

Roadkill Bill has a comic mocking Wikipedia.

Ethan in Shortpacked often describes edit wars he is involved in regarding the Transformers articles on Wikipedia.

George of Bob and George once used Wikipedia to research the The First Annual Robot Tournament (a plot element from Mega Man 6) after being told his brother, Bob, was killed during it, but found no information. [cite web | title=The Bob and George Archives | last=Anez |first=Dave | work=Bob and George | url=http://www.bobandgeorge.com/Archive/index.php?date=060214 | accessdate=2007-06-19] Later, however, Mega Man researches the subject and finds detailed information has been added. [cite web|title=The Bob and George Archives| last=Anez|first=Dave|work=Bob and George|url=http://www.bobandgeorge.com/Archive/index.php?date=060425|accessdate=2007-06-19] This article is then used as a plot device in following comics as the characters read about the events being depicted.

Diesel Sweeties comic #1831 shows the Red Robot swearing "on the Wikipedia's entry for 'Honor'" to not kill anyone, and then later editing the page.

Claims of negative impact on culture

Wikipedia has also been criticized for encouraging what Andrew Keen called the "Cult of the Amateur", resulting in toleration and enjoyment of lowerbrow culture. [cite news|author=Michiko Kakutani |title= The Cult of the Amateur (book review)|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/books/29book.html |publisher= New York Times|date=2008-07-27 |accessdate=2008-07-08 ]

ee also

*

Notes

# Namely "Loxodonta", "African Forest Elephant", "African Bush Elephant", "Pachydermata", "Babar the Elephant", "Elephant", "Oregon", "George Washington", "Latchkey kid", "Serial killer", "Hitler", "The Colbert Report" and "Stephen Colbert" are/were temporarily protected. "Mûmak" (formerly at "Oliphaunt") has also been vandalized.

References and footnotes