References toWikipedia in popular culture have been widespread. Manyparody Wikipedia's openness, with individuals vandalizing or modifying articles in nonconstructive ways. Others feature individuals using Wikipedia as areference work, or positively comparing their intelligence to Wikipedia. In some cases, Wikipedia is not used as an encyclopedia at all, but instead serves more as a character trait or even as a game, such asWikiracing. Wikipedia has also become culturally significant with many individuals seeing the presence of their own Wikipedia entry as a status symbol.[1]
Ukrainian composerAndriy Bondarenko wrote a musical piece, "Anthem of Wikipedia", which was performed in a concert devoted to the 15th anniversary of Wikipedia inKyiv in 2016.[5][6]
References to Wikipedia have been made several times in the webcomicxkcd. A facsimile of a made-up Wikipedia entry for "malamanteau" (astunt word created by Munroe to poke fun at Wikipedia's writing style) provoked a controversy.[7][8]
During theRusso-Ukrainian war, a meme titledBattle of Techno House 2022, which features footage of a Russian soldier's failed effort at opening a door, went viral and was reposted millions of times.[9] Media coverage included discussion of an initial Wikipedia page for the incident/meme, which lampooned the event by using Wikipedia formatting generally used only for actual battles, making it seem like a real battle. The belligerents in the "battle" were humorously listed as "Russian Soldier" and "store door" with the battle results referred to as a "decisive door victory" and "pride" referred to as one of the Russian casualties.[10][11][12] The humorous content was later removed from the Wikipedia page.[13]
In a July 2006episode of the satirical comedyThe Colbert Report,Stephen Colbert announced theneologism "wikiality", aportmanteau of the wordsWiki andreality, for his segment "The Wørd". Colbert defined wikiality as "truth by consensus" (rather than fact), modeled after the approval-by-consensus format of Wikipedia. He ironically praised Wikipedia for following his philosophy oftruthiness in which intuition and consensus is a better reflection of reality than fact:
You see, any user can change any entry, and if enough other users agree with them, it becomes true. ... If only the entire body of human knowledge worked this way. And it can, thanks to tonight's word: Wikiality. Now, folks, I'm no fan of reality, and I'm no fan of encyclopedias. I've said it before. Who is Britannica to tell me that George Washington had slaves? If I want to say he didn't, that's my right. And now, thanks to Wikipedia, it's also a fact.We should apply these principles to all information. All we need to do is convince a majority of people that some factoid is true. ... What we're doing is bringing democracy to knowledge.[19]
Colbert suggested that viewers change the elephant page to state that the number ofAfrican elephants has tripled in the last six months.[20] The suggestion resulted in numerous incorrect changes to Wikipedia articles related to elephants and Africa.[a][b] Colbert went on to type on a laptop facing away from the camera, claiming to be making the edits to the pages himself. Because initial edits to Wikipedia corresponding to these claimed "facts" were made by a user namedStephencolbert, many believe Colbert himself vandalized several Wikipedia pages at the time he was encouraging other users to do the same. Whether the account was Stephen Colbert himself or someone posing as him, it was blocked from Wikipedia indefinitely.[21][c]
In June 2011, Wikipedia received attention for attempts by editors to change the "Paul Revere" article to fitSarah Palin's accounting of events during a campaign bus tour.[28][29] TheNew York Times reported that the article "had half a million page views" by June 10, and "after all the attention and arguments, the article is now much longer ... and much better sourced ... than before Palin's remarks."[30]
In October 2018, Jackson A. Cosko, a former staff member for US SenatorMaggie Hassan, edited Wikipedia todox several Congresspersons after being fired. Republican SenatorsLindsey Graham,Orrin G. Hatch,Mitch McConnell, andMike Lee had their personal addresses, cell phone numbers, and email addresses inserted into their respective Wikipedia pages. The Senators were targeted for the role they played asRepublican members of theSenate Judiciary Committee during the contentiousSupreme Court nomination hearings ofBrett Kavanaugh.[34] Cosko pleaded guilty in April 2019 and on 19 June 2019 was sentenced to four years in federal prison on five charges related to the event.[35]
In May 2006, British chat show hostPaul 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."
ComedianZach Galifianakis claimed to look himself up on Wikipedia in an interview withThe Badger Herald,[40] 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."
Slate magazine compared Wikipedia to the fictional deviceThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy from the series of the same name byDouglas Adams. "The parallels betweenThe Hitchhiker's Guide (as found in Adams' original BBC radio series and novels) and Wikipedia are so striking, it's a wonder that the author's rabid fans don't think he invented time travel. Since its editor was perennially out to lunch, theGuide was amended 'by any passing stranger who happened to wander into the empty offices on an afternoon and saw something worth doing.' This anonymous group effort ends up outsellingEncyclopedia Galactica even though 'it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate.'"[41] This comparison of rivaling texts resembles the mainstream comparisons between Wikipedia and professional Encyclopedias.[42]
Redactle is a game in which the player must identify a Wikipedia article (chosen from the 10,000 vital articles) after it appears with most of its words redacted. Prepositions, articles, the verb "to be", punctuation and word lengths are shown. Players guess words, which are revealed if present in the article. As of June 2024[update] there have been over 800 daily games.[43][44][45]
^ Wikipedia administrators subsequentlyrestricted edits to the pages by anonymous and newly created user accounts.
^ Wikipedia blocked the account for violatingWikipedia's username policies (which state that using the names of celebrities as login names without permission is inappropriate), not for the vandalism, as believed.
