More Stephen Colbert Wiki Pranks
Stephen Colbert had Jimmy Wales on his show last week, and a fresh round of Wikipedia pranks has ensued. You can best view the interview here.
Last year, Colbert’s Comedy Central fans began editing the Wikipedia article on Elephants to read, “Thanks largely to the efforts of Stephen Colbert, the world elephant population has tripled.” These edits are still being reverted to this day. Following Colbert’s interview with Wales, a new flurry of pages are being protected. Colbert called on viewers to write a variety of new and interesting facts. Namely, that “Librarians are hiding something,” that “Oxygen is a poison“, that “Albert Einstein was an Alpacca farmer“, and that anyone looking for the Spanish Wikipedia should “just learn English.”
I should note that all of these pages are now semi-protected. Probably because, as Jimmy notes in the interview, Wikipedians watch the Colbert report. Colbert is the comedian who coined the term “Wikiality”, a state in which truth becomes whatever the majority of people believe it to be. This prompted Colbert fans to start the parody wiki, Wikiality.com, “The Truthiness Encyclopedia.”
Wales enjoyed his Colbert interview with good humor, and even noted that Stephen Colbert himself had been banned from editing Wikipedia, for “not behaving himself.”
