Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 13:48, 2 June 2007

References to Misplaced Pages in culture have increased as more people learn about and use the online encyclopedia project. Many parody Misplaced Pages'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 Misplaced Pages. Also, the encyclopedia many times isn´t used as an encyclopedia at all, but instead serves more as a character trait or even as a game.

References

Landmark

Date	Title	Notes	Relevance
2004-11-10	"I Must Take Issue With The Misplaced Pages Entry For 'Weird Al' Yankovic", the Onion.	In an article from The Onion, the character Larry Groznic writes an article about how he was banned from Misplaced Pages for starting an edit war on the "Weird Al" Yankovic page, and goes on to criticize the content on the said page.	Having taken place well before the John Seigenthaler Sr. Misplaced Pages biography controversy, it was one of the first major parodies.
2005-05-07	FoxTrot	File:Foxtrot wikipedia.jpg	First appearance of Misplaced Pages in a syndicated comic strip.
2006-03-01	The Colbert Report, episode 58	Arianna Huffington challenges host Stephen Colbert on his claim that he had coined the word "truthiness". She cited Misplaced Pages, claiming that he had merely "popularized" the term. Regarding her source, Colbert, in character, responded: "Fuck them."	First non-news nationally-broadcast television program to mention Misplaced Pages.
2006-05-??	The Simpsons Comics, issue 117, "Sandwiches are Forever"	Hank Scorpio, a character from The Simpsons television series, mocks Lisa Simpson for citing her knowledge of him and his illegal activities (which he assumes she simply read from Misplaced Pages) during a prison break scene in the issue. This issue was written by Ty Templeton.	This is the first reference to Misplaced Pages in a comic book.
2006-05-09	The Colbert Report, episode 93	Colbert refers to Misplaced Pages as his source of information for research on Sigmund Freud. With his normal sarcastic and deadpan delivery, Colbert's segment "The Wørd" mocked Misplaced Pages's sometimes-questionable information with the screen posting "Even the accurate parts."	Colbert's first scripted reference to Misplaced Pages, a lead into his "Wikiality" piece.
2006-07-31	The Colbert Report, episode 128	See also: Consensus reality In a July 2006 episode of the satirical comedy The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert announced the neologism wikiality, a portmanteau of the words Misplaced Pages and reality, for his segment "The Wørd." Colbert defined wikiality as "truth by consensus" (rather than fact), modeled after the approval-by-consensus format of Misplaced Pages. He ironically praised Misplaced Pages for following his philosophy of truthiness, 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 Misplaced Pages, 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. According to Colbert, together "we can all create a reality that we all can agree on; the reality that we just agreed on." During the segment, he joked "I love Misplaced Pages... any site that's got a longer entry on truthiness than on Lutherans has its priorities straight." Colbert also used the segment to satirize the more general issue of whether the repetition of statements in the media leads people to believe they are true. The piece was introduced with the tagline, "The Revolution Will Not Be Verified," referencing the lack of objective verification seen in some articles. Colbert suggested that viewers change the elephant page to state that the number of African elephants has tripled in the last six months. The suggestion resulted in numerous incorrect changes to Misplaced Pages articles related to elephants and Africa. Misplaced Pages administrators subsequently restricted edits to the pages by anonymous and newly created users. Colbert went on to type on a laptop facing away from the camera, claiming to be making the edits to the pages himself. In addition, initial edits to Misplaced Pages corresponding to these claimed "facts" were made by a user named Stephencolbert. Thus, many believe Colbert himself vandalized several Misplaced Pages pages at the time he was encouraging other users to do the same. The account, whether it was Stephen Colbert himself or someone posing as him, has been blocked from Misplaced Pages indefinitely. The account was blocked for violating Misplaced Pages's username policies, which state that using the names of celebrities as login names is inappropriate. The account will be reopened if and when Colbert or Comedy Central confirm its identity.	Global Language Monitor, which tracks trends in languages, named wikiality and truthiness the top T.V. buzzwords for 2006. Shortly after the episode aired, a fan-created Misplaced Pages parody site opened at Wikiality.com, inspired by the term. On October 19 2006, the term was mentioned again on the show, this time with Wikiality.com given as the url for Misplaced Pages.
2006-08-12	"White & Nerdy" music video, by "Weird Al" Yankovic	The character who is implied to be the nerd says that editing Misplaced Pages is one of his nerdy activities. In the video, Al is shown editing the article Atlantic Records by typing in large letters YOU SUCK. Thus Al takes revenge on the record company for refusing to let him include "You're Pitiful," a parody of James Blunt's song "You're Beautiful", on his new album. This has prompted copycat vandalism of the Atlantic Records page, which resulted in the page's being semi-protected. Yankovic has said "I don't officially approve of , but on a certain level it does amuse me."	This may be the first time a music video showed the website. The song was also Yankovic's first career Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. It reached #1 at the U.S. iTunes Store, and peaked at #1 on VH1's top 20 video countdown.
date unknown	Jericho ads	Following Jericho episodes on Network 10 in Australia, a promotion would appear encouraging viewers to log onto Misplaced Pages and search for "Jericho (tv series)" for proof of the hype and theories surrounding the show.	This is the first station advertisement to encourage people to search Misplaced Pages for their product.
2006-00-00	Cisco Systems: Human Network Anthem	A TV advertisement for Cisco Systems shows a young child with a laptop, the Misplaced Pages logo clearly visible on the screen. Part of their "Human Network Anthem" ad campaign.	First television advertisement showing Misplaced Pages as part of the plot line.
2006-10-30	Prison Break: "Unearthed"	Michael Scofield searches for Agent Mahone and reads an article on Misplaced Pages with a similar layout and his image in the top left.	First reference on a fiction-based television series.
2007-01-18	30 Rock: "The Head and the Hair"	While Tracy Jordan, James "Toofer" Spurlock and Frank Rossitano are working to complete Jordan's autobiography within a single day, Rossitano finds Jordan's Misplaced Pages article while using the Internet on his laptop. The article says Jordan was discovered after doing stand-up comedy at the Apollo Theater in 1984, and Jordan, though stating he has no recollection of this, tells the two to add it to the book.	First sitcom series reference.
2007-03-17	Bremner, Bird and Fortune	A sketch about the 10 most popular, yet unread books, featuring a voice over talking about the plots of the books, which seem to constantly refer to aliens. At the end of the sketch it says that the information came from Misplaced Pages.	First mention in a British satirical comedy programme.
2007-04-22	SportsCenter	After citing a stat about Houston Astros pitcher Roy Oswalt, anchor Kenny Mayne jokingly gave credit to Misplaced Pages for providing the number.	First recorded reference from a sports highlight show.
date unknown	The Righteous Men, Sam Bourne	In the 2006 Da Vinci Code style novel The Righteous Men, Misplaced Pages features as an academic style encyclopedia.	First known reference in fictional literature.

Of lesser importance

In comics

In television episodes

Contextual

Citations of Misplaced Pages in culture

In the Homestar Runner cartoon No Hands On Deck!, Homestar Runner mentions that "'Kipedia said vulcanized was the way to go" in reference to the type of nails used to build a deck. At the time the cartoon was released, the Misplaced Pages article on decks made no reference to nails or vulcanization.

The cartoon FoxTrot features Peter being criticized by his teacher for copying a homework assignment directly from Misplaced Pages. Peter replies, "Who's to say I didn't write the Misplaced Pages entry myself?"

During a debate on Québécois nationhood in the Canadian House of Commons on November 27, 2006, Conservative Member of Parliament Scott Reid mentioned Misplaced Pages.

Inaccuracies on Misplaced Pages in culture

Misplaced Pages was satirized in The Onion with a front-page article ("Misplaced Pages Celebrates 750 Years of American Independence", July 2006), alluding to perceptions that the publicly editable site is an unreliable source of information.

Various people including Jeremy Clarkson, Sir Ian McKellen, Patrick Stump, and Mitch Albom have criticized Misplaced Pages's articles about themselves.

Misplaced Pages 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 Misplaced Pages of Washington".

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 Misplaced Pages."

Misplaced Pages as a game

Misplaced Pages is commonly used in games, even though its purpose is to spread legitimate knowledge.

Games using Misplaced Pages are described as "Misplaced Pages games"; these such games usually consist of travelling from a "start article" to a "finish article" using internal links. Of course, these games aren´t usually the best of fun for gamers, but they conform a good alternative when other games are not within their reach in certain special circumstances, such as when anti-game filters are set up at schools.

Miscellaneous

Misplaced Pages is parodied at several websites, including Uncyclopedia and Encyclopaedia Dramatica. A Wikiality site was also created.

In the July 2006 issue of Mad, in the Fundalini pages section there was a short joke with a mock picture of Misplaced Pages 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 HTTP address 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 💕 (you get what you pay for!)".

Likewise, CRACKED.com, the online publication affiliated with former Mad rival Cracked, has satirized Misplaced Pages's maintenance templates.

In the American version of Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga, Misplaced Pages is a selectable mantra.

The video game Digital Devil Saga features several "Mantras" which the game's characters can equip in order to learn skills. One is named Misplaced Pages.

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 Misplaced Pages (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 Misplaced Pages page, to which he responded, "Misplaced Pages? Sounds like a skin disease."

On the show X-Play, Morgan Webb looked at the Misplaced Pages 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 Misplaced Pages 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 'Misplaced Pages Misplaced Pages Misplaced Pages'" Another time he said looked up crap on[REDACTED] and saw a people doing a dance.

Something Awful once featured Misplaced Pages'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 Misplaced Pages style article about Albert “Al” Calavicci from the TV series Quantum Leap written by Something Awful contributor David Thorpe. 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 Misplaced Pages articles about Knuckles the Echidna." Misplaced Pages was also mocked in a December 4 update on Something Awful. The update detailed the life of a talk page on Misplaced Pages, and mocked the neutrality, copyright, naming, quality, and personal disputes that the pages are beholden to. The update also linked Misplaced Pages 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.

The comic strip Sally Forth has mentioned Misplaced Pages a few times.

Misplaced Pages was mentioned on Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld.

Comedian Zach Galifianakis claimed to look himself up on Misplaced Pages in an interview with The Badger Herald, stating about himself, "...I’m looking at Misplaced Pages 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."

Misplaced Pages in web comics

On May 7, 2005, the comic strip FoxTrot showed one character appending his older sister to unflattering Misplaced Pages articles. In a similar joke, the web comic Penny Arcade also satirized Misplaced Pages with a comic strip depicting Skeletor vandalizing the He-Man article. 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.

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

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

Hannelore, a character in webcomic Questionable Content, suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder. She references Misplaced Pages's article on head lice as the reason why she cut most of her hair off. Misplaced Pages was also mentioned in another comic where a character mentions that their edits to the De Beers entry keep getting reverted (as they are attempting to add a conspiracy theory to the article suggesting the company has subverted humanity's mating drive in order to sell more diamonds).

The webcomic Applegeeks has jokingly referred to Misplaced Pages as a replacement for traditional education twice.

An issue of xkcd points out the "problem with Misplaced Pages", that distracting wikilinks cause "three hours of fascinated clicking". Another issue which showed Randall Munroe's Google search history following the AOL search data scandal revealed that Munroe searched the Misplaced Pages domain for "surviving a raptor attack".

The November 8, 2006 installment of Dinosaur Comics features T-Rex presenting a solution to Misplaced Pages's vandalism problems; the article about Chickens would be designated for vandalism, leaving all other articles intact.

One web comic criticised Misplaced Pages's current policy of deleting many articles on webcomics.

Impy and Aevy has a set of comics using a parodied form of Misplaced Pages called Wonkypedia.

Roadkill Bill has a comic mocking Misplaced Pages.

Notes

1. 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

1. http://www.theonion.com/content/node/37314
2. The Colbert Report, "Faith", Comedy Central, March 1 2006.
3. An exact citation of the Misplaced Pages referencing passage of The Simpsons Comics #117:

   Lisa: Say, aren't you Hank Scorpio, the criminal mastermind?

   Hank: I prefer the term "Entrepreneurial mastermind", but yes, that's me.

   Lisa: You blackmailed the federal government into giving you control of the American east coast. Now everyone thinks you are dead.

   Hank: Aren't you adorable? We're all about to be shot as escaped prisoners, and you're reciting my entry in the Misplaced Pages. I hope you're proud of her, Homer. She's great!

4. http://www.noisetosignal.org/comics/2006/05/simpsons-comics-117.php
5. The Colbert Report, "Superegomaniac", Comedy Central, May 9 2006.
6. The Colbert Report / Comedy Central recording of The WØRD "Wikiality", Comedy Central, July 31 2006.
7. YouTube recording of The Colbert Report, "Wikiality", Comedy Central, July 31 2006.
8. "Colbert Causes Chaos on Misplaced Pages". Newsvine. August 1 2006. Retrieved 2006-09-28. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
9. ""Truthiness," "Wikiality" named TV words of year". Reuters. August 27 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-28. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
10. "'Truthiness' and 'Wikiality' Named Top Television Buzzwords of 2006 Followed by 'Katrina', 'Katie,' and 'Dr. McDreamy'". Global Language Monitor. August 27 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-28. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
11. Note that the song was leaked on the Internet almost a month prior, on August 27, 2006.
12. White & Nerdy lyrics:

    My ergonomic keyboard never leaves me bored

    Shopping online for deals on some writable media

    I edit Misplaced Pages

    I memorized Holy Grail really well

    I can recite it right now and have you ROTFLOL

13. Adams, Cameron. "Weird Al Yankovic." Herald Sun, October 5, 2006.
14. BBC News, Harry Potter book "often unread" Accessed on 1 April 2007.
15. http://news.yahoo.com/s/eonline/20070412/en_tv_eo/fc0414659360_4cc5_bcca_b5017c71f98c
16. "No Hands On Deck!". Homestar Runner Wiki. 2006. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help); Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
17. Chapman, Matt (2006). "No Hands On Deck!". Homestar Runner. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help); Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
18. "Deck (building)". Misplaced Pages. 2006. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help); Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
19. Hansard, November 27, 2006.
20. "Misplaced Pages Celebrates 750 Years Of American Independence". The Onion. 2006. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help); Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
21. Clarkson, Jeremy (2006). "Lexus GS 450h SE-L Independence". Times Online. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help); Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
22. Empire Magazine, May 2006.
23. Tim Weiner, "Langley, We Have a Problem", The New York Times, 14 May 2006
24. Wajahat Ali, "Sleeping Cell", altmuslim.com, 16 January 2006
25. Sack, Brian (2006). "More Accurate Misplaced Pages Warnings". CRACKED.com. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help); Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
26. Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga FAQs
27. "Digital Devil Saga Mantra Grid, Version 2.0 - 5/16/05" by Starion
28. http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/digital_devil_saga_mantra_grid.png
29. Thorpe, David (2006). "Quantum Geek". Something Awful. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help); Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
30. Parsons, Zack (2006). "Return to the Science Fair, page 12". Fashion SWAT. Something Awful. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= and |work= (help); Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
31. Parsons, Zack (December 4, 2006). "The Dark Side of Misplaced Pages". Something Awful. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
32. "The Badger Herald". 2007. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
33. Krahulik, Mike (2005). "I Have The Power". Penny Arcade Comic. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help); Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
34. Krahulik, Mike (2005). "I Have The Power". Penny Arcade News. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help); Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
35. Kurtz, Scott R. (2006). "Strip for [[August 12]] [[2006]]". PVP Online. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help); URL–wikilink conflict (help); Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
36. Kurtz, Scott R. (2006). "Strip for [[August 13]] [[2006]]". PVP Online. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help); URL–wikilink conflict (help); Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
37. Jacques, Jeph (2006). "Number 663: At Least She Didn't Go All The Way". Questionable Content. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help); Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
38. Jacques, Jeph (2007). "Number 774: Also Certain Web Comics". Questionable Content. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help); Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
39. Haque, Mohammed F. (2004). "Issue 236: Noodliness". Applegeeks. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help); Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
40. Haque, Mohammed F. (2006). "Issue 010". Applegeeks Lite. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help); Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
41. Munroe, Randall. "The Problem with Misplaced Pages". xkcd. Retrieved 2007-04-06.
42. Munroe, Randall. "Search History". xkcd. Retrieved 2007-04-06.
43. Balder, Robert T. "King and Jester". Partially Clips. Retrieved 2007-04-12. Caption above the comic reads, "End the Misplaced Pages pogrom against webcomics."

External links

• Fred the Notable Monkey on Newgrounds.
• Austin, Elizabeth, “Hold the truth, pass the Wikiality,” Chicago Tribune, September 18 2006 viewed 9/18/2006

• In popular culture
• Misplaced Pages