Wikipedia in Culture - Cases

Cases

Date Nature Country (of origin) Title
November 10, 2004 article United States "I Must Take Issue With The Wikipedia Entry For 'Weird Al' Yankovic", The Onion.
2005 promotion Australia Jericho ads
May 7, 2005 comic strip United States FoxTrot
2006 commercial England Cisco Systems: Human Network Anthem
March 1, 2006 TV show (satirical) United States The Colbert Report, episode 58
April 14, 2006 novel United Kingdom The Righteous Men, Sam Bourne
August 12, 2006 music video United States "White & Nerdy" music video, by "Weird Al" Yankovic
January 18, 2007 sitcom United States 30 Rock: "The Head and the Hair"
March 17, 2007 TV show (satirical) United Kingdom Bremner, Bird and Fortune
April 22, 2007 TV show (sport) United States SportsCenter
May 31, 2007 Non-fiction United States It's Not News, It's FARK: How Mass Media Tries to Pass off Crap as News, Drew Curtis
June 11, 2007 commercial demo United States Apple iPhone, Apple Inc.
August 3, 2007 play United States The Wikipedia Plays
September 3, 2007 magazine United Kingdom Official Nintendo Magazine, Issue 21
July 23, 2009 radio (satirical) United Kingdom Bigipedia
August 11, 2010 sitcom United States Hot in Cleveland: "Good Luck Faking The Goiter"
Title Description Relevance
I Must Take Issue With The Wikipedia Entry For 'Weird Al' Yankovic In an article from The Onion, the character Larry Groznic writes an article about how he was banned from Wikipedia for starting an edit war on the "Weird Al" Yankovic page, and goes on to criticize the content on the page. Having taken place well before the John Seigenthaler Sr. Wikipedia biography controversy, it was one of the first major parodies.
FoxTrot First appearance of Wikipedia in a syndicated comic strip.
The Colbert Report, episode 58 Arianna Huffington challenges host Stephen Colbert on his claim that he had coined the word "truthiness". She cited Wikipedia, claiming that he had merely "popularized" the term. Regarding her source, Colbert, in character, responded: "Fuck them." First nationally broadcast television program to mention Wikipedia.
The Colbert Report, episode 93 Colbert refers to Wikipedia as his source of information for research on Sigmund Freud. With his normal sarcastic and deadpan delivery, Colbert's segment "The Wørd" mocked Wikipedia's sometimes-questionable information with the screen posting "Even the accurate parts." Colbert's first scripted reference to Wikipedia, a lead into his "Wikiality" piece.
Global Language Monitor 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 Wikipedia 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 Wikipedia.
"White & Nerdy"

The character who is implied to be the nerd says that editing Wikipedia 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."

 The song was also Yankovic's first career Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. It reached No. 1 at the U.S. iTunes Store, and peaked at No. 1 on VH1's top 20 video countdown.
Tar Baby Australian songwriter, Carolyn Shine's 2009 track 'Tar Baby' refers to Wikipedia in the line: "If it's all about supply and demand, I don't know which one of us is needier. 'What's a Tar Baby?' I hear you ask. Look it up for yourself in Wikipedia."
Jericho ads Following Jericho episodes on Network 10 in Australia, a promotion would appear encouraging viewers to log onto Wikipedia 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 Wikipedia for the advertised product.
Cisco Systems A TV advertisement for Cisco Systems shows a young child with a laptop, the Wikipedia logo clearly visible on the screen. Part of its "Human Network Anthem" ad campaign. First television advertisement showing Wikipedia as part of the plot line.
30 Rock While Tracy Jordan, James "Toofer" Spurlock and Frank Rossitano are working to complete Jordan's autobiography within a single day, Rossitano finds Jordan's Wikipedia 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.
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 Wikipedia. First mention in a British satirical comedy programme.
SportsCenter After citing a stat about Houston Astros pitcher Roy Oswalt, anchor Kenny Mayne jokingly gave credit to Wikipedia for providing the number. First recorded reference from a sports highlight show.
The Righteous Men In the 2006 Da Vinci Code-style novel The Righteous Men, Wikipedia features as an academic style encyclopedia. First known reference in fictional literature.
It's Not News, It's FARK: How Mass Media Tries to Pass off Crap as News In this book examining media bias, mainly about stories which do not count as news, Curtis writes:
“ "Incidentally, one of the more surprising things I discovered while researching the articles for this book is that a number of them exactly mirrored a Wikipedia entry on the same subject. I didn't find any exact copies of Wikipedia in the articles in this book, but the structure often was the same and used the same citations in the same places. If I had to guess, I'd say that half of all the "original" articles covered in this book are Wikipedia entry rewrites. If not more. It certainly makes me wonder about the rest of the articles I didn't research. Wikipedia accuracy concerns aside, that's just not cool. Or perhaps that's how the Wikipedia articles were generated in the first place. Due to the obscurity of certain details in some of the articles, and the fact that none of those details showed up in a Google search on the same subject, I am more inclined to believe reporters borrow heavily from Wikipedia, and not the other way around." ”
First known appearance in a book criticising the mass media, referencing Wikipedia.
Apple Inc. iPhone In the demonstration for the iPhone's internet capabilities, the Wikipedia page for the iPod is shown, along with a link in the user's bookmarks. First known reference in a multinational product demonstration by a Media Conglomerate.
The Wikipedia Plays Seventeen short plays, inspired by Wikipedia entries. First play known to highlight Wikipedia.
The Colbert Report, episode 302 On August 21, 2007, Colbert attacked WikiScanner, a website that tracks down people who make anonymous edits on Wikipedia, claiming that it is an invasion of privacy, particularly for corporations, and that it attacks "Self-invention". He highlighted a case where Pepsi edited its entry by removing "Long-term health effects" from the article. This resulted in his "Wørd" being "Self-Determination", claiming that everyone on the internet should be anonymous and should not be forced to give away their true identity. Colbert later described Wikipedia as "Second Life for corporations," saying if a corporation wants to pretend to be someone else online, then that is its business. First nationally broadcast television program to mention WikiScanner.
Bigipedia Bigipedia is a BBC Radio 4 sketch show set on a website which is a parody of Wikipedia. First nationally broadcast radio program devoted to parodying Wikipedia.
Hot in Cleveland In the episode "Good Luck Faking The Goiter", Victoria Chase (Wendie Malick) mentions that she has a Wikipedia page and has to keep changing it because the site's editors keep getting her age wrong. First time that a fictional character on a television series admitting to having created his or her own Wikipedia page and the first time a fictional character admitted to having to make corrections on his or her own page.

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