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Wikipedia:Wikipedia in webcomics
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This is a page listing webcomics which feature Wikipedia. It is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all the ones that merely use the word "Wikipedia". Instead, these are a compilation of those strips whose topic centrally relates to the encyclopedia and its perception in popular culture.
Common themes in the comics reflect Criticism of Wikipedia—especially jabs at its vulnerability to vandalism and accuracy as a source. Frequently people who edit or read Wikipedia are mocked as the butt of the joke, with the insinuation that Wikipedia enthusiasts lack social skills and are "nerds", thus using the site is something one should be embarrassed about. The existence of this list creates an additional recursive topic for those authors that discuss Wikipedia for the mere purpose of seeing if their comic can be mentioned here.
A topic which has particularly heated coverage from webcomic authors is that Wikipedia will not allow entries describing many webcomics in the encyclopedia. This determination is made using guidelines for notability, which is a subjective process that—although democratic at some level—is ultimately in the hands of Wikipedia administrators. Another wiki has been established which welcomes coverage of all webcomics regardless of fame (see Comixpedia).
Series that always involve Wikipedia
- Each instance of WikiWorld webcomic gives an illustrated summary of little-known articles in Wikipedia.
2005
2006
- 2006-01-30 : Jerkcity — "It Must Be True I Read It On Wikipedia" A character asserts that users of Wikipedia are pedophiles because that's what he read on Wikipedia.
- 2006-02-23 : Kernel Panic — "The Senator Wore Teal" — Character is accused of impersonating a U.S. Senator to post inappropriate material to Wikipedia.
- 2006-03-02 : General Spite — "2006-03-02", "2006-03-03", "2006-03-04" — A character expects a huge prize for writing the Millionth Wikipedia Article, but an e-mail (signed "love, Wiki") informs him that the only reward is an article written in honor of the event.
- 2006-04-06 : User Friendly — "for April 6th, 2006" — Though dissatisfied with results comparing Wikipedia favorably to the Encyclopedia Britannica as covered by Nature magazine, Brittanica admits Wikipedia is good for something when Nature magazine's entry is vandalized to say "Stuck up nasty little cuss".
- 2006-04-20 : Roadkill Bill — Roadkill Bill in Wikipedia — Six-panel parody about the Seigenthaler controversy and the Reliability of Wikipedia, and the large amount of human effort/time spent on the web site, often in conflicts, as compared to the medium-quality results. Local copy at User:Avidor.
- 2006-05-19 : Applegeeks Lite : "Applegeeks Lite 010" — An anthropomorphic final-exam chides a student to drop out of school and instead study "Wiki Pedia" (the test-taker points out that the exam might not know what it's talking about, as Wikipedia is one word and not two).
- (date needed) : Cat and Girl — "Cat and Girl versus Legitimacy" — Contrasted with a physical encyclopedia, characters note that in Wikipedia "the more voices that shout, the less legitimacy each voice has"—and the Catch-22 is that they cannot speak out against this trend to fight it.
- 2006-06-17 : Funny Farm — "2006-06-17" — A character memorizes the Wikipedia entries on Transformers to try and qualify him to act in the movie, and argues that although the authors of the article would be more qualified they're not desirable as actors because people who actually the articles are "nerds".
- 2006-06-23 : Natalie Dee — "wait i have a wikipedia entry maybe thats my poop" — A dog's owner establishes a house rule that only those with Wikipedia entries are notable enough to poop on the floor.
- 2006-06-23 : Flintlocke's Guide to Azeroth — "Episode 17: If a Tree Falls..." — A character's insistence that she is not pregnant with a tree is countered with a statement that Wikipedia says she is.
- 2006-07-18 : Jerkcity— "With Your Mom Dot Com" — Criticism of the capitalization of one of the character's names in the comic's wikipedia entry.
- 2006-07-21 : Punks and Nerds — "strip 07212006" — Suggests that Wikipedia vandalism is rampant when one character urges another to vandalize the Pringles article by adding "buttsex" to it, but she reports that it was already there.
- 2006-07-25 : Dinosaur Comics — "#816" — Character decides to play a prank and substitute the word evil on Wikipedia to Irish evil, and instead of being chastised is praised by Jimbo Wales for his contributions to the Irish Evil article.
- 2006-09-09 : Irregular Webcomic! — "No. 1322" — Given the existence of Wikipedia's list of webcomics that reference Wikipedia, author ponders whether there should be a "page about comics that mention the page on Wikipedia about comics that mention Wikipedia."
- 2006-10-01 : Carbon Alley No. 1 — "I confess! I saw it on Wikipedia and I guess the general consensus is that it might not be totally true!"
- 2006-10-26 : Ninja Verses — "Regular Ninja vs. Irregular Webcomic" — Character is overwhelmed by recursion while reading the 9/09 Irregular Webcomic! mentioning Wikipedia.
- (date needed) : Shortpacked! — November 6th, 2006: Character at first vehemently denies to have been getting information about Power Rangers movie from Wikipedia, and then sheepishly confesses that he actually was reading Wikipedia.
- 2006-11-08 : Dinosaur Comics — "#879" — Suggests that Wikipedia vandalism can be eliminated if there is agreement to vandalise only the chicken article, and that this will have little consequence because chickens are well-understood (and thus no one should be looking them up anyway).
- 2006-12-15 : Questionable Content — "Also Certain Webcomics" — Character attempts to argue that her life as a single person has meaning, but this is undermined when she reveals that she spends her free time arguing this viewpoint on the DeBeers Wikipedia entry.
2007
- 2007-01-24 : xkcd — "The Problem With Wikipedia" — Suggests that a simple search for information starting at Tacoma Narrows Bridge can lead to wasting hours on tangential topics (mentions articles suspension bridge, structural collapse, William Howard Taft, 24-hour analog dial, Lesbianism in erotica, Batman→Fatal hilarity, Taylor Hanson, Cotton→T-Shirt→Wet t-shirt contest).
- 2007-01-14 : Sheldon — "Comic 070114" — When a character's response to a question is characterized as "a long, rambling answer that didn't really make sense" and likened to Wikipedia, this comparison deeply offends the speaker.
- 2007-01-17 : Sconeborough — "the horror of Wikipedia addiction" — Characters suggest they failed to achieve life's goals because of a website even more addictive than Google (namely Wikipedia).
- 2007-01-18 : BoxJam's Doodle — "Comic 20070118" — In a mock commercial for the "National Meat Council", characters tout meat's importance by pointing out that it has its own Wikipedia article.
- 2007-01-22 : F@NBOY$ — "Wikipediatics" — As a response to the deletion of this webcomic's Wikipedia page, a character retaliates violently against an unflattering caricature of a Wikipedia editor who is portrayed as being impossible to torture due to lack of a life, genitals or brains.
- 2007-01-27 : Bunny — "it's either an issue of redundancy or an opportunity to say 'impalement' over and over" — Pokes fun at the redundant use of impalement in Vlad III's article.
- 2007-02-07 : Help Desk — "The Wrong Course of Action" — Hints at the anti-copyright (and anti-webcomic) bias of Wikipedia's editors, who delete a company's Wikipedia entry after they start a webcomic to combat software piracy.
- (date needed) : Cat and Girl — "Those Who Forget History..." — Suggests that with Wikipedia, it's no longer the case that "victors write history" but rather the I.T. professionals.
- 2007-02-09→2007-02-13 : The Beevnicks — "February 9", "February 12" and "February 13" — Demonstrates the obscurity of Wikipedia among the general public when a character asks staff at McDonald's if there's a discount for Wikipedians, and they don't know what he's talking about.
- 2007-02-14: God Mode — "strip 20070214" — Kraig looks up why Clippy is not in Office 2007, and is led to believe a fanciful story of his death posted on Wikipedia (the feature was removed in that release due to user dissatisfaction).
- 2007-02-20 : PartiallyClips — "King and Jester" — A debate on deletion policy is played out as a Wikipedia administrator (portrayed as a jester) argues that a King can't accept his article being deleted because of a fear of democracy, yet does not see himself as hypocritical by preventing the king from recreating it freely.
- 2007-02-21 : Joe and Monkey — "#701" — Parodies guidelines for notability of a subject to have a Wikipedia page by suggesting Earth shouldn't have a page, since "the only people who give a crap about the world are the people on it".
- (date needed) : 2007 Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards — "Outstanding Artist" — Suggests a double-standard when Wikipedia has an article about Lighting Farts on Fire, but deleted ones for Dandy and Company, Zortic, Krazy Larry, The Class Menagerie, and ExtraLife based on non-notability of those webcomics.
- 2007-03-03 : Halfpixel — "Wiki of the Future" — Characters travel to the future where they every webcomic is considered notable enough to have an article on Wikipedia—but are horrified to find that Wikipedia is also how the society of the future decides who to execute.
- 2007-03-14 : Overcompensating — "L Ron Harbl" — When asked how he knows so much about Scientology, a character responds that he actually "only got Wikipedia knowledge" and they should find an actual expert in the subject.
- 2007-03-15 : Achewood — "Comic 03152007" — While trying to enact revenge on a sender of an email they've accused of advance fee fraud, characters are shocked to find the sender has an entry on Wikipedia supporting his story (the punch line of following strip indicates that the entry is probably legitimate).
- 2007-04-13 : Wondermark — "In which Notability is determined" — Mocks the requirement of a printed source as the only way to verify a fact, by showing people pleading to be saved from Barbarians being asked if they have a printed reference proving they are under attack.
- 2007-04-22 : Wellington Grey - "WikiPopes" - God is forced to intervene in an edit war between succeeding Popes.
- 2007-05-02 : xkcd — "Online Communities": A geographic map of various online communities depicts Wikipedia as being located among those which are more intellectual than they are practical.
- 2007-05-02→2007-05-16 : Irregular Webcomic! — "Strip 1557", "Strip 1571" — An internet-savvy youth helps Martians take over Earth by creating the article 2007 Martian invasion of Earth on Wikipedia, and labeling the the statement with the {{fact}} tag.
- 2007-05-05 : The Weirdo(s)! — "The Decline and Fall and Rise of Richard Nixon and Wikipedia": Character writes a romantic song about Wikipedia, in defiance that the comic is not notable enough to warrant Wikipedia's mention of it.
- 2007-06-13 : Fit and the Conniptions — "Blowing My Own Trumpet" — Character wonders if "defacing your own Wiki" might be a euphemism (ostensibly for masturbation).
- 2007-07-04 : xkcd — “Wikipedian Protester” — Shows a protester at a political rally holding a sign saying “[citation needed]”. The tooltip of the image says “SEMI-PROTECT THE CONSTITUTION”.
- 2007-08-20 : Penny Arcade — "Delight Your Friends With These Fun Facts" — A character studies a report on modifications to Wikipedia from his household's IP address, and finds his roommate has been making self-serving edits (this alludes to the August '07 controversy surrounding WikiScanner).
- 2007-09-07: Home on the strange — "Party Party, Part 3" — A character's job is to "keep the Dokken entry pure".
- 2007-10-14: No Apparent Reason — "Wiki-ing It Up" — A character looks up the cure for Vampirism on Wikipedia, stating that "Wikipedia never lies. Much."
- 2007-10-23" Scary Go Round — "Ch. 40: Most Haunted" — Ester derogativly suggests the reason Ryan is panicking is that he read the Wikipedia article on gout.
- 2007-10-23: xkcd — Getting Out of Hand — Looking up foreplay while in bed with his partner.
- 2007-11-28: Questionable Content - "Part Of This Balanced...Something" - Wikipedios, a different article in every can.
- 2007-12-05 - Help Desk by Christopher B. Wright — "Climbing On The Banwagon" — A news reporter covers the Durova / secret mailing list incident, while a scrolling banner reports that Wikipedia has classified the tomato as a vegetable.
- 2007-12-18 - Girly (guest artist Diana Knox of Jinxville) Autumn 'n' Chuy - A Time For Love - A character looks up Wikipedia for dating advice and his girlfriend tells him never to trust Wikipedia. A stereotypical fat, lonely nerd is shown plotting to break up happy couples by editing Wikipedia.
2008
Comics that merely use Wiki terminology or cite Wikipedia
Resources
References & footnotes
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