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Born on 15 January 2001, Wikipedia has forever changed the ways we consume knowledge as nothing was out of reach anymore. It made it possible to solve trivia if you had access to wifi, it made us consume thousands of random facts, names, dates and places we won’t ever need, it helped us to make a fierce impression on a first date, and served as a holy grail of all of our high school Powerpoint presentations.

Still today, it’s our go-to source for learning stuff we don’t even bother to double-check, and it’s the place you stumble across a whole Wikipedia page dedicated to the life of your random-[butt] neighbor.

But something as big and influential as our beloved digital encyclopedia has to have something so much more going on we don’t see. Luckily, thanks to the ‘Depths of Wikipedia’ Instagram page, we now are able to dive deep beneath that iceberg and see all the weird and wonderful things published on there. “Wikipedia is Weird!” states the page’s slogan, but trust me, it gets way weirder than that. Get your snorkels ready, we’re about to dive deep!

Click here & follow us for more lists, facts, and stories.

#1

In Protest, A Guy Made A 10 Hour Film Of Paint Drying Just To Force The Film Classification Committee To Watch It

Screenshot of a Wikipedia page about a 2016 British film documenting paint drying for over ten hours.

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    #2

    Revenge Bedtime Procrastination

    Screenshot of a Wikipedia page describing the psychological phenomenon of revenge bedtime procrastination.

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    #3

    We're All Guilty Of That

    Screenshot of a Wikipedia page explaining Tsundoku with a photo of a large pile of unread books stacked unevenly.

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    To find out more about the creator of this weird and wonderful corner of the internet, Bored Panda reached out to Annie Rauwerda, a 21-year-old neuroscience student at the University of Michigan. Annie told us that there was no lightbulb-over-the-head epiphany when deciding to create “Depths Of Wikipedia.”

    “It was early quarantine (the stage when everyone was attempting new projects) and I was working on a page of my friend's quaranzine. I wanted to piece together Wikipedia excerpts into some virtual art.”

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    #4

    Planned Procrastination— When The Only Time You Can Find Motivation For A Task Is When You’re Under A Tight Deadline. student Syndrome Has Similarities To Parkinson’s Law, The Old Adage That The Work Expands To Fill The Time Allotted (Save It Til The Last Minute And The Job Will Only Take A Minute)

    Screenshot of a Wikipedia page explaining student syndrome and planned procrastination from the depths of Wikipedia.

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    #5

    Rigged, I Knew Josh Would Win

    Crowd celebrating the viral Josh Fight event in Lincoln, Nebraska, featured in depths of Wikipedia weird side examples.

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    #6

    Relates To The Concept Of Automaticity: The Ability To Do Things Without Occupying The Mind With Low-Level Details

    Screenshot of a Wikipedia page explaining highway hypnosis, highlighting the weird side of Wikipedia depths.

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    The author said she ended up having a ton of fun collecting Wikipedia screenshots and she was shocked that there was no Instagram dedicated to it. “I spent many quarantine evenings hunting for weird Wikipedia articles. Now, I get a lot of great submissions!”

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    Annie believes her fascination with all things internet is because she “didn't have many screen time limits during my teenage years and as a result became very entrenched in the internet,” she said and added: “I love collaborative sites like Reddit and Wikipedia—they have so many hidden gems!”

    #7

    April Fools Lore

    Spaghetti-tree hoax Wikipedia page explaining the April Fools' BBC broadcast and public reactions in 1957.

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    #8

    Obsessed With The Complexity Of The Chart On The Third Slide

    Screenshot of a Wikipedia page showing the complex Buffalo buffalo sentence as a weird Wikipedia example.

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    #9

    This Is The Deepest Stuff I’ve Heard In A While

    Screenshot of Wikipedia entry for the law of holes with an excavator stuck in a muddy hole, illustrating weird Wikipedia depths.

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    When asked what was the weirdest thing she has come across on Wikipedia, Annie said that there are so many good ones. “Some that come to mind are Tourist guy, List of films that most frequently use the word '[darn],' Roadkill cuisine, and Timeline of the far future.”

    And when it comes to using Wikipedia in her daily life, the creator assured us she definitely uses it. “Protecting open-access information is so vital. You should definitely start editing if you don't already,” Annie said and added that “it's such a rewarding and impactful hobby, and we need more people with diverse perspectives in editing.”

    #10

    Just Like Crabs In A Bucket Block The Escape Attempts Of Other Crabs, People In A Group May Attempt To Sabotage The The Most Talented Group Member Out Of Envy And Spite

    Wikipedia page explaining crab mentality with an image of crabs in a bucket illustrating the concept.

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    #11

    Dilbert Principle

    Excerpt from a Wikipedia page explaining the Dilbert principle, highlighting promotion of incompetent employees in management.

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    #12

    This Could Be Us

    Excerpt from Wikipedia about cat nuns in France, showcasing the weird side of Wikipedia entries and unusual facts.

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    Aside from “Depths of Wikipedia,” Annie runs two more cool projects, “Depths Of Amazon” and “Depths Of Craigslist.” “My best friend Hajin and I teamed up to foray into more 'depths.' Wikipedia will always be closest to my heart, but it's been fun to look at other weird corners of the internet.” Hajin and Annie also recently started the Depths of Wikipedia podcast, which you can listen to right here.

    #13

    When A Thing/Concept/Word You Just Learned About Suddenly Seems To Crop Up Everywhere

    Screenshot of a Wikipedia page explaining frequency illusion, an example of the weird side of Wikipedia content.

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    #14

    In 2003, A High Schooler Named Mike Rowe Had His Website Cease-And-Desisted By Microsoft. Eventually, After Media Attention, The Tech Giant Gave Him A Settlement Including A Trip To Microsoft Tech Fest And An Xbox

    Wikipedia page showing the weird side of Wikipedia with the Microsoft v. MikeRoweSoft legal dispute example.

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    #15

    Your Life Is A TV Show

    Wikipedia page excerpt about The Truman Show delusion, illustrating the weird side of Wikipedia examples.

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    #16

    The Popemobile

    Text excerpt showing Pope John Paul II asking media to stop calling his car the popemobile, from depths of Wikipedia weird examples.

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    #17

    Young And Rebellious

    Screenshot of a Wikipedia page explaining Chunibyo, showcasing the weird side of Wikipedia with unusual terms and definitions.

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    #18

    Very Important Chart!!!in The Streets, In The Sheets, Etc.

    Comparison table showing truffle dog and truffle hog traits from the depths of Wikipedia’s weird side examples.

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    #19

    Explained By Multiple Theories— Alcohol, Increased Familiarity (Mere Exposure Effect), And Having Fewer And Fewer Options (Commodity Effect)

    Screenshot of a Wikipedia page explaining the closing time effect, a weird side of Wikipedia phenomenon.

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    #20

    Do Not Knit Your So A Sweater Without Making Them Sign A “Pre-Knitual Agreement!”

    Screenshot of a Wikipedia article explaining the sweater curse and unusual relationship beliefs on Wikipedia.

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    #21

    RIP Pluto 1930-2006

    Screenshot of Wikipedia page showing the book How I K****d Pluto with text highlighting Wikipedia weird examples.

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