‘Depths Of Wikipedia’: This Page Is Dedicated To The Weird Side Of Wikipedia And Here Are 30 Of The Best Examples
Interview With AuthorBorn 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-ass 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!
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This Is A Good One
In Protest, A Guy Made A 10 Hour Film Of Paint Drying Just To Force The Film Classification Committee To Watch It
I partially work with quality control of films. Not for censorship but still, I have to focus on every frame of a film for its length, this.....meditative......film I'd be the one to watch all ten hours.
Revenge Bedtime Procrastination
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.”
And They Were Roommates
We're All Guilty Of That
Oh god yes. Books 🙈 . I even have bought books that read to me piling up .
Kafka
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!”
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!”
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)
Rigged, I Knew Josh Would Win
Relates To The Concept Of Automaticity: The Ability To Do Things Without Occupying The Mind With Low-Level Details
It freaks me out when I do this. I'm sure I was probably driving properly, but I don't know! I'm just at my destination
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 'f**k,' 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.”
April Fools Lore
Why y’all downvoting it’s a joke Edit: no longer downvoted it was at -1 before
Load More Replies...The BBC used to do some great April fools pranks, some were just plausible enough to make you question it. Now they are just obvious and boring.
Reality has become too close to a joke and the line separating truth from satire is thinner than a spider's web. Plus, the second the BBC even *think* of doing an April Fool prank they get accused of Fake News (well, duh!) and calls to have the licence fee revoked because how dare they not say everything about the current government is wonderful and amazing and the best and... gah! Populism has ruined humanity.
Load More Replies...I sat and watched this with my Mum and Dad - we'd just got our first TV, I was 10. So funny!!
One feature this program had was the narrator was the most famous, well-respected news announcer in the country at the time. I believe his name was Richard Dimbleby. He was the Walter Cronkite of the U.K. This added So much verisimilitude to the broadcast.
My favourite one was the flying penguins that go to to jungle in winter. I also really liked the one about the library that was built upside down due to a photocopying error.
I laughed myself silly when I saw this "spaghetti tree" documentary. I really don't remember when I saw it, but it was hilarious. It was treated like a real documentary with a serious voice, etc.
I was looking at this wiki a few weeks ago after reading about this somewhere. There is the full 3 min video on YouTube- very funny & interesting
Saw this on the late show, who ever was on at that time. Carson? But I remember the tree harvest.
THIS!! This is exactly what the internet gives the world and most slurp it up. The deceiving picture, the outlandish claims, those that believe everything the see and read.
The difference is, we only used to be able to do it on April 1st.
Load More Replies...I am from the US and I remember seeing the spaghetti trees on the news. I don't remember the context of the story, but I do remember seeing the spaghetti trees when I was young.
Obsessed With The Complexity Of The Chart On The Third Slide
This Is The Deepest Stuff I’ve Heard In A While
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.
Filling My Exam Answers With Swag
Just Gals Being Pals
Financial independence is extremely important for any person. It is difficult to live as a human without that.
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
Referenced in Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett. It's also covered by the attitude "they think they're better than they are" - note, this doesn't mean "they think they're better than ME", but rather "we come from the same background, how DARE they think they're better than me". Stops people improving their lot in life by sheer peer pressure. And a lot of it (as mentioned in the novel) is *inside our own heads*
Dilbert Principle
When Incompetent People Can’t Understand Their Relative Incompetence
This Could Be Us
When A Thing/Concept/Word You Just Learned About Suddenly Seems To Crop Up Everywhere
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
Well damn I would have given up my site too they really rewarded him
Your Life Is A TV Show
Going Out With A Bit
The Popemobile
The centuries of child abuse and exploitation of vulnerable people is totally cool though apparently.
Young And Rebellious
You specially get this after reading a lot web novels, light novels, manga and watching anime. Then you start believing that your right eye is special and there's a dragon sealed in your right arm. Most of this is just a way of entertaining yourself, a form of play-fantasy.
Very Important Chart!!!in The Streets, In The Sheets, Etc.
I’ve been staring at this for twelve minutes and still have no idea how “in the streets, in the sheets” fits in.
Explained By Multiple Theories— Alcohol, Increased Familiarity (Mere Exposure Effect), And Having Fewer And Fewer Options (Commodity Effect)
Do Not Knit Your So A Sweater Without Making Them Sign A “Pre-Knitual Agreement!”
Are You In Your Prime? Single? This Is For You!!!
RIP Pluto 1930-2006
Dudes Rock
Note: this post originally had 90 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.