Wikipedia:WikiProject Animation/Family Guy work group/Family Guy trivia
 | This is a WikiProject advice page. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more WikiProjects on Wikipedia or its process, as pertaining to topics within the WikiProject(s) area of interest. This page is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. |
 | This page in a nutshell: When a subject is mentioned in a Family Guy episode, this need not be added to the article for that subject. Unless that article is otherwise relevant to Family Guy, such mentions should be removed as unencyclopedic trivia. |
The TV show Family Guy is well known for making scattered references to various, almost random topics, mostly from popular culture. Many editors add these mentions to Wikipedia articles, such as Broccoli or Britney Spears. This information is seldom notable; in most cases it is the sort of indiscriminate information an encyclopedia does not include.
In general, unless the subject of an article is otherwise relevant to Family Guy, mentions of that subject in the show are not notable, and should be removed.
Wikipedia perspective
[edit]Family Guy mentions in non-Family Guy articles usually place undue weight on the show as a perspective from which all other subjects can be viewed. This is suitable for a fan site (such as Family Guy Wiki), but not for Wikipedia.
- Example
Family Guy on Muppet WikiMuppet Wiki contains over 15,000 articles on a wide range of subjects including Communism, David Gergen and almost any animal you could name, all from the perspective of The Muppets. This is entirely suitable for a fan site like Muppet Wiki; in fact, it is a great achievement. However, such mentions would be trivial and inappropriate for most of the 15,000 Wikipedia articles on those subjects.
Common reasons for including Family Guy trivia
[edit]The following reasons are not by themselves sufficient reason for including trivial references from Family Guy:
- It helps illustrate the importance of the subject
- Generally by the time something is mentioned on Family Guy, its notability is already well-established elsewhere. Clearing the bar of being mentioned on Family Guy is not a standard for inclusion or exclusion in Wikipedia.
- This makes Wikipedia more interesting
- For most readers, probably not. It can be argued that the routine inclusion of Family Guy trivia in articles makes Wikipedia more annoying.
- Readers often come to Wikipedia to learn about subjects heard of in Family Guy jokes
- The Family Guy mention is not necessary in this situation. In fact, it can be assumed such readers already know about the Family Guy mention. Other readers won't care.
Cleanup for Family Guy trivia
[edit]Family Guy trivia can be deleted from non-Family Guy articles as WP:IINFO if:
- The article's subject is not related to Family Guy beyond the mention itself.
- The mention is not helpful in illustrating other points in the article that are not otherwise well-illustrated. (Redundant examples can be deleted since they usually make articles more prolix, and less readable.)
Special:WhatLinksHere/Family Guy is a quick way to find trivial Family Guy mentions. Trivia or In popular culture sections are the most common containers.
Wikis that include writing from the perspective of Family Guy
[edit]- Family Guy Wiki welcomes this sort of information, and could use more editors.
See also
[edit]- Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information
- Image:Size of English Wikipedia broken down.png – a somewhat humorous illustration of the problem.
