Wikipedia:Wikiality and Other Tripling Elephants
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On July 31, 2006 Stephen Colbert's word of the day was "Wikiality" in which he praised Wikipedia's adherence to the principles of "truthiness" and went out to prove it by editing the The Colbert Report recurring elements entry to change his insult about Oregon to say it is Idaho's Portugal and the George Washington entry to claim he did not own slaves—see Special:Contributions/Stephencolbert.
He also encouraged people to edit Wikipedia to claim that the African elephant population has tripled in the past six months. So people did, editing "Loxodonta", "African Forest Elephant", "African Bush Elephant", "Pachydermata", "Babar the Elephant", "White elephant (pachyderm)", "Elephant", Dumbo, "Oregon", "Portugal", "Idaho", "George Washington", "Latchkey kid", "Serial killer", "The Colbert Report", "Stephen Colbert", and "Stephen Colbert (character)" among others.
The discussion at Talk:Elephant and Talk:The Colbert Report got rather heated – see Talk:Elephant/Colbert and Talk:The Colbert Report/Wikiality for the archives.
The incident was covered by the in-house news organ at Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-08-07/Wikiality.
Some of the more amusing edits:
Publications of Babar have tripled over the last few years.
Babar the Elephant has tripled in popularity in the past six months. This may be due to the fact that Stephen Colbert is funny.
Sadly, Dumbo died after tripling in size and exploding
At first Dumbo was not well received, however six months after its release, sales tripled.
In the past decade the elephant population has more than tripled. Its unknown how many of these elephants can fly.
What is presumed is the maturity of Dumbo to a sexually active age, leading to the tripling of the elephant population to this day.
Dumbo originally was supposed to be an animated documentary on the steady increase in the elephant population, which is now reported to have tripled since the release of the film in 1941.
Dumbo's native family, the African class of elephants, has as of late began to procreate at an alarming rate, hopefully permanently removing them from the endangered species list.
This makes Idaho the sixth fastest-growing state after Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Oregon, and Utah. From 2004 to 2005, Idaho was the third fastest grower, surpassed only by the population of African Elephant. no udaho
Edits on the Idaho section of the Wikipedia:Wikiality and Other Tripling Elephants page have recently undergone a threefold increase.
Idaho is THE place to be.
According to acclaimed scholars like the illustrious Stephen Colbert, there is some debate about the geographic posturing of Oregon in the popular imagination. Is Oregon, Washington's Mexico or California's Canada? Still, many dissenters say it is Idaho's Portugal.
in the Idaho's Portugal entry...
Wikiality and Other Tripling Elephants | |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Admitted to the Union | February 14, 1859 (33rd) |
| Capital | Salem |
| Largest city | Portland |
| Government | |
| • Governor | Ted Kulongoski (D) |
| • Upper house | {{{Upperhouse}}} |
| • Lower house | {{{Lowerhouse}}} |
| U.S. senators | Ron Wyden (D) Gordon Smith (R) |
| Population | |
• Total | 3,421,399 |
| • Density | 35.6/sq mi (13.76/km2) |
| Language | |
| • Official language | None |
| Traditional abbreviation | Ore. |
| Latitude | 42°N to 46°15'N |
| Longitude | 116°45'W to 124°30'W |