History Main / WikiWalk

'''Ocelot:''' This is a {{Wiki/Wikipedia}} page about [[Music/TheRollingStonesBand Mick Jagger]].\\

* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'':

* In ''LightNovel/CopCraft'', a clue of a bulldog tattoo on the elbow comes up in episode 11. When one of the cops identifies the bearer as likely a US Marine who got it before new regulations, citing Wikipedia, her partner responds with a 3-step Wiki Walk from the starter page (M4 Carbine). What she responds with is more like 30 steps.

* [[http://xkcd.com/214/ This]] Webcomic/{{xkcd}} shows us the danger of falling into these. (The image is reproduced above, but, as usual with Munroe, the punch line is in the alt-text.)

** He makes the point again in the alt-text of [[http://xkcd.com/903/ this]] comic. Apparently if start with any article and click the first non-italicized link not in parentheses in every subsequent article, you'll eventually end up at philosophy. One route that works is to start with ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy_%28radio_series%29 radio series]].

* Browsing the Wiki/SCPFoundation wiki can sometimes lead to this. Be warned, that site can turn creepy ''fast''. It's quite possible to go from "[[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-458 A never-ending pizza box?]] That's pretty cool." to "[[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-610 Oh, eww, what is that?! Aagh!]] much quicker than you might think.

Despite the name, the phenomenon itself has existed since long before wikis -- computers and hyperlinking simply made it faster and easier. For example, in the days of paper book encyclopedias, a person would get distracted and sidetracked by articles they paged past on their way to what they were actually looking for.

For an academic paper on the subject (although possibly not a peer-reviewed one -- there is no title of an academic journal displayed[[note]]Although it was presented at the 2009 Workshop on Graph-based Methods for Natural Language Processing[[/note]]), [[http://nlp.stanford.edu/pubs/wikiwalk-textgraphs09.pdf go here.]]

* Aki in ''LightNovel/BakaAndTestSummonTheBeasts'' does this several times, the most notable one being in the second OVA. The viewer is shown a long series of thoughts - none of which makes any sense - while the other characters are left wondering how Shimada saying that [[CuteBruiser Himeji]] might change schools has anything to do with whether [[DudeLooksLikeALady Hideyoshi]] would still love [[BookDumb Aki]] if he had a mohawk.

** She is shown doing so from time to time. Example: once during the Rukia rescue arc, Ishida saw her crying, and she explained she was just looking at the sun, proceeding to compare the sensation to many other unrelated things - in order, sneezing, feeling like going to the bathroom while in a bookstore and feeling the gums bleeding while biting on an apple.

* Yuuki from ''Manga/{{Kanamemo}}'' at one point starts rambling about sneezing caused by curses, straw dolls, and wood shortage, indicating that something is not quite right with the usually quiet woman -- and she indeed collapses from high fever shortly after.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

%%[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

--> It was like a tantalizing game. One word would lead to another, and that to a third, until he would have a half dozen of the heavy volumes piled on the floor around him. It was disturbing, and not very satisfactory -- whetting his curiosity rather than appeasing it.
* Literature/LordPeterWimsey's mother is famous for constantly going off on a tangent, whenever she speaks - and then on a tangent to the tangent, and so on. Back when the books were written, it was probably great fun to read, [[ViewersAreGeniuses if you were reasonably educated and followed the news.]] These days, it's mostly confusing.

%%** The phenomenon of accidentally getting into one of these just before bed -- repeatedly -- is mentioned in [[http://xkcd.com/1501/ this one]]'s mouseover caption.

* To celebrate Wiki/TheOtherWiki's tenth anniversary Creator/TheBBC sent one of its reporters to do a Wiki Walk against the clock in [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12172367 this article]]. British entertainer Creator/BobMonkhouse also did this weekly on one of his later shows; audience members would shout out two subjects at random, and he would improvise a flawless chain of connections every time.

* If you keep clicking on the first non-italic, unbracketed link on any page of the Wiki/TheOtherWiki you'll normally end up on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy Philosophy]]

* [[http://www.explosm.net/comics/1128/ This]] ''Webcomic/CyanideAndHappiness'' teaches a lesson on why one should not look up time-sensitive matters such as preventing blood loss on Wiki/ThatOtherWiki.

* The subject of Whitney Avalon's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc-BEc7SMXk "Going Down the Rabbit Hole."]] Wiki/TVTropes gets a mention.

* ''Wiki/TVTropes''. It's a wiki, what else would you expect? Let's face it, you're probably in the middle of one right now. And that is why JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife.

Here on Wiki/TVTropes, tropers are asked to not leave [[Administrivia/WeblinksAreNotExamples links to pages on or off the wiki in place of contextualized examples]] because (among other reasons) tropers are incredibly prone to the Wiki Walk.

'''Ocelot:''' This is a {{Wiki/Wikipedia}} page about [[Music/TheRollingStones Mick Jagger]].\\

* Bing.com's series of commercials show people [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAwUUgnBhCU suffering from this condition]].

* A website, [[http://www.netsoc.tcd.ie/~mu/wiki/ the Six Degrees of Wikipedia]], has been coded that will allow you to put in two pages in Wikipedia, and find the shortest path from one to the other. thus taking a Wiki Walk for you.

* ''Series/{{QI}}'' is more a televised, Wiki Walk than anything else.

* An example that predates the Web would be James Burke's BBC series ''Connections'' and its successor series which would take two seemingly unrelated facts or inventions and through a fascinating chain of thought demonstrate how they were inextricably linked. For example, the show detailed precisely how the creation of the credit card lead inevitably to the invention of the nuclear bomb.

* The Flemish TV-show "Iedereen Beroemd" has a segment called "Clickipedia", which is, in principle, a televised version of the ''VideoGame/TheWikiGame'', where two couples compete every weekday in getting from one Wikipedia page to another in the fewest amount of clicks.

* The Flemish TV-show "Iedereen Beroemd" has a segment called "Clickipedia", which is, in principle, a televised version of the ''VideoGame/TheWikiGame'', where two couples compete every weekday in getting from one Wikipedia to another in the fewest amount of clicks.

A Wiki Walk is a train of thought that has gone off the rails and is RidingIntoTheSunset. When going for a Wiki Walk you know where you begin, but no one knows [[HilarityEnsues where you'll end]]. Are you a MadScientist building an [[KillSat orbital death ray]]? Well, too bad, inspiration struck and now it's [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot the world's biggest dancing dish washer with a fully adjustable cup holder]]. You want to have a {{serious|Business}} talk about the Middle East? Within ten minutes you'll be arguing whether [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]] [[UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny could take]] [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Gandalf]] [[UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny in a fight]]. Just want to check the RuleOfCool page? Before you know it you're adding examples to BunglingInventor. You, my friend, have just had a Wiki Walk.

A common version of this trope is when a Wiki Walk is still in progress at the end of a scene, and then we catch the end of the conversation, which usually takes the form of a NoodleIncident, in the beginning of a later scene.

A SubTrope of this is the HalfwayPlotSwitch, when the plot seems to do this.

Thankfully however there is the ever helpful "open in new tab" function on your browser...

People have turned this into a game! It's called ''VideoGame/TheWikiGame'', and the objective is to get from one article, to a completely different article in the fewest number of clicks.

* In ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh'', Osaka doesn't just Wiki-walk, she Wiki-pole-vaults. In one beach episode she has a one-sided conversation with Sakaki about dolphins, sea lions, and hemorrhoids.

* Yuuki from ''Manga/{{Kanamemo}}'' at one points starts rambling about sneezing caused by curses, straw dolls and wood shortage, indicating that something is not quite right with the usually quiet woman -- and she indeed collapses from high fever shortly after.

-->'''Vorona:''' Siberia. The correct pronunciation of which is Сибирь ([sʲıˈbirʲ]), may denote a Federal District of Russia or a wider area. The meanings are many-layered. And in Japan they also call a certain kind of dessert Siberia. Explanations vary as to how the name originated, among which a theory exists that it comes from the delicious fillings inside the Castella resembling the tundra and railways in Siberia. The Castella is said to be the first cake variety to be introduced to Japan. After that the Japanese developed their unique cake culture under various influences from different countries. The variety called the shortcake is also uniquely Japanese. At Christmas the Japanese are especially big on cakes, and on the streets all kinds of cakes send tantalizing smells to my nasal cavity.

* In ''LightNovel/CopCraft'', a clue of a bulldog tattoo on the elbow comes up in episode 11. When one of the cops identifies the bearer as likely a US Marine who got it before new regulations, citing Wikipedia, her partner responds with a 3 step Wiki Walk from the starter page (M4 Carbine). What she responds with is more like 30 steps.

* At one point in Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Tarzan}},'' Tarzan views a slide show of elements of modern (in 1882) British life, to "know about the strangers like me [him]". It is implied that he views ''every single slide'' Jane and her father brought, because there's a dissolve to Tarzan still looking through slides while they're asleep.

** The man sketched instructions for a nuclear weapon in the margins of a sketch of a flower. He thought it might make a good mining tool, but had no military application because no-one would be willing to use it (a ShoutOut to Nobel and dynamite).

* An example that predates the Web would be James Burke's BBC series ''Connections'' and it's succesor series which would take two seemingingly unrelated facts or inventions and through a fascininating chain of thought demonstrate how they were inextricably linked. For example, the show detailed precisely how the creation of the credit card lead inevitably to the invention of the nuclear bomb.
* Phillip, TheWatson of ''Series/KamenRiderDouble'' goes on litteral Wiki Walks. He also reacts this way when he's introduced to a concept with which he isn't familiar. Minutes later, you can expect the whiteboards and every other surface available all around Double's ElaborateUndergroundBase to be covered in random snippets of information about the subject, in various languages.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Curvy}}'', Susie gets lost in the depths of wikipedia ''in the middle of a gunfight''. She actually started by looking up how to fix a sucking chest wound. An unknown amount of time later, the victim is still bleeding out and Susie is reading up on turkish oil wrestling and headbutts...

-->'''Anthony:''' I start with a topic that I am interest in, and then, ah yes, it links to further information. And here is another link. And this link seems interesting. Oh I was hoping to learn more about this...
* ''Webcomic/ManlyGuysDoingManlyThings'': Even the level-headed Commander falls prey to one, when he and Jared try to [[http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/weve-all-been-there-2 learn]] how creatine health supplements work.

* In ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'', Mr Muddlefoot does this several times through the show.

Variants on this game put restrictions on what you're allowed to click on. It is also known as wikiracing, when it is played in a competitive form, with the aim being to get from one page to another either in less time or less clicks than your competitors.

* Back when the internet was young, around early 90's, this was hyped as a feature. The thought process is that you can find everything, even the most random information.

A trope we can all relate to, and one of the most prominent reasons behind why TVTropesWillRuinYourLife. You're probably doing it right now, or if you aren't you will be by the time you finish this article.

If there is a database involved it will usually overlap with an ArchiveBinge, and is one of the reasons TVTropesWillRuinYourLife.

** It's also [[ScareEmStraight damn creepy]] and makes you question [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife the safety of the Internet]].

* In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDemYnCLDpA this]] Natalie Tran video, one of the featured comments from the previous video claims it takes three clicks to get from the Wikipedia page about her to the one about [[GodwinsLaw Hitler]]. She says she'd like to see proof of this. Viewers were only too happy to oblige. [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife You are hereby challenged]] to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalie_Tran try]] without first looking at [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OHm_W8Qf9Q the multiple solutions]].

* ''Wiki/TVTropes''. It's a wiki, what else would you expect? Let's face it, you're probably in the middle of one right now. And that is why TvTropesWillRuinYourLife.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'' shown from Pinky's perspective (complete with his nose in the center of the camera view) reveals that his random responses to Brain's CatchPhrase, "AreYouPonderingWhatImPondering" are the end result of Wiki Walking. [[note]]From a [[WatsonianVsDoylist Watsonian]] perspective, anyways; from a Doylist perspective, it's the result of Rob Paulsen [[HarpoDoesSomethingFunny ad-libbing.]][[/note]]

Here on Wiki/TVTropes, {{troper}}s are asked to not leave [[Administrivia/WeblinksAreNotExamples links to pages on or off the wiki in place of contextualized examples]] because (among other reasons) tropers are incredibly prone to the Wiki Walk.

!!Tropes listed in the WikiTropes index are being discussed at the Administrivia/TropeRepairShop. Click the link [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1618086045064904400&page=1#1 here]] to join the discussion.

* Phillip, TheWatson of ''Series/KamenRiderDouble'' goes on litteral Wiki Walks. He also reacts this way when he's introduced to a concept with which he isn't familiar. Minutes later, you can expect the whiteboards all around Double's ElaborateUndergroundBase to be covered in random snippets of information about the subject, in various languages.

Thankfully however there is the ever helpful [[BrowserNarcotic "open in new tab" function on your browser...]]

See also BrowserNarcotic and SchmuckBait.

The key feature of a Wiki Walk is that if someone were to see only the beginning and end of the Wiki Walk it would seem [[LeftFielder completely random]], while in fact there was a series of thoughts that connected the beginning and end result, or it is at least implied that this is the case.

* In the [[UsefulNotes/California SoCal]] region, this is generally referred to as "Wiki Surfing."

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'' shown from Pinky's perspective (complete with his nose in the center of the camera view) reveals that his random responses to Brain's CatchPhrase, "AreYouPonderingWhatImPondering?" are the end result of Wiki Walking. [[note]] Though technically it's the result of Rob Paulsen [[HarpoDoesSomethingFunny ad-libbing.]][[/note]]

* In ''[[FanFic/SovereignGFCOrigins Origins]]'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''[=Borderlands=]''[=/=]''[=Halo=]'']] MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, a villain actually gets started on a HeelFaceTurn from "wiki-walking" through a captured ship's computer core, exposing them to new concepts that begin to break down their simple view of the universe.

* In the [[HollywoodProvincialism SoCal]] region, this is generally referred to as "Wiki Surfing."

* In the [[SoCalization SoCal]] region, this is generally referred to as "Wiki Surfing."

For an academic paper on the subject (although possibly not a peer-reviewed one -- there is no title of an academic journal displayed), [[http://nlp.stanford.edu/pubs/wikiwalk-textgraphs09.pdf go here.]]

* In ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'', the Encyclopedia skill governs your ability to remember trivia. This can be very useful in some situations, but quite often it results in your thoughts getting hijacked by runimating over fascinating fact after fascinating fact rather than focusing on the tasks at hand.