Line #28 Main/RetconningTheWiki


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5	[[quoteright:330:[[ComicStrip/RudyPark https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wiki_edit_comic_7.png]]]]
6	[[caption-width-right:330:And if it's on the internet, it ''must'' be true, right?]]
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11	->'''Goku:''' Really? What killed them?\
12	'''King Kai''': Let me check. Let’s see here. ''[checks Wikipedia entry on Planet Vegeta]'' "Stupid monkeys hit by falling rocks. [-([[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial Not Deathball thrown by Freeza]])-] Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. P.S. Freeza rules you." That doesn’t seem right...
13	-->-- ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged''
14
15	A character edits a wiki - be it Website/{{Wikipedia}} or any other free info source - and adds information which is gibberish or they know to be false, to make a practical joke, to mislead someone who's been using this source without testing it, or just for the sake of it. HilarityEnsues... but only for the person in question.
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17	May provoke some viewers/readers to ape the fictional WikiVandal by vandalizing the real-life Wikipedia article in question.
18
19	See also WikiVandal for info on people who actually do this in real life and ways to counter them.
20
21	Please note: '''no RealLife examples''', unless they were directly caused by media.
22
23	----
24	!!Examples of this trope in media:
25
26	[[foldercontrol]]
27
28	[[folder:Comic Books]]
29	* ''ComicBook/{{Empowered}}'': Capitan Rivet checks his Wikipedia page and is annoyed to find it was edited to claim he assassinated President UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy, even though he wasn't born yet when that happened.
30	* In ''ComicBook/TransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'', the Scavengers edit their own entries in the Decepticon registry for fun, making themselves sound like insanely powerful elite troops when they're actually a bunch of wacky, barely competent slackers. This is actually useful when they run into [[TheDreaded Fortress Maximus]]: Maximus's partner sees the fake profiles and warns him about how dangerous they are, so he falls for their silly bluff, letting them escape the murderous Autobot.
31	[[/folder]]
32
33	[[folder:Literature]]
34	* In ''Literature/{{Worm}}'', the first thing the main character Taylor does after meeting the Undersiders, a local supervillian team, is to look them up on Parahumans Online (PHO), the ''Worm'' universe's wiki/forum combination for all things superpowered. She quickly discovers that Tattletale's article doesn't even exist, Regent's barely contains anything, and Grue has clearly edited his own article to obscure the details of his power.
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
38	* Creator/StephenColbert's "wikiality".
39	** On a related note, Wikipedia locks down any page mentioned by Colbert due to the number of times he's gotten fans to edit certain pages.
40	** One time, Colbert [[InvokedTrope deliberately used this]] to {{Troll}} Andrew Schafly's Conservative Bible Project, by asking viewers to turn it into a SelfInsertFic starring Stephen himself.
41	* On ''Series/ThirtyRock'', Jenna was set to play Music/JanisJoplin on a movie, so the guys vandalized the Wikipedia article on her to mess with Jenna and get her to do silly stuff.
42	* Raj on ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' admits to vandalizing Wikipedia.
43	* A running joke on ''Series/TalkinBoutYourGeneration'' is Shaun Micallef quoting some 'facts' about the topic at hand he claims he got from Wikipedia, all of which are hilarously wrong.
44	* In ''Series/{{Community}}'' members of the Save Greendale Committee add the term "Fat Dog" as an expression meaning something akin to taking it easy. They're trying to convince everyone that it's a real expression so they can use it as the theme of the dance. It had previously been "Bear Down" which, while a real expression, still doesn't make any sense as a dance theme (Chang insisted). But that had to be changed because of a recent unfortunate incident involving an escaped bear and a children's birthday party, requiring them to hastily disguise all the bear decorations.
45	* On Series/TheNewsroom, Mackenzie finds out that her Wikipedia article states her to have graduated from another university than she did. She tries to fix it. HilarityEnsues
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:Music]]
49	* The music video for Music/WeirdAlYankovic's song "White and Nerdy", in which he replaces the entire text for Creator/AtlanticRecords' wiki page with huge type reading '''YOU SUCK!!!!!''' This was a personal TakeThat from Al for slights the company had done him in the past. His fans thought it was so funny, they started doing it for real, [[DiscreditedMeme resulting in]] Website/ThatOtherWiki [[DiscreditedMeme having to lock the Atlantic Records page]].
50	[[/folder]]
51
52	[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
53	* [[CatsAreMean Bucky]] from ''ComicStrip/GetFuzzy'' edits Website/{{Wikipedia}} to say that he won Wimbledon and that his "album" went "fourple platinum", as well as that he beat up [[SitcomArchNemesis Fungo]].
54	* In a great show of self-fulfilling prophecy, ''ComicStrip/{{FoxTrot}}'' mentions Jason vandalizing the Wikipedia article for "Warthog" by replacing the image with a picture of his sister Paige. This prompted some ''[=FoxTrot=]'' readers to go onto Wikipedia and replace the image with a picture of Paige.
55	* One ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' cartoon has the character Topper make a string of implausible claims about his achievements. When the other characters ask for proof, he replies "Give me ten minutes, then check Wikipedia."
56	[[/folder]]
57
58	[[folder:Video Games]]
59	* In Chapter 2 of ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'', the heroes find a copy of Cyberpedia in Cyber Field, which Ralsei edits to add in a tutorial about recruiting enemies. Checking the Cyberpedia again after reading the tutorial shows that Susie vandalized it to read "From now on, ralsay drools Susie rules."
60	* ''VideoGame/DigimonStoryCyberSleuth'' features a few subquests where the player haves to fight Digimon that are vandalizing an online encyclopedia called Digipedia. In the first one a Tentomon is rewriting all the pages about Kansai and its traditions in the local dialect, while in a later one a [=MetalEtemon=] rewrites many pages about Japanese mythology and culture to make them about Digimon.
61	* ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'': Leo Whitefang, the King of Illyria, is apparently allowed to edit the national dictionary at his leisure. He replaces cool-sounding words like "invincible" and "inimitable" with his own name, "defeat" reads "the fate of those who fight Leo Whitefang", [[FragileSpeedster Chipp Zanuff]] is under "irritating" and [[TheGambler Johnny]] is under "fool", and, of course, "hospitality" is not present.
62	[[/folder]]
63
64	[[folder:Webcomics]]
65	* In ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'', both Tycho and Gabe. Gabe does that for fun, Tycho out of grudge.
66	** There's also a strip where Skeletor can be seen vandalizing the ''[[Franchise/MastersOfTheUniverse He-Man]]'' page on Wikipedia... [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/12/16 here.]]
67	* ''Webcomic/DinosaurComics'' [[http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=879 suggests]] that we solve this problem on Wikipedia by only vandalizing the article about chickens, because "dudes already know about chickens."
68	** The page is now edit-locked, though that may or may not be due to fans vandalizing it.
69	* One ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'' strip implies that Black Mage vandalised Wikipedia to win an argument with Red Mage.
70	%% ZCE * This was seen at least once in ''Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}}''.
71	* In one of the prequel comics for ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', Eugene's postmortem interview has his bureaucratic Deva bring up as one of his minor sins 'editing his own Wikipedia article'.
72	* In ''Webcomic/HighSchoolLessons'', a student sets up a wiki for the school. Most users ignore its intended purpose, which is how it ends up with twenty-nine articles about fictional squid species.
73	[[/folder]]
74
75	[[folder:Web Original]]
76	* PlayedForHorror in ''[[https://creepypasta.fandom.com/wiki/Annora_Petrova Annora Petrova]]''. The titular skater discovers that her Wikipedia page is predicting victories before they happen to her in real life, causing her to eagerly and constantly check up on it. When she gets greedy and tries to edit it herself to claim she'll win Sectionals, the edit instead reads "Annora Petrova is a selfish little bitch who is going to get what she deserves." From there, things suddenly and sharply get worse for her.
77	* ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged's'' Freeza is apparently a [[SpaceX Space]] WikiVandal, changing the Saiyan page to say "Stupid monkeys hit by falling rocks. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! P.S. Freeza rules you."
78	* [[http://adamcadre.ac/content/brown/ "Wikipedia Brown and the Case of the Captured Koala."]] Changes to Wikipedia -- basically vandalism -- cause Wikipedia Brown angst, RewritingReality around him.
79	* From ''WebSite/CollegeHumor'', [[http://www.collegehumor.com/article:1723101 Superman edits Clark Kent's Wikipedia.]]
80	* In ''WebVideo/HalfLifeButTheAIIsSelfAware'', Benry edits the page for ''WesternAnimation/AllDogsGoToHeaven2'' to mention Gordon Freeman's death. This ultimately led to a lot of vandalism on Website/ThatOtherWiki leading the article on ''All Dogs Go To Heaven 2'' needing to be locked.
81	* ''WebVideo/SchaffrillasProductions'' briefly mentioned the Wikipedia page for the Presidential Service Badge in his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umUcU-xXMrg 2023 Black Friday theory video]] about the main protagonists of ''WesternAnimation/FreeBirds'' [[ItMakesSenseInContext actually being the skeleton brothers from]] ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}''. He read off the introductory quote, at the bottom of which was a poorly edited passage claiming that, aside from members of the U.S. Military and its various branches, it could also be awarded to the Great, [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial uh, I mean the]] Pardoned Turkey. Needless to say, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Presidential_Service_Badge&diff=1186238196&oldid=1177364699 someone did indeed go out of their way to edit the page to include this]], which was ''very'' quickly reverted afterward.[[note]]In their edit comment, they claim that they were just "[[BlatantLies fixing some misinfo.]]"[[/note]]
82	[[/folder]]
83
84	[[folder:Western Animation]]
85	* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': The episode "Black Mystery Month" has Steve discover the GovernmentConspiracy behind peanut butter,[[note]]It was invented by Mary Todd Lincoln, and President Grover Cleveland discreetly gave it to George Washington Carver in the hopes that a black man inventing such a delicious food would help mend the racial rifts left over after UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar[[/note]] but he ends up losing the evidence. Wanting to expose the truth, he goes to [[TakeThat the one place where people can get away with making outlandish claims without having any real proof to support them]]: he edits the Wikipedia page on peanut butter.
86	* An [[https://www.instagram.com/p/BHihZm5AF2F/ Instagram promotional video]] for ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'' had the titular horse edit his Wikipedia page to call himself an "esteemed thespian," remove any reference to his career decline, and claim that "smart people" prefer him to the "hack" Mr. Peanutbutter.
87	* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': Higher-ups once tried to expose Rick to a "rare element" known as Sanchezium. It had no effect because it doesn't exist. [[LampshadeHanging Cue lampshade.]]
88	-->'''Rick:''' I made Sanchezium up, dumbasses! Don't believe everything you read on Wikipedia.
89	[[/folder]]
90
91	[[folder:Real Life]]
92	* Replacing everything on Website/{{Wikipedia}}'s article on Earth with "Mostly harmless." is a bannable offence, as that particular act of vandalism, inspired by a line in ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1'' where the titular guide describes the planet as such, was done [[NeverHeardThatOneBefore way too many times]].
93	* Any mention of Website/{{Wikipedia}} in a popular piece of media tends to have this effect:
94	** [[http://xkcd.com/446/ This]] ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' strip depicts the Wikipedia article on wood filled with {{fancruft}} examples of wooden things in media. Shortly after it was published, the page had to be locked due to repeated additions of similar examples.
95	** In some of the older LetsPlay/ProtonJon livestreams, a viewer would edit the Wikipedia page for whatever game was currently being played on stream, and then link the article in chat. This happened so often it'll now get you timed out or even banned, depending on how tired the moderator is.
96	** Whenever Joel from WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}} showcased a Wikipedia page on stream to riff on it, it'd result in a deluge of viewers editing the page to add jokes related to Joel's content, much to his chagrin. This was especially common if he pretended to vandalize it through inspect element.[[note]]This doesn't actually change the page on the site's servers, but just temporarily alters how it displays on his end.[[/note]]
97	** The Wikipedia page for ''WesternAnimation/AllDogsGoToHeaven2'' had to be restricted to trusted editors after a wave of netizens started adding in mentions of [[VideoGame/HalfLife Gordon Freeman]] dying in it, inspired by a joke about Benrey doing exactly that in ''WebVideo/HalfLifeButTheAIIsSelfAware''.
98	* At one point, Wikipedia had to block edits coming from IP addresses inside the US Capitol Building due to congressional staffers vandalizing the articles of their political opponents.
99	[[/folder]]
100

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