[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia in the pop culture

[Daniel R. Tobias]

I'm running into an increasing number of mentions of Wikipedia in pop-
cultural contexts these days.  Two recent examples:

In Simpsons Comics #117, there is this exchange:

Lisa: Say, aren't you Hank Scorpio, the criminal mastermind?

Hank: I prefer the term "Entrepreneurial mastermind", but yes, that's 
me.

Lisa: You blackmailed the federal government into giving you control 
of the American east coast.  Now everyone thinks you are dead.

Hank: Aren't you adorable?  We're all about to be shot as escaped 
prisoners, and you're reciting my entry in the Wikipedia.  I hope 
you're proud of her, Homer.  She's great!


The other was on a recent Colbert Report on Comedy Central, where 
Colbert was talking about Sigmund Freud, and proudly announced that 
he had prepared for the segment by reading Freud's *entire* Wikipedia 
entry, even the accurate parts.


I think Wikipedia has achieved the pop-cultural status of being 
suitable for mention in humorous (and not entirely flattering) 
contexts; it seems to have a connotation something like "I've 
achieved a shallow, superficial, and quite likely inaccurate 
understanding of a subject the lazy way... and I'm damn proud of it!"

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