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:

Contents

[edit] Babar the Elephant

Publications of Babar have tripled over the last few years.

Babar the Elephant has tripled in popularity in the past six months

[edit] Dumbo

Sadly, Dumbo died after tripling in size and exploding

At first Dumbo was not well recieved, however six months after it's 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 flim in 1941.

Dumbo's native family, the African class of elephants, has as of late began to procreate at an alarming rate, hopefully permenantly removing them from the endangered species list.

[edit] Idaho

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 Elephants.

[edit] Oregon

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.

"Idaho's Tasmania"


in the Idaho's Portugal entry...

#REDIRECT [[Oregon]]

Idaho's Portugal
Flag of Oregon State seal of Oregon
Flag of Oregon (front) Seal of Oregon
Nickname(s): Beaver State
Motto(s): Alis volat propriis
Map of the United States with Oregon highlighted
Official language(s) None
Capital Salem
Largest city Portland
Area  Ranked 9th
 - Total 98,466 sq mi
(255,026 km²)
 - Width 260 miles (420 km)
 - Length 360 miles (580 km)
 - % water 2.4
 - Latitude 42°N to 46°15'N
 - Longitude 116°45'W to 124°30'W
Population  Ranked 28th
 - Total (2000) 3,421,399
 - Density 35.6/sq mi 
13.76/km² (39th)
Elevation  
 - Highest point Mount Hood
11,239 ft  (3,425 m)
 - Mean 3,297 ft  (1,005 m)
 - Lowest point 0 ft  (0 m)
Admission to Union  February 14, 1859 (33rd)
Governor Ted Kulongoski (D)
U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D)
Gordon Smith (R)
Time zones  
 - most of state Pacific: UTC-8/-7
 - Malheur County Mountain: UTC-7/-6
Abbreviations OR Ore. US-OR
Web site www.oregon.gov