History Main / RetconningTheWiki

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': Steve once wrote an article about "Truth of peanut butter". Adding such information would probably also be called vandalism.

* ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged's'' Frieza is apparently a [[SpaceX Space]] WikiVandal, changing the Saiyan page to say "Stupid monkeys hit by falling rocks. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! P.S. Frieza rules you."

* Any mention of Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} in a popular work tends to have this effect. For example, [[http://xkcd.com/446/ this]] ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' strip depicts the Wikipedia article on wood filled with [[Administrivia/PeopleSitOnChairs examples of wooden things in media]]. Shortly after it was published, the page had to be locked due to repeated additions of similar examples.

* 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 whacky, 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.

* On ''Series/ThirtyRock'', Jenna was set to play Janis Joplin on a movie, so the guys vandalized the Wikipedia article on her to mess with Jenna and get her to do silly stuff.

A character edits a wiki - be it Wikipedia or any other free info source - and adds an 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.

'''King Kai''': Let me check. Let’s see here. [checks Wikipedia entry] Stupid monkeys hit by falling rocks. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. P.S. Freeza rules you. That doesn’t seem right...\\

.

[[quoteright:239:[[Webcomic/PennyArcade https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/retconning_the_wiki.jpg]]]]

->'''Goku:''' Really? What killed them?\\
'''King Kai''': Let me check. Let’s see here. [checks Wikipedia entry] Stupid monkeys hit by falling rocks. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. P.S. Freeza rules you. That doesn’t seem right...\\
'''Goku:''' Bored now. Let’s get back to training, King Kai!
-->--''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged''

A character edits a wiki - be it Wikipedia or any other free info source - and adds an 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.

May provoke some viewers/readers to ape the fictional WikiVandal by vandalizing the real-life Wikipedia article in question.

See also WikiVandal for info on people who actually do this in real life and ways to counter them.

Please note: '''no RealLife examples''', unless they were directly caused by media.

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!!Examples of this trope in media:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* 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 whacky, 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.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* Creator/StephenColbert's "wikiality".
** 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.
** 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.
* On ''Series/ThirtyRock'', Jenna was set to play Janis Joplin on a movie, so the guys vandalized the Wikipedia article on her to mess with Jenna and get her to do silly stuff.
* Raj on ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' admits to vandalizing Wikipedia.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* The music video for Music/WeirdAlYankovic's song "White and Nerdy", in which he replaces the entire text for Atlantic Records' 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, resulting in Wiki/ThatOtherWiki having to lock the Atlantic Records page.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* [[CatsAreMean Bucky]] from ''ComicStrip/GetFuzzy'' edits {{Wiki/Wikipedia}} to say that he won Wimbledon and that his "album" went "fourple platinum", as well as that he beat up [[SitcomArchNemesis Fungo]].
* 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.
* 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."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* In ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'', both Tycho and Gabe. Gabe does that for fun, Tycho out of grudge.
** 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]]
* ''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."
* One ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'' strip implies that Black Mage vandalised Wikipedia to win an argument with Red Mage.
* This was seen at least once in ''Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}}''.
* 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'.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged's'' Frieza is apparently a [[SpaceX Space]] WikiVandal, changing the Saiyan page to say "Stupid monkeys hit by falling rocks. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! P.S. Frieza rules you."
* [[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.
* From ''WebSite/CollegeHumor'', [[http://www.collegehumor.com/article:1723101 Superman edits Clark Kent's Wikipedia]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': Steve once wrote an article about "Truth of peanut butter". Adding such information would probably also be called vandalism.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Replacing everything on Wiki/{{Wikipedia}}'s article on Earth with "Literature/{{Mostly harmless}}." is a bannable offence, as that particular act of vandalism, inspired by a similar act in the book, [[ExecutiveMeddling except it was done by editors]], was done [[NeverHeardThatOneBefore way too many times]].
* Any mention of Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} in a popular work tends to have this effect. For example, [[http://xkcd.com/446/ this]] ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' strip depicts the Wikipedia article on wood filled with [[Administrivia/PeopleSitOnChairs examples of wooden things in media]]. Shortly after it was published, the page had to be locked due to repeated additions of similar examples.
* 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.
[[/folder]]

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* The music video for Music/WeirdAlYankovic's song "White And Nerdy", in which he replaces the entire text for Atlantic Records' 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, resulting in Wiki/ThatOtherWiki having to lock the Atlantic Records page.

** 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]]

* A running joke on ''TalkinBoutYourGeneration'' is Shaun Micallef quoting some 'facts' about the topic at hand he claims he got from Wikipedia, all of which are hilarously wrong.

* 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. HillarityEnsues

See also WikiVandal for info on people who actually do this in real life and ways to counter them.

[[quoteright:239:[[Webcomic/PennyArcade http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/retconning_the_wiki.jpg]]]]

'''King Kai''': Let me check. Let’s see here. (checks Wikipedia entry) Stupid monkeys hit by falling rocks. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. P.S. Freeza rules you. That doesn’t seem right...\\

* The music video for Music/WeirdAlYankovic's song "White And Nerdy", in which he replaces the entire text for Atlantic Records' 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, resulting in ThatOtherWiki having to lock the Atlantic Records page.

* [[CatsAreMean Bucky]] from ''ComicStrip/GetFuzzy'' edits [[ThatOtherWiki Wikipedia]] to say that he won Wimbledon and that his "album" went "fourple platinum", as well as that he beat up [[SitcomArchNemesis Fungo]].

* In some of the older [[ProtonJon 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.

King Kai: Let me check. Let’s see here. (checks Wikipedia entry) Stupid monkeys hit by falling rocks. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. P.S. Freeza rules you. That doesn’t seem right...\\

->'''Goku:''' Really? What killed them?\
King Kai: Let me check. Let’s see here. (checks Wikipedia entry) Stupid monkeys hit by falling rocks. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. P.S. Freeza rules you. That doesn’t seem right...\

** One time, Colbert [[InvokedTrope deliberately used this]] to {{Troll}} [[{{Wiki/Conservapedia}} Andrew Schafly's Conservative Bible Project]], by asking viewers to turn it into a SelfInsertFic starring Stephen himself.

* Replacing everything on Website/{{Wikipedia}}'s article on Earth with "Literature/{{Mostly harmless}}." is a bannable offence, as that particular act of vandalism, inspired by a similar act in the book, [[ExecutiveMeddling except it was done by editors]], was done [[NeverHeardThatOneBefore way too many times]].
* Any mention of Website/{{Wikipedia}} in a popular work tends to have this effect. For example, [[http://xkcd.com/446/ this]] ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' strip depicts the Wikipedia article on wood filled with [[Administrivia/PeopleSitOnChairs examples of wooden things in media]]. Shortly after it was published, the page had to be locked due to repeated additions of similar examples.

A character edits a wiki - be it Wikipedia or any other free info source - and adds an 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.

* StephenColbert's "wikiality".