Wikipedia is not always referenced in the same way. The ways described below are some of the ways it has been mentioned.
Citations of Wikipedia in culture • People who are known to have used or recommended Wikipedia as a reference source include comedian
Rosie O'Donnell and
Rutgers University sociology professor
Ted Goertzel. • Various people including
Sir Ian McKellen,
Nicolas Cage, and
Marcus Brigstocke have criticized or commented about Wikipedia's articles about themselves.
In politics • In June 2011, Wikipedia received attention for attempts by editors to change the "
Paul Revere" article to fit
Sarah Palin's accounting of events during a campaign bus tour. The
New York Times reported that the article "had half a million page views" by June 10, and "after all the attention and arguments, the article is now much longer ... and much better sourced ... than before Palin's remarks." • In a speech given on October 28, 2013, to support
Ken Cuccinelli for the candidacy of the governor of Virginia, Senator
Rand Paul appeared to include close paraphrasing of the Wikipedia entry on the 1997 film
Gattaca () in his comments on
eugenics, as noted by
MSNBC host
Rachel Maddow. • In April 2015,
The Guardian reported claims that
Grant Shapps, then-
Chairman of the Conservative Party, or a person working under his orders, had edited Wikipedia pages about Shapps and other members of the
British Parliament during
the runup to the 2015 election, to which Shapps had denied involvement. • In October 2018, Jackson A. Cosko, a former staff member for US Senator
Maggie Hassan, edited Wikipedia to
dox several Congresspersons after being fired. Republican Senators
Lindsey Graham,
Orrin G. Hatch,
Mitch McConnell, and
Mike Lee had their personal addresses, cell phone numbers, and email addresses inserted into their respective Wikipedia pages. The Senators were targeted for the role they played as
Republican members of the
Senate Judiciary Committee during the contentious
Supreme Court nomination hearings of
Brett Kavanaugh. Cosko pleaded guilty in April 2019 and on 19 June 2019 was sentenced to four years in federal prison on five charges related to the event. • In February 2022, journalists at
The Independent found that text from
Wikipedia articles on
Constantinople and the
list of largest cities throughout history had been lifted by
civil servants from the UK's
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and placed verbatim into the government's
Levelling Up White Paper.
Wikipedia as comedic material • Wikipedia is parodied at several websites, including
Uncyclopedia and
Encyclopedia Dramatica. • In May 2006, British chat show host
Paul O'Grady received an inquiry from a viewer regarding information given on his Wikipedia page, to which he responded, "Wikipedia? Sounds like a skin disease." • Comedian
Zach Galifianakis claimed to look himself up on Wikipedia in an interview with
The Badger Herald, stating about himself, "...I'm looking at Wikipedia right now. Half Greek, half redneck, around 6-foot-4. And that's about it... The 6-foot-4 thing may be a little bit off. Actually, it's 4-foot-6."
General information source •
Slate magazine compared Wikipedia to the fictional device
''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy from the series of the same name by
Douglas Adams. "The parallels between The Hitchhiker's Guide'' (as found in Adams' original BBC radio series and novels) and Wikipedia are so striking, it's a wonder that the author's rabid fans don't think he invented time travel. Since its editor was perennially out to lunch, the
Guide was amended 'by any passing stranger who happened to wander into the empty offices on an afternoon and saw something worth doing.' This anonymous group effort ends up outselling
Encyclopedia Galactica even though 'it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate.'" This comparison of rivaling texts resembles the mainstream comparisons between Wikipedia and professional Encyclopedias.
As the basis of games Redactle is a game in which the player must identify a Wikipedia article (chosen from the 10,000 vital articles) after it appears with most of its words redacted. Prepositions, articles, the verb "to be", punctuation and word lengths are shown. Players guess words, which are revealed if present in the article. , there have been over 800 daily games. ==Criticism==