9 ridiculous Wikipedia lists to waste away the work day – Memeburn
By Julia Breakey on 9 March, 2017 Share
For the last six years of my life, I have had teachers, lecturers and tutors drill into my brain: Wikipedia is not an acceptable source.
And for six whole years I have steered clear of the tomes of knowledge Wikipedia offers me.
No longer.
Wikipedia has a knack for distracting me from the anxieties of daily life, and there is no better distraction than its carefully curated lists.
So, for your consideration, here are the nine best lists on Wikipedia right now.
This list mostly looks at albums and songs that critics have declared the worst ever written. On it youll find classics like Justin BiebersBabyand Black Eyed PeasMy Humps.And while critics are definitely wrong about 4 Non BlondesWhats Up, the rest of the list is pretty spot on, and the critiques are hilarious.
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The lyrics, most notably F**king magnets, how do they work? And I dont wanna talk to a scientist / Yall motherf**kers lying, and getting me pissed have been noted as the worst lyrics of all time
Image: brewbooks via Flickr (CC 2.0, resized)
Wikipedia is spilling hottea withthis list, outing all popes who havetaken their rogers out for an unholy swim. And if you think its just wives and women the dear popes of yore were into, think again. A few popes have been embroiled in scandals of the homosexual nature, and its all on Wikipedia for you to see.
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thought to have diedof indigestion from eating a melon, though detractors insisted he died while engaging in sodomy with a page
Former US President George W. Bush was notorious for his difficulty withthe English language,but one thing he seemed to be very good at was doling out nicknames. Whether it was nicknamingAssistant Secretary of Commerce for International Trade and Promotion Altoid Boy or the Prime Minister of Italy Shoes, Bush really had a knack for not taking the most important job in the world seriously.
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Pootie-Poot, Ostrich Legs Vladimir Putin, Presidentand Prime Minister of Russia
Yip, thats right. There are people who sat down and recorded absolutely nothing and got noted for it. Follow your dreams, kids!
Pieces listed here include works from John Lennon and Yoko Ono, The All-American Rejects and Korn. Whod have thought those three acts would be listed in one sentence together?
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The band was going through all the motions: the swart, longish-haired leader led away; the brasses, the saxophones, the clarinets made a great show of fingering and blowing, but the only sound from the stage was a rhythmic swish-swish from the trap-drummer, a froggy slap-slap from the bull-fiddler, a soft plunk-plunk from the pianist.
Image: Ergsap via Flickr (CC 2.0, resized)
You may think you know stuff I know I did but this list will have you feeling like Jon Snow in no time. How sure are you that Adam and Eves forbidden fruit was an apple? Orthat evolution explains the origin of life? Or that humans only have five senses?If you answered anything stronger than relatively sure, you world is about to change forever.
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The term Immaculate Conception was not coined to refer to the virgin birth of Jesus,nor does it reference a supposed belief in the virgin birth of Mary, his mother. Instead, it denotes a Roman Catholic belief that Mary was not in a state of original sin from the moment of her own conception.
Talkabout being a good boy! Some of these animals have done tremendous things with their lives, despite being born into a society that told them they couldnt. And, sure, maybe the degrees arelegallyfraudulent, but these badassanimals prefer not to let semantics get them down.
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Ben Goldacre, a UK-based physician and science journalist, wrote in 2004 that his cat, Henrietta, had obtained a diploma in nutrition from the American Association of Nutritional Consultants; Goldacre had been investigating allegations about the qualifications claimed by Gillian McKeith.Goldacre said, its a particular honour since dear, sweet, little Hettie died about a year ago.
If a dead cat can reach its dreams, so too can the rest of us.
While erroneous reporting of famous deaths are more common in the internet age (how often have Betty White and Rowan Atkinson died?), there are some great stories on this list predating the world wide web of lies.
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On 2 October 1571, a pallbearer dropped his coffin on the way to the funeral, waking him up. His resurrection is still celebrated each year in Braughing, Hertfordshire.
Stiglers Law refers to scientific discoveries named after people who didnt discover them. Alison Bechdel didnt invent the Bechdel test, Indians discovered the Fibonacci sequence before him and not even Sir Isaac Newton discovered his first two laws. Who can we even trust anymore?
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Stiglers Law, attributed by Stephen Stigler himself to Robert K. Merton
Exactly what it says on the tin. All links here take you to another list. Endless procrastination abounds. Youre welcome.
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lists about skepticism
Follow this link:
9 ridiculous Wikipedia lists to waste away the work day - Memeburn
- 'A really bad idea': Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales on Australia's social media ban, trust and the truth - Crikey - May 1st, 2026 [May 1st, 2026]
- The Wikipedia Play: Overlooked Reputation Lever for Law Firms in the AI Era - Law.com - May 1st, 2026 [May 1st, 2026]
- Indonesia, Wikimedia reach deal to keep Wikipedia accessible amid regulatory concerns - Indonesia Business Post - May 1st, 2026 [May 1st, 2026]
- Capacity Building: Beyond Article Writing Organizing Wikipedia in Your Language with Categories and Other Curation Tools - Wikimedia.org - May 1st, 2026 [May 1st, 2026]
- Wikipedia has become a battlefield, and we are on the losing side - ynetnews - April 27th, 2026 [April 27th, 2026]
- How to Find the Best and Cheapest Airfares Using Google Flights and Wikipedia (Yes, Wikipedia!) - AFAR - April 27th, 2026 [April 27th, 2026]
- FAO expands free public access to agrifood knowledge through collaboration on Wikipedia - Food and Agriculture Organization - April 27th, 2026 [April 27th, 2026]
- Depth Of A Wikipedia Article: Michael Jackson Biopic Earns Negative Reviews, Here Are The Most Brutal - AOL.com - April 27th, 2026 [April 27th, 2026]
- Meta is logging employee keystrokes on Google LinkedIn and Wikipedia to feed its AI models - Startup Fortune - April 27th, 2026 [April 27th, 2026]
- Pat Kane: Wikipedia, encyclopaedias, and the dark art of 'wiki-laundering' - The National Scot - April 27th, 2026 [April 27th, 2026]
- 25 years of Wikipedia - ucanews.com - April 19th, 2026 [April 19th, 2026]
- In Belarusian Wikipedia, edits to political articles can no longer be hidden. Why did this happen, and what a - - April 19th, 2026 [April 19th, 2026]
- March @ WMGH: Documenting Women in Highlife and Growing Our Wikipedia Editing Community - Wikimedia.org - April 19th, 2026 [April 19th, 2026]
- Now the PlayStation 3 game emulator configures everything itself - RPCS3 will use data from Wikipedia - ixbt.games - April 19th, 2026 [April 19th, 2026]
- Celebrating Wikipedia 25 in Tashkent: A New Generation of Uzbek Wikimedians Takes the Lead - Wikimedia.org - April 17th, 2026 [April 17th, 2026]
- Cebuano Wikipedia: From Ghost Town to Growth Engine - Wikimedia.org - April 17th, 2026 [April 17th, 2026]
- Celebrating 25 Years of Wikipedia at Manipal University Jaipur: Learning, Innovation, and Community - Wikimedia.org - April 17th, 2026 [April 17th, 2026]
- Wikipedia founder says trust is broken here's how to rebuild it - axios.com - April 7th, 2026 [April 7th, 2026]
- Women in the spotlight: stories that are shaping Wikipedia - Wikimedia.org - April 7th, 2026 [April 7th, 2026]
- Writing against the status quo: What can a Suriname edit-a-thon add to the Wikipedia public sphere? - Diggit Magazine - April 7th, 2026 [April 7th, 2026]
- Musician Plays Magnetic Reel-to-Reel Tape in Sync With Wikipedia Articles for Its 25th Anniversary - Laughing Squid - April 7th, 2026 [April 7th, 2026]
- Meet the group correcting gender bias on Wikipedia and beyond - Thenational Scot - April 7th, 2026 [April 7th, 2026]
- Coming Soon To Wikipedia Archaeology In Aotearoa - Scoop - New Zealand News - April 7th, 2026 [April 7th, 2026]
- An AI Agent Was Banned From Creating Wikipedia Articles, Then Wrote Angry Blogs About Being Banned - 404 Media - April 5th, 2026 [April 5th, 2026]
- Edit War Breaks Out on Chillis Wikipedia Page Over Trump Donations - meidasnews.com - April 5th, 2026 [April 5th, 2026]
- Wikipedia Editors Tried and Tried to Work With AI Content, Eventually Realized It Was Total Trash and Banned It Entirely - Futurism - April 5th, 2026 [April 5th, 2026]
- Wikidata graphs for data visualisation of endangered horse breeds in Wikipedia - Wikimedia.org - April 5th, 2026 [April 5th, 2026]
- How Wikipedia of cyber helps SAP make sense of threat data - Computer Weekly - April 5th, 2026 [April 5th, 2026]
- Closing the Gender Gap on Wikipedia: Art + Feminism Edit-a-thon - WashU Libraries - April 5th, 2026 [April 5th, 2026]
- Wikipedia Shares Its Stance on AI-Written Articles - newsbreaks.infotoday.com - April 5th, 2026 [April 5th, 2026]
- AI Agent Runs the Im Being Censored Playbook After Getting Banned from Wikipedia - Gizmodo - April 5th, 2026 [April 5th, 2026]
- AI Agent Gets Banned From Wikipedia Then Accuses Human Editors of Uncivil Behavior - tech.yahoo.com - April 5th, 2026 [April 5th, 2026]
- Colm O'Regan: 'Browsing Wikipedia is like taking a bus, missing your stop, and waking up in a strange town' - Irish Examiner - April 5th, 2026 [April 5th, 2026]
- AI bot gets banned from Wikipedia, then writes angry blogs protesting about it - indiatoday.in - April 5th, 2026 [April 5th, 2026]
- Wikipedia Banned an AI Bot from Writing Articles. It Then Wrote an Angry Rant Blog - Republic World - April 5th, 2026 [April 5th, 2026]
- Wikipedia bans AI bot 'Tom': It responded with furious blog posts that went viral; heres what it said - bhaskarenglish.in - April 5th, 2026 [April 5th, 2026]
- AI Bot Protests Wikipedia Ban With Viral Angry Blogs; Heres What It Said - Mashable India - April 5th, 2026 [April 5th, 2026]
- Wikipedia Bans AI Agent for Spamming Articles AI Responds With Furious Blog Rants - International Business Times UK - April 5th, 2026 [April 5th, 2026]
- Arabic-language Wikipedia filled with terrorist propaganda, bias report - The Times of Israel - March 26th, 2026 [March 26th, 2026]
- I was surprised how upset some people got: A conversation with the creator of TomWikiAssist, the bot that edited Wikipedia - Nieman Lab - March 26th, 2026 [March 26th, 2026]
- Arabic Wikipedia Riddled With Terror Propaganda and Bias, New Investigation Shows - Algemeiner.com - March 26th, 2026 [March 26th, 2026]
- Wikipedia mulling whether to rename entry on Hamas beheading babies hoax - JNS - March 26th, 2026 [March 26th, 2026]
- GZERO WORLD WITH IAN BREMMER: In Wikipedia We Trust? - KPBS - March 26th, 2026 [March 26th, 2026]
- AI Memory Project Transforms Personal Photos Into a Wikipedia-Style Archive - Tech Times - March 26th, 2026 [March 26th, 2026]
- This guy used AI to document his grandmother's life on a personal Wikipedia and now you can, too - Boing Boing - March 26th, 2026 [March 26th, 2026]
- Wikipedia Bans AI-Generated Text With Two Exceptions What Every Editor Must Know Now - International Business Times UK - March 26th, 2026 [March 26th, 2026]
- Twenty-Five Years of Free Knowledge: Wiki Palestine Celebrates a Quarter Century of Wikipedia - Wikimedia.org - March 26th, 2026 [March 26th, 2026]
- Who is pushing the propaganda tag against Dhurandar on Wikipedia? How an anti-Hindu Wikipedia Editor booked in Manipur for inciting violence cited... - March 26th, 2026 [March 26th, 2026]
- World Jewish Congress report finds extensive, systemic bias on Arabic Wikipedia - JNS.org - JNS - March 26th, 2026 [March 26th, 2026]
- Quiz: Name these 10 national team managers from Wikipedia - Planet Football - March 26th, 2026 [March 26th, 2026]
- The Unsung Heroes of Kit Culture: Appreciating Wikipedia's Pixel Kit Artists - Footy Headlines - March 24th, 2026 [March 24th, 2026]
- Wikipedia has banned AI-generated text, with two exceptions - How-To Geek - March 24th, 2026 [March 24th, 2026]
- 39 Unusual Places With Their Own Wikipedia Pages That Showcase The Worlds Weirdest Sites - AOL.com - March 24th, 2026 [March 24th, 2026]
- PR firm linked to Gates-backed AGRA edited Wikipedia to remove criticism - U.S. Right to Know - March 24th, 2026 [March 24th, 2026]
- In Wikipedia We Trust? - WLIW - March 24th, 2026 [March 24th, 2026]
- Palestinians trained to fill Wikipedia with anti-Israel propaganda - The Telegraph - March 15th, 2026 [March 15th, 2026]
- SimWikiMap for MSFS 2024 brings Wikipedia to your cockpit tablet - MSFS Addons - March 15th, 2026 [March 15th, 2026]
- The Editors by Stephen Harrison: Wikipedia, internet communities, and the battle for truth in the digital age - New America - March 11th, 2026 [March 11th, 2026]
- Wikipedia Forced to Lock Down Edits Over JavaScript That Could Delete Pages - PCMag - March 9th, 2026 [March 9th, 2026]
- At 25, Wikipedia faces a double threat: the rise of AI and the decline of local media - CBC - March 9th, 2026 [March 9th, 2026]
- Oh no, Wikipedia has been turned into a gacha card game and I can already feel my time slipping away from me - Rock Paper Shotgun - March 9th, 2026 [March 9th, 2026]
- Please send help: We can't stop opening packs in Wikigacha, a browser-based card game where you collect Wikipedia articles like 'List of Red Hot Chili... - March 9th, 2026 [March 9th, 2026]
- Wikipedia hit by self-propagating JavaScript worm that vandalized pages - BleepingComputer - March 9th, 2026 [March 9th, 2026]
- Wikipedia's been turned into a Pokemon TCG-like gacha game where you collect its pages, because the random article button wasn't distracting enough... - March 9th, 2026 [March 9th, 2026]
- At 25, Wikipedia confronts twin challenges: the surge of AI and the downturn of local journalism. - stl.news - March 9th, 2026 [March 9th, 2026]
- Wikipedia administrator account compromised and temporarily put into read-only mode - GIGAZINE - March 9th, 2026 [March 9th, 2026]
- Zara Larsson Begs Wikipedia Editors to 'Cut It Out' and Stop Changing Her Photo to Unflattering Snap - People.com - February 20th, 2026 [February 20th, 2026]
- Knowledge is human: Co-founder Jimmy Wales on why Wikipedia still matters in an AI world - The Indian Express - February 20th, 2026 [February 20th, 2026]
- Zara Larsson begs fans to stop changing her Wikipedia photo - The Independent - February 20th, 2026 [February 20th, 2026]
- How to Use Jwikithe Wikipedia for all Things Epstein Files - inc.com - February 20th, 2026 [February 20th, 2026]
- Zara Larsson is at to war with Wikipedia over her photo - - Happy Mag - February 20th, 2026 [February 20th, 2026]
- Hamas-Linked NGO Trains Gazans to Influence Wikipedia Narratives on Israel - Combat Antisemitism Movement - February 20th, 2026 [February 20th, 2026]
- Zara Larsson Is Begging You to Stop Changing Her Wikipedia Photo - Exclaim! - February 20th, 2026 [February 20th, 2026]
- Meet wonderkid Tom Edozie who doesn't have Wikipedia and unknown to Wolves boss - The Sun - February 20th, 2026 [February 20th, 2026]
- IIT Guwahati Unveils Scalable Method To Detect Wikipedia Name Errors At AI Summit 2026 - BW Education - February 20th, 2026 [February 20th, 2026]
- Org. trains Gazans to edit Israel, Palestine on Wikipedia - The Jerusalem Post - February 18th, 2026 [February 18th, 2026]
- Theres a whole show about Wikipedia, and its delightful and hopeful - San Francisco Chronicle - February 18th, 2026 [February 18th, 2026]
- Wikipedia is having a renaissance in the age of AI - vox.com - February 18th, 2026 [February 18th, 2026]
- Wikipedia: The Non-Profit Exception on the Web in the AI Era | 2026 - nssmag.com - February 18th, 2026 [February 18th, 2026]
- German Wikipedia bans AI-generated content while other language editions take a softer approach - the-decoder.com - February 18th, 2026 [February 18th, 2026]