Image via Complex Original
Since its launch in January of 2001, Wikipedia has been the target of waves upon waves of criticism. At first most of it was warranted. The pages of the free crowd-sourced encyclopedia contained a great number of factual errors, making it easy for established encyclopedia brands like Encyclopedia Britannica to throw shots. Teachers and professors forbade their students from using Wikipedia as a source in their work. The tide began to change, however, as Jimmy Wale's project grew, and the editing and contribution system he put in place, one which allowed anyone with some free time to lend a hand, became stricter and more refined. Independent studies began to show that Wikipedia's information was virtually as reliable as for-pay encyclopedias, giving credence to Wale's dream to provide all of the world's information for free to whoever wants it.
However, the same "for the people, by the people" aspect that makes Wikipedia so remarkable is the same reason why people still look at it with a side-eye. Because nearly anyone can contribute, we've seen numerous pages flooded with wrong information, derogatory slurs, and funny images. Wikipedia calls it vandalism. To combat this, the not-for-profit has taken measures such as permanently locking pages. We're sure you've heard of a celebrity's page being changed. Most recently, it was Brandon Knight's after he was posterized by DeAndre Jordan. There's a bunch more. These are the 50 craziest we could find.
50. LeBron James Murdered Jason Terry
Compromised Page: Jason Terry, Professional basketball player
Year: 2013
A few weeks after Brandon Knight had his manhood tested in the paint by DeAndre Jordan, LeBron James attempted to one up what many are calling the dunk of the year. The victim this time around was the Celtics's Jason Terry, who gave a valiant effort but was nonetheless floored as King James dunked with the velocity of speeding freight train. Just like Knight, Terry was proclaimed dead on Wikipedia.
49. Drake's Canada Dry
Compromised Page: Canada Dry
Year: 2011
After hearing the thinly veiled shots thrown his way by Drake on Rick Ross's "Stay Schemin'," Common returned fire, calling the Toronto-native "Canada Dry." It was only a matter of time before someone changed the main image on the Canada Dry Wikipedia page to a photo of the OVO captain.
48. Hemingway and the Whores
Compromised Page: Death in the Afternoon
Year: N/A
We're not sure if the person who edited the Wikipedia page for Ernest Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon, a book on Spanish bullfighting, was trying to be funny or was just hopelessly misinformed. Whatever the case, someone saw fit to describe the 1932 non-fiction book as one about the "ceremony and traditions of Spanish whores." The writer goes onto correctly explain how the book looks into the world of bullfighting. So what is it? Simple slip-up or intended slight? Who knows.
47. Kim Zolciak Was Born in a Trailer Park
Compromised Page: Kim Zolciak, Reality TV star
Year: 2009
We're not sure what lead a hacker to vandalize Kimberleigh Marie Zolciak's page. For all we know it could have been something that happened on The Real Housewives of Atlanta or her horrible single "Tardy for the Party." We don't know. What we do know is that the hacker didn't have the highest opinion of Zolciak, as her page was changed to say she was born in "Trailer Park, Whitetrashville" and that, at the age of 14, she had an affair with a "50-year veteran of the Windsor Locks Police Department" which lead to his firing. What's worse: It said she was married to Kevin Federline.
46. The Black Eyed Peas < High School Musical
Compromised Page: The Black Eyed Peas
Year: 2011
We're not the biggest fans of the Black Eyed Peas, but we didn't think they're half-time performance at the 2011 Super Bowl was all that bad. The lit stage was cool, and the homogenous sea of dancers was a good touch. However, turns out there was a lot of people who thought the performance was "of inferior quality to a high school talent show." Well, damn.
45. Reality Is Not What You Think
Compromised Page: Reality
Year: 2006
One of the wildest edits made by a Stephen Colbert fan was the one done to the Reality page. Whoever took the pleasure of altering Wiki's state of reality erased the entire article and left us with a shallow quip that probably sounded deep as it pinged around a heavily weeded brain: "Reality becomes a commodity."
44. Gary Oldman is a Giraffe
Compromised Page: Gary Oldman, Actor
Year: 2010
The most subtle edits are the most confounding. Whoever decided to amend the award-winning actor's page decided to only make a slight change in the form of an additional sentence proclaiming that the dude who played Commissioner Gordon in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight was actually a giraffe. Some people have too much time on their hands.
43. Osama bin Laden Was a Chronic Masturbator
Compromised Page: Osama bin Laden
Year: 2011
It's no secret that when U.S. troops barged into bin Laden's Pakistan hideout a sizable porn stash was found in his room. But was it "10 hard drives, 110 usb sticks, and 5 computers" worth of porn? And with multiple wives how does anyone know dude was a chronic masturbator? Scratch that, though, the real falsity is the writer calling Osama a "top bloke."
42. Big Balls Are Tasty
Compromised Page: Leonardo da Vinci
Year: N/A
Not sure what this has to do with Leonardo da Vinci-maybe he liked meatballs in his pasta?-but all right.
41. That's Not What Room Temperature Is
Compromised Page: Room Temperature
Year: N/A
All this time we thought room temperature was a general term to describe common indoor temperatures.
40. Collective Nouns are Boring
Compromised Page: Collective Noun
Year: N/A
Well, yeah, learning about collective nouns isn't the most fun activity in the world, but, uh... aight, maybe this one isn't a lie. You got us.
39. Bernie Madoff is an A**hole
Compromised Page: Bernard Madoff
Year: 2009
We wouldn't be surprised if one of Madoff's 4800 former clients decided to spruce up his Wikipedia entry with a little truth. Before Bernie was sentenced to 150 years for running the largest Ponzi scheme in history, someone said what all of us were thinking. Props.
38. Batman!
Compromised Page: Batman, Caped Crusader
Year: 2007
This should be a part of the real Batman Wikipedia entry.
37. Plato was Hawaiian
Compromised Page: Plato
Year: 2007
We can only imagine the number of students who went to Wikipedia to write a paper on Plato only to find a page saying the scholar was "an ancient Hawaiian weather man and surfer, writer of cosmo girls, and founder of punaho, in Ancient Florida, the first institution of higher learning in the western world." We hope no one believed any of that to be true.
36. Tosh.0MG
Compromised Page: Tosh.0, television show
Year: 2010
Like Stephen Colbert, Daniel Tosh, stand-up comedian and host of the Comedy Central sketch show, Tosh.0 dared his fans to go on Wikipedia and deface a Wikipedia page. Unlike Colbert, however, Tosh told his fans to mess his show's page. And they did. It got so crazy that Wikipedia locked the page before the end of the episode .Just what did his fans write? Check the image above. Then click here to read everything.
35. Republican Joe Wilson Has No Chill
Compromised Page: Joe Wilson, Republican politician
Year: 2010
Remember the congressman who screamed out "You lie!" while President Obama was delivering his health care speech back in 2009? No? Well, his name is Joe Wilson, a republican politician from South Carolina. After his outburst, which John McCain said was disrespectful, someone decided to tell the world about Mr. Wilson. It's a little hard to read but the last line of the first paragraph said, "He is a douchebag that called the President of the United States a liar on national television and has no respect for the office he holds." That sums it up quite nicely, we think.
34. Parkour is what?
Compromised Page: Parkour, New-age training method
Year: 2010
You know those commercials that show people jumping and off buildings and staircases or leaping up onto walls? That's called Parkour. According to Wikipedia, it's a training method developed by a Frenchman named David Belle. It looks to be an intensive workout, one that will sharpen the senses and tone muscles you never knew you would need to use. Or so we thought. According to one contributor, Parkour is "the physical practice of sucking nuts in both urban and rural settings."
33. A Dell Employee is a War Hero
Compromised Page: Alan Mcilwraith
Year: 2006
Alan Mcilwraith proved that Wikipedia can make you famous. Realizing that he could create a page on a Wikipedia mirror site, Mcilwraith built an article for a British army officer, Captain Sir Alan Mcilwraith. The page featured an image of Mcilwraith in full military garb with the description saying that he "is best known for risking his own life to protect that of his men for his action he was awarded DSO." Not bad for a Dell customer service representative.
32. The Village of Denshaw is the Worst Place on Earth
Compromised Page: Village of Denshaw, UK town
Year: 2008
Chances are you've never heard of the Village of Denshaw, a quiet community located northeast of Manchester, England. However, if you read its Wikipedia page back in '08, you would have gotten the wrong picture of the quaint town. Hackers modified the village's page to say that it was home to "an obese population of sun-starved, sheep-hurling yokels with a brothel for a pub and a lingering tapeworm infection." The hackers didn't stop there. The Wiki page also said that the only reason people go to Denshaw is for the "competitive sports held in the village including rock rolling, cow shooting, and sheep hurling," but, they continued, many tourists no longer visit due to "the Ascariasis epidemic in 1998 which left most of the village seriously ill." Wow. Looks like someone had a really bad time on vacation.
31. iPod is Evil
Compromised Page: iPod Touch, Media player
Year: 2007
Since Apple released it in 2007, the iPod Touch has been a best-seller with over 60 million units sold. Given that statistic, it's hard to believe that when it first hit the scene people were slightly disappointed in what was considered an iPhone-lite. If you need any proof that people weren't overly smitten with Apple's touchscreen media player, look at this iPod Touch Wikipedia page from '08.
30. President Obama is a Puppet
Compromised Page: President Barack Obama
Year: 2009
Shortly after taking office, someone decided to have some fun with President Obama's Wikipedia page. Admittedly, we expected the changes to have a lot more bite than calling Obama a mere "puppet." Hell, we've heard him called worst things by members of congress.
29. Stephen Colbert vs. Wikipedia
Compromised Page: Stephen Colbert, George Washington, Elephants, and more
Year: 2006
During an episode of The Colbert Report, host Stephen Colbert went in on Wikipedia for "wikiality": the act of something being made up and becoming reality if enough people agree with the creator. To prove his point he logged into Wikipedia and changed George Washington's entry to reflect that the first president of the United States did not own slaves. Colbert then urged his viewers to do the same to the entry on elephants. His fans did what they were asked until Wikipedia locked down all articles on elephants and blocked Stephen Colbert from the site.
28. Traveling = Tyler Hansbrough
Compromised Page: Traveling, basketball
Year: 2007
Behold the work of a true University of North Carolina hater. A burning dislike of the Tar Heels is the only way to explain why someone would alter the "Traveling (basketball)" page and call out the dude who was the first freshman in college basketball history to be unanimously given 1st team All-ACC honors and had his North Carolina jersey retired. Pure, unadulterated hate.
27. This is Colton Orr's Life
Compromised Page: Colton Orr, Professional hockey player
Year: 2008
Most Wikipedia vandalism amounts to nothing more than a prank call. A quick hit; a flash of an insult. Then there's what happened to Colton Orr's Wikipedia page. This prankster opted to craft an entire back story for the Toronto Maple Leafs right winger replete with pre-game rituals (...He opts to sit in Rissmiller's locker room stall and chews tobacco, or what he calls "long conversations with Scotty Skoal.") and an origin story ("I was fuckin' born to play."). This is how is how a Wikipedia vandal should work.
26. Bill Gates is the Devil
Compromised Page: Bill Gates, Microsoft Co-Founder
Year: 2006
Hate him or love him, William Henry Gates III is one of the most important people in history. Unfortunately more people tend to fall onto the hate side of that statement. If you needed proof all you had to do was check Gates's Wikipedia page back in 2006. You would have seen a press image of Gates with the addition of a set of poorly drawn devil horns and a Hitler mustache for good measure. More money, more problems.
25. H.C. Frick and Andrew Carnagie Were an Item
Compromised Page: H.C. Frick, American Industrialist
Year: N/A
What's funny is that after going into business with one another, H.C. Frick and Andrew Carnegie's relationship became increasingly strained. Reports say that Carnegie tried many times to force Frick out of the company that resulted from the partnership between H.C. Frick & Company and Carnegie Steel.
24. So That's How You Get Pink Eye?
Compromised Page: Conjunctivitis, Pink eye
Year: 2009
If you're a Judd Apatow fan, the above passage should sound familiar. If you're not, it probably sounds like a 12-year-old got access to the pink eye page. Still lost? Go rent Knocked Up.
23. Fuzzy Zoeller is a Pill-Popping Animal
Compromised Page: Fuzzy Zoeller, Pro Golfer
Year: 2007
When his page fell victim to vandalism, former U.S. Open winner, Fuzzy Zoeller (Frank Urban Zoeller, Jr.) decided to track down the culprit as best he could. He discovered that the IP address from the user pointed to Josef Silny & Associates, a Miami-based law firm. Still upset from his Wikipedia page reporting that he admitted to "polishing off a fifth of Jack Daniels after popping a handful of Vicodin pills," he decided to sue the law firm for slandering his name. We guess he wasn't trying to live that Charlie Sheen life.
22. George W. Bush is a Terrorist
Compromised Page: George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States of America
Year: 2007
Discuss. Oh, and if you get the hankering to go back and adjust W's Wikipedia page, don't. It's permanently locked.
21. University of Cincinnati Prostitute President
Compromised Page: Nancy Zimpher, Former University of Cincinnati President
Year: 2008
We're not sure how Nancy Zimpher managed to upset a University of Cincinnati student so much that he or she took to her Wikipedia page and wrote that she was a "president/prostitute." Maybe it was her decision to end the school's midnight madness game: "Critics also claim that she doesn't care what alumni, boosters or students think. An example of this would be getting rid of midnight madness." The entry ends with Zimpher being called a "witch" that "flys around on a broomstick."
20. Janis Joplin Was Frightened of Toilets
Compromised Page: Janis Joplin, singer, songwriter
Year: 2009
This hack was inspired by an episode of 30 Rock where Jenna was to play Janis Joplin in a biopic. In the episode, Jenna said she will employ "method acting," and therefore needed to heavily research the singer. Frank told Jenna that she should research Joplin using Wikipedia. Jenna, of course, loves the idea. But before she's able to log on, Frank updates the Janis Joplin Wikipedia page with a bunch of lies including, "Janis Joplin speed walked everywhere and was afraid of toilets." Pretty clever, this.
19. Sepp Blatter is a Dick
Compromised Page: Joseph Blatter, President of FIFA
Year: 2010
You know what's embarrassing? Being made fun of and not having the slightest clue as to why. That's what happened to Joseph "Sepp" Blatter, the head of FIFA. After a hacker amended his nickname with the word "Bellend," British slang for the tip of a penis, the South African government unknowingly refered to him as such. So, yes, for that day his was being called Sepp Dick Tip Blatter. How nice.
18. Sinbad's Dead
Compromised Page: Sinbad, comedian
Year: 2007
One Saturday in March of 2007, Sinbad's daughter called him to make sure he was okay because there was a rumor going around that he had passed away. A few days later more and more friends and family members began reaching out to the comedian to find out if the rumors of his death were true. Why did people think Sinbad was dead? Because his Wikipedia page said so. In a phone interview with the Associated Press, Sinbad humored, "Saturday I rose from the dead and then died again."
17. Miley Cyrus is Dead
Compromised Page: Miley Cyrus, Entertainer
Year: 2008
Miley Cyrus didn't have the best 2008. At least not on the Internet. Early in the year a hacker acquired risque photos of the Disney star from her email. Later, another hacker edited the Hannah Montana star's Wikipedia page to say she was killed in a car crash. The rumor, which originated on YouTube, spread like wild fire when it hit the social news site Digg.
16. John Boehner is a Dick
Compromised Page: John Boehner, Speak of the United States House of Representatives
Year: 2010
Before he became the 61st Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, John Boehner gave a spirited speech against President Obama's proposed health care plan. While applauded by conservatives, it had liberals up in arms. So much so that some left-leaning Wiki user thought it best to change the Speaker's name to something more fitting of how Democrats saw him.
15. The Jonas Brothers are Burning
Compromised Page: Jonas Brothers, Pop group
Year: 2009
Look, we get it: Many of you find the Jonas Brothers to be a manufactured pop commodity with less gravitas and talent than other boy bands made of former Mickey Mouse Club members. But is that any reason to drag their name through the mud and say that the promise-ring promoting brothers got VDs? Yes? Oh, okay. As you were.
14. Bieber Nation Goes Ham on Esperanza Spalding
Compromised Page: Esperanza Spalding, Jazz artist
Year: 2011
Nearly everyone was flabbergasted when Esperanza Spalding, the relatively unknown jazz singer/bassist, walked away with the 2011 Grammy award for Best New Artist. It wasn't only that she was the most unknown artist on the ballot, it's that she beat out Drake, Florence and the Machine, Mumford & Sons, and Justin Bieber for the honor. If you know anything about Bieber's legion of fans, you know they're rabid and pretty fucking crazy. True to form, the Belibers took to the Internet and attacked Spalding's Wikipedia page leaving a barrage of insults like, "Justin Bieber deserved it, go die in a hole. Who the heck are you anyway?" Where's the love?
13. President Kennedy's Assistant Helped Kill Him
Compromised Page: John Seigenthaler Sr.
Year: 2005
Back when Wikipedia was still vying for mainstream approval, this story of "Internet character assassination" became the center of a big media storm surrounding the free encyclopedia. Seigenthaler, a former journalist who served as an administrative assistant to President John F. Kennedy, was appalled when he learned his Wikipedia page listed him as a possible suspect in the assassination of both President Kennedy and his brother, Bobby. Looking to get to the bottom of the error, Seigenthaler, reached out to Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales who in turn told him that he had no idea of knowing who really wrote the erroneous info in his Wikipedia entry.
12. Eminem is the Voice of Spongebob Squarepants
Compromised Page: Spongebob SquarePants, cartoon character
Year: 2008
If you were to read the Wikipedia page for SpongeBob SquarePants back in October of 2008, you would have seen a lot of nonsense. First there were the multiple mentions of the cartoon character being a homosexual, even though creator Stephen Hillenberg denied it in 2002 saying that SpongeBob is asexual. Why people are discussing a cartoon sponge's sexuality is far beyond us, but we digress. The Pineapple-dwelling children's star has been at the center of controversy for years, so seeing those homophobic quips weren't surprising. What was surprising was the edit that had Slim Shady as the voice behind SpongeBob.
11. Thierry Henry Was Born a C*nt
Compromised Page: Thierry Henry
Year: 2009
When you're one of the best at what you do, you're bound to have people who hate you for no reason other than the fact that you're so good and whoever they like is not. That seemed to be the case when in '09 someone took more than few liberties with Thierry Henry's Wikipedia article. The hacker amended the striker's opening paragraphs and took every opportunity to call him a cunt.
10. Kanye West is a Dope Dealer
Compromised Page: Kanye West
Year: 2009
After Kanye's infamous stage crash at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, one angry Taylor Swift fan allegedly decided to exact revenge by defacing his Wikipedia page. The hacker called Kanye a "dope dealing, crack smoking, cocaine sniffing, no talent, immature, cowardly, racist sone of a bitch who doesn't even DESERVE to be on stage or in a studio." The hacker didn't even amend anything, the person just wrote an entire paragraph on top of the entry. Tell 'em why you mad, son.
9. Nancy Pelosi Wants to Burn Gays
Compromised Page: Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader
Year: 2009
Nancy Pelosi's Wikipedia page has seen its fair share of vandalism. In 2007, someone changed her page to say that "Italians drink children's blood." Two years later, another person went on her page and turned it up a notch by changing the quotes in her "Quotes" section to say homophobic and hateful things such as "Gay people are wicked degenerates." Thankfully, the page was corrected shortly afterwards.
8. Sergey Brin was Dating Jimmy Wales
Compromised Page: Sergey Brin, Google Co-Founder
Year: 2006
As one of the head dudes in charge at Google, Sergey Brin should have expected people to have some fun at his expense. And they did. In 2002, his Wikipedia page was edited to ask, "Is he lucky or smart or both?" That was nothing, however, compared to what was written on the page of the married father of one in 2006: "Sergey revealed that he is homosexual and dating with Jimmy Wales."
7. Tony Blair Wanted to be Hitler
Compromised Page: Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Year: 2006
Tony Blair wasn't the most popular man in Britain when he decided to align with the United States to invade Iraq. To voice their protest, hackers took to Blair's Wikipedia page and edited his biography to say that he had started "a false war against Saddam Hussein". Even worse was what they wrote about his childhood. The entry stated that Blair hung up "posters of Adolf Hitler on his bedroom wall as a teenager." Wikipedia took this act of vandalism seriously and launched a full investigation into its origins. Unfortunately, it wasn't able to come up with anything.
6. Sara Palin is an Anti-Semite
Compromised Page: Blood libel
Year: 2011
After the tragic shooting in Tuscon, Arizon in 2011, Sarah Palin made a formal statement in which she blamed journalists for "manufacturing a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn." Yes, in the wake of a horrific mass shooting, the former Republican vice presidential candidate accused journalists of accusing Jewish people of murdering their children in order to use their blood in religious rituals. Not only did the news media, many Jewish advocacy groups, and other politicians go in on the governor-turned-personality, someone decided to post her photo under the "Antisemitism" banner on the blood libel Wikipedia page. To be fair, we don't believe Palin knew what blood libel meant, so we don't think she's an anti-Semite. But wow. Just wow.
5. The U.S. Military Hacks Wikipedia
Compromised Page: Fidel Castro, President of Cuba
Year: 2007
After discovering that the Wikipedia page of Cuban President Fidel Castro stated that he was an "admitted transsexual," a group of volunteer Internet investigators working for the free encyclopedia decided to try and find out who exactly was behind the hack. They couldn't believe their eyes when they discovered that the computers used to make the change belonged to Joint Task Force-Guantanamo, the U.S. military unit that runs Camp Delta's permanent detainment camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. That's right-the U.S. Military hacked Wikipedia.
4. Brandon Knight Killed by DeAndre Jordan Dunk
Compromised Page: Brandon Knight, Professional basketball player
Year: 2013
After DeAndre Jordan of the L.A. Clippers caught an alley-oop from Chris Paul and posterized the Pistons's Brandon Knight, the world seemed to let out a collective "Holy shit!" It was the dunk heard (and felt) around the world. A dunk so vicious it seemed to snatch the very soul from Knight, it became the stuff of legend, inspiring countless memes, videos, and jokes. The best one? This Wikipedia hack which declared that Brandon Knight died by the hand of DeAndre Jordan. Cold world.
3. Robert Byrd is Dead
Compromised Page: Robert Byrd is Dead
Year: 2009
When his good friend Ted Kennedy suffered his third seizure in two years at President Barack Obama's inauguration lunch, Senator Robert Byrd from West Virginia felt so bad that he decided to leave the luncheon. Initial press reports had the then 91-year-old Byrd being removed for medical issues as well. Immediately after, his Wikipedia page was edited to say that he had died on January 20, 2009 after collapsing at the Obama lunch; none of which was true. Wiki's editors caught the mistake in four minutes and changed it back.
2. So is Rick Ross
Compromised Page: Rick Ross
Year: 2011
On October 14, 2011 Rick Ross suffered two seizures. One occurred in the morning that left him unconscious. The other occurred later in the day while flying. The plane was grounded and Ross was admitted to the emergency room at the University of Alabama Birmingham. Before it was confirmed that Ross was in stable condition, his Wikipedia page was edited to say that the MMG Boss had passed away.
1. Ted Kennedy Reported Dead After Seizure
Compromised Page: Former Senator Edward Moore Kennedy
Year: 2009
On what was supposed to be a celebratory day, former Senator Ted Kennedy suffered a serious seizure at the post-inauguration lunch for President Barack Obama. If that wasn't bad enough, early the next morning, the Wikipedia page of the legendary senator was edited to say that he was "removed in a wheelchair, and died shortly there after." To top it off the page was edited by someone with the user name "Gfdjklsdgiojksdkf." Luckily, other top Wikipedia editors caught the error within minutes of its posting and changed it.