I'm sure most of you have heard of this, seeing as how you're on the Internet right now, but Stephen Colbert finally came up with a concept that is more fun than "truthiness." Why? Audience participation.
After that, Wikipedia locked dozens of entries on elephants, Oregon, Colbert Report, and various other pages, and also blocked the user name StephenColbert.
Last night, Colbert vaguely suggested that the "latchkey kids" entry should be changed too. Today? It's locked.
So far, by Wikipedia's own count, the number of pages that have been blocked because of erroneous information submitted by Colbert fans is growing. Or, as they put it in their (rather shallow) page on "wikiality"
As the result, many people try to mimic Colbert's on-screen personality and vandalize Wikipedia, with the result that certain articles, including "Elephant", "Oregon", "George Washington", "Latchkey kid", "Serial killer", "The Colbert Report" and "Stephen Colbert" are/were temporarily locked out.
Wikipedia's founder told MTV news that he would gladly unlock the entries if Colbert apologizes on air, which is ridiculous. Colbert should just keep mentioning various random topics to see how how many entries he can force Wikipedia to lock, but also so Wikipedia's founder has to keep saying things like:
We banned the user because of his or her behavior, because they were messing around with some articles and encouraging other people to mess with several articles about elephants.
He makes it sound so serious.
Incidentally, one entry that is still unlocked is The Daily Show, because even if Jon Stewart did suggest that people erroneously add information to it, no one would be able to hear him over the continuous thunderous applause of his studio audience.