Encyclopædia Dramatica

Encyclopædia Dramatica, is a central reference for the public to view organized reference pages about drama, memes, e-pals and other amusing happenings on the Internet. Originally, most of the articles were a parody of netspeak and things happening on LiveJournal; the site has since grown to several thousand articles of general satire and humor.

For example, the article on woman uses a satirical etymology to parody online encyclopedia efforts at having a neutral point of view. The Terri Schiavo entry from Encyclopædia Dramatica states that she died as a result of dehydration because Jesse Jackson preferred to take advantage of the media attention rather than providing a Slurpee from his limousine.

Other common themes include:

• "Internet Law" with a crash course on libel, slander and copyright as applied to web forums;
• Articles about the world's countries that identify the number of 7–11 stores (and thus, Slurpee availability) as an important marker of world status;
• Mocking the self-important;
• Presenting an article as encyclopedic, yet breaking its established tone by reverting to a satirical commentary or criticism.

Encyclopædia Dramatica was launched in December of 2004 as a reaction to Internet memes and web phenomena being excluded from Wikipedia. However, it was not advertised at all on Wikipedia itself, and grew into a place for small satirical essays on assorted topics. By May of 2005, Encyclopædia Dramatica had surpassed a million page views.

The site uses MediaWiki software to mimic Wikipedia conventions, such as this disclaimer template:

According to the founders of Encyclopædia Dramatica, the mission of Encyclopædia Dramatica is to provide the ultimate compendium of Internet parody and humor. However, it frequently deviates from this goal, producing somewhat humorous articles on a wide range of topics, most of which are not necessarily classifiable as satire. Humor of all categories enters the wiki, prompting an equally freeflowing response, such as the vandalistic classification of sexual fetishes as relating to "Unhealed Childhood Trauma".

Because of the open nature of Encyclopædia Dramatica, which began as a collection of personal attacks, Encyclopædia Dramatica itself suffers from vandalistic attacks similar to those of other wikis. For example, occasionally people blank entire pages, make legal threats or add messages that insult other users. The creation of humor is not entirely material to random acts of text insertion. Indeed, the effort required to write one article on the Encyclopædia Dramatica of good quality may even exceed the effort required to produce a factual article on Wikipedia. Good humor may be more difficult than good information, as there is a correct or publically accepted form of a fact, but not necessarily a universal joke.

External links

• Encyclopædia Dramatica
• Encyclopædia Dramatica's article about Wikipedia "All Wikipedia content could easily be found through Google and other mundane forms of reference material, with the exception of their A++ Lame Edit Wars, which contain a level of pathetic dedication to the insignificant only possible on the Internets."