Wikipedia:Silly Things

This is a humorous essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors and is made to be humorous. This page is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. This essay isn't meant to be taken seriously.

Shortcuts WP:SILLY WP:BJAODN WP:-) WP:)

It is not a great secret that, over the years, Wikipedia has seen many 'colorful' moments of fun. Also, no great secret is that Wikipedia has seen many forms of vandalism ( it's true, :-) could result in :-( ). Because Wikipedia lets people freely edit sources, occasionally, an edit falls into both categories: it is vandalism, needing to be reverted, but it is also creative, and some Wikipedians find it entertaining. For many years, the bits of vandalism and/or fun that struck people's fancy were kept here on a page called "Bad jokes and other deleted nonsense" (BJAODN). In fact, it was one of the oldest pages on Wikipedia, having been created on January 26, 2001.^[1] Here is the original explanation of the page:

We need a page where bad jokes and other deleted nonsense can rest in peace. So, here it is! [I'm half tempted to suggest keeping the jokes inline with the pages, as they must sort of give the encyclopedia some lively colour. But I do know it'd just get carried away and turn into an encyclopedia of silliness, so look forward to frequent updates of this page. ;-)]

— BryceHarrington

However, in 2007, consensus (sort of) shifted against keeping most BJAODN on Wikipedia (see Wikipedia talk:Silly Things), and it came to be viewed by many as encouraging vandalism. Things are no longer added to this group of pages on Wikipedia itself (except on rare occasions), but have been moved to another site, and only a few highlights are maintained below. (Please go to an external wiki to add to BJAODN. Thank you very much.) For all those who thought BJAODN was some sort of alien mating call or Swedish swear word, please read the things above.