Wiki wiki
Wikipedia entries I have found myself reading at 2 am recently:
I also like to look up people I’ve dated on Wikipedia. This is so much better for your psyche than actually googling them.
Surely this happens to everyone. You go to Wikipedia to look up one thing, maybe to settle a bet someone made earlier that night at the bar, and then suddenly it’s two hours later and you’re reading the synopses for all the Saw movies. (Do not ever do this. I called my brother in the middle and said, “Oh my god have you ever read the synopses of the Saw movies? They’re horrible!” and he said, “Why are you doing that?” and I said, “Because I know I can never see them but I thought I should know what they were about, but this is even worse! I can’t stop reading them! And now I have to worry about Saw fans! It upsets me that Saw fans walk among us and I can’t spot them on the street!” and my brother said, “Yeah, you should probably stop reading those.”)
I have never once been even slightly tempted to read an Anne Rice novel, but I sure did read the rundown of every single character in every single one of her books when I could have been sleeping. And I love sleeping. I also like reading Wikipedia entries on movies I feel like I should have seen already but I know I’m not ever going to bother to Netflix. This is like the cyber-version of when my friend Emily would go see some mediocre movie that she didn’t like and I didn’t want to see, but we’d still spend a good twenty minutes with a play-by-play and follow-up questions.
Sometimes I read entries on books and movies I’ve already read or seen, just to see if they missed anything, or if I did. I have zero interest in ever participating in Wikipedia myself by logging in and glavening up, but it’s so fascinating to me that Andrew WK has a longer entry than some former presidents.
I also look up things I’m actually interested in, using Wikipedia like I used the library as a nine year old, which means I spend most of the time looking up folklore, mythology and famous ghosts. But I can’t do that late at night or I get freaked out, so instead I find myself reading about Scotland, or Gwyneth Paltrow.
At one point, there were Wikipedia entries for both Cringe and bershon, and I had nothing to do with either. They’ve both been deleted, but the whole thing is so intriguing. Who made them in the first place? Who decided they weren’t wiki-worthy? Were there hurt feelings and rolled eyes? I want to read a Wikipedia entry about that. I bet it’s sort of like the imdb message board for Alien v. Predator, which has been a constant source of amusement to me for five years running.
Hold on I’m going to go wiki Alien v. Predator.