Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Describe The Most Unusual Wikipedia Article They've Ever Come Across

People Describe The Most Unusual Wikipedia Article They've Ever Come Across
Brooke Cagle/Unsplash

Wikipedia is a vast wealth of knowledge, where people go to fact check and learn about history, science, and so much more. It's also where anyone and everyone who has an account can join in sharing knowledge... or things that are completely untrue and ridiculous.

In a post on Ask Reddit, sifsand said:

What was the most unusual Wikipedia article you found?

There's a wide array of Wikipedia articles from all over the world that share information on topics we never knew we wanted until now.

Here's a few of the most unusual articles people could find.


Holiday is Sweden

"Gävle goat. It's this giant wicker holiday goat in Sweden that has a weird tradition of being destroyed by vandals every winter. It's so bad that the people that construct it even have backup goats for when the original eventually meets a fiery death. There's a list of all the goat's 'deaths.' Some deaths are like spy thrillers."

- twitchy_taco

"Is that the f*cking thing that got security around it and someone shot it with an incendiary arrow and set it fire that way since they couldn't get close?"

- tdub2217

"Burnt by unknown vandals reportedly dressed as Santa and the gingerbread man, by shooting a flaming arrow at the goat."

godzillastailor

Cats out of the bag

"Acoustic Kitty was a CIA project launched by the Central Intelligence Agency Directorate of Science & Technology, which in the 1960s intended to use cats to spy on the Kremlin and Soviet embassies. In an hour-long procedure a veterinary surgeon implanted a microphone in the cat's ear canal, a small radio transmitter at the base of its skull and a thin wire into its fur..."

"The first Acoustic Kitty mission was to eavesdrop on two men in a park outside the Soviet compound on Wisconsin Avenue in Washington, D.C. The cat was released nearby, but was hit and allegedly killed by a taxi almost immediately."

- reasonb4belief

Complete and utter lies

"I'm unsure if this is technically classified as an article itself, but this Wikipedia page on notable Wikipedia hoaxes is one of my personal favorites. Some people have gone to so much effort to try and create fake articles and some of them have survived on the site for over a decade before being found out."

- dougieburrows

"Love it."

"On a fictional British TV show from the 70s:"

"In a Christmas show, Dale dressed as Adolf Hitler shouted the first lines to ever appear in the show, with the words "Achtung Juden!", which caused outrage and shock in what was still a liberal television age;"

- haddock420

Personal recounts of a monumental explosion

"A meteor blew up over Siberia in the early 20th century. The personal accounts of it happening are insane."

- beast_wellington

"'I lost my senses for a moment' was a personal favourite."

- LosingAllYourDimples

A list of sexually active Popes

"List of sexually active Popes"

- PaperAleks

"The pope's son would typically be raised by one of his siblings as his nephew', and when he came of age, would get a cushy position in the Church. The Latin word for nephew is nepos, which is where we get the word 'nepotism'."

- Murgatroyd314

Jewish people in the porn industry

"jews in the porn industry in the US."

"I only found it in my native language but apperantly it is a thing, we jews are overrepresented there like in hollywood and the banks (because we were historically forbidden from having normal agriculture works) and it causes a lot of conspiracy theorists to claim jews have a secret plan to use porn to make the world stop having children."

- Rhodesilla

The most unusual deaths

"List of unusual deaths"

- Silverback62

"Draco, an Athenian lawmaker, was reportedly smothered to death by gifts of cloaks and hats showered upon him by appreciative citizens at a theatre on Aegina."

"Well sh!t"

- sifsand

"I thought everyone in ancient Athens wore togas, what type of cloaks and hats are we even talking about here? Are they special 'congratulating important politician' clothes that they only carried around for ceremonial purposes?"

- throwaway_lmkg

​The most bizarre soccer match

"That time when two soccer teams realized that it would be advantageous to score an own goal. Both teams wind up trying to defend each other's goals. Chaos ensues."

"It came about from bizarre tournament rules that gave teams a two-goal margin of victory should they win in sudden death overtime."

- ThisIsPaulina

"It wasn't that both teams needed to score an own goal (that would've been funny, but not that bad as they basically just flip the field). Instead, at different points in the game it was advantageous for both teams (one after the other) to score an own goal. The first own goal was just to tie the game. In the second, the other team needed to either score a goal or an own goal. Either option would give them the result they needed (a win or a loss by exactly 1 point), so for a few minutes at the end of regular time the opposing team was defending both goals at the same time."

- danfay222

More impressive than weird

"The Austrian Dieter Macek made a family tree of the whole Greek mythology. It includes 5771 gods and heroes. The genealogy is 73m/240ft long and he spent 33 years of private efforts on it."

"the Wikipedia article (only available in German)"

"a panorama shot of the poster"

"the whole family tree digitally"

- ZieII

Giving 'interior decorating' a new meaning

"Skulls and bones that constitute the interior decorations of a Czech ossuary"

"The ossuary is estimated to contain the skeletons of between 40,000 and 70,000 people, whose bones have, in many cases, been artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel."

"Here's an article"

- Back2Bach

These articles are all over the map, but what a lesson learned. That's the beauty of the internet.

"Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here."

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Adam Sandler; Cameron Boyce
Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic/Getty Images; Kevin Mazur/WireImage/Getty Images

Adam Sandler Pays Subtle Tribute To Late Costar With 'Happy Gilmore 2' Easter Egg

When Happy Gilmore 2 premiered on Netflix last week, nods to the original film were not the only thing that left fans feeling emotional in the long-awaited sequel starring Adam Sandler.

Several cast members have passed since Happy Gilmore. Frances Bay, who played Adam Sandler's grandmother in the original film, died in 2011. Carl Weathers, who played Chubbs the pro golfer, died in 2024. Even Morris the Alligator, who hilariously ate several tournament golf balls and Chubbs' right hand, is no longer with us.

Keep ReadingShow less
James Gunn: Trisha Paytas and, Aquaman Moses Paytas-Hacmon
Maarten De Boer/Getty Images; @trishapaytas/Instagram

James Gunn reacts to Aquaman baby

DC Studios co-head James Gunn had a candid and humorous reaction to YouTuber Trisha Paytas naming her newborn son “Aquaman.”

Paytas welcomed her third child, Aquaman Moses Paytas-Hacmon, on July 12. The baby joins her daughters, 1-year-old Elvis Paytas-Hacmon and 2-year-old Malibu Barbie Paytas-Hacmon. Needless to say, Paytas has a taste for bold, pop culture-inspired baby names.

Keep ReadingShow less
Lauren Boebert; Tyler Boebert
Alex Wong/Getty Images; Rifle Police Department/Facebook

Boebert Slammed After Brushing Off Son's Child Abuse Charge Against Her Grandson

Far-right Republican Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert is under fire after dismissing her son's criminal child abuse charge.

Boebert's 20-year-old son Tyler was cited for misdemeanor child abuse of his son in Windsor, Colorado, this week following a charge of criminal negligence where no death or injury occurred.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump; Beyoncé Knowles Carter; Kamala Harris
Brendan Smialowski//AFP via Getty Images; Edward Berthelot/Getty Images; Paras Griffin/Getty Images for BET

Trump Demands Beyoncé Be Prosecuted For Debunked Accusation She Was Paid Millions To Endorse Harris

Desperate times call for desperate measures, so MAGA Republican President Donald Trump is now recycling some prior false claims to try to distract his supporters away from the debacle of his Epstein files cover-up that has taken over his presidency.

While in Scotland over the weekend, Trump regurgitated an already debunked claim about Beyoncé and called for her and other Black celebrities to be prosecuted for something that never happened and that wouldn’t be illegal even if it had.

Keep ReadingShow less
closed indefinitely sign on a chain link fence
Rob Martin on Unsplash

People Explain Which Things Were Ruined For Everyone By A Few Idiots

Did you know that you used to be able to walk unguided on the interior stairs to or from the top of the Washington Monument in Washington D.C.? My Mother did it twice in the early and mid 1960s.

The 896 steps of the Washington Monument's interior stairs were always intended to be seen, with commemorative stones—193 in total—on the walls along the route. States, cities, foreign nations, businesses, labor unions, and civic organizations provided stones as part of fundraising efforts to complete the monument or for later renovations.

Keep ReadingShow less