13 Weirder Wikipedia Lists To Waste Your Time On

    More of the best, strangest articles in the Wiki world, from "animals with fradulent diplomas" through "films considered the worst."

    Rory Kulz
    by Rory Kulz

    Community Contributor

    1. List of animals with fradulent diplomas

    flickr.com

    Favorite quote:

    "Chas John Licciardello... [obtained] a medical degree for his dog Sonny from the diploma mill Ashwood University. Sonny's 'work experience' included 'significant proctology experience sniffing other dogs' bums.'" (They always say you should love your work, I guess.)

    [Link to article]

    (H/T alexophile via Tumblr)

    2. List of unexplained sounds

    upload.wikimedia.org

    Favorite quote:

    "Bloop" (That's the best name you could come up with? Also, check out the linked article about the mysterious radio station UVB-76: "Its origins have been traced to Russia, but although several theories with varying degrees of plausibility exist, its actual purpose remains unknown to the public.")

    [Link to article]

    (H/T snailbean via BuzzFeed)

    3. List of unusual deaths

    upload.wikimedia.org

    Favorite quote:

    "1410: Martin of Aragon died from a combination of indigestion and uncontrollable laughing." (The joke that killed him was this: "[I was] out of the next vineyard, where I saw a young deer hanging by his tail from a tree, as if someone had so punished him for stealing figs[!]" #ClassicComedy)

    [Link to article]

    4. List of inedible fruits

    upload.wikimedia.org

    Favorite quote:

    "Suicide tree fruit" (Okay, this one seems pretty obvious.)

    [Link to article]

    (H/T snailbean via BuzzFeed)

    5. List of political catch phrases

    upload.wikimedia.org

    Favorite quote:

    "'Am I a loser?'" (You could have at least gone for, "I'm not a loser.")

    [Link to article]

    6. List of English words with Q not followed by U

    upload.wikimedia.org

    Favorite quote:

    "qhythsontyd: An obsolete spelling of Whitsuntide" (Which in turn is an obsolete spelling of Capri Sun.)

    [Link to article]

    7. List of trees

    upload.wikimedia.org

    Favorite quote:

    "Boab Prison Tree, Wyndham... Also used as a prison." ("Also" means there is more than one tree that has been used as a prison.)

    [Link to article]

    8. List of unusual units of measurement

    upload.wikimedia.org

    Favorite quote:

    "Schmidt has refined his Schmidt Sting Pain Index (scaled from 1 to 4) with extensive anecdotal experience, culminating in a paper published in 1990 which classifies the stings of 78 species and 41 genera of Hymenoptera." (The scale goes from "no pain" to "that scene in The Wicker Man where Nicholas Cage is covered in bees".)

    [Link to article]

    9. List of organisms named after famous people

    eneaportal.unile.it

    Favorite quote:

    "Phialella zappai -- Named as a plan to meet [Frank] Zappa." (And it actually worked! Zappa dedicated his last concert to discoverer Boero.)

    [Link to article]

    10. List of pigs

    gov.im

    Favorite quote:

    "The Tamworth Two, named Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Pig, were two Tamworth Ginger pigs who escaped while being unloaded from a lorry at an abattoir in the English town of Malmesbury, Wiltshire in January 1998. The pigs were on the run for over a week, and the search for them caused a huge media sensation, as well as immense public interest, both in Britain and abroad." (I promise the ending of their story will actually break your heart.)

    [Link to article]

    11. List of films considered the worst

    cinemaenthusiast.com

    Favorite quote:

    "…other legendary bad films...await a film of this magnitude because it gets awfully lonely on the island of misfit movies." (Meanwhile, the maker of Alone in the Dark will be alone somewhere in the dark.)

    [Link to article]

    12. List of frivolous political parties

    andrewwk.com

    Favorite quote:

    "Party! Party! Party!" (They have my vote.)

    [Link to article]

    13. List of lists of lists

    upload.wikimedia.org

    Favorite quote:

    "This is a list of articles that are lists of list articles on the English Wikipedia. In other words, each of the articles linked here is an index to multiple lists on a topic. Some of the linked articles are themselves lists of lists of lists." (And this is the last in another list featuring a picture of List, Germany. My head just exploded.)

    [Link to article]