Australian Press Prank On Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales
Michael Arrington
26 comments »
update: The video of this is now available.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales spoke at a education.au conference in Sydney, Australia last week. After his talk he took questions.
As reported by the Brisbane Times, Andrew Hansen raised his hand as a member of the press and was selected to ask a question. What Wales didn’t know is that Hansen is part of the cast of a wildly popular public television show in Australia called The Chaser’s War on Everything, a weekly half hour satire/prank show.
Hansen said “Ah, Jimmy, um, look I just have 10 questions,” and then fired off ten questions in a row, not waiting for answers (It’s normal at events like this for reporters to ask a follow up question at the same time as the initial question to save time). This is a regular prank by the cast of the show, called “Mr. Ten Questions.”
His questions:
- First, how are you enjoying Australia?
-
Second, how do our computers compare to the ones in America?
- Third, why does everyone in IT look so nerdy, yet you look like a daytime soap star?
-
Fourth, Mac or PC - do you really give a shit?
- Fifth, there are 1.7 million articles on Wikipedia; how long did it take you to write them all?
- Sixth, Craig Reucassel’s a bit unhappy with the photo on his page. Could you upload a better one maybe for him?
- Seventh, my dog is getting some scabs under his chin. I don’t know if you can bring him in the number of a local vet?
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Eighth, Jessica Rowe and Peter Overton - will it last?
- Ninth, cracked pepper?
- Tenth, how do you feel about the fact that when I looked you up on Wikipedia this morning I changed your page to say that you were a teenage drug lord from Malaysia?
To his credit Wales attempted to respond to four of the questions. 
I have seen a few clips from that show on youtube. They are hillarious.
Does anyone know how he answered the questions? (Is that footage on YouTube??)
I’d be interested in seeing that segment too.
This was news on Friday http://www.smh.com.au/news/tec.....49504.html It is a bit stale now. You also forgot the mention that it lead to an upsurge in vandalism of Jimmy’s Wikipedia entry - http://en.wikipedia.org/w/inde.....on=history
The Brisbane Times is hardly a quality newspaper.
@Nate You will be able to get the epsiode from http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/tv.....7_ep06.mp4 sometime Thursday morning AEST (UTC +10).
Chaser are tremendously funny. They seem to have no shame and have a decidedly political side to their humor as well.
Here’s a clip of them putting their focus on ‘Americans’
http://www.watchthisvid.com/la.....icans.html
FYI, they make their shows available for download, either directly or via podcast at http://abc.net.au/tv/chaser/war/vodcast/
This interview hasn’t been on the Chasers war on everything yet. It will probably be on next weeks episode that is shown on ABC (Australian) at 9pm on wednesdays. If you don’t live in Australia as ‘DJ’ said: download the podcast.
they also sometimes stream videos under the video section.
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/chase.....efault.htm
I think this will probably be screened here in Australia this wednesday. Once its screened you can also grab the vodcast from their website: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/chaser/war/
Snax, you must have posted your comment just as I did mine cos we wrote the same thing!
Third, why does everyone in IT look so nerdy, yet you look like a daytime soap star?
Heh, heh, so true. Although I did think he looked like Larry Ellison for a minute there.
I will see if I can watch the show this Wednesday, thanks Snax and Anthony.
The cracked pepper bit is a reference to another bit they did parodying waiters who constantly ask if you want cracked pepper. Great show
At the conference the next day in Melbourne, Jimmy made light of the affair. He seems like a good guy. Much better than his press!
http://www.nickhodge.com/blog/.....jimmywales has a transcript of his sessions in Melbourne.
Ha ha ha! Sketch comedy like this is great. I’m actually managing a sketch comedy show myself called FiresideChats. (http://www.firesidechats.tv) It’s extremely funny, and if I had to describe it in one phrase, I’d say it’s totally self-indulgent.
I’m a Stanford student in MS&E, and these guys are all actors at UCLA - they do the acting/production and I’m doing the marketing, etc. I also just learned how to do webdesign, so I built them a very cool webpage. If anyone has web-design feedback, please let me know because I’m just learning.
http://www.firesidechats.tv
If you want to see some sketches similar to the one mentioned here in this post, see this series of sketches where the Fireside Chats guy repeatedly interrupt the class of the meanest teacher on UCLA campus - Prof. Scerri. As you can expect, hilarity ensues.
Kermit the Frog PSA
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_5H-j6cZjjQ
Graceful Entrance
http://youtube.com/watch?v=W940gSfJg4M
Fruit Loop Trail
http://youtube.com/watch?v=dq1yqSAN0pA
Yeah, that sh*t is funny as hell. Thanks, D.
Yeah, this is hilarious stuff. I love good sketch comedy.
Nevermind sketch comedy, reality comedy is the only way to go, after having looked for everything Sacha Baron Cohen has ever done I’ll have to check this out.
- that kinds of comedy is good; If you like it search for Ali G on You Tube.
- I think its a mix of Stupid / real time. its not really a comedian standing up and telling a story “So it was me and this guy in a bar..” More of you getting to look into - him actually messing with people
Chaser is nerdy and very funny guy. 10th one “how do you feel about the fact that when I looked you up on Wikipedia this morning I changed your page to say that you were a teenage drug lord from Malaysia?” ..oh boy he is too good in what he does :)..
I was there, sitting at a table behind Andrew.
Jimmy seemed a bit stumped and wasn’t sure what was going on. But after a slight pause, he began to fire back a few short answers. He wasn’t standing near the lectern, so it was pretty hard to hear his answers.
What an incredible prank.
Here’s what happened:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06XTO3jPuUw