Colbert, Wikipedia, elephants' penises and the Uncyclopedia

A new trivia item for the log of web history.

On 1 August, Stephen Colbert did a shtick on Wikipedia in his Word of the Day segment. By calling on his viewers to go to Wikipedia and insert an entry there, saying that the elephant population has tripled in the last six months ("take that, Al Gore"), he created havoc on the Wikipedia's Elephant page, which was promptly put under protection, provoking a torrential discussion among editors. Things did not get better / only got better when in a follow-up broadcast, a (fake) angry viewer called in to Colbert's show to share his own factoid about the size of the erect elephant's penis. All and any resulting incursions were warded off by the Wikipedia editors, but happily found a home in the hilarious Uncyclopedia Elephant page.