Indie Spotlight: ‘That Wikipedia List’ Provides A Series Of Curiosities

We receive a ton of tips every day from independent creators, unaffiliated with any major motion picture studios, television networks, new media studios, or other well-funded online video entities. The Indie Spotlight is where we’ll write about and shout out to a select few of them and bring you up to speed on the great (and sometimes not-so-great) attention-grabbing series you probably haven’t heard about until now. Read previous installments here.

As projects like Cool Freaks Wikipedia Club show, the Internet’s most popular free encyclopedia features a seemingly endless supply of interesting articles. The latest channel diving into the Wikipedia rabbit hole is Wendover Productions, which has translated unusual articles into an education web series called That Wikipedia List.

The database referenced in That Wikipedia List‘s title is this one, which catalogs hundreds of strange, unusual, and otherwise curious articles written by the site’s many editors. For each episode, Wendover selects a random article from the list and explores it in detail that goes far beyond what is written on Wikipedia. So far, in three episodes, viewers have learned about left-handed presidents, unclaimed Saharan territories, and, most recently, fake towns placed on maps in order to catch plagiarizing cartographers.

That Wikipedia List is valuable not just for the depth with which it navigates its subject, but also for the clarity it uses in presenting its topics. Each video in the series is oddly spellbinding; fire one up, and you’ll find yourself watching to the end, even if you thought you had no interest in the esoteric material Wendover is highlighting. Plus, once you’re done, you can head down into a Wikipedia rabbit hole of your own — and that activity has the potential to provide plenty of additional amusement.

OTHER UNDER-THE-RADAR SERIES TO CHECK OUT

• Fully Engaged. A couple navigates all of the zany hurdles between their engagement and their marriage.
• Third Wheel. A writer moves in with an engaged couple. Hilarity ensues.
• Living Thru The Lens. This series examines the Millennial obsession with cell phones.

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