What begins as a slightly nervous start quickly transforms into a vibrant, highly engaging lecture on the internet’s most beloved encyclopedia. Annie Rauwerda’s love for Wikipedia is undeniable, and her enthusiasm instantly infects the room as she takes the audience on a whistle-stop tour through the site’s weirdest corners and funniest quirks.
Using a dynamic slide deck, Rauwerda builds jokes frame-by-frame to maximise comedic payoff. We move from seemingly innocent table-of-contents listings to sudden escalations—such as the entry for “Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead” taking a sharp turn into Margaret Thatcher’s death—alongside hilarities like a photo of “Guy Standing sitting” and an official entry clarifying that a penguin was not, in fact, human subject Piper Kerr.
Yet beneath the laugh-out-loud screenshots lies a thoughtful homage to the “Wikipedians”—the anonymous volunteers who keep the site alive. Rauwerda shares stories of the online community with genuine warmth, from 15-year-long debates over whether the viral ‘Longcat’ was genuinely long, to the persistent vandal blocked 500 times for insisting lions live in Montana. She even introduces us to the real-life grandparents whose photo sits on the ‘Humans’ entry, touching on the debate over what single image could possibly represent all of humanity.
While it covers everything from petty vandals to absurd hoaxes, Rauwerda’s show ultimately lands as an ode to human curiosity. Depths of Wikipedia is a hilarious, hopeful, and heartwarming celebration of our collective desire to share knowledge and build community online.
Runs until 30 August 2026 | Image: Contributed
