Wikipedia Editors When Someone Dies

About

Wikipedia Editors When Someone Dies refers to a series of memes that reference Wikipedia editors updating person entries on Wikipedia almost immediately once that person dies. Spawned by a viral meme in October 2019, the joke has since been used in various iterations after the deaths of famous people, typically by humorously exaggerating the speed at which people update post-mortem wiki information via reaction images and GIFs alongside captions.

Origin

On October 1st, 2019, Redditor The_Cakegamer posted a Nobody: / Jim Halpert Smiling Through Blinds meme that imagined Wikipedia editors waiting on famous people to die so they can update their entry with information about their death. The post (shown below) received over 15,300 upvotes in /r/memes^[1] in three years.

Spread

On November 25th, 2019, Redditor Manageronni posted another meme about Wikipedia editors editing a person's page after their death to the /r/okbuddyretard^[2] subreddit, where it received over 45,700 upvotes in three years (shown below, left). On January 26h, 2020, an unknown Redditor BryNX_714 posted a Fastest Draw in the West meme that gained over 10,200 upvotes in /r/dankmemes^[3] prior to being removed (shown below, right).

More memes based on the joke were posted in /r/okbuddyretard,^[4] /r/dankmemes and other subreddits in the following months. For example, a meme posted by Redditor^[5] BryNX_714 on February 29th, 2020, gained over 22,000 upvotes in three years.

Following its popularization on Reddit, the format has been used to comment on deaths and health scares of famous people, as well as other events that require a person's Wikipedia page to be edited. For example, on April 25th, 2020, Twitter^[6] user @shanmuk_dumpa posted a meme about Kim Jong-un's April 2020 death rumors that received over 1,200 retweets and 8,200 upvotes in two years (shown below, left). On November 7th, Redditor Stormzz-26 posted a meme about Wikipedia editors updating Joe Biden's page after he won the 2020 U.S. Presidential election. The post garnered over 23,300 upvotes in /r/dankmemes^[7] in two years (shown below, right).

The meme received a surge in virality in September 2022 following Queen Elizabeth II's death. For example, on September 8th, Twitter user @koidoodles posted a Bart Hits Homer With a Chair meme that gained over 12,500 retweets and 107,200 likes in four days.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References