Talk:Ethiopia
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This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Ethiopia article.
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| This article was nominated for deletion on August 8, 2005.
The result of the discussion was Keep.
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For those of you interested in adding to this article, here are some pointers you might find helpful.
- The facts about Ethiopian clocks and the Ethiopian calendar (including names of months) in the Time-Keeping section are actually true.
- Gonder (alternatively Gondar) is a real city that was the old imperial capital.
- The Rasta (or Rastafarians) really do worship the late Haile Selassie as god incarnate.
- There are a group of Jews in Ethiopia called the Beta Israel. Most have emigrated to Israel.
- The Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Axum, Ethiopia is said to house the Ark of the Covenant (yes, that one in the Indiana Jones movie).
Some images that you may find useful are thumbnailed to the right.
To the anonymous contributor at the IP 69.140.62.191: your contributions were wonderful and witty.
Now for a more serious question. Is the use of the “factual” template necessary here? Yes, there are alarmingly large parts of the article which are true (and even the ones not true are carefully researched). But does the casual reader need to know this? That the Emperor of Ethiopia was worshipped as God Incarnate in Jamaica is a hilarious. Does the fact that this is indeed true make it more hilarious or less hilarious?
--KP CUN 05:46, 14 Aug 2005 (UTC)
- Therein lies the problem. Rastas worshipping Halie Selassie trou de powah of Ganja!!! is certainly something of note, but one of Uncyclopedia's goals is TOTAL NONSENSE. Anything defined as "coherent" has its fair share of absurdist themes, and not just one. Look at the Japan or Taiwan article for some coherent gold. --OneTopJob6 08:23, 20 Aug 2005 (UTC)
- One more thing. Try to obfuscate many other things. Like - does Ethiopia HAVE to be located at the Horn of Africa? Who hails from there: E.L. Doctorow? And what about poor Oscar Wilde? And put that angel guy in the article, but introduce him as someone. Say, the average Ethiopian. --OneTopJob6 08:23, 20 Aug 2005 (UTC)
- Hey Be Italic if you can think of a way to improve it, do so! --Sir Elvis KUN | Petition 08:58, 20 Aug 2005 (UTC)
- Check my IP. I HAVE. --OneTopJob6 00:13, 21 Aug 2005 (UTC)
- Actually, describing the angel as a typical Ethiopian fits totally with the style of article. I uploaded those pictures and included them in the talk page so someone like you could do something exactly like that. Interesting that you mention the Taiwan article. It’s actually mostly pretty factual. (Japan is more “nonsensical.”) I don’t think the goal of Uncyclopedia is total nonsense. Total nonsense is harmless. The goal should be to create information that is dangerous and that could lead to possible injury or death. The way this article is structured, a slightly mentally deficient child or teenager doing research on the Internet might mistake this article for real content and use this for a school assignment; in doing so, that child or teenager will receive a failing grade and be scarred for life and emotionally devastated. Isn’t that what we all truly want? --KP CUN 09:32, 20 Aug 2005 (UTC)
- Okay, let's take a look at the months. Many of them could use funnier names. --OneTopJob6 00:13, 21 Aug 2005 (UTC)
- One more thing. Looking at Japan and Taiwan, both of those articles actually seem to have more fact than Ethiopia. (For gawd sake, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth city of Gondor is described as being in Ethiopia and Ethiopians are described as being able to bend space-time!) I think that it is a matter of tone. The “nonsense” is presented in the same tone as the “fact” for Ethiopia. Replacing the fact with random non sequitur doesn’t really add anything. Most of the Ethiopia article is completely wrong (and in fact insane). The factual material disguises the wrongness and insanity of the article pretty well, giving the article a higher probability of emotionally scarring and truly misinforming another person. --KP CUN 09:51, 20 Aug 2005 (UTC)
- Hey Be Italic if you can think of a way to improve it, do so! --Sir Elvis KUN | Petition 08:58, 20 Aug 2005 (UTC)
Hey, got any Amharic speakers here? I think this article could use several in-jokes like the Japan one. --OneTopJob6 02:28, 21 Aug 2005 (UTC)
- Really nice edits, OneTopJob. Very thoughtful and very insane. I like what you have done. This article is really developing nicely. --KP CUN 02:33, 21 Aug 2005 (UTC)
Country Template[edit]
Does this article need one?
Perhaps. A lot of what would be included in a template is already incorporated into the article. I am not template expert, so I would leave the work to someone else. But including a template would further the illusion that this was a real authoritative Wikipedia article. --Sir KP GUN 05:32, 3 Dec 2005 (UTC)
Where the truth is insane, I think it should be put in. I do not have the power to invent that some Jamaicans think the Emperor Haile Selassie was God and worship him by growing out their 'fros and smoking dope. I just don't. Switching between truth and fantasy and making it hard to tell them apart is what makes a really great article, for me.
I like the history of the Gonedorian era, TOTALY wrong, like something someone would make up in an exam if he had NFI. I LOL'ed a lot.
Awesome Video Links[edit]
OneTopJob—
Those are fabulous links! --Sir KP GUN 06:07, 18 Dec 2005 (UTC)
Amharic speaker right here. Great article. Way to represent the motherland. -Mered
Ge'ez[edit]
The "ancient" document" isn't ancient. It is written in Amharic. If it were ancient it would be in Ge'ez, which lacks several of the letters of the Amharic alphabet. If you want my translation of the Ge'ez document that describes you the route of the Ark of the Covenant you can get it free off scribd "Queen of Sheba and Biblical Scholarship." Dr Bernard Leeman (usually of Adi Kaweh Wukro, Ethiopia translating Sabaean/Sheban inscriptions)
October 2014 edits[edit]
Why was most of the military history section deleted, the one with the capital letters and the hey-dude haranguing tone? Now it's gone, nothing much left but my little true-story bit about the expedition of 1867. I suppose someone has to make final edit decisions, but that section had its points ."EIGHT MONTHS? To conquer ETHIOPIA? Seriously Italy...come on man..." 68.108.171.141 14:53, October 8, 2014 (UTC)
- I did that edit. This is a humor wiki. It is for your original comedy writing, not a catalog of funny stuff occurring elsewhere, or especially truth that a given author thinks is "insane" or worth calling out — That is often advocacy. Your contribution read as though you were making serious points, and this is not the website on which to do it. Material in all capital letters is not inherently funny and breaks our superficial resemblance to an encyclopedia. As much as it might amuse you to type exasperated exclamations, it breaks the "framing joke" that Uncyclopedia is supposedly an encyclopedia (not a comic book). Spıke Ѧ 15:26 8-Oct-14
Ok, except that was not my contribution, I just liked it. I see about the 'framing', but truth and fiction are blended in many articles here, so I don't think you are correct about that.68.108.171.141 15:57, October 8, 2014 (UTC)
- I made clear in my Change Summary that I didn't merely revert you but edited generally. It may be that what you added was in character with what was already there, but "two wrongs don't make a right." The problem is not indeed "blending truth and fiction," which much good comedy does; the problem, again, is seeming to make serious points. Spıke Ѧ 16:32 8-Oct-14
- Rastafari-whatever is no wackier than the other religions floating around; it's actually pretty tame compared with some of the stuff out there. If their beliefs are your idea of insane truth, I wouldn't trust you with making decisions about comedy writing. ❦ Llwy-ar-lawr • talk • contribs • 16:27 8 October 2014