What Is Congress Doing? Editing Star Wars Wikipedia Pages About 'Porgs'

The popular Twitter account congress-edits has taken notice of an anonymous congressional change made to Wikipedia’s list of Star Wars species.

The Congress-Edits Twitter account, a bot that tweets anonymous Wikipedia edits from IP addresses originating out of a U.S. Congress office, discovered that someone on Capitol Hill saw fit to change the “List of Star Wars species (P-T)” page just after 5 p.m. EDT on Tuesday. The list of Star Wars species contains the names of “fictional sentient species” from the franchise.

The definition for “Porgs” was altered from describing “a penguin or puffin-like species from the planet [[Ahch-To]], introduced in trailers for ‘The Last Jedi,” into the now-updated version reading, “'Porgs' are dope a penguin or puffin-like species from the planet [[Ahch-To]], introduced in trailers for ‘The Last Jedi.’”

Bizarre Wikipedia edits made by congressional IP addresses have been flagged by the popular account since its creation in July 2014. “Boho chic,” mountain goats and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Wikipedia articles have all fallen victim to changes over the years from the U.S. Senate or U.S. House of Representatives computers.

Responses to this most recent “porg” Star Wars edit have -- to no surprise – featured gifs and photos of the creature. The edit comes the same week that several publications featured stories with headlines such as “Star Wars The Last Jedi: Porgs Explained.”

“Are they The Last Jedi‘s MVPs? Or the new Ewoks? In other words, are they destined to be adored by the masses, or derided as a cutesy invention that exists purely to sell merchandise?” mused Screen Rant on Monday.

A video mash-up created by a Star Wars fan was posted to several websites this week that recreated the movie’s theme song using sounds made by a Porg.

Among Tuesday’s other Wikipedia edits from Congress are pages about The All-American Rejects, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and the town of Mountain Brook, Alabama.