This is an explanatory essay about the Manual of Style guideline on trivia sections. This page provides additional information about concepts in the page(s) it supplements. This page is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. |
Trivia is broadly defined as information that is not important. However, since Wikipedia consists of articles, we can be more specific—trivia is information that is not important to the subject it is being presented in relation to.
Note that certain kinds of information can be more or less important, depending on the context. For instance, in the South Park episode "Pinkeye", the space station Mir (which really existed) lands on Kenny McCormick (a fictional character), killing him. The overall importance of this piece of information depends on the situation. It may be considered for inclusion in the article on Kenny McCormick as another cause of Kenny's death, or in the article on the episode "Pinkeye" (while Kenny's cause of death is not critical, it is an element of the plot). However, as it did not happen in real life, it is too trivial to include in the article on Mir.