Is It Is It Wiki’d
Is It Is It Wiki'd is a meta-game in which performers attempt to determine whether an audience suggestion is real or invented by checking its plausibility against their collective knowledge and confident speculation. The game blurs the line between genuine expertise and authoritative invention. It rewards the ability to sound convincing regardless of actual knowledge and to construct a plausible-sounding consensus position from whatever material the ensemble can collectively generate.
Structure
Setup
An audience member suggests a topic, subject, or entity -- potentially real or potentially invented. The cast's task is to collectively determine, through discussion and confident assertion, whether this thing is real.
The Investigation
Performers confer, question each other, and pool their collective knowledge and plausible speculation. Assertions are made with the confidence of Wikipedia editors: "Actually, I believe this refers to..." or "The thing about that is..." or "No, no -- the original was..."
Performers who do not know the answer invent an answer that sounds plausible given what others have already established. The ensemble builds a consensus position from a mixture of genuine knowledge and confident fabrication.
The Verdict
The cast delivers a collective verdict on whether the suggestion is real and what it is or was. The audience may reveal whether the suggestion was real or invented, completing the game.
Ending
The game ends with the verdict and the reveal. The comedy lives in the gap between the cast's confident authority and the actual facts.
How to Teach It
Objectives
Is It Is It Wiki'd trains confident assertion under uncertainty, the ability to build a plausible-sounding position from partial information, and the ensemble's skill of listening to each other's fabrications and extending them rather than contradicting them.
How to Explain It
"You're Wikipedia editors. You might know this -- or you might not. What you definitely know is how to sound like you do. Build a consensus. Make us believe you know exactly what you're talking about."
Scaffolding
Establish the game's meta-premise clearly: the comedy is in the confident performance of knowledge, not in whether the performers actually know the answer. Performers who admit uncertainty immediately break the game's premise.
Common Pitfalls
Performers sometimes undercut each other's fabrications rather than extending them, producing an ensemble that appears to disagree about the facts rather than converge on them. The coaching note is that agreement with a fabricated premise and building from it is always more interesting than contradiction.
How to Perform It
Audience Intro
"Is it real? Is it not? Our performers will investigate."
Cast Size
Ideal: 3 to 5 performers acting as the editorial team.
Staging
Conference-table or huddle staging -- performers gathered as a collective, consulting each other.
Wrap-Up Logic
End with the verdict and the audience reveal. The reveal produces the game's final beat: either the cast was right (generating approval) or confidently wrong (generating laughter).
Worth Reading
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The Improvisation Game
Discovering the Secrets of Spontaneous Performance
Chris Johnston
Semiotics and Pragmatics of Stage Improvisation
Domenico Pietropaolo; Paul Bouissac
Improvisation
Use What You Know, Make Up What You Don't
Brad Newton
Creating Improvised Theatre
Tools, Techniques, and Theories
Mark Jane
Whose Improv Is It Anyway?
Beyond Second City
Amy E. Seham
Truth in Comedy
The Manual of Improvisation
Charna Halpern; Del Close; Kim Howard Johnson
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Believe It or Not
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Expert
Expert is a short-form game in which a performer plays a world-renowned authority on a topic suggested by the audience, fielding questions with total confidence regardless of actual knowledge. The comedy emerges from the contrast between the character's unwavering certainty and the absurdity of the claims. Scene partners or audience members ask questions, and the expert responds with authoritative detail, treating every answer as established fact. The game rewards commitment, verbal fluency, and the willingness to build elaborate fictions without hesitation.
Props
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How to Reference This Page
The Improv Archive. (2026). Is It Is It Wiki’d. Retrieved October 15, 2026, from https://improvarchive.org/games/is-it-is-it-wikid
The Improv Archive. "Is It Is It Wiki’d." The Improv Archive, 2026. https://improvarchive.org/games/is-it-is-it-wikid.
The Improv Archive. "Is It Is It Wiki’d." The Improv Archive, 2026, https://improvarchive.org/games/is-it-is-it-wikid. Accessed October 15, 2026.
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