We Finally Figured Out Who Makes wikiHow’s Bizarre Art

Getting to the bottom of one of the internet’s most ridiculously drawn mysteries

Image: wikiHow

Founded in 2005, wikiHow.com appears to be a typical volunteer-authored wiki site that offers step-by-step guides on how to do just about anything, from how to tie your shoes to how to reverse a curse. But there’s a conspicuous difference between wikiHow and your average wiki: the site’s infamous, pallid, anime-adjacent illustrations.

Check out the eerily humanlike cat in “How to Teach Your Cat to Do Tricks,” the swelling airline employee explaining “How to Visit Antarctica on a Budget,” or whatever the hell is going on in “How to Stop Laughing at Inappropriate Times.” The site’s illustrations sometimes look like a file of clip art got shoved into a blender and then was indiscriminately pasted back together. Click the site’s random article button a few times, and you’ll likely find some head-scratching depictions of human interaction. Or, let me just draw your attention to this. Or this. Or THESE.