Talk:Mingering Mike

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. You can locate your hook here. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Jasper Deng (talk) 07:21, 5 April 2026 (UTC)

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• Comment or view
• Article history

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• ... that Mingering Mike wrote more than 4,000 songs for a musical career that existed only in his imagination?

• Source:

• • ALT1: ... that Mingering Mike created hundreds of hand-drawn album covers and fake vinyl records for his fictional soul-music career? Source:
  • ALT2: ... that anonymous artist Mingering Mike once accepted an award from the D.C. City Council while wearing a Spider-Man suit to conceal his identity? Source:
  • ALT3: ... that Mingering Mike spent nearly a decade creating a fictional music career complete with albums, singles, and record labels? Source:
  • Reviewed:
  • Comment: Thank you!

Created by Aesurias (talk). Number of QPQs required: 0. Nominator has fewer than 5 past nominations.

aesurias (ping me in your reply, or I won't see it) (talk) 08:27, 10 March 2026 (UTC).

• I think ALT3 is the snappiest and most succinct, containing the most information in the fewest words while still being genuinely interesting. Source and article creation date both check out. Ten Pound Hammer • ^{(What did I screw up now?)} 20:12, 11 March 2026 (UTC)

Thanks! Could you explain why you prefer ALT3 over the original hook? They're my two equal favourites and I am interested in your reasoning. aesurias (ping me in your reply, or I won't see it) (talk) 00:04, 12 March 2026 (UTC)

@Aesurias: I think the idea of a wholly fictionalized music career is the most interesting facet of this subject, and that ALT3 elaborates slightly on the idea without being overly wordy. However, I would also be fine with the original hook. Ten Pound Hammer • ^{(What did I screw up now?)} 17:25, 12 March 2026 (UTC) ETA: QPQ not needed, copyright not applicable. Every other facet seems to check out here. Ten Pound Hammer • ^{(What did I screw up now?)} 18:04, 12 March 2026 (UTC)

Draft status

The article states:

In 1969, he was drafted to serve in the Vietnam War. After completing basic training the following year, he became a draft dodger.

Draft dodgers were people who avoided being drafted. If he completed basic training, he had been inducted. If he enlisted or was inducted before leaving, he would be a deserter, not a draft dodger. JingleJim (talk) 12:50, 12 April 2026 (UTC)

"Fictional" albums?

reading the article, it is still not clear to me what is meant by calling the albums "fictional" if he actually wrote thousands of songs. arent they just unreleased? more elaboration & specificity about the songs/albums would be good i think. ~2026-22487-25 (talk) 14:35, 12 April 2026 (UTC)

Fictional in the sense that the back-up artists, song titles, recording labels etc. are all non-existent. He did record actual songs, but most of the drawings were completely concocted and did not have any real soundtrack to go with them. aesurias (ping me in your reply, or I won't see it) (talk) 04:28, 13 April 2026 (UTC)