Wasn't expecting to see this here. I created this article about 10 years ago, when I was a lot more active on Wikipedia. Every time I remember this article I keep expecting it to get deleted sooner or later, but somehow it's made it this long. Mostly a matter of finding and adding enough references that mention the phrase I guess. (Some of the recent additions don't…)
One thing I'll point out is that the effect as originally described is about things that always existed in their place of origin, but became more popular / accepted (improved in reputation) after gaining a warm reception/prestige elsewhere. (The examples here of things popularly associated with X culture despite not originating in place X are interesting too, though!)
Edit: Sorry for a tangential aside, but I just looked into the history of this article, and IMO it's representative of many Wikipedia articles (and not how either the general public or Wikipedia regulars think articles get written):
The article has 102 revisions, and all of them have contributed to its present form… who would we say “wrote” it? See the late Aaron Swartz's “Who Writes Wikipedia?” at http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whowriteswikipedia
Swartz's article mentioned at the end is interesting, and contradicts Wales' study, who measured by number of edits per contributor instead of number of contributed words per contributor.
"When you put it all together, the story become clear: an outsider makes one edit to add a chunk of information, then insiders make several edits tweaking and reformatting it. In addition, insiders rack up thousands of edits doing things like changing the name of a category across the entire site — the kind of thing only insiders deeply care about. As a result, insiders account for the vast majority of the edits. But it’s the outsiders who provide nearly all of the content."
Oh, hi. I recently learned this about a few months ago. I contributed the Mexico City Day of the Dead parade as an example. I think that applies.
When I was a chilango kid in the 1980s, Day of the Dead was seen as a rather mediocre and secondary holiday to Halloween. Day of the Dead was much more Catholic and sombre and more similar to All Saints' Day in Europe (several European countries have a similar tradition to decorate graves on All Saints' Day). Now that foreigners think Day of the Dead is cool, we do too!
Isn't Wikipedia's Pizza Effect article therefore an example of the Pizza Effect?
You state surprise that it has existed so long, then go on to explain why it might have done, which seems to meet all the conditions you describe.
Namely it always existed in its place of origin (Wikipedia), but has improved in reputation through interest and prestige elsewhere, and is now better as a result (through people on Wikipedia improving the article)?
Cool to see the original author. I did notice a few of the examples didn't really have the pizza effect, as you said it's about the reputation changing after returning. Pizza and the Apu trilogy seem like the purest examples.
One thing I'll point out is that the effect as originally described is about things that always existed in their place of origin, but became more popular / accepted (improved in reputation) after gaining a warm reception/prestige elsewhere. (The examples here of things popularly associated with X culture despite not originating in place X are interesting too, though!)
Edit: Sorry for a tangential aside, but I just looked into the history of this article, and IMO it's representative of many Wikipedia articles (and not how either the general public or Wikipedia regulars think articles get written):
• Here are the first 3 years, where basically things were cleaned up and a couple of examples added, but the article was still substantially in its original (poor) form: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pizza_effect&type...
• Then a single edit by another user substantially “refactored” it and cleaned it up: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=585383004&oldid=58...
• Another 6 years where nothing much changes fundamentally, except for a few additional examples: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=943600315&oldid=58...
The article has 102 revisions, and all of them have contributed to its present form… who would we say “wrote” it? See the late Aaron Swartz's “Who Writes Wikipedia?” at http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whowriteswikipedia