Mark Burroughs: Superstar

A while ago a group of us attented a taping of Adam Carolla's talk show, "Too Late". Before the show, Mark was singled out to read off Adam's phone number on the show, due to the fact that "he looked interesting". Upon prodding, the producer of the show admitted that Mark seemed "more weird than interesting", due mainly to his, "Canada t-shirt and Lincoln Beard".

Mark read the phone number well enough, and for my OC friends and I, it was a significant mile-stone...we were now nationally famous. Wanting to immortalize the moment, Matt Sauter wrote a hilarious Wikipedia article on the subject. Over time it has evolved into a lengthy if somewhat untrue biography of the enigma of MIT:

Mark Burroughs featured prominently on episode 1F09 of "Too Late with Adam Corolla" starring as himself in the segment 1-866-HEY-ADAM. With verve and tenacity he delivered his line to a rousing ovation from the audience. Clearly moved Adam responded, "I haven't heard enthusiasm like that since the last time I had sex." His acting career then stalled for approximately 6 hours, but work is on the way his manager reports.

In July 2005 Mark was engaged to long-time girlfriend Erin Sale. The two are raising a one-year old baby boy with another on the way. "I couldn't be happier," Mark was recently quoted as saying to InTouch magazine.

Update: On September 11, 2005, Mark and Erin filed proceedings for divorce, citing "financial dificulties", possibly caused by Mark's lengthy unemployment. Though Mark fought hard in the court battle that followed, his inability to afford lawyers cost him, and Mrs. Sale was awarded full custody of both children, without visitation rights for a dejected Mr. Burroughs.

Mark now lives alone in a studio apartment in Culver City, "The heart of the screenland". A recent business venture ended in disaster, when the market for "leaf-blowing services" in southern California proved virutally non-existant.

For many months the entry stood proudly. But now, it seems, a controversy has erupted. I checked Mark's wiki today and this is what I saw:

This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedia's deletion policy.
Please share your thoughts on the matter at this article's entry on the Articles for Deletion page.

Here's the debate that has taken place:

I'm gonna vote to keep this one, as Mark appeared "prominently" on a nationally broadcast television show.

Was tagged for speedy deletion by Nifboy as nn-bio, but IMO does not qualify as the person appeared on a TV episode as himself. However, outside of that he has notability whatsoever. howcheng {chat} 07:53, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

• Delete but not speedy Segv11 ^{(talk/contribs)} 10:06, 12 January 2006 (UTC)
• Delete not notable, fails WP:BIO. Kcordina 10:20, 12 January 2006 (UTC)
• Delete completely non notable. --Oscarthecat 10:26, 12 January 2006 (UTC)
• Delete. Nifboy 18:32, 12 January 2006 (UTC)
• Delete as non-notable vanity biography. Recommend the article author see WikiMe for writing biographies and/or WikiTree for writing genealogies. —Quarl ^(talk)

Btw, that first one was me. Although I find it hilarious that so many people consider Mark "completely non notable" I think that we need to fight for his rights on this one. Act now, before it is too late. Save Mark Burroughs! Go to

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Mark_Burroughs

and speak your mind.


UPDATE:

On January 16, at 2:54 am, I took matters into my own hands, and simply deleted the html code that had been tagged onto Mark's page. So far noone has noticed. These wiki guys are very easy to trick.