Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/January 28 to February 3, 2018

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (January 28 to February 3, 2018)

Prepared with commentary by Serendipodous

← Last week's report | Next week's report →

I like pleasure spiked with pain, and music is my aeroplane: Human beings are odd creatures. We are currently living through the safest and most secure era our species has ever experienced, and yet we seem addicted to pain. If we cannot have it ourselves, we seek to feel it vicariously. It's the only explanation I can conceive for this week's list, which is topped by a fake blood sport and riddled with death, depredation, and allegations. Eight people on this list either died horribly and unexpectedly, were accused or accused others of having done unspeakable things, or some combination of the above. Even the Bollywood movie this week sparked riots and death threats. This is particularly striking when you consider that this was also the week of the Grammys, and yet, as per usual on Wikipedia, that show has left a small footprint.

For the week of January 28 to February 3, 2018, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Rank	Article	Views	Notes
1	Royal Rumble (2018)	2,135,143	A 50% jump in numbers from last week's no 1, Virginia Woolf. I suppose you could call this a victory for women's progress, since this was the first ever Royal Rumble to feature women on the bill (including winner Asuka (pictured)). Cool. Now all we need to tackle is that 7% representation on US corporate boards. And the 19% representation in the US Congress. And the 31% among college professors, despite earning 60% of all master's degrees. But you know, baby stomps.
2	Joe Kennedy III	1,286,359	In a politics in which style and name recognition, well, trump actual experience, it seems only fitting that the Democrats would drag out the latest member of their razzle dazzle dynasty to counter the President's State of the Union. Who cares if he's only been in politics since 2012, and only out of school since 2010? He just has to flash those Jack pearlies and all's right with the world. Maybe.
3	Padmaavat	1,119,564	India, ya know I love ya but baby you crazy. This historic epic based on the poem Padmavat and starring Deepika Padukone (pictured) was released last week and is already making some big crore in spite of controversy - Padmaavat has been accused of being right wing, anti Muslim, even of endorsing mass immolation - that led to the movie being banned from a few Indian states, riots, firebombing, death threats to the director and cast, and even threats of mass suicide. Despite these handicaps it has managed to earn over ₹2 billion ($31.2 million) in 11 days.
4	Roger Federer	1,111,867	Spillover from last week's win at the Australian Open.
5	Alauddin Khalji	1,071,016	The male focus of the love story behind the film Padmaavat (#3). Betcha didn't know that Aladdin was an actual name.
6	Mark Salling	1,052,219	The actor best known for playing Puck on Glee committed suicide this week awaiting sentencing for possession of child pornography.
7	Bruno Mars	1,052,219	The funkster won six Grammys from six nominations at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards this week, on top of the four he won two years ago. Maybe time to spread the love around?
8	Deaths in 2018	756,173	Numbers remain stable for the lodestone of this list.
9	Rani Padmini	755,032	The legendary 13th– and 14th- century Indian queen (Rani) who is the main character of Padmaavat (#3).
10	Larry Nassar	732,847	Twenty-five years. Twenty-five years before we caught this physician who molested gymnasts in the guise of medical treatment. Twenty-five years. And remember that we're talking about a sport usually contested by teenagers! No wonder the thing that actually led Nassar to be arrested was the FBI discovering he had an extensive child pornography collection and a video of him molesting underage girls. The sentence of 60 years in prison seems too light in retrospect.
11	Cardi B	689,095	The New York rapper, ex-stripper and Instagram celebrity got two nominations at the Grammys this week.
12	Black Panther (film)	603,318	Marvel can't claim to have the first female superhero (in fact, their roster of female superheroes is so obscure they're pushing back their biggest until 2019) but they did create the first ever black superhero and, after a kickass intro in Captain America: Civil War, King T'Challa of Wakanda's solo debut is due to be released on 16 February. Judging by its anticipation level on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie is poised to break box office records.
13	Groundhog Day	590,484	This idiosyncratic North American not-really-holiday (I once tried to explain it to a Chinese exchange student in college and failed) fell, as it always does, on February 2. Thanks to the movie, most people in the world probably think it involves doing the same thing over and over again, but they're wrong; that's an average workday. For the still-perplexed, let me explain: every year, on the second day of February, people watch a groundhog, which is a large, potbellied marmot, emerge from his burrow. If he sees his shadow, he goes back in; if he doesn't, he comes out. Coming out heralds an early spring; staying in means six more weeks of winter. The custom is strongest in Pennsylvania, where it originated, and particularly Punxsutawney, home of the world's most famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, who speaks his forecast in Groundhogese into the ear of the chairman of the Groundhog Club Inner Circle, who then translates for the audience. No I did not make that up.
14	Rasual Butler	571,776	After a 14-year-career, this accomplished basketball player died along with wife Leah LaBelle in a car accident this week.
15	Douglas Kenney	570,866	A Futile and Stupid Gesture, a biopic of the cofounder of the humour magazine National Lampoon, premiered on Netflix this week, with Will Forte (pictured) in the title role. The film stakes a fairly bold claim about the man's still-unresolved death by suggesting it was suicide rather than accidental.
16	60th Annual Grammy Awards	538,966	Given the current #MeToo tsunami crashing over the American political and cinema scenes, it seems odd that the music industry has managed to brush it off. But it came to a head in a small way this week when Kesha performed her song "Praying", released in the aftermath of her gruelling lawsuit against her producer, whom she accused of sexually assaulting her. This was somewhat undone however, when someone noticed that, of the 86 awards given out, only 17 were to women. The response by the Recording Academy's president, Neil Portnow, which told women to "step up", was seen by many as condescending and out of touch, with some calling on him to resign.
17	Queen Victoria	501,869	PBS is still airing Victoria, the British series about the monarch of the Victorian era, currently portrayed by Jenna Coleman (pictured).
18	Andrew Cunanan	501,723	The assassin of #21, Cunanan is investigated thoroughly in the second season of American Crime Story, which seems to have propelled vast interest in his article. A notorious serial killer, Cunanan committed suicide following a lengthy and infamous manhunt. Unfortunately, should doubt persist about his guilt, we are in trouble. We cannot check if the glove fits, as he was cremated following his death.
19	Tom Brady	501,267	Wikipedia's favourite quarterback returns in the lead up to Super Bowl LII, being even named Most Valuable Player of the season at the age of 40.
20	Natalie Wood	475,366	This beautiful former child actress, perhaps best known as Maria in West Side Story, died in 1981 after falling off her husband Robert Wagner's boat. Uncertainty has always clouded the events surrounding her death, with the captain of the boat coming forward in 2012 to say he had lied to police and that the couple had in fact been in an argument, a statement supposedly corroborated by two anonymous witnesses in a 48 Hours expose this week. The captain claimed that Wagner drank whisky for an hour after his wife's disappearance, and did not appear concerned. This led the lead in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to declare Wagner a person of interest in the reopened investigation.
21	Gianni Versace	472,693	The legendary fashion designer is the subject of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, the second season of American Crime Story (pictured is his portrayer there, Édgar Ramírez). While the enterprise has not received the approval of Versace's family members, it seems to have riveted the readers of Wikipedia. If it can emulate the quality of its predecessor, we may perhaps truly understand why exactly the assassin (#18) decided to leave the icon on the floor.
22	Rose McGowan	463,385	"It's been a long life", McGowan said in a meetup with fans at Barnes & Noble before an unsolicited question led to a shouting match and an emotional breakdown. The noticeably-weary looking McGowan has been promoting her new book Brave, as well as a five-part miniseries, released in the wake of her accusations of sexual assault against Harvey Weinstein. It's difficult to imagine what she must be going through right now- to have to relive the most intimate and devastating details of your life on a constant basis must be a trial indeed.
23	Donald Glover	459,870	The future Lando Calrissian and Simba got three Grammy Award nominations this week, and also announced that, in light of his higher aspirations, he is retiring his stage name, "Childish Gambino". Good call.
24	Robert Wagner	457,366	The Hart to Hart actor has never escaped the miasma of suspicion that surrounded the death of his wife, Natalie Wood (#20), which has seeped up again in light of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department declaring him a person of interest in the case.
25	Elizabeth II	456,384	The only British monarch to have reigned longer than Victoria (#18) is still holding on due to people binging The Crown on Netflix, where her Majesty is portrayed by an actress with an appropriate middle name: Claire Elizabeth Foy (pictured)