Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/November 14 to 20, 2021

The Top 25 Report

This page contains material that is kept because it is considered humorous.
Such material is not meant to be taken seriously.

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (November 14 to 20, 2021)

Prepared with commentary by Igordebraga, TheJoebro64, Benmite, Mcrsftdog, and InPursuitOfAMorePerfectUnion

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According to a bunch of articles written by people way too old to be using phrases like this, "Sad Girl Autumn" has officially sprung or equinoxed or whatever. This is all thanks to the back-to-back album releases of apparent sad girl representatives Adele (#2) and Taylor Swift (#11), who prove that money can't always buy you happiness, but the supposed season of seasonal depression is living up to its new nickname in more ways than one.

Smack dab at the top of this list is the depressing acquittal of a blubbering bullshitter who shot and killed two people at a protest, and a couple spots below that is the tragic shooting death of an up-and-coming rapper. Some sad excuses for films also populate the list (#7, #10 depending on who you ask) and the sad reality that, even if money can't necessarily buy you happiness, it can definitely guarantee you a hot partner (#18). Also worth note is Squid Game's elimination from our list after weeks on the Top 25.

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	Kenosha unrest shooting	2,822,572	The widely-publicized trial of Kyle Rittenhouse ended with his acquittal on all charges on November 19. For the unaware: in August 2020, during protests and/or riots following the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the then-17-year-old Rittenhouse shot three protesters, killing two. Rittenhouse was charged on five counts of reckless endangerment and homicide. The prosecution was unable to undermine Rittenhouse's claim that he had acted in self-defense, leading to a unanimous "not guilty" verdict. The American public's reaction has been (unsurprisingly) polarized, with the right celebrating Rittenhouse's acquittal while the left decries it as a miscarriage of justice.
2	Adele	1,508,018	Adele ages pretty weirdly, huh? She was born at age 19, then turned 21 before hitting it big, then she was 25, and now all of a sudden she's 30? What in the British witchcraft and wizardry is this?! For those of you who don't know Adele and didn't click the bluelinks, or do know Adele and just didn't understand that very poorly executed joke of mine, Adele has not been speedrunning life, though hers has been pretty tumultuous in the years leading up to her latest album. After releasing her album 21 in 2011, Adele gave birth to her son, who she didn't talk about at all on her 2015 album 25. Then, three years after 25, she got married to her longtime partner Simon Konecki (who, like Taylor Swift's partners, took a big risk marrying a woman whose catalog consists almost entirely of songs about her romantic life.) Anyway, they got a divorce this year, which brings us to her newest record, 30, which revolves around their divorce and tries to explain it to her now 9-year-old son. At the start of this week, she performed some new songs from it during her One Night Only concert special, which drew in a whopping 10.33 million viewers. When she dropped the earth-shattering 30 on the 19th, critics were blown away, as illustrated by the record's nearly perfect score on Metacritic. Still no word on sales figures yet, though it's estimated to sell over one million copies in its first week, a feat last achieved by the aforementioned T-Swizzle with 2017's Reputation. To quote Adele herself, "Oh my god."
3	Young Dolph	1,208,555	One more unfortunate addition to the list of rappers who died untimely deaths this year (DMX, Lil Loaded, Biz Markie), let alone to the much longer all-time list of murdered hip hop musicians: this Memphis-based emcee died at age 36 after being gunned down by two unidentified men on November 17, while he was picking up cookies for his mother. His death came right as he seemed to be on the come-up, with his last two albums entering the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart, and puts a grimly ironic twist on records like Bulletproof and N**s Get Shot Everyday.
4	2022 FIFA World Cup qualification - UEFA	1,107,120	While perennial favorite Argentina punched his ticket to football's greatest event, the brunt of attention regarding the qualifiers went to Europe finishing its group stage. Spots were earned by two former world champions (England, Spain), two slightly traditional squads (Switzerland, Serbia), the defending runner-up (Croatia), and an oft-strong team that embarrassed themselves in the 2018 qualifier (Netherlands).
5	2022 FIFA World Cup qualification	1,104,506
6	Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings	918,933	The second newest MCU sees renewed interest after making its way onto Disney+ last week.
7	Red Notice (film)	864,853	The newest buddy cop-ish blockbuster comes to us by way of Netflix, and was released on the platform on November 12. It stars The Rock (who should have made the list at some point this month for his excellent rap debut, IMHO) as an FBI agent who teams up with Ryan Reynolds, an art thief, to catch Gal Gadot, another art thief. Despite it being the most-watched thing on Netflix as of the writing of this Report, audiences and critics don't seem to be on very high alert for it, with reviews ranging from middling to scathing.
8	Deaths in 2021	780,616	From our #11: And I hate to make this all about me But who am I supposed to talk to? What am I supposed to do If there's no you?
9	Spider-Man: No Way Home	777,890	The next film in the Spider-Man series, which ends Jon Watts' MCU Spider-Man trilogy that began with 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming, received its second trailer on November 16. It's by far the most ambitious MCU outing coming this year, as it's not just another MCU Spider-Man movie—it's a multiversal crossover event featuring characters from all three Spider-Man film franchises. The trailer confirmed that the villains Tom Holland's Peter Parker will be facing include Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, and Sandman from Sam Raimi's trilogy and the Lizard and Electro from Marc Webb's duology. Previous Spider-Men Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield don't feature in the trailer, and Holland insists that they won't be appearing in the film at all... though an editing mistake discovered mere minutes after the trailer's release would beg to differ. Nevertheless, avid fans will be keen to edit the Wikipedia plot section the second the film drops, so stay tuned.
10	Eternals (film)	771,670	Ah yes, even if the one at streaming (#6) and the one yet to come (#9) have gotten more views, there is still a Marvel movie in theaters.
11	Taylor Swift	698,460	Last week, Swifties rejoiced after their queen re-released yet another one of her albums in an attempt to regain ownership of her music. I can't tell if I love this for being a triumphant middle finger to the record label overlords or hate it for being yet another shameless cash grab from one of the highest-paid singers in the world, whose endless stream of music typically comes complete with an endless stream of overpriced merchandise. According to industry experts, it's half and half.
12	No Time to Die	660,754	The 25th cinematic go of a character once sung by #2 and with a love life as busy and troubled as #11. Not counting two Chinese movies, No Time to Die is the highest-grossing movie of the year, and now is also earning some bucks from VOD.
13	Ghostbusters: Afterlife	583,413	5 years after an all-female reinvention that was targeted by undeserved hate, there is an outright sequel to the Ghostbusters story. And Jason Reitman didn't hold back in homaging what his father directed in the original, as the story following the grandchildren of the late Harold Ramis, I mean, Egon Spengler, has as many callbacks to the 1984 classic as possible.
14	Zac Stacy	575,790	The former running back has been arrested for (allegedly, on video) assaulting his partner.
15	Jake Gyllenhaal	543,504	#11 has a bevy of songs on her exes, and one in the newly re-released album, "All Too Well", is supposedly about this talented actor. Some readers might've also sought if Mysterio will appear in more than just the trailers for #9.
16	2022 FIFA World Cup	527,088	We're about a year away from football's biggest event, because by giving hosting rights to Qatar the games need to be in its winter, in the last quarter, so the players don't boil alive. 12 teams have earned their spots (#4, #5), and a few more are probably due in the next match day, January 27.
17	Elon Musk	517,983	The richest man in the world keeps himself in the news by taunting United States Senators over Twitter.
18	Pete Davidson	509,918	Squid Game was eliminated from our list right as the star of that hilarious Saturday Night Live parody entered. His perplexing, highly-publicized whirlwind of a relationship with pop superstar Ariana Grande earned him an engagement ring, an eponymous song, and several appearances on this list back in 2018. Now, the apparently long-schlonged, "butthole-eyed" king of Staten Island has ended up in an even odder pairing with the de facto head of the Kardashian Klan, whose taste in men has famously mirrored her taste in coffee, a fact that one of the sisters noted in a meme referencing the actual Klan. This is the first white guy she's dated in some time now, maybe in an effort to distance herself from Kanye–sorry, Ye's accusations that the Ku Klux Kardashian were trying to Get Out him. This new fling also comes in the wake of Kim's recent hosting gig on the show where Davidson made a name for himself, one that has repeatedly lampooned Kim and her sisters' vocal-fried idiocy time and time again.
19	ICC Men's T20 World Cup	499,146	A tournament for another popular sport played on grass, albeit one much more complicated than football (as put by an Adolescent Genetically Altered Shinobi Terrapin: "Cricket? Nobody understands cricket! You gotta know what a crumpet is to understand cricket!").
20	Dune (2021 film)	487,533	Dune—an epic fantasy film released last month—is slowly dropping off of the chart, while The Wheel of Time—an epic fantasy TV series that premiered on Amazon Prime this week—is probably on its way up.
21	The Wheel of Time (TV series)	469,691
22	Arcane (TV series)	464,765	Netflix's latest hit streaming series is a prequel to the game that Videogamedunkey is done with.
23	2022 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Second Round	462,613	Three spots are left for the Old World in Qatar (#16). Twelve teams are up for them, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Wales, Ukraine, Scotland, Turkey, North Macedonia, Russia, Poland... and because UEFA is trying to prove the Nations League is worth anything, Austria and Czech Republic based on that tournament, even if six other teams performed better in the qualifier (#5).
24	Patrizia Reggiani	442,975	With House of Gucci about to hit theaters, searches have already appeared for Lady Gaga's role, the woman who arranged the death of ex-husband Maurizio Gucci, head of the famous fashion house.
25	The Wheel of Time	430,627	Keeping off the list two stars from #7 is the source material of #21, a fourteen book saga which author Robert Jordan died before completing but had Brandon Sanderson check his extensive notes to finish.