Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/November 15 to 21, 2020


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Prepared with commentary by Benmite, Igordebraga, and TheConflux

⭠ Last week's report

This week, the British Crown has returned to its former glory and is conquering yet another territory: this list. Wait...never mind. That’s just Netflix again.

As anyone who has kept up with this list for long enough knows, the Netflix series The Crown has an undeniable command over this list whenever a new season comes out, even if the show itself and its new season rank relatively low at #13 and #15, respectively. This week is no different. Rarely does a television series manage to score 16 articles in the Top 25 all on its own, though, but that just goes to show you the power of The Crown.

However, it seems Wikipedia users are trying to avoid having history repeat itself by preventing Britain from taking over the United States again, as Donald Trump retains his top spot on the list, despite him very much not being the President-elect (who does show up on this list at #24) in spite of his own fevered imagination. Elsewhere, we have a bad movie getting good press (#4), a golf champ (#20), and another Netflix show earning acclaim (#9) as well as its evidently talented lead actress (#19).

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes/about
1 Donald Trump   6,387,834   Donald Trump, in a preposterous fourteenth time getting #1 on this list, has officially become the child we never asked for who throws a temper tantrum whenever he’s told it’s time to put his toys away and go to bed. You'd think people would already know who Trump is and not bother reading his Wikipedia article, but nope. How wonderful.

For those who were comatose for the past few weeks (or for those who don’t live in the United States and can afford not to hear about American politics) Trump still refuses to concede to the real winner (#24) of the recent presidential election (#12). However, for a moment, it seemed as though Our Man in Mar-a-Lago was finally getting past the first stage of grief when he tweeted out a semi-concession to his rival ("He won..."), albeit with yet another baseless accusation of voter fraud ("...because the Election was Rigged,"), only to, for once in his life, actually think about the implications of what he was saying and immediately take it back. The Trump legal team worked overtime last week filing tons of useless lawsuits to try and invalidate as many Biden votes as they could, and, in a turn of events that everyone saw coming, most of them were dismissed from the get-go.

As evidenced by the numbers on this list, Trump is doing exactly what he knows how to do best, which is keep his name in the headlines. As tiresome as his shenanigans may be, it’s doubtful that he’ll cease until Joe Biden is inaugurated, but there’s uncertainty surrounding his willingness to even let that happen without things getting ugly. Anyway, here’s a particularly rousing moment from one of his speeches in 2018.

2 Margaret Thatcher   2,929,180   The Crown released its fourth season, now in the late 1970s/early 1980s, and thus boosting the views of some important British women: the ever-controversial Prime Minister known as "Iron Lady" (when she died, "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" entered the charts!), played there by Gillian Anderson, and the ever-beloved Princess known as "People's Princess" (when she died, "Candle in the Wind 1997" dominated the charts), played there by Emma Corrin.
3 Diana, Princess of Wales   2,839,941  
4 Megan is Missing   2,340,447   Well, I guess they Found her.

This 2011 found footage horror film about the titular Megan and her friend going titular-ly missing after being (SPOILER!) abducted and killed by a creeper that Megan meets on the internet hasn’t seen much buzz since its release. Even then, its discussion was mostly kept to the internet, where it was lambasted for being rife with continuity errors, exploitation, and clumsy acting, writing, directing, you name it. It was so bad, it even got banned in New Zealand! Then again, so did Mad Max...

But recently, like many a forgotten franchise (looking at you, Clone High), the film has been given new life by TikTok users, most of whom seem particularly shaken by its final act. It was enough for the movie’s writer-director-editor Michael Goi to venture onto the platform, where he issued a "warning" telling viewers not to watch it alone or in the dark, which is clearly meant to be an advertisement for the film rather than a deterrent. (He also says that this is the "customary warning" he used to give people before they watched the film despite the warning showing up nowhere in the film itself. As one TikTok comment puts it, "ITS A LITTLE LATE FOR THIS MICHAEL".) All I’ll say is this: if you’re looking for a found footage movie about a teenage girl gone missing, stick to Searching.

5 Elizabeth II   2,241,692   The Crown again, only this time with people born in the royal family. Let's see, there's the show's main character (the Queen from The Favourite), the uncle of her husband who was killed by the IRA (the Hand of the King from Game of Thrones), her sister (the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland), and her son who remains waiting for the throne at the age of 72 (...OK, Josh O'Connor hasn't played another royal yet).
6 Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma   2,169,279  
7 Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon   2,018,293  
8 Charles, Prince of Wales   1,747,672  
9 The Queen's Gambit (miniseries)   1,526,501   It seems like the world won’t stop telling me to watch this show, and as much as I say I don’t have time, I definitely do, I just lack motivation. But I have faith that, once I get around to it, watching it will be worth it. It’s already become one of the top 100 highest-rated shows of all time on IMDb with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and has maintained a spot on the Top 25 for 4 weeks. Who knew people loved chess that much? Well, it might just be that they like watching a show about people playing it. In any case, I would genuinely love to see a series about the guys who play chess at McDonald’s (and trust me, there are plenty.)
10 Anne, Princess Royal   1,381,775   British royals again! To wit, #5's only daughter (Erin Doherty) and the family patriarch (Tobias Menzies).
11 Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh   1,214,063  
12 2020 United States presidential election   1,187,306   Though the mass celebrations for #24's win seem to be largely through, people keep coming back to this article, presumably to remind themselves that this election season really did happen and wasn't just an extended fever dream.
13 The Crown (TV series)   1,160,739   The show that every time that gets a new season, ensures this report will get full of monarchs. The fifth is only coming in 2022.
14 Michael Fagan (intruder)   1,142,299   This man’s accomplishments include breaking into Buckingham Palace and also breaking into Buckingham Palace a second time, but drunk. Supposedly, he ended up leaving the first time when he got bored waiting for security to catch him, which might be the first ever recorded instance of trespassing on government property causing boredom. Both of these intrusions were collectively dramatized in the fifth episode of #15, where he was played by Tom Brooke.

He also recorded a cover of a Sex Pistols song. I bet you can’t guess which one it was.

15 The Crown (season 4)   1,120,918   See: the rest of this list.
16 Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall   1,099,346   And while we're at it, here's #8's mistress, for whom he left #3 for (played by Emerald Fennell); #5's youngest son (Angus Imrie) and #2's son (Freddie Fox).
17 Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex   1,060,768  
18 Mark Thatcher   1,059,742  
19 Anya Taylor-Joy   1,006,082   The star of #9, who earlier this year finally saw her stint as a superheroine hit theaters, to prove she's more than fodder for witches and maniacs.
20 Dustin Johnson   901,263   I can’t say I’ve been too invested in the world of professional golf ever since Tiger Woods cheated on his wife (although I do understand the game itself to a decent extent, thanks to Wii Sports and Mario Golf) but DJ here is clearly a big name on the field. He won the Masters Tournament this week, and that’s to say nothing about his five previous US Open wins.
21 Prince Andrew, Duke of York   871,237   His Royal Slimeball, regardless of whatever he was known for before, has now become notable primarily for one thing: his connection to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. According to a rather catastrophic interview in 2019 with BBC Newsnight, the two became buddy-buddy in 1999, and it was all downhill from there.

Oh, and he also appears in The Crown, of course.

22 George VI   863,130   #5's father, subject of Academy Award winner The King's Speech, source of this hilariously NSFW scene.
23 Deaths in 2020   808,802   Although this list hasn't changed all that drastically in view count, the impact of The Crown manages to push it down to a much lower spot than usual.
24 Joe Biden   770,377   #1 will have to vacate the White House for him, who previously was Barack Obama's vice president.
25 Jordan North   673,774   And closing off this very British report, another Englishman, but one that is not royalty. Instead, this BBC DJ is set to be trapped in a Welsh castle for the reality show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!


 
Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (November 15 to 21, 2020)

Exclusions

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  • This list excludes the Wikipedia main page, non-article pages (such as redlinks), and anomalous entries (such as DDoS attacks or likely automated views). Since mobile view data became available to the Report in October 2014, we exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (5–6% or less) or almost all mobile views (94–95% or more) because they are very likely to be automated views based on our experience and research of the issue. Please feel free to discuss any removal on the talk page if you wish.