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Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/January 29 to February 4, 2017

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The Top 25 Report


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Prepared with commentary by JFG

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Are you tired of winning yet?

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Once again, President Trump dominates the headlines, bylines and edit wars of Wikipedia. His nominees Neil Gorsuch and Betsy DeVos have risen to instant fame, the former getting the final rose in The Bachelor meets the Supreme Court, and the latter seeing her three-hour hearing before Congress reduced to a soundbite about protecting schools from grizzly bears; life is harsh in the world of entertainment politics… Opposing Trump can lead to instant fame too, as proven by Sally Yates from Obama's Justice Department, who was fired pronto after daring to question the constitutionality of Executive Order 13769. The few entries that are not about politics also bear the Midas Touch of The Donald, with a WWE event and Miss Universe contest in which he was once heavily involved. Only Swiss tennis, Indian movies and British monarchs escaped the unpresidented tsunami.

For the week of January 29 to February 4, 2017, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes
1 Neil Gorsuch Start class 2,453,582
In a perfectly orchestrated ceremony, complete with red carpet and red roses, Donald Trump delivered the Supreme Court benediction nomination to Federal Appeals Judge Neil Gorsuch, who had been on Trump's short list of Supreme Court candidates announced during his campaign. He's got the honest good looks of a Bachelor candidate, and some people say appearance must have played a role in the cathodic President's decision.
2 Royal Rumble (2017) Unassessed 2,115,245
John Cena wins again, scoring his 13th WWE Championship title. Tremendous guy! Trump loves him. Believe me!
3 Donald Trump C class 1,855,391
Two weeks into his presidency, Donald Trump keeps everybody's heads spinning. From typing unpresidented tweets to penning tough-looking executive orders, his fingers know no rest. Expect him to grab Australia by the Aussie, China by the vagina and Mexico by the sombrero.
4 Roger Federer Featured Article 1,535,712
The Swiss Borg. Such a winner. Fifth Australian Open. 18th Grand Slam title. Won more than 1,000 matches. 302 weeks ranked #1. The greatest. Best paid too. Now that we're on winning terms, Roger has a message for President Trump. You see, Switzerland is not only home to the best tennis players, but we've got the best mountains. Look at those big fat mountains. Unlike the Netherlands, so flat, total disaster.
5 Milo Yiannopoulos C class 1,388,501
Gay immigrant journalist with a black boyfriend and a loud mouth who trolls feminists and calls Trump "Daddy". After protesters violently torched the UC Berkeley campus to prevent violent speech, Milo's unreleased book, Dangerous, topped Amazon pre-sales again. So much for silencing him…
6 Steve Bannon C class 1,364,232
Trump's éminence grise is reportedly busy drafting the Star Wars meta-sequel. With just 24,000 views between them, I bet he's jealous of Milo Yiannopoulos now.
7 Fred Korematsu C class 1,059,722
How could we ever complete our history lessons without the good graces of Google Doodles? Korematsu opposed Franklin D. Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 which placed Japanese Americans, German Americans and Italian Americans in internment camps following the Pearl Harbor attack. Former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger designated January 30 the Fred Korematsu Day, placing the man just two degrees of The Donald. Who would surely have fired him. (See #10.)
8 Raees (film) C class 1,043,144
Why do we get Shah Rukh Khan, King of Bollywood, when we need Khizr Khan? Uh, sorry, not the founder of the Sayyid dynasty, I mean the guy who single-handedly revived sales of pocket constitutions. See also Kaabil (#16). And did you know that Raees also means President? I love Indian people. Indians have the best words. It's true!
9 Edmonia Lewis B class 953,833
It's Black History Month, folks! Google Doodle honored this 19th-century black sculptor. A woman too. Tremendous people! See also Frederick Douglass (#18).
10 Sally Yates C class 884,904
Got her 15 minutes of fame for standing up to Trump and getting fired. Sad. Although she can surely get a book deal now (see #5). Call it When Harry Reid met Sally Yates. At least Sally Ride (unrelated to Harry Reid) had the wisdom to board Space Shuttle Challenger before it blew up. And she wasn't fired. Such a winner.
11 Rafael Nadal B class 827,393
Loser. Beaten by a 35-year-old veteran (#4). Only 4 aces vs 20. Also, copied his haircut on Manoj Shyamalan (#13). How low can you go?
12 Groundhog Day B class 748,356
Wikipedians old enough to remember Andie McDowell's 1993 smile shed a tear every year. Younger folks surely panic like Bill Murray waking up every day to a new Trumpian story. By the way, did you know Switzerland has the best groundhogs? We call them marmots and they help us pack chocolate bars. It's true. Believe me!
13 Split (2016 American film) C class 737,220
This psychological thriller experienced its peak viewership last week: up from #13, down to #13 again. Bad omen. It's all downhill from here, probably. Sad.
14 Beyoncé Good article 705,644
Winner of the most popular picture ever on Instagram, with almost 10 million likes as of this writing. Beyoncé is proudly pregnant with twins. After Blue Ivy, will she call them Green Fairy and Lemon Basil?
15 Deaths in 2017 List 702,243
"In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and not releasing your taxes." — Benjamin Franklin, 1789, with a little help from Donald Trump, 2017.
16 Kaabil Start class 681,901
Bigger than the Super Bowl, badder than the Royal Rumble (#2), this week saw the struggle of the Bollywood giants: Kaabil vs Raees (#8), fighting for audience domination with 2700 screens vs 3500, 139 minutes of heart-wrenching drama vs 142, and a trump card for Kaabil: a surprise release in Pakistan which just lifted its temporary ban on Indian movies. Wait, that was Muslims banning Hindus, where's the global outrage?
17 Riverdale (2017 TV series) Start class 570,593
The hot new teen drama series based on 1940s comics (I guess everything old is new again), starring K. J. Apa as Archie Andrews and Marisol Nichols (pictured) as Hermione Lodge, the mother of one of Archie's love interests, Veronica. Excerpt from the plot: "Veronica's kiss with Archie strains his relationship with both girls." Yeah, love triangles rule the world, can't wait for the next 245 episodes…
18 Frederick Douglass B class 566,270
A contemporary of Queen Victoria (#19) and Honest Abe, Douglass played a key role in the fight to abolish slavery with Lincoln, culminating in the 13th Amendment. Judging by his badass portrait, the man did not mess around. Trump apparently channeled Douglass' spirit with his "dazzling oratory" which was put to work "building a wall of anti-slavery fire", says a 1845 essay cited by Wikipedia. See also Edmonia Lewis (#9).
19 Queen Victoria Featured Article 543,431
The 7th British monarch assumed the Crown just weeks after her 18th birthday (although the actual ceremony occurred a year later) and she reigned over the world's largest empire during 63 years. Her valiant descendant Elizabeth II still holds the throne after 65 years, but her empire was reduced to crumbs and her power to smiles. Judging by this racy portrait by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, Victoria could have tried for Miss Universe 1843. Oh well, she had the Universe at her boot already…
20 Resident Evil 7: Biohazard Start class 529,718
"More horror than action", says Wikipedia, for this seventh installment of the Resident Evil series. If the screenshot of a burning man is typical of the game's atmosphere, this must be true. Not your daddy's Burning Man…
21 La La Land (film) Good Article candidate 526,708
Reboosting the musical film genre as Moulin Rouge! did in 2001, shining a light on the business of show, and taking a nostalgic trip through the Golden Age of Hollywood, La La Land is poised to become a tremendous winner.
22 Miss Universe 2016 C class 514,749
This Trump effect leaves me incredulous and flabbergasted: even France starts winning again! Iris Mittenaere is the first European lady to snatch the world crown since Oxana Fedorova in 2002. As a Russian, the latter was subsequently dethroned for doping allegedly being pregnant (I kid you not), in favor of a Polish-Panamanian model. Vowing to fight such injustice for the rest of her life, she decided to join the police forces in Saint Petersburg, proving once again that all roads lead to Putin.
23 Melania Trump C class 512,312
Melania wears the First Lady mantle as a consolation prize for not winning Miss Universe.
24 Betsy DeVos C class 486,159
Betsy DeVos is the billionaire nominee for United States Secretary of Education. Like other billionaires in the Cabinet of Donald Trump, she will fight for the little guy, and she's gonna be winning, winning and winning again. In case her nomination is rejected by the Senate over grizzly bears in Montana (wait, did she get confused with Russia?), she can still run for Miss Universe instead.
25 New Edition C class 480,469
These stars of the past century aren't tired of winning yet; they edged out Queen Elizabeth II by barely 5,520 views to close this week's list. And check out Ralph Tresvant's wrist: a Swiss watch! Total winner! Respect!

In other news:

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.
Note: If you came here from the Signpost article, please take any discussion of exclusions to this article's talk page.
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