Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/October 14 to 20, 2018

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 (October 14 to 20, 2018)

Prepared with commentary by Stormy clouds

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Rogue Killers

Another week, another series of deaths. The report is topped by two deceased men, a slaughtered opponent of the Saudi regime, and a technological tycoon. Following on from this sombre note, however, we have a list dominated to an intense degree by visual media, from new Netflix releases to a virtual tour of all big releases currently airing in your local multiple. Not the most diverse report of all time, dominated as it is by just a handful of issues, but interesting to compile all the same. Enjoy.

For the week of October 14 to 20, 2018, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Rank	Article	Views	About
1	Jamal Khashoggi	1,364,473	The brutal story which captivated the world this week revolves around Khashoggi, a journalist, famed in the West for his work with the Post, disappeared in the Saudi embassy in ~~Byzantium~~ ~~Constantinople~~ Istanbul, leading to (now confirmed) suspicions that he had been murdered by the Arabian authorities. Of course, Saudi Arabia was ostracized internationally owing to their blatant brutality...jk they have liquid gold. Must have been rogue killers. Maybe #18 was involved.
2	Paul Allen	1,141,490	Another death, though one with less geopolitical ramifications. Allen, along with his bespectacled friend founded Microsoft, and subsequently became one of the wealthiest men alive (and owner of the Seahawks). Sad day for fans of technology. Even sadder for Internet Explorer users, who are just finding out about his demise now.
3	The Haunting of Hill House (TV series)	1,082,865	The latest streaming sensation on our all-powerful content tsar charts highly on the Top 25 Report, following in the well-trodden footsteps of seemingly every series in the platform. I haven't seen this one, but it is tinged with horror, based on #5, and stars Michiel Huisman, perhaps best known as a regenerated dragon's paramour.
4	A Star Is Born (2018 film)	972,305	The fourth iteration of the cinematic classic, starring an acting musician and a directing actor, is also the best, and will aim to convert the considerable swathes of wiki-interest it has attracted into gold, the work of a cinephilic alchemist.
5	The Haunting of Hill House	907,143	Shirley Jackson's 1959 novel, a seminal cornerstone of mid-twenty century horror literature alongside the corpus of literary royalty, has been adapted into a popular Netflix miniseries (#3)
6	Halloween (2018 film)	791,624	When one sees the repetitive rebooting of dormant horror franchises, all dull, stale, monotonous and trite, I wonder why Hollywood bothers. Then Halloween slashes its way to an $77million opening weekend, and one wonders no more.
7	Venom (2018 film)	747,146	Venom is comfortably one of the worst superhero adaptations in recent memory, with bland characters, a comically laughable plot, non-existent tension and an intriguing ability to be both ludicrously toned-down and simultaneously grossly over the top. So kudos to Sony Pictures for out-doing their last horrendous swing at the character, and kudos to the droves of cinema-goers who ensured that poor Tom Hardy will have to slog through several sequels.
8	Deaths in 2018	694,717	Another week, another appearance in the Top 25 for the list of the deceased, buoyed this week by our top two entries.
9	Lady Gaga	577,955	Lady Gaga has become intimately reacquainted with the Fame Monster and its associated harbingers following her sublime starring turn in #5, and it is likely she will be in the Oscar conversation come awards time. Not bad for the musician, who intriguingly derived her stage name from our #13.
10	Neil Armstrong	507,392	The first is a handful of real-life figures in the Report owing to their appearances in cinematic biopics, the Air Force pilot turned pioneering lunar Voyager is the subject of the fittingly named First Man, where he is portrayed sublimely by Ryan Gosling.
11	2011 Norway attacks	499,637	The worst incident to occur in the northern paradise this side of the 1940's, which saw a lone extremist target a youth Labour camp in Utoya and massacre over seventy victims, is the subject of a Netflix film, driving interest amongst binge-watchers Wikipedians in the incident.
12	Meghan, Duchess of Sussex	499,146	One of the most viewed articles of last year, and a surefire candidate for this year's list, Ms. Markle has had an eventful year, getting married to Royal Ed Sheeran back in May. This week it was announced that she has a bun in the oven, and that the British public can anticipate the pitter patter of another royal baby. A predictably rapid future BLP has been and gone
13	Freddie Mercury	486,248	Another cinema-driven entry on the report, the frontman of my favourite band is the subject of Bohemian Rhapsody. Apparently the film is poor, lacking in magic and failing to break free of cliches. Despite Rami Malek's valiant effort, it lacks the emotion that the Zanzibar native himself conveyed as he proclaimed -"Then I look, and I find, I still love you".
14	Me Too movement	#477,508	The hashtag which shook Hollywood last year has risen like a phoenix in India, where it turns out women are also oppressed, leading the sizable Indian component of English Wikipedia to reinvorgate Wikipedian interest in the article, returning it to the report.
15	Bradley Cooper	450,639	Like Gaga (#9), Cooper's recent uptick in page views on Wikipedia stems from A Star is Born, which he both directed and starred in. A couple of Oscar nominations might go some way towards distracting Rocket Raccoon from his fallen friends.
16	Pete Davidson	409,555	Now we get some closure for an issue which infiltrated the Top 25 incessantly throughout the summer, as the media furore over the engagement of the SNL comedian and our #24 saw interest in their respective BLP's remain high. It peaked once again this week as the wedding bells were put on ice and their separation announced.
17	Halloween (1978 film)	407,581	The franchise behind the best joke in Baby Driver returns to the multiplexes this weekend with #6, seeing the return of the marauding madman, freed from his swamp.
18	Michael Myers (Halloween)	397,315
19	Patrick Mahomes	392,345	The young superstar suffered his first defeat in the NFL for the Kansas City Chiefs last Sunday, as the rampant team saw their perfect record evaporate. In Mahomes' defence, however, his side did succumb to defeat against the best ever in his position.
20	Jamie Lee Curtis	385,940	Jamie Lee Curtis returns to the role that launched her career in our #6, reprising her cinematic debut as Laurie Strode as she faces off against #18.
21	Mohammad bin Salman	382,725	The charismatic young leader of Saudi Arabia has been embroiled in controversy following the abduction and slaughtering of #1, causing some to speculate that, despite letting the women drive, the totalitarian leader may not actually be a champion of progressive ideology. The violent deaths of those who criticise you can cast doubts like that. Who knew?
22	Halloween (franchise)	359,693	If you have got this far into the report while dodging the exploits of Michael Myers, which dominated much of the report, and fuelled the appetites of cinema-goers to click every related link, then congratulations on your elusive reading skills. If not, then you already know what this is and why it is here.
23	Anders Behring Breivik	353,806	Breivik was a far right fanatic before that became cool stateside, and was responsible for scores of murders in his native Norway as the perpetrator of the heinous Utoya attack #11, now the subject of a Netflix series.
24	Ariana Grande	350,292	The musician saw the media turn its focus back on her as her impending nuptials with #16 were put permanently on ice. "But what about their shared pig?" panickingly pondered the worst people on the planet.
25	Beto O'Rourke	334,595	With mid-terms on the horizon, Wikipedians' attention has turned to Senate races, such as that of Texas, where it appears the young Democrat may oust the incumbent. It seems destined in the stars.

Exclusions

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.