top 25 Report/November 28 To December 4, 2021

Prepared with commentary by Igordebraga, InPursuitOfAMorePerfectUnion, and Kingsif

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Several articles related to The Beatles dominate the list due to the Get Back documentary, alongside various articles related to football. Meanwhile, COVID-19 related articles make their first appearance in our report since last August, as the Omicron variant begins to spread worldwide.

Rank	Article	Class	Views	Image	Notes/about
1	Virgil Abloh		1,740,726		This fashion designer passed away at the age of 41 this week.
2	Parag Agrawal		965,534		Twitter creator Jack Dorsey (the first off the list at #26) announced he had resigned and was to be replaced with this Indian-American who had joined the social network as a software engineer.
3	Ballon d'Or		898,140		France Football has been quite uncreative in choosing its player of the year since 2008, as besides Luka Modric once (and a no-show last year for obvious reasons), they always give it to Cristiano Ronaldo or 2021 recipient Lionel Messi.
4	Omicron		854,968		The 15th letter of the Greek alphabet, which Futurama fans probably associate with Omicron Persei, land of the Omicronians. It's in the news because of the goddamned pandemic, as COVID's latest variant is named Omicron.
5	Deaths in 2021		825,904		In homage to #20: All things must passNone of life's strings can lastSo I must be on my wayAnd face another day
6	Patrizia Reggiani		810,798		Lady Gaga's latest acting foray (#13), opposite Kylo Ren, I mean, Adam Driver, is quite the Bad Romance: she married the heir to the Gucci house, who went on to become the majority shareholder, was left without ceremony (he left for a business trip and sent a friend to tell her he wasn't returning), and just one year after they divorced hired someone to kill him.
7	Maurizio Gucci		757,229
8	Ralf Rangnick		730,912		Manchester United's interim coach started off well, as his first match was a 1-0 win.
9	Greek alphabet		720,921		Given Delta is the fourth letter here, some would expect the COVID variant that emerged from Africa to be Epsilon. Yet the World Health Organization went for the 15th (#4), because they only name "variants of concern"... and they opted to skip Nu and Xi to avoid confusion with "new" and the Chinese surname.
10	Hawkeye (miniseries)		605,500		Disney+ continues the story of "an orphan raised by carnies fighting with a stick and string from the Paleolithic era" being joined by a rich girl with similar archery skills (and a Golden Retriever who likes pizza) during the holidays. The episode also introduced Echo, who is set to get her own show as in spite of being deaf (and in the show, an amputee) she can beat up just about everyone.
11	The Power of the Dog (film)		595,493		Netflix released this "gothic Western" where Jane Campion adapted a Thomas Savage novel, where in 1920s Montana Benedict Cumberbatch gets jealous once Kirsten Dunst marries his brother. Well made but slow (though not as much to be outright boring as some other Western), The Power of the Dog already won Best Director at the Venice Film Festival, so the streaming service hopes it can be an awards contender.
12	Stephen Sondheim		586,413		People still mourn the Broadway legend.
13	House of Gucci		557,820		Ridley Scott is 84 and still did two movies this year, and in spite of mixed reviews for how melodramatic this retelling of Italian fashion family history (#6, #7) is, it managed to do what the sadly unnoticed The Last Duel couldn't and bring in ticket sales ($69 million worldwide, more than double of what the other one grossed) in spite of competition with Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Disney's latest animation Encanto.
14	Lotfi A. Zadeh		542,555		This mathematician who died in 2017 was honoured with a Google Doodle this week.
15	Barbados		524,298		The Land of the Bearded Ones, where Rihanna hails from, has declared independence and as a Republic it no longer considers Elizabeth II its head of state.
16	Spider-Man: No Way Home		519,481		Opening the Spider-Verse is creating incredible hype, as pre-sales for the Webhead's upcoming movie are really high, and there are even scalpers!
17	Brian Kelly (American football coach)		499,455		The (American) football coach left Notre Dame, where he had the most college football wins ever, for LSU in a controversial steal move, which means a lot of changes in that field but mostly means a lot of memes on the internet. He managed to poach his old assistant from Notre Dame, where his gen Z daughter is still a student - presumably going from very popular to very hated very quickly.
18	Let It Be (Beatles album)		497,450		"Grinding to a halt? I think it's taking off!" - John Lennon Can you dig it? Disney+ released Peter Jackson's The Beatles: Get Back, exploring more of what Michael Lindsay-Hogg filmed documenting the production of the Fab Four's last album (by release, Abbey Road was recorded later) than just that documentary that the Beatles preferred to keep out of circulation. Unlike the previous documentary, the surviving Beatles (Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr) have let this one be, as both Fabs have given positive feedback and Paul attended the premiere. Disney+ also didn't let the fans down as the documentary has received acclaim from Beatles fans, and I've got a feeling it will continue down the long and winding road of success.
19	Cristiano Ronaldo		488,129		This year's #3 was the first time since 2010 where CR7 was out of the top 3. But at least he entered this Report, while Messi missed out at #28 (behind #2's predecessor and Bollywood).
20	George Harrison		478,887		One of the two deceased Beatles, who had just two songs in #18 but is featured prominently in the Get Back documentary, showing songs that would appear in his solo debut and how he temporarily left the band in January 1969. On a sadder note, the 20th anniversary of his death took place this week.
21	Lincoln Riley		464,553		The week of college football drama - Riley moved from Oklahoma to USC. Not to be outdone by Kelly, he took some players as well as a coach with him, and now the state of Oklahoma is trying to pass a bill to insult him. How? As a goodbye present, legendary figures might get some public amenity named after them. Oklahoma has chosen three whole inches of an unincorporated road in the panhandle for him! Senator Bill Coleman has offered to pay for the dedication himself, so, ouch.
22	The Beatles		457,480		Rock music might be in a downturn, but that won't stop the four Liverpudlians still hailed as the greatest band of all time nearly 60 years after their debut album from being back in the spotlight, with the documentary about #18.
23	The Wheel of Time (TV series)		455,194		This is not the Lord of the Rings TV show, which is not due until September 2022. Yeah, Amazon Prime Video makes good streaming series, too, who'd'a thunk it?
24	SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant		454,553		The reason why Greek letters entered our top 10 (#4, #9).
25	Jonathan Larson		438,652		The creator of Rent (and a protege of #12) and the autobiographical musical adapted by Lin-Manuel Miranda for Netflix, Tick, Tick... Boom!, where Larson is played by one of the two guys who people won't shut up until he's confirmed or dismissed for #16, Andrew Garfield.