The Best of Overthinking It, 10th Anniversary Edition

The most read article from each of Overthinking It’s ten years of existence.

Our celebration of Overthinking It’s 1oth Anniversary continues with this rundown of the most-read article from each year of the site’s existence. Enjoy, and add your favorites in the comments below!

2008: 40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes

Over the years, we’ve heard reports of this video being played before sporting events, final exams, break-up conversations, coup d’etats…pretty much any situation conceivable where humans need to go a little beyond what they’re usually capable of.

2009: Slumdog Millionaire: How Much is 20 Million Rupees, Anyway?

Remember when this movie won Best Picture at the Oscars and was the talk of the town? Yeah, me neither. Still, a bunch of people keep googling this question, and we are more than happy to provide them with the answer, illustrated with many, many graphs.

2010: The Female Character Flowchart

A sort of companion piece to “Why Strong Female Characters are Bad for Women” (the second-most read piece on Overthinking It), this chart still boggles the mind with its obsessive level of detail. Click to embiggen:

2011: The Economics of Death Star Planet Destruction

We start with a simple question: what’s the Empire’s economic calculus for blowing up planets? Aren’t they concerned about their Gross Galactic Product going down?

Then we go down every conceivable rat-hole, touching upon Marxism, mercantilism, Ancient Rome, and the war in Afghanistan.

2012: The Law and Order Database

With A LOT of help from reader Josh Kyu Saiewitz, we compiled a database of  EVERY trial outcome in Law and Order, then made a ton of graphs.

CHUNG CHUNG.

2013: Candy Crush: When Games Pretend to Be Games They Aren’t

Admit it, you were probably playing Candy Crush on your phone a few minutes ago. But did you realize it’s a JRPG in disguise?

2014: Overthinking Cowboy Bebop, Sessions 25 & 26

Yes, we know we made you all wait four years between the last two installments of the epic Cowboy Bebop series, but it was worth the wait, no?

2015: Martian Law: Is Mark Watney Really a Space Pirate?

This article does not constitute legal advice on any planet, and clicking on this link does not establish an attorney-client relationship between you and this website. But it does give some practical advice for you to consider the next time you’re thinking of breaking the law in space.

2016: Revealing the Real Box Office Champ

Under a very specific set of criteria, the number one movie in America of all time is…Crocodile Dundee. We were surprised, too.

2017: The Morality of Passengers, Part 1 and Part 2

In which we subject a little-seen, little-loved sci-fi movie to a level of scrutiny it REALLY didn’t deserve. But we did it anyway, ’cause that’s how we roll here.

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