100 Most Entertaining Survivors #82: Jud "Fabio" Birza

Fabio Birza was the winner of one of the weirdest seasons of Survivor, Survivor: Nicaragua.

For those of you who don’t remember, this is Fabio. He was one of the biggest “surfer dudes” to ever play Survivor. In other words, he was clueless the entire game, almost to a laughable point. Ok, it was completely to a laughable point.

One of the first shots that we get of Fabio was him hurting himself on the beach. He stepped on a rock or something and hurt his foot. Not soon after he cut himself with the machete and ended up with a nasty looking thing on his hand. The entire time, he just laughed through it. Come to think of it, he was quite a bit like Robb Zbacnik from Survivor: Thailand.

One thing has to be asked about this season is “How the frick did Fabio win?” It is an interesting question that I often ask myself. The obvious answer is that he made enough friends on the jury to vote for him, I’m sure that there is a more complicated answer, however. I just don’t know what it is.

From the beginning of the game, Fabio had a huge thing going with NaOnka, for some reason she just didn’t like him. She wasn’t able to verbalize the reason; just that she didn’t like him. She even stole his socks at one point, which was overshadowed in that episode by Holly stealing Dan’s $1600 shoes. (Btw the most expensive shoes I own are about $30 and I thought that was pretty egregious when I was at the store).

The way Fabio played the last half of the game completely confused me. He somehow made it through without an alliance whatsoever. This made it even more entertaining when he won, because it surprised everyone that he even made it that far. The obvious reason that he made it that far was because of his immunity streak. He had to get to the final 7 before he got to this point, however. He was able to navigate the first part of the merge without an alliance whatsoever. Even once he started his immunity streak, he had no alliance. He made it to the final 7 and voted alone. He made it to the final 6 and turned down an almost guaranteed final 3 spot. At the final 5, he voted off Dan in order to attempt to save his own hide, and at the final 4, the other 3 people would have almost assuredly voted him off if it weren’t for immunity.

Whatever the reason, he did it. He even won the necessary 5 jury votes, one of which was from NaOnka, his supposed arch enemy. I am still confused by this jury decision. Moreso than any other I would say. If I were on the jury, I would have voted for Sash to be honest.

A lot of people don’t know this, but Fabio is also an expert on Freud. This came out at one of the tribal councils where Sash made a “Freudian slip”, which meant that Jeff needed to give a psychology lesson. But alas, Fabio already knew this material, and he explained it to the Survivors.

Fabio is arguably one of the most fun-to-watch winners of all of them. I loved watching him. Everything, from his voice to his performance at Tribal Council’s, was entertaining. I would not be surprised if we saw Fabio back on Survivor. While everyone was surprised he won, no one was disappointed.

Jeff

Clue to #81: This person was the best of the absolute worst.

100 Most Entertaining Survivors #83: Dave Cruser and Sherea Lloyd

This is the first dual-entry. That is, this is the first entry where two people are congratulated on being entertaining only because of each other, and for no other reason. Dave Cruser got 13th place on Survivor: China. Sherea Lloyd got 11th, just missing the merge.

       

For those of you who don’t remember, this is Dave and Cirie… I mean Cassandra… Crap! I mean Sherea!
Dave and Sherea were wonderful characters on Survivor, because they fed off of each other so well. It wasn’t intentional, but it sure was entertaining. It seems like the fighting between them began on day 1. They were always bickering about doing work vs. saving energy for challenges. I firmly believe that Dave is in the right on this argument (That work needs to be done). But I don’t believe that you need to do as much work as he was insisting on. I also hated the way in which he argued, which made me root for Sherea all the more.

The two constantly argued about the mud bricks and the fire and the challenges and the water and the food and the list goes on and on. At one point, Dave had left a bucket of shells out so he could take them home to his family. Sherea, being Shereatastic, decided that she didn’t want them smelling up her camp. Thus, she tried to throw them back into the water, which gave us a hilarious scene that I think everyone should watch. It starts at :50 in this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPbaZ-2sbcQ.

Words cannot describe…  This clip basically describes the relationship that existed between Sherea and Dave. It was basically both of them acting like young children, while everyone else in their tribe just watched… and presumably laughed.

Overall, I did not find Sherea entertaining. I did not find Dave entertaining. I only found the wonderful combo of Sherea and Dave together entertaining. Survivor casting did a wonderful job on this one, and then they put them on the same tribe. Bravo to Burnett and Probst (and CBS)…

If you haven’t watched Survivor: China, you need to go to itunes right now and buy it. And watch it. It is one of the best seasons of Survivor yet. I personally would put it in my top 3 or 4 seasons. Sherea and Dave make the beginning of this season enjoyable, while Amanda’s amazing FTC performance makes the end laughable.

Thanks for reading once again, please comment and enjoy.

Jeff

100 Most Entertaining Survivors #84: Rory Freeman

Rory Freeman got 10^th place on Survivor: Vanuatu

For those of you who don’t remember, this is Rory Freeman. He was on the 9^th (and possibly best) season of Survivor. He didn’t have a long stint on the show, but he definitely made an impression on the viewers. Rory was a very loud person, and for some reason was disliked by most of the people on the show.

Rory was a founding member of the “Fat 5.” This was the five men on the original Lopevi tribe that were deemed as the “older” and thus “weaker” men. Seeing as there were five of them, they decided to get rid of the physically superior younger men. No wonder the women ran this game like no other until the end… The “Fat 5” successfully disposed of 3 out of the 4 younger guys, but then they hit a road bump. They had to switch up the tribes, and the “Fat 5” was split 2 and 3. Rory and Bubba were on the Yasur tribe and Chris, Sarge, and Chad were all on Lopevi. Bubba was quickly disposed of on the Yasur tribe, leaving Rory and a bunch of women. Thus, our story begins.

Rory Freeman is a man alone. He is on a tribe with five women (which is something that no man wants, believe me.) The five women have a pre-existing relationship and Rory’s only friend, Bubba, was voted off unanimously by the women. Rory needs something. He needs an in with the women. This could be small, but there had to be something. Some might say all he needs is a “little crack.”

Rory is doing everything wrong. First, he yells at the women, threatening to burn down the camp if they don’t give him a chance at making it through the next vote. He is also a huge whiner. All of these things are a recipe to piss off women enough to make them not want to keep you around an island for much longer.

But alas, Rory does find his “little crack” and he exploits it. He watches a fight explode between Eliza and the “older folk” of Yasur. He is then successfully able to navigate his way through this crack and emerge on the other side victorious (please try to get that out of your head). Lisa is voted off, and Rory makes the merge.

Rory is an incredibly entertaining character. First, anyone who watched Survivor: Vanuatu knows why the above was funny. However, convincing those of you who didn’t watch the season might be a hard sell. Rory was just an entertaining guy, and I advocate that everyone read Mario Lanza’s number 47 entry about Rory and his “little crack.” If anyone can convince you, it is Mario Lanza.

Rory was just an overall entertaining guy. From what I have heard of Survivor: Vanuatu,  Rory just might be the most annoying person to ever make the merge. According to a podcast with Chris, everyone hated Rory, especially Sarge. However, we didn’t see any of this on the show because of the glory of editing. What we saw was a Rory who was the whitest black man I have ever seen on TV. He is from Iowa, which is interesting because I am from Nebraska and therefore should hate him. (Nebraska/Iowa is a lot like NYC/Jersey).

Rory was actually my pick to win (WAIT BEFORE YOU STOP READING GIVE ME A CHANCE TO EXPLAIN). I came into Survivor: Vanuatu halfway through the season because I wasn’t allowed to watch Survivor (Look at the previous entries to get that story) until that time. I may be wrong, but I came in about the time that Rory was in an alliance with the women to get rid of Lisa. With the exception of Eliza, I didn’t see anyone else in that alliance that I liked enough to make them my pick to win. I didn’t realize the relationship between the women when I came in, I thought that Rory+4 was a well-established alliance at the time. Imagine my surprise when Rory was gone at 10^th place.

 
Well, that is that about Rory. There is no adequate way to explain the awesome that is Rory Freeman. Please watch Survivor: Vanuatu if you haven’t and you will see what I am talking about.

Thanks for reading and please comment.

Jeff

100 Most Entertaining Survivors #85: Ami Cusak (Vanuatu)

Ami Cusak got 6^th place in Survivor: Vanuatu, one of my favorite seasons.

For those of you who don’t remember, this is Ami. She was the leader of an all-girls alliance that made it all the way to the end of the game. OH WAIT…with one exception…. But more on that later.

Ami began the game on an all-girls kick. She was convinced that she needed to take a group of women to the end of the game, simply because no one else had done it before. While Ami was all gung-ho about the girls alliance, she was more than willing to get rid of Lisa instead of Rory simply because he complained a bit (There was more, but that explanation really sums it all about up.)

Ami’s personality is really the reason that she was put on this list. She seemed fun-loving and truly nice (with the exception of hating all men (apparently)). She was nice all throughout the season, and I think that she would be cool to hang out with (if I was a woman).

Ami’s insistence on the all-woman’s alliance bordered on the tragic. She was even willing to vote for Twila (that is right, Twila) for the 1 million dollars at the end. It seems a bit ironic that this is the case, because in season 16, half of the (not-yet-formed) woman’s alliance voted her off after she tried to flip on them (with Tracy).

Back to the “But more on that later”: Chris was successfully able to infiltrate the women’s alliance. That is funny right there. When I write the entry about Chris, I will elaborate on this beautiful comeback.

While this is not the longest entry, I beg your forgiveness. I have a few reasons. The first is that Ami’s personality is what made her quite entertaining. The second reason is that I am trying to keep it short because I made you all read too much on the entry for Yul. Sorry about that.

Thanks for reading, please rate and comment.

Jeff

100 Most Entertaining Survivors #86: Yul Kwon

Sorry for my longest entry yet, I just have a lot to get off my chest from Survivor: Cook Islands.
Yul Kwon is the first winner that you see on the list. He won one of the least auspicious seasons of Survivor to date, Survivor: Cook Islands.

For those of you who don’t remember, this is Yul Kwon. He was the winner of Survivor: Cook Islands. He played arguably one of the best strategic games in the history of Survivor. He was able to maneuver his 4 person alliance to the final four despite being outnumbered. He did this with a Hidden Immunity Idol, but unlike Russell Hantz, who achieved the same feat, Yul was able to get his four through the game without actually using the Hidden Immunity Idol.

Survivor Cook Islands became famous for being the first season where contestants were divided by race. There were four tribes, Aitutaki (Hispanic), Puka Puka (Asian), Rarotonga (White), and Manihiki (Black). Survivor fans did not know how to approach this twist. Survivor producers were probably shaking their heads because they were losing sponsorships and viewers. Then we see Yul, a member of the Asian tribe, make some of the most apropos and astute comments ever made by a Survivor contestant. The comments that he made were about how the Puka Puka tribe was racially diverse within itself. He also said that this was going to be an interesting social experiment. I believe that this legitimized this season. Viewers saw a well-spoken Asian man discussing legitimate social issues and advocating for what the Survivor producers were doing. I honestly believe that Yul is the sole reason that many people continued watching this season of Survivor. It is no wonder that he is now a politician.

Yul found the Hidden Immunity Idol incredibly quickly in the game. Once he found the HII, I knew that he was going to be a huge threat within the game of Survivor. The HII this season had different rules than it does now. At this time, you could play it AFTER the votes are read. This means that it is basically complete power over the game. There is no chance that you could play it uselessly. This made Yul an incredibly powerful person in the game of Survivor.

When there were twelve people left, Jeff announced a mutiny. This meant that anyone could leave their tribe and join the other one immediately. The tribe count was 6-6 at this time, but Candice and Jonathan left Aitutaki and went to Rarotonga. This left Yul’s tribe at an 8-4 disadvantage. Ozzy, Sundra, Becky, and Yul were left alone.
The next few episodes were tense. Everyone liked some of the people on  the Raro tribe, but the Aitu tribe provided a wonderful underdog story to be told. Never in the history of the game had such a disparity been overcome. And never until Russell would it be overcome again. There were two more tribal councils for the Raro tribe before the merge. However, at one of those tribal councils, there was a twist and they were forced to vote off two people, Rebecca and Jenny.

Aitu made what they thought was a very strategic move at this point in the game. I, however, disagree.  (Yul was the obvious strategist in the Aitu alliance, which is why this is going in his blog post.) This is the only point in which I believe that Yul played with his heart rather than his head. It seems obvious to me that there was no way in hell that they were going to merge with 8 people (which would, in a perfect world, mean that there would be a 4-4 tie. Yul sent Candice to Exile Island twice before the merge happened. This left Jonathan incredibly vulnerable to being voted out by Raro. Yul should have known that his best bet of getting someone to flip at the merge would be Candice and Jonathan, as they have friendships and they both have wronged the Aitu in some way. However, he sent Candice to Exile Island, which meant that she wasn’t getting to bond with her tribe, and he left Jonathan vulnerable because Candice wasn’t there to go to bat for him. I think that Yul should have sent one of the original Raro people to Exile Island to give Candice and Jonathan the best possible chance to stay in the game until the merge. I know that this isn’t a reason that Yul is necessarily entertaining, but it is something that I have had on my chest for a while now. Thank you for letting me rant. Back to the fun stuff.

Yul obviously has a way with words. He is a natural speaker, and it seems that he could sell condoms to a nun (One of my favorite sayings). This made for a very entertaining moment as he attempted to persuade Jonathan. He was so persuasive, in fact. that I, as an audience member, wanted to jump up and vote with Yul. The man has a way with words. This is probably why he won, he was able to articulate his points very well. Anyway, he pulled out his Hidden Immunity Idol for the first time in the entire game and showed it to Jonathan. This provided us with literally the only suspenseful moment in the entire season: would Jonathan flip to AItu or not. He was ultimately successful, of course. He also illustrated a brilliant move in sacrificing Jonathan when he was no longer necessary in order to appease the Raro tribe. Although this probably should have been done one tribal council earlier, it was enough to get the votes from the jury.

Ultimately, Yul was the mastermind behind the entire season. Anyone who was voted off, Yul had a hand in. In fact, Yul has a rare distinction (I haven’t officially counted, but I believe that about 15 people have done this EDIT: I did do an official count, the total number of people who voted the correct person out every time is 38. However, there is a caveat to most of these, leaving only 15 people to do it legitimately (Yul is one) to see the whole list, look at the thread on Previously on Survivor or e-mail me) to have cast his vote for the person leaving at every tribal council he attended. This simply goes to show just how flawless his game was. In fact, I would argue that his only shortcoming was the fact that Ozzy won all of the challenges. If there wasn’t a huge physical player sitting next to him in the final three who was much more visible throughout the season, I believe that he would have swept the jury a la Earl or JT.

Thank you all for reading, please comment.

Jeff

PS: Clue to Number 85: This person was the biggest proponent of a specific alliance I have ever seen. Unfortunately for them, the entire alliance was smuffed in the end.

100 Most Entertaining Survivors #87: Rodger Bingham

Rodger Bingham got 5^th place on Survivor: The Australian Outback.

For those of you who don’t remember, this is Kentucky Joe AKA Rodger Bingham. It is people like Rodger which made me excited about the top 100 Most entertaining Survivors. Everyone remembers Coach and Russell, but it’s people like Rodger who tend to get overlooked, I hope to change that.

Once Rodger landed in Australia, nearly instantly he formed an alliance with Elisabeth. Actually, this was less of an alliance than it was a friendship. Rodger and Elisabeth kept this alliance for the entire game, until he got voted off at 5^th. Rodger also had a great Southern accent. Whenever he talked, you smiled because he was kind and seemed to be just one of the most genuine people to ever play the game.

Rodger played at a time before there was a lot of strategic gameplay. Today, he wouldn’t last very long in the game. However, at the time you could go a long way by being a nice person. Rodger also gave us a great story arc in the second episode. In this episode, the entire tribe had to jump off a cliff, into the water. Rodger had never swum in his life. However, he was able to get over his fear and jump off of the cliff. His tribe was proud of him, and the challenge continued.

There wasn’t any defining moment for Rodger in the game of Survivor. With the exception of his relationship with Elisabeth, there wasn’t one thing that you could point to and say “That is why he is entertaining.” However, if you have watched season 2, you know exactly what I am talking about. Rodger made this season fun. His overall demeanor and willingness to just be everyone’s friend and be on the game just to survive made him incredibly fun. At a point in time where NO ONE comes on Survivor “just for the experience,” Rodger seems like a fish out of water.

Overall, Kentucky Joe was incredibly fun to watch in Survivor: The Australian Outback. He made the season enjoyable to watch. While this isn’t the longest entry because he didn’t have any amazing moments, I don’t think that anyone will deny the fact that he was an incredibly entertaining person.

Thanks for reading. Please comment and rate!

Jeff

100 Most Entertaining Survivors #88: Sierra Reed

Sierra Reed got 7^th place in Survivor Tocantins, one of the most represented seasons on this list.

For those of you who don’t remember, this is Sierra. She was one of the most hated players in the game by some people, while some people rooted for her to win the entire thing. One thing, however, was for sure: She was entertaining.

Sierra began her Survivor experience in a way that only two people ever have. The producers decided to begin the game of Survivor: Tocantins by immediately “voting” two people off the second the game started. Seeing as Sierra had a fever and was a smaller girl, Timbira quickly “voted her off”. In all actuality, this simply meant that Sierra (and Sandy who got “voted off” of Jalapao) did not have to participate in the first hike to camp, the got a helicopter ride.

This ended up giving us the first reason why I loved Sierra. When she and Sandy got back to camp, they had the option to either look for the hidden immunity idol or begin building camp. While Sandy decided to look for the hidden immunity idol, Sierra thought that she would try to improve her stock in the tribe and begin to build a shelter. I immediately knew after this that I would like Sierra. This move showed me that she was conscious of how she was perceived and that she had a social conscience.

The next thing that Sierra did was something that she didn’t actually do: The Exile Alliance. I thought that the Exile Alliance was the most interesting prospective move in the game for a few seasons. I know it didn’t pan out, but the editors gave it so much screen time that everyone thought that it would. The Exile Alliance consisted of Taj, Brenden, Stephen, and Sierra. The alliance was possible because Exile Island included a twist where two people (one from each tribe) would go to Exile together. This alliance was amazingly entertaining while it lasted, which wasn’t long.

Another entertaining moment for Sierra was a moment that she, Brenden, and Debbie perpetrated. Brenden and Sierra were looking for the hidden immunity idol. They were digging a HUGE hole in the middle of the beach (away from camp). Debbie stumbled upon this, and asked what was going on, Sierra quickly responded “We are building a fire pit”. This led to Debbie advocating for the fire pit more than Sierra or Brenden. This moment was played out pretty heavily because it actually led to some controversy within the Timbira tribe. And it all began because Sierra had to cover her ass.

Finally, Sierra was entertaining because of her constant bickering with Tyson. While there was never a full on fight, we did often see Tyson hating on Sierra for reasons that were never really understood by the audience (or at least by me). This made the character of Sierra incredibly entertaining, but we will get to the specific comments made by Tyson in his entry (oh you bet he is on this list).

Overall, Sierra was an entertaining person to be on Survivor. I feel like she doesn’t get much credit, however, because she was overpowered by some incredibly entertaining people on that season (I haven’t done an official count, but I believe it to be the most represented season on this list). Coach and Tyson may have overshadowed Sierra, but she will always have made Tocantins more entertaining in my book.

Thanks to all for reading, please comment. I hope you enjoyed.

Jeff