The FAT Website est. 1999
You would presume that after twenty six seasons and over four hundred episodes of Survivor, everything that could happen, has happened. We’ve seen people voluntarily give up individual immunity (Erik the Ice Cream Scooper), get voted out when holding two immunity idols (James), fake the death of a relative so they could go on a reward trip (Johnny Fairplay). You name it, its probably happened on this show.
The animated gif above shows the look of bewilderment on the face of Jeff Probst when the all-male team Manono turned up to tribal council, despite having won the immunity challenge. It all started a week earlier when outspoken gay Republican Colton singled out Bill in his tribe as a threat and someone he couldn’t stand. It seemed an odd choice as Bill’s edit made him out to be an easy going relaxed guy who aspired to be a full time comedian. Colton’s reasoning was that Bill was poor and as a Republican, he was ‘against handouts.’ This despite Colton being born to rich parents and having never worked a day in his life.
After Manono won the challenge, Colton decided that Bill was such a threat that it couldn’t wait until his tribe lost their next challenge, that instead, they should volunteer to go to tribal and get rid of Bill. There was a mixed message amongst the team as Tarzan was equally vocal about voting out Leif who ‘betrayed’ the Outcast Alliance by telling Bill he was on the chopping block. Inexplicably, the entire tribe, including Bill and Lief, consented to going to tribal.
During the council, Jeff couldn’t help but ask if Colton’s vote against Bill was motivated by race. The last two episodes had caught Colton referring to Bill as ‘ghetto trash.’ Colton denied the claim and like a stereotypical racist-in-denial, professed to have ‘many black friends.’ When pressed on the matter, he sheepishly admittedly the only black person he knew was his housekeeper. Despite this extraordinary exchange, the tribe stood by Colton and voted out Bill.
What the hell just happened? It is a moment that will surely go down as the dumbest move in Survivor history. What the hell was the rest of the tribe thinking? Why are they being lead along by a lazy, self entitled racist prick like mindless sheep after just nine days in the show? It’s impossible to say but bizarre social dynamics and behaviour are a large part of what makes this show so darned interesting. It’s willingness to take a chance and cast such a diverse and colourful range of contestants such as Yau-man (brilliant elderly Asian man), Russel Hantz (evil oil baron), Coach (ninja girl’s soccer coach) and James (gravedigger) is what has kept me a fan all these years and keeps me coming back.
There’s no way in hell I want Colton to win the show. In fact, my support has gone from Tarzan to…pretty much any of the girls. But I will have great fun watching Colton for the rest of the season. I’ll be tuning in to see if he gets his come-uppance.
I hope he does. What a piece of shit that guy is.
