After 17 years and almost 35 seasons, Survivor has aired a lot of things. We’ve seen people at their highest of highs and at their low points. People have made lifelong friends, some even spouses, and severed connections through betrayal. At this point, there are very few things Survivor could air that would take us by surprise.

That doesn’t mean that from time to time, the show doesn’t find a way to surprise us. Throughout the years, they have captured some great footage and some footage… that might feel slightly different. The moments that really make you question whether you are still watching Survivor.

While I love the strategy and game play Survivor often places its focus on, I love the personality of the show even more. When I can laugh or be genuinely baffled by what I am seeing on my screen, I’m happy. I’m not alone in that thinking. It’s why the Funny 115 has gotten so popular, people will always try to find the humor in anything.

With that said, I thought it would be fun to go back and visit some moments that made me think I had suddenly changed the dial without noticing.

Survivor: Borneo and the Survivor Bar

We are used to a certain Jeff Probst. The one who is above the contestants, almost like a deity. The one who likes to harp on “big moves” and season themes long past when it’s still relevant. He is poised and confident at tribal council. He knows how to get what he wants out of the show that he basically runs.

That Jeff Probst did not exist in Survivor’s original season. Jeff was just a dude who had hosted Rock n’ Roll Jeopardy and had somehow lucked into this new gig. He didn’t yet know how to handle everything that would be thrown at him and he hadn’t yet understood how he should interact with the players.

Likewise, production was still very green. They didn’t know what would fly as a reward and what wouldn’t. Which is why, when one reward challenge was revealed to be a single beer, the contestants nearly rioted. They refused to participate until production found a more suitable reward.

This led to the creation of the Survivor Bar. A bar that was “inhabited” by the locals of Borneo and totally wasn’t created by a rushed team of production people hoping their castaways didn’t simply walk off the show.

The winner of the reward challenge would now get to have drinks at the Survivor bar and watch the opening minutes of their season’s premiere. Jeff would accompany them on this reward because that makes sense.

Kelly Wigglesworth wins the challenge, as she does with pretty much every post-merge challenge, and gets to go have some drinks. You really have to watch this scene to get the feel for how weird it is. From Jeff offering her cigarettes to him exclaiming “this Bud’s for you”, and all the pregnant pauses in between, this is a masterwork of awkward television.

I’m just glad Jeff eventually realized he was better off yelling at the Survivors than trying to be their friends.

Survivor: Marquesas Reunion: Rosie’s Entrance

Really, picking any moment from an early reunion show (or most of them) is unfair but this is too good not to pick. Back in Survivor’s early days, Jeff didn’t host the reunion. It was left to Bryant Gumbel until he had enough and Rosie O’Donnell stepped into to replace him. And boy did she make her entrance known.

It’s important to note that while Rosie may be a has been nowadays, she was a huge TV personality in 2002. She was just finishing her run on The Rosie O’Donnell day-time talk show and had just come out as a lesbian. She was also a gigantic Survivor fan. Seemed like a natural to host a reunion show.

So in comes Rosie, on a motorcycle driven by Colby Donaldson who looks like he would rather be anywhere else in that moment. Colby looks like he would be ready to go back to day 42 in the Australian Outback even if Jerri Mathey was the one left with him. Rosie doesn’t care. Colby gets manhandled like a piece of meat until Rosie is done with him.

My favorite part is when Rosie greets Jeff before he leaves the stage. She tells him “number four, we’ll see you at number five”. Nope, at least not for you Rosie because you are about to host the biggest clusterfuck of a reunion Survivor will put on to that. It will be enough to make Jeff and the crew say “fuck it, I’ll just host the stupid thing myself”.

On top of that, she goes right into a hokey Gilligan’s Island parody to kick off the show. Basically, Rosie is reinforcing all of the bad stereotypes Survivor was being seen as while yelling at us through the screen. Weird moment indeed.

Jeff pulling teeth to associate movies to Survivor

Having the chance to watch a movie is not a new reward to Survivor. As far back as Survivor: Africa, Brandon and Frank won a reward to go watch a movie. Only back then, it was culturally relevant to what they were going through and Brandon and Frank got to watch Out of Africa.

The closer we get to the present, the more these rewards become tied in with the movie. Sometimes, networks are going to want to promote new releases and in two cases, it definitely made Jeff’s job as a host a little bit more difficult.

On Survivor: Nicaragua, the contestants were going to have the chance to watch Gulliver’s Travel. Watch Jeff try to pull an explanation out of his ass for how this bad movie Jack Black wrote for a quick couple millions relates to Survivor.

Of course, that challenge turned out to be memorable because NaOnka Mixon and Kelly Shinn both made the decision to quit. Not before NaOnka still went on a reward, forcing Holly to sit out to get the tribe more rice. And you wonder why NaOnka wasn’t particularly well-liked with her cast?

One season later, Jeff received another fun job. Take this Adam Sandler vehicle and tie it in with Survivor. Not just any Sandler movie, Jack and Jill, potentially the worst movie he has ever made. Jeff certainly does his best:

There is a connection between the movie Jack and Jill and this, Survivor. Jack and Jill is about a brother and a sister. They are twins. He doesn’t always get along with his sister but in the end, he realizes that he needs his twin sister in order to survive in the world. It’s the same out here for you guys. It is the bonds that you make in this tribe that help you survive in this game and get to the end.

First of all, rude Jeff, you spoiled the movie for me. Second of all, this sounds like a bit of a stretch to me. I love the look of seriousness on Coach Wade’s face as Jeff talks about family and bonds. Let’s remember that this is about an insensitive comedy in which Adam Sandler plays both a man and a woman. It’s being treated like Citizen Kane.

Lisi tripping balls during Surivor: Fiji’s final tribal council

Lisi Linares was a contestant in Fiji. She is also a complete weirdo who seems to think extremely highly of herself, which is the exact opposite view people have of her. Her moment of greatness in Fiji is when she gets to go up and ask a question to the final three in order to decide who she will vote for to win the game.

To kick things off, Lisi decides to use the “eenie meenie miney moe” method. Random right? Only it’s worse than that. Whether or not Lisi is aware of it, that rhyme has very racist origins and Lisi is up there reciting it to the first ever all-black final three. Good start Lisi.

Now that she’s appropriately insulted all three finalists, she narrows in on Cassandra. Is she going to go at her for being invisible strategically? Maybe Lisi has some beef with Cassandra that wasn’t aired? No… Lisi just wants to see Cassandra’s water shoes. Cassandra shows them to her and for Lisi, this is just insulting because “those are the worst water shoes I’ve ever seen”… okay? Somehow those water shoes prove that Cassandra was not prepared for this game and that also, she is greedy. Nobody, including Jeff, follows that logic but it doesn’t matter, Lisi exists on a different plane of life.

Onto Dreamz. Oh boy, he’s going to get it. Everybody is mad at Dreamz for not giving his immunity to Yau-Man like he had promised he would. Lisi is going to keep that train rolling right? “Dreamz, how many zeroes are in a million?” Wait, what? That’s your question to Dreamz? While Dreamz is taken aback by this odd question, he answers correctly. Of course, Lisi assumed he was going to answer incorrectly, because she’s stupid, and looks at the jury with a “this guy is dumb face” while the rest of the jury all try to find ways to kill themselves.

She tries to go at Earl too but Earl is a god and shuts her down quick. With that, Lisi gets to go sit down and never come back to this show. If you’re ever needing some Lisi in your life, you’ll simply have to rely on her music video to get by.

Amanda and Danielle audition for the WWE

In Survivor: Heroes vs Villains, Amanda Kimmel, Danielle DiLorenzo, and Colby Donaldson won a reward to go watch Treasure Island in some house. At this point in the game, Amanda and Colby are definitely on the outs while Danielle is sitting comfortably with the rest of the Villains in the majority.

Knowing she needs to find a way to save herself, Amanda is on the lookout for a clue while watching their movie. Unfortunately for her, Danielle finds the clue first and the chaos unleashes.

My favorite part in all of this is Colby. He is so into wanting to watch his movie that he actually gets up to pause it so they can resolve their fight. Throughout he’s eating popcorn. The best thing is that Colby is actually on Amanda’s side in the game but doesn’t even try to side with her in this argument. He’s basically just like “give her the damn clue so I can finish this old movie”.

Colby actually gives us his perspective on the whole affair in a secret confessional:

This serves as a great reminder for how great Colby is at the art of the confessional. He’s so naturally charming and good with words.

The whole ordeal is weird and feels the most un-Survivor like moment on the show. Maybe because it all takes place inside a room. Maybe because it seems like very petty drama between two people. It feels very much like a Big Brother argument than anything else but it is very enjoyable nonetheless.