The Funny 115
The 115 Funniest Things to Ever Happen on Survivor

by Mario Lanza
                          







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If you want to read the original Funny 115 (seasons 1-11), click on Chad's picture. If you want to read Version 2.0 (seasons 12-20), click on Coach. If you want to read The Third One (seasons 21-30), click on unimpressed Sophie.


Happy reading, and have fun!


-Mario







Other Fun Projects of mine:
(just click on any of the pictures to go to them)




When It Was Worth Playing For

This is my book about the first three seasons of Survivor, and how I became a "Survivor writer" when the show was still drawing in 40+ million viewers.  
It's the first in a series of books I have planned about the history of the show, but as of right now it's the only one I have finished.
Highly recommended. It has a great rating on Amazon!







The Survivor Historians

This is a fun little podcast I created about ten years ago. Four Survivor experts sit around and discuss the history of the TV show Survivor, starting on day one and going all the way up to the present. If you ever wanted to know why Survivor played out the way that it did, and how the audience reacted to each season at the time that it aired, this should be your starting point. You will never get a more in-depth look at the show than this one.
 As a side note, I also happen to think the episodes are pretty funny.






Staff Picks

This is my movie podcast, where I talk about all the underrated and underloved movies out there in the world, and I attempt to get people to track them down and appreciate them.
Each episode is an hour and a half to two hours long, they're a lot of fun.






Sandra Jesus-Twine

This is maybe the funniest thing I have ever posted on this website. A collection of Sandra Diaz-Twine quotes matched up with pictures of Jesus. Enjoy.  :)







Survivor Breaking News

Another page similar to Sandra Jesus-Twine. Fake news stories based on famous Survivor events. Really funny stuff here.







Mario Stories

I had a rather bizarre childhood, and some of my favorite things to write about are things that happened to me back when I was a kid. So here's a new page I started putting together a little while ago, called Mario Stories. Completely true, usually hilarious stories about my life growing up, and how I developed the odd sense of humor that I have. People seem to love these things, so I just keep writing them. In particular, pay attention to the stories about me and my mom, which are generally the funniest ones.






Norm Macdonald - the Last Dangerous Castmember

This is a tribute page I created to my favorite comedian of all time, Norm Macdonald. I basically went through every single Weekend Update he ever did on Saturday Night Live, and I picked out my favorite (300+) jokes. And then I compiled them all into categories so you can see just how funny he was, and how many different ways he was able to approach comedy. I'm especially proud of this writeup because I've never seen another Norm tribute page quite like it. Anyway, if you like Norm Macdonald humor, you're going to love it. RIP Norm.






The Saturday Night Live Funny 115

Here's a fun fact about me. I haven't missed an episode of SNL since about 1985. And anyway, here are my favorite SNL moments that aired between 2000-2015. I'll probably make a sequel to this when we get up to 2030.






My Top 50 MST3k Episodes

No TV show has ever had a bigger influence on my sense of humor over the years than Mystery Science Theater 3000. So here is my homage to MST3k, where I write about my favorite fifty episodes, and why I have always loved them so much over the years. (this page is still under construction, it's not quite complete yet - the writeups are only done for #50 - #13)






The Mario Lanza Comedy Education

A few years ago, I was a guest on a podcast called Hail Satire! with host Vic Shuttee. We spent four hours talking about the history of comedy in the 80s and 90s, and all the things (and people) that inspired me over the years to one day become a comedy writer.  This is a really good interview if you want to know more about me and how I got my odd sense of humor, and where I get all those obscure old TV and movie references.






The Andy Kaufman Strategy

Here's a famous Survivor column I wrote back in September of 2002. Where I laid out how a person could become the greatest Survivor villain of all time. And even though they might not actually win the game, they'd still go down in history as a reality TV legend (which is even better.) What's fun about this column is that you can definitely see how it inspired future players like Rob Cesternino and Jonny Fairplay (who both read it and, obviously, both took notes from it). Anyway, here's the infamous Andy Kaufman Strategy if you've ever wanted to read it for yourself. And I still dare someone to try to pull off the whole "fake religion" thing.






My mom's Kaldune recipe

Here's a fun little last link for you. My mom used to make these things called kaldunes ("Call-doonies") when I was a kid, and they were basically my favorite thing ever. In fact, to this day, they're still probably my favorite food. So in honor of my mom (who died back in 2004), here's how to make them, this is her actual recipe. If you're curious, they're basically a polish dumpling, stuffed with seasoned hamburger meat.

 





Hope you enjoy my twenty-plus years of being an internet comedy writer!
-Mario





Note: If you enjoy my work, and want to see more of it in the future, please consider either becoming my Patron or buying a Funny 115 support tile. Or you can do it the quick and dirty way, and just donate to me directly via Venmo or Paypal. I don't make any money off of any of these projects (other than the book). So sponsors and donations are the only way I can keep my projects alive, and keep paying all of my web hosting costs. You can also check out my Linktree page to see a list of ALL of my projects.






Click on J.T.'s letter to send me feedback






Other Funny 115 Links:

My Patreon Page

My entire Survivor writing archives (basically anything I wrote about the show from 2000 to about 2008)

My side project (I never finished this, but it was fun while it lasted) - 200 Movies That Deserve More Love

Helen Glover's Delicious Cashew Butterscotch Bars

Eliza and Helen - the Parallels

My Facebook Page