This ruling is bollocks and Jonathan knows it.
The Funny 115 - version 2.0
When I first sat down to make the new Funny
115, a lot of people told me, "You have to have an entry for Jonathan
Penner. He is one of the funniest Survivors ever.
He was
hilarious in Cook Islands."
So I sat down to watch Cook
Islands. And I waited. I waited for that -one-
great
Jonathan Penner moment. The one that I knew would make
him a
slam dunk to have his own entry on the Funny 115.
The
only problem was that I never could find it. It never
happened.
Oh sure, Jonathan had a lot of good quotes. He had
a lot of
fun little quips. He was certainly witty and one of the best
narrators the show has ever had. It was a lot of fun to watch
him
bitch at Jeff Probst. But to get an entry that is simply
called
"Jonathan Penner" on the Funny 115 you need to have a bunch of A+ level
hilarious quotes and... I'm sorry... Jonathan comes thiiiis
close,
but he doesn't quite make it.
This ruling is bollocks and Jonathan knows it.
However,
don't take this the wrong way. Just because Penner won't have
his
own entry doesn't mean I'm not a big fan of his. I think he
is
one of the wittiest, most well spoken, and most fascinating characters
that have ever been on Survivor. You could plop Jonathan
Penner
down in a room and have him read names out of the phone book, and I bet
it would be better than 75% of the episodes of Survivor: Cook Islands.
He is like Coach in the sense that pretty much every scene he
shows up in on TV is better, simply because he is in it.
Happy Jonathan
For
Jonathan's first entry on the Funny 115, I have selected a very funny
scene from Fans vs Favorites. It comes in episode three
during
the immunity challenge.
The
challenge for the day involves throwing coconuts up into a net basket.
The first tribe to fill their net, and make the other tribe
lose
control of the rope holding it from below, wins immunity. In
theory it is a very simple challenge. Whoever can make the
most
baskets wins immunity.
Well what is funny about this is
challenge is that about midway through, Jonathan Penner starts trash
talking the Fans. He starts trash talking them -hard-.
And
he doesn't just trash talk them either, he starts making up nicknames
for them. Every single time a Fan runs up to shoot a basket,
Penner A) makes up a new name for them, B) tries to distract them and
throw off their timing, and then C) heckles them afterwards when they
miss the shot. In fact at one point Penner is so into it that
he
even starts taking digs at Amanda on his own team.
Penner and the Favorites holding their rope
The taunts begin
This one is my favorite. "Chet. You're at a
pageant. Annnnnnnd..... CHET!"
After Jason makes a basket for the Fans...
"Nice shot there, squirrely boy."
I
really wish I could do this scene justice and capture just how funny it
is in print. Unfortunately you will probably have to watch it
on
the Youtube channel to get the spirit of how much fun Penner is having
talking shit about people. He does it so much during this
challenge that Jeff Probst even comments on it later, saying "Penner,
talkin' a lllllot of trash. Just like we expect.
Reminds me
of the Cook Islands."
Meanwhile then there's
Penner off to the side, giant shit eating grin on his face, satisfied
that he is cementing his legacy as one of the single most entertaining
Survivor players of all time.
I love this scene.
P.S.
My 10 year old daughter doesn't really watch Survivor very
often,
but she happened to be in the room when I was watching this scene in
research for this list. And her assessment? "That
Jonathan
guy is funny." So there you go. The endorsement of
a 10
year old.
P.P.S. Oh yeah, and who
won this challenge? Well I guess the trash talking didn't
work,
because the Fans won anyway.
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