The Funny 115 - The Third One





#46. Sophie Meets Jack and Jill
South Pacific - episode 7



It's the seventh episode of Survivor: South Pacific, and today the players will be competing in a unique new type of challenge.





They don't know what it is yet, but it apparently has something to do with "twins", and "family"





Coach goes on to Coachsplain to everyone what twins and family mean



But wait.  There's a SECOND part to this challenge as well.




"Paint your faces and bodies.  Adorn yourself in your best warrior look."



Coach hears this and he instantly jizzes in his pants.




THAT'S RIGHT, IT'S WARRIOR TIME BABY!





"They actually call me the Dragonslayer, Sophie.  Did you know that?"





"This challenge will be good for me because I'm actually a warrior."




Sophie learns this and she is suitably impressed.









So anyway, the Upolus prepare for this new type of family/twin warrior challenge.  By doing the same thing they do to prepare for pretty much every challenge.  They go down to the beach and they commit blasphemy.






























You better believe it, baby.  Darkness Slayer.




After their little Wicker Man ritual is over, and after Coach has literally summoned the sun, that means it is time for today's challenge.  And this one is going to be a fun one. 









Not only are the players all dressed up like one another, and adorned with bodypaint...














It turns out they are competing for an especially fun new type of reward.




WE GET TO EAT COACH'S SHIT!  YAY!



And.... uh....

Well...

At this point I'll let our fearless host take over.





"The winning tribe today wins immunity, plus a trip to the Survivor: South Pacific cinema."





"You will enjoy an exclusive sneak peek of the new Columbia Pictures movie Jack and Jill."





"Starring Adam Sandler."





Adam Sandler





"The movie doesn't open until November 11 so it truly is a sneak peek."




And oh boy!  Our reward today is a fucking Adam Sandler movie!





The bard himself




Bearded Sophie looks thrilled




Yes, if you don't remember, this is the point in Survivor history where the sponsors were drying up, and the show wasn't attracting a lot of new ones.  So they had to resort to showing sneak previews of upcoming movies as their rewards.  This was one of the most embarrassing stretches in Survivor history, second only to seasons 31-50, where EVERYONE GETS AN ADVANTAGE, EVERY EPISODE!  AND IF YOU DON'T HAVE FOUR ADVANTAGES EACH IT ISN'T EXCITING!





#NeverForget




Probst explains that today the winners will be watching an Adam Sandler movie.  And as an added bonus he now somehow tries to tie this into the storyline of the season.  As if this was what the producers had intended South Pacific to be about all along.

This is one of the great "Jeff Probst grasping at straws" moments, by the way.

Enjoy it.  :)




"There is a connection between the movie Jack and Jill and this, Survivor."





"It's about a brother and a sister, who are twins.  He doesn't always get along with his sister."





"But in the end he realizes he needs his twin sister to survive in the world."





"It's the same out here for you guys."





"It is the bonds that you make that get you guys to the end."











"Also, I'm pretty sure at some point Sandler sticks a plunger into his butt."









So anyway, that's what we're competing for today.  A chance to watch a ninety minute dumbass Adam Sandler comedy.

It's the world's greatest social experiment, ladies and gentlemen!





"And, as always, I implore you.  Make big moves or else a girl might win."









So the tribes compete.  

And, in a closely contested battle for Sandler dominance, the Upolus win.





"Upolu wins immunity!  And the new Columbia Pictures Adam Sandler movie!"





YES!





YES!




Sophie is so excited to win that she completely misses Albert when she tries to hug him.





I love this shot




So Upolu wins.  And with that, comes the fruit of their labor.  

They will be the first people in America to see the new Columbia Pictures masterpiece, Jack and Jill.





Like Jeanne, at this point, they're pretty much winners in life





Are you guys all Sandlermaniacs?





Ready to have your funny bones tickled by the Sandman?





YES WE ARE!





Well here you go.  Go watch something that might be even worse than our show.





YES!  I'M COACH AND I LOVE IT!





Get it on





Brandon accepts the Jack and Jill tickets deferentially, much as King Arthur would accept Excalibur





FUCKIN' A!  THIS GUY STARRED IN THE WATERBOY!




And with that, we now get one of the most unintentionally funny scenes from South Pacific.























Whoops, not that one.

I mean this one.










Yay!  It's movie time!




I should point out that there's a fun voiceover gag as the Upolus are running into the theater.  You hear Coach talking and saying how amazing this is going to be, and then in the middle of his sentence the editors just randomly insert him shouting "JACK AND JILL, BABY!"  And then he goes right back to his sentence as if that were part of what he was saying.  It's really funny if you listen for it.  Also, apparently Coach gets really really excited about Adam Sandler movies.





Still inspired by Happy's final putt




And so here we go.  

The movie scene.





Yay!  We get candy!





Yay!  We get hot dogs!





Brandon wonders what kind of prize he can get for his thirty-two Chuck E. Cheese tickets




And so into the theater they go.





Where they are quickly inspired by the Sandman





Ha ha.  Adam Sandler is awesome.










Oh my god!  This movie is hilarious!










Adam Sandler got punched!  This is incredible!









I bet I'll get airtime if I laugh so hard I pee my pants




Pretty much everyone is having fun.  

Everyone is sitting there, and eating, and laughing, and cornholing.





OH MY GOD HE JUST PUT A SPOON ON HIS HEAD!




Everyone, that is, except for ONE person.









And if you ever wondered where the legend of Stone-Faced Sophie was born, here you go.

It's one of the funniest visual images in Survivor history.






There's Sophie in the back.  Not laughing.





At any of this shit





Because Sophie knows that Adam Sandler movies aren't funny














In fact, at one point she may have just fallen asleep





When I first saw this scene in South Pacific, I got so excited.  Because to me, this had the potential to be a #1 entry.  I mean, this is the kind of stuff that I find really funny.  Because here's this girl in the background, who's not really a major character or a major part of the storyline at this point in this season, yet she somehow manages to upstage EVERYONE else in the scene simply because she isn't laughing at the stupid Adam Sandler movie.  I mean, think about that for a second.  Sophie has barely had two minutes of airtime this entire season (thanks editors), yet she shows up here and even by doing nothing she still manages to upstage COACH.  And who on Earth has ever been able to upstage Coach??









Here's Coach, going on and on about how Adam Sandler movies inspire him, and how he's a fan, and how this is the greatest thing that has ever happened to the show because Columbia Pictures is awesome.






In fact, when I have a kid one day, I'm going to name her Columbia Pictures




And here's Sophie, who isn't even doing anything, and she still manages to steal his spotlight.









And if that isn't foreshadowing for what is going to happen later in the season, well, I just don't know what is.





When they learned there isn't going to be a Jack and Jill 2




So anyway, here's to Sophie the Stone-Faced, who became a legend that night in the Survivor South Pacific Cinema.  She had never been a major character prior to this scene.  Some would argue she never even became a major character after this scene.  But she still came in and stole South Pacific from so many many people around her who didn't want her to shine.  









And all because she pulled a Hulk Hogan and she did a complete no-sell on the sponsor of the episode.



































P.S.  Like I said earlier, having upcoming movies as a reward was a particularly embarrassing era in Survivor history.  But this wasn't the only time that it didn't come off so well for the star of the movie.  If you go back and rewatch the Gulliver's Travels reward in Nicaragua, pay attention to the only observation Chase makes about the star of the movie, Jack Black.  

What important lesson does Chase take from watching Gulliver's Travels?  Is it that Jack Black is funny?  Is it that Jack Black is hilarious and amazing?

No, this is the only thing we hear anyone say about professional comedian Jack Black.








"Ha ha, he's so fat."













P.P.S.  You know how I'm always pointing out that Cochran was funnier than you remember?  Well let's not forget that Sophie wasn't the ONLY person in South Pacific who didn't look thrilled that they were going to have to sit through an Adam Sandler movie.  There was another guy out there who knew this reward was probably going to be very painful.




Note the only other person who wasn't smiling about this













P.P.P.S.  Okay, you've been asking about it.  So here's the big one.

Since I mentioned that this entry had a very strong chance of being the #1 overall, you might be wondering, well then why did it get dropped all the way down here to #46?  That seems like an awfully big drop for a scene that was this iconic.  In fact, Mario, didn't you make Sophie's reaction to Jack and Jill the new thumbnail for the Funny 115?







Yes, I did.  And I really did plan for this to be the #1 entry overall.  Or, at the very least, I had always planned for it to be in the top ten.

But then, as I was rewatching this scene one last time for my final notes, I noticed something that a lot of people might have forgotten is in there.  In fact, I didn't remember it at all until I did my final rewatch.  By the way, I hope this doesn't ruin this scene for you altogether, because it's possible it does.

I hate to show this to you.  But here it is.




At one point, Sophie kind of laughs at the movie




In fact, it actually happens twice, if you watch close




It's hard to say that what she does is an actual laugh.   She never flat out loses it like everyone else does, she just sort of lets out a noise when something slapsticky happens on screen.  In fact, it's possible she is simply Pavloving to other people laughing around her, because that's the whole theory behind laugh tracks, and because that's the way your brain works.  But what she does is CLOSE enough to a laugh that I knew I couldn't make this my #1 entry anymore.  It's just too borderline.  

So anyway, if you're mad that this didn't wind up being the #1 entry, don't yell me, go yell at Sophie.  She's the one who chortled.  Although on second thought, don't yell at Sophie, because I'm worried she'll find me and she'll stab me.  

Go yell at Adam Sandler.  That guy is the real villain.





Too bad O'Doyle didn't finish him off













P.P.P.P.S.  Here's Albert defending the Upolus' dignity.

















P.P.P.P.P.S.  And finally, we end with this.  Where Sophie trolls the editors of Entertainment Weekly by naming Jack and Jill as her personal favorite Survivor moment.


















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