This week we’re going to be posting end-of-year lists to highlight the best, funniest, and most shocking moments of Survivor in 2017. The Inside Survivor team separately nominated four choices in each category (six in the Best Character categories). We then tallied those votes to determine the final four nominations for each of those categories.
To vote on the previous categories click here.
Here are our four nominations for Funniest Moment of Survivor in 2017. Readers can vote below for their favorite.
Sugar-Gate (7 nominations)
Survivor: Game Changers
Sandra has been a part of some of the funniest moments in Survivor history during her three appearances on the show. Whether it is getting loud with Jonny Fairplay, falling flat on her face after failing to jump over a shallow creek bed, or burning Russell Hantz’s fedora, Sandra brings hilarity. Perhaps her funniest moment ever though came in Game Changers when her sugar theft brought about the downfall of former winner JT. The shot of Sandra giving a Jim Halpert-style glance to camera while JT complained about Michaela Bradshaw in the background was an instant classic moment. The pleasure Sandra took in spurring on JT’s frustration was pure gold, and it all culminated at tribal council when, after JT’s elimination, Sandra proudly owned up to being the sugar-thief.
Michaela snacks at Tribal Council (6 nominations)
Survivor: Game Changers
For the second year in a row, Michaela makes an appearance in the Funniest Moment category. During Game Changers, Michaela enjoyed turning tribal council into her own personal movie theater. The first time it happened was at the aforementioned JT blindside when Michaela produced a water bottle and cup from her bag and performed a live reenactment of the Kermit tea-sipping meme. It was the cherry on top of an already sweet blindside given JT had spent the entire tribal running down Michaela with some pretty harsh personal attacks. Michaela reprised her food theatrics at the merge when her alliance blindsided Debbie Wanner. Debbie was at the height of her delusion and continued to complain about Michaela always eating. When the votes for Debbie came in, Michaela watched on, shoveling pieces of coconut into her mouth like it was popcorn. Nobody was more GIF-worthy than Michaela in 2017.
Idol Strip Search (5 nominations)
Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers
The phrase “Is that an idol in your pants or are you just happy to see me?” has never been more appropriate than when Alan Ball ostensibly forced JP Hilsabeck to strip naked to prove that he didn’t have an idol. It was only Night 2 of Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers, and already the Heroes tribe was descending into the sort of cabin fever madness you would expect after 30+ days on the island. It’s still unclear if this was all part of Alan’s elaborate plan or if he was, in the words of Ashley Nolan, “tripping.” But what we do know is that it gave JP his one and only memorable moment of the season and was enough to earn him a Funniest Moment nomination.
You can’t fool Ben (5 nominations)
Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers
The best-laid schemes of mice and men often go awry, and that was the case at the final five of Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers. On paper, Chrissy’s plan to use her defunct Super Idol to fool Ben into not looking for the real idol was near perfect. The problem was, Ben had already found the real idol. This fact turned the moment from a potential genius plot into a hilarious game of cat and mouse. No matter what the group did to stop Ben, the ex-Marine remained one step ahead. “He bought it hook, line and sinker,” Ryan boasted, while Ben chuckled to himself in the jungle. The highlight of this whole kerfuffle was when Ben said, “This four think they’re so smart, but it’s like a bunch of blind mice running around bumping into stuff,” followed by Dr. Mike literally face-planting on the beach.
Honorable Mentions: Tony hits the ground running (Survivor: Game Changers), Brad’s burlap bag shirt at FTC (Survivor: Game Changers), the Spaghetti idol fight (Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers), Andrea stumbles on the rocks (Survivor: Game Changers).
The poll closes Monday, January 1 2018.
Check back tomorrow when we will reveal the nominations for Shocking Moment.
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Alan was such a funny character in my opinion. And I remember thinking the strip search moment was so funny that I expected JP to be this really good character too (That was proven false extremely quickly).
Feels weird not voting for Queen Sandra, but I really thought the strip moment was a little funnier than the sugar thing, even though Sandra as a character is obviously better than anyone on HVHVH
A clear winner for Game Changers here. SugarGate and Michaela’s sassiness are both phenomenal and funny moments. Of course, I have to give SugarGate the edge. *rewatches*
Another great Sandra moment was when she ripped Sugar’s bra off in HvV. In Game Changers, her attitude toward Tony after she voted him out (“Bye Tony. Say hi to Ciera for me!”) was hysterical, too. Truly a gem. There are very few Survivor players that are not only that good at the game but also epically entertaining in all the ways Sandra is.
The tea-sipping started at the JT boot yes, but then she also did the popcorn thing at a later TC. So it felt right to have them separate.
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