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The 97 Stupidest Things Ever Done On Survivor

97. Sean Kenniff says that getting to see his father is "better than the million dollars".

96. Billy Garcia announces his perceived love connection with Candice at tribal council.

95. Sean Kenniff builds an elaborate fishing pole he dubs Superpole 2000, but fails to catch a single fish with it.

94. Butch Lockley accidently burns down the Amazon merged tribe's campsite.
(Yes, this entry is a little unfair, since at best he's only indirectly responsible for the campsite burning down, but I feel like it deserves a mention of some sort.)

93. Candice Woodcock "mutinies" and voluntarily switches to the Raro tribe.
(I think Candice had at least as good of a chance of making final 2 at Raro as she did at Aitu, so the only thing that's stupid about this is that it potentially makes it more difficult for her to win a jury vote.)

92. The Lopevi Guys vote out Brady over John K. or Rory.

91. The Yasur girls vote out Lisa over Rory.
(It's true that if they voted out Rory they would have lost the next IC, but who cares? If they lose, they can still vote off Lisa, and it's a challenge they should have thrown anyway, to protect Twila and Julie. The only downside to this strategy is if there's a late merge, and even then they still have Eliza to vote off.)

90. Roger Sexton, Butch Lockley and Dave Johnson vote out Jeanne over Heidi.
(But as with the entry below, in all fairness, she was pretty hot!)

89. The Lopevi Guys vote out John K. over Julie.
(I downgraded this because, in all fairness, Julie was pretty damn hot!)

88. Brian Heidik, who worked as a used car salesman, loses the car reward challenge because he couldn't spell "Road Trip".

87. Jessica "Flica Flame" Smith loses her tribe's chickens.

86. Ted Rogers loses his tribe's boat and fishing net.

85. Austin Carty announces at tribal council that he was faking being weak at the last immunity challenge.
(Which, of course, kind of defeats the purpose of faking it in the first place.)

84. Yul Kwon announces that part of the reason why he brought Jonathan his hat was to appease him for voting him out.

83. Amber Brkich announces "I can almost smell the money!" in front of the jurors.

82. Neleh Dennis says in her jury speech that she didn't start playing the game until day 24.

81. Ken Hoang, Crystal Cox and Matty Whitmore vote off Kelly over Sugar.
(They could have also voted Ace off, but I think it would have been better to vote off Sugar first because they needed Ace in the challenges. Some fault also lies with Kelly, who revealed a spectacular pair of breasts at the Reunion, but failed to use them to save herself while she was on the show.)

80. Fang votes off Michelle over Gillian.
(Not only was Michelle infinitely better in the challenges than Gillian, but she was also the only attractive female on the tribe, which makes voting her off especially stupid for the guys.)

79. Danni Boatwright decides to vote out Blake over Amy or Brian.
(Hence throwing away Old Nakum's voting majority and greatly weakening her tribe in challenges. That being said, I definitely thank her as a viewer.... for obvious reasons.)

78. New Raro votes out JP over Stephannie at their first tribal council.
(Granted, he was an asshole, and for the girls it gave them the majority, but still, they needed him in the challenges.)

77. Rob Mariano's alliance votes out Hunter over Gina.
(Thankfully for them there was a tribal swap right after this, so it didn't wind up hurting them, but that doesn't take anything away from how stupid this was.)

76. Corinne Kaplan and Bob Crowley make up an elaborate story about having an immunity idol to try to get Ken and Crystal to vote with them against Matty, when they would have been better off simply asking Ken and Crystal to vote with them.
(This is an example of how being too creative, without need, can hurt you. Had Corrine and Bob simply asked Ken and Crystal to vote with them against Matty, they would have likely done so and Corinne would have still been in the game. Instead, by telling them they have an idol, they're basically telling them that their votes aren't necessary, because if they really had an idol Matty would be gone regardless of whom Ken and Crystal voted for. This then leads to the situation where Ken, believing Crystal's vote isn't necessary, tells her to vote for Corinne. He could have also voted for Corinne himself, since his own vote against Matty would have been unnecessary, but apparently he wanted to take some of the credit for voting him out. In any case, the bottom line here is that Corinne and Bob would have been better off if they had just asked Ken and Crystal to vote with them, and they should have been able to realize from talking to Ken that he and Crystal would have gone along with it.)

75. The Raros vote off Jenny instead of Jonathan.
(They should have realized that Jenny was less likely to flip after the merge.)

74. Mookie Lee tells Dreamz that he, Alex, and Edgardo found the Hidden Immunity Idol, but originally didn't tell him about it.
(To be fair, I think Dreamz blew this a little out of proportion.)

73. Michael Skupin falls into the fire.
(It's amazing to me that after 17 seasons and dozens of clueless mactors, the only person to do something like this is still Mike Skupin, someone who clearly saw himself as some kind of master survivalist.)

72. Crystal Cox passes over numerous strong young males and chooses Susie Smith to be on her tribe, thereby creating a tribe consisting of herself, a 47 year old woman and a 61 year old woman.
(Shockingly, the tribe winds up not winning many challenges.)

71. Sally Schumann manages to lose her tribe's fishing spear apparently within hours of them winning it.
(Honorable mention to Shawn and Lillian of Pearl Islands, who lost their tribe's fishing spear and fishing hooks respectively.)

70. B.B. Anderson washes his shirt in Pagong's drinking water.

69. Erik Huffman almost gets his closest ally Peih-Gee eliminated by failing to go along with a plan to vote for Todd at the tribal council where James is voted off.
(Erik and Peih-Gee were supposed to vote for Todd so he would go home if James used one of his idols, but somehow Eric fails to go along with the plan. This means that if James had used the idol there would have been a 1-1 tie between Todd and Peih-Gee, most likely followed by a revote where Peih-Gee would be voted out 4-1.)

68. Lisi Linares, Stacy Kimball, and Boo Bernis decide vote off Liliana instead Cassandra, which is pretty stupid in itself, and then fail to see the problem in alienating Dreamz and Cassandra, whose votes they'll now need if they want to have a post-merge majority.

67. The original Aitus throw the Episode 2 immunity challenge so they can vote off one of their own members.
(And I believe it was a combined immunity/reward challenge too.)

66. Sean Kenniff fails to or declines to join the Tagi alliance.

65. Gabriel Cade fails to or declines to join the Rotu 4 and announces that he's "not here to play the game".

64. Shane Powers announces that he wants to leave the Casaya alliance.
(And previously he asked to be voted out, which needless to say is pretty stupid as well.)

63. Terry Deitz attempts to get members of the majority alliance to join his minority alliance by offering them safety for the next 2 tribal councils.

62. The Raros insist on voting for Yul after the merge, even though they know he may have the hidden immunity idol.
(Hence risking the loss of their numbers advantage when they could have just voted off Becky or Sundra, risk free.)

61. Amanda Kimmel somehow manages to give a less convincing jury speech than Courtney Yates.

60. Danni Boatwright argues a pretty convincing case for Steph in her jury speech, and speaks little of her own deservingness.
(Danni actually managed to argue for Steph even more blatantly than Amber seemed to be arguing for Rob, but I still give Amber the edge for her "luck" comment.)

59. Amber Brkich argues a pretty convincing case for Rob in her jury speech, speaks little of her own deservingness, and names "luck" as the biggest factor that got her to the Final 2.
(These are my 2 candidates for Worse Winning Jury Performance of All Time.)

58. Andria "Dreamz" Herd makes a deal with Yau-Man that requires him to either give up immunity at Final 4 or look like an asshole in front of the jury.

57. Jonathan Penner doesn't make Yul Kwon give him his idol in exchange for flipping sides and voting with Aitu at merge.

56. Terry Dietz doesn't use the hidden immunity idol to pull over Bruce and vote off Aras at merge.
(And yes, it's possible that Bruce wouldn't have been willing to do this, but he should have made every possible effort.)

55. Becky Lee declines Yul's offer of the hidden immunity idol, twice.
(I guess the second time it would have been stupid of her to take it, because it would have hurt Yul's chances of winning, while her own changes of winning would have still been close to zero, but the first time she should have at least taken it until the merge, and then given it back to him.)

54. Yul Kwon offers the hidden immunity idol to Becky, twice.
(He probably knew she wouldn't accept it, but if he was really considering giving it her then that's pretty damn stupid.)

53. Stephanie LaGrossa and Rafe Judkins vote off Jamie over Gary.

52. Todd Herzog allows James Clement to keep both immunity idols, instead of insisting in their original agreement that James would give the second idol to Todd if he found it.
(Some people claim that Todd did makes James agree to do this, but James just didn't do it, but there doesn't seem to be any indication from the show that that's the case, and if it is, then Todd is a fool for not making a bigger issue out of it. He could have even used it as an excuse to vote off James.)

51. Kimmi Kappenberg blabs to Ogakor that Jeff has a previous vote against him.

50. Drake votes off Shawn instead of Jon "Jonny Fairplay" Dalton.
(They should have realized that JFP was much more likely to flip after the merge.)

49. Jonathan Penner "mutinies" and voluntarily switches to the Raro tribe.
(Hence leaving a tribe where he had a powerful ruling alliance to go to a tribe where he had only one strong ally. This action also ruins his chances of winning a jury vote.)

48. Sue Hawk quits All-Stars because Rich's penis touches her during a challenge.
(To be fair, it was also very stupid for the show to allow Rich to compete naked in a challenge that required physical contact.)

47. Travis "Bubba" Sampson signals his old Lopevi tribemates and tells them not to "forget about the merge" in clear view of Ami and his other new tribemates.

46. The merge tribe on Australian Outback decides to build their shelter in a dry river bed.
(I think this was Jerri's idea.)

45. Joanna Ward freaks out about the immunity idol being evil.

44. Neleh Dennis feels guilty that she didn't bring any food back from reward so she offers her other tribe members a tiny mint from her mouth.

43. After apparently throwing the Episode 3 immunity challenge, Sook Jai votes out Jed, one of their strongest members.

42. The Fans tribe (Airai) votes off Mikey and Mary instead of Chet and Kathy.
(Note that I'm really referring to just Alexis, Erik, Joel and Natalie here, not the whole tribe.)

41. Alex Bell tells Rob than he plans on voting for him when they reach the Final 4.

40. Drake throws the Episode 4 immunity challenge and then votes out the person who's perhaps their biggest challenge asset.
(This, of course, was especially stupid for Burton, who suggested the idea of throwing the challenge and then wound up being booted himself.)

39. The Morgans sell their clothes, fail to spend all their money, and let Rupert steal their shoes while shopping at the village.

38. Rupert Boneham attempts to build an underground shelter on a beach.

37. Boran dumps out their water on the walk to their campsite because the jugs were too heavy.

36. Amber Brkich, Elisabeth Filarski, Rodger Bingham, and Nick Brown fail to form a counter alliance to vote off Colby and Tina.
(I don't mention Keith with Colby and Tina because if they were smart they'd keep him around as a Final 2 goat.)

35. Jessica "Sugar" Kiper uses her immunity idol to vote out Crystal, one of the only people she could have conceivably beaten in a jury vote.

34. Randy Bailey acts like an even bigger asshole than usual to try to get people to vote for him so he can use the idol he thinks Bob has, but he starts doing this before he actually confirms that Bob has the idol or that Bob would be willing to give it to him.

33. Ken Hoang, Crystal Cox, Matty Whitmore, Susie Smith and Jessica "Sugar" Kiper decide to vote off Randy instead of Bob, even though they know Bob is a much bigger threat.
(Some people might rank this higher, but I think their concern that Randy might burn down the camp or sabotage their food supple was a legitimate concern, and probably few people could have predicted that Bob would go on an immunity run.)

32. Kelly Wigglesworth changes her vote from Rich to Sue.
(Hence eliminating the person she had the best chance of beating in the Final 2 and turning a sometimes ally into a very vocal enemy. But of course this led to Sue's jury speech, one of the greatest moments in Survivor history, so how can you really hold it against her?)

31. The Rotu 4 vote out Gabe over Rob/Sean/Vecepia.
(Why would you vote out one of your own tribe members when you have a chance to take out someone from the other tribe? And had they not made this blunder, there theoretically wouldn't have been enough people for a counter-alliance at Final 9, since Gabe was apparently anti-alliances.)

30. The Rotu 4 unwittingly reveal the pecking order when they target Kathy, Neleh and Paschal at the coconut chop immunity challenge.
(Hence causing the formation of a counter-alliance which then proceeds to vote them out.)

29. The Mogo Morons boot Rich, Colby, and Ethan over Jerri.
(Hence dooming them to an incredible challenge losing streak.)

28. Danielle DiLorenzo votes out Courtney and Shane, the only 2 people she could conceivably beat in a jury vote.
(And voting off Courtney was especially stupid since she was a close ally of Danielle.)

27. Jaime Dugan somehow believes that a blank piece of wood that James left on the ground is an immunity idol, continues to talk about it as such until the day she's voted out, and attempts to play it at tribal council.
(There's nothing wrong with her playing it at tribal council, it's just stupid that she believed it was real. And no, I don't buy into the argument that she knew it was fake. I think that's some revisionist history on the part of Jaime and Frosti.)

26. Jason Siska somehow believes that a wooden stick with a face carved on it is an immunity idol and appears totally dumbfounded when Eliza suggests that it's "just a stick".

25. Sundra Oakley is somehow unable to start a fire during a Final 4 fire-building tiebreaker even after being given an entire packet of matches.

24. After reaching the Final 7, Caryn Groedel rejects a spot in an alliance of 4 and instead chooses to become the 6th member of an alliance of 6.
(And to make it even stupider, one of the 4 (Steph) was an obvious Final 4 boot if she didn't win immunity, and the other 2 people were people Caryn could have actually possibly beaten in a jury vote.)

23. Marcus Lehman is voted out shortly after throwing an immunity idol into the ocean.

22. Jason Siska is voted after not playing his immunity idol, even though he knew most of the players wanted him gone and even though he just saw the same thing happen to Ozzy.
(But to his credit, at least he had enough sense to take the idol to tribal council, unlike Ozzy!)

21. Ozzy Lusth is not only voted out despite having an unused immunity idol, but even more amazingly he apparently goes through his entire time in the game without taking his immunity idol to a single tribal council.
(This definitely isn't as stupid as what James did, since James had two idols and a much shorter period in which to use them, and I don't think it's as stupid as what Jason did in this same episode either, but nevertheless the fact that he never even bothered to take the idol to tribal council just blows my mind.)

20. Jeff Varner gives up in the Episode 7 immunity challenge in Australia, even though he knows that Ogakor knows he has a past vote against him and that he'll likely be voted out as a result.

19. Ken Hoang, who seemed to be on the road to winning the game, believes a story told by Corinne and Bob about them having an immunity idol (seemingly without even asking to see it) and responds by risking everything to create an unnecessary split vote between Matty and Corinne.
(Ken could have definitely won the game and this is where he blew it for himself. Not only was he stupid to believe the story, but worse, his plan to split the vote makes no sense. Assuming he wanted Matty out, then he should have told Crystal to vote for him, that way he's out regardless of whether the idol story was true. Instead he tells Crystal to vote for Corinne so they can "flush out the idol", but having Crystal vote for Corrine wouldn't have any effect on whether Corinne plays the idol, because she doesn't see the votes beforehand. This plan would have made sense in Cook Islands, since at that time the idol could be played after the votes were read, but it makes no sense in a season where the idols are played before the votes are read. Basically, he put himself in a position where he would be screwed if there was no idol and there was no reason why he needed to do it. Crystal Cox also deserves an honorable mention for not telling Ken that she suspected that the idol was fake and for somehow going along with the plan even though she suspected that.)

18. Sean Kenniff unleashes his infamous "alphabet strategy".
(Later revived by Susie Smith in Gabon!)

17. James Clement is voted out after failing to use either of his two immunity idols.
(It annoyed me when Jeff called this the "biggest blunder in Survivor history." It's clearly nowhere near as stupid as what Ian, Colby and many other people did. Also, James should be given credit for at least taking his idols to tribal council, unlike Ozzy.)

16. Stacy Kimball, who's secretly voting against Yau-Man and who knows that she'll be going home if Yau-Man gets suspicious and uses his idol, announces that she thinks there's going to be a split vote.
(I don't understand how she goes from doing such a good job pretending to be resigned to her fate when she's talking to Earl, to saying something so stupid at Tribal Council. It's really like there's something about Tribal Council that makes people's IQs magically drop. Also: Honorable mention to Dreamz for his own comments at this TC.)

15. Jason Siska, who knows he'll probably be voted out if he doesn't win immunity, gives up an immunity challenge that he appeared likely to win in exchange for promises from the other players that they won't vote him out.
(He lucks out and survives that tribal council after the girls decide to target Ozzy and Ozzy fails to play his idol, but that doesn't take anything away from the stupidity of what he did.)

14. Amanda Kimmel and Courtney Yates vote off Denise instead of Todd at Final 4.
(One of them would have almost definitely won had it not been for this mistake. Amanda also compounded the mistake by following it up with a weak jury performance.)

13. Ami Cusack and Leann Slaby tell Scout that they're kicking her out of their alliance and then target Eliza instead of just voting out Chris.
(Hence causing the formation of a counter-alliance which then proceeds to vote them out.)

12. The Mogo Morons boot Jerri instead of Amber.
(This is similar to the Samburu situation in Africa where they're given a gigantic gift from God, but fail to capitalize on it.)

11. Stephenie LaGrossa and Rafe Judkins allow Danni to win the immunity advantage at the auction reward, then let her convince them to vote out Judd over Lydia, and then don't include Cindy in the vote.
(Hence, they not only allow their biggest threat to stay in the game, but they also manage to turn 2 of their biggest allies against them. And for Steph, she basically throws away any chance she had at winning the jury vote.)

10. After Brandon unfathomably votes for Kelly instead of Lex (see below) Kim Powers stamps out any remaining hope of success for the Samburus by insisting on voting for Brandon instead of Tom.
(If they had voted for Tom there would have been a tie and Tom would have been eliminated based on past votes. Lex also had past votes, but he was immune this ep.)

9. Lex Van Den Berghe and the rest of Boran decide to vote out Kelly Goldsmith, giving Samburu an opportunity to take control of the game.
(Which they, even more stupidly, fail to capitalize on.)

8. Brandon Quinton votes for Kelly instead of Lex.
(His tribe could have gained control of the game, but instead he decides to preserve his weak alliance with a member of the opposing tribe. Huh??)

7. The Pagongs realize that Tagi has an alliance and that they plan on booting them one by one, but they STILL vote for one of their own members.
(This is in reference to Episode 8, where Greg is voted out. It finally dawns on them to vote for Rich in the next ep, but by then it's too late.)

6. Kelly Wigglesworth leaves the Tagi alliance.
(Why the hell would anyone throw away a guaranteed Final 4 spot???)

5. Rafe Judkins "releases" Danni from her promise to take him to the Final 2.
(I don't think this is quite as stupid as what Ian did, but it's close...)

4. Stephenie LaGrossa and Rafe Judkins vote out Lydia over Danni.
(Because seriously, who wants a free ride to the Final 2?)

3. Erik Reichenbach is voted out after Cirie and Natalie convince him to give up the immunity necklace.
(Definitely a contender for the stupidest thing ever done, but I still give the edge to Ian and Colby since they were so close to actually winning the $1 million.)

2. Colby Donaldson takes Tina to the Final 2 instead of Keith.
(No longer the stupidest thing ever done, thanks Ian!)

1. Ian Rosenberger gives up in Palau's final immunity challenge in return for Tom agreeing to NOT take him to the Final 2.
(Folks, we have a new #1!)

Anything I left out? Anything ranked too high or too low? Feel free to comment with your own suggestions and critiques, and I'll consider everything that's said for future updates. Until then, enjoy! : )