Survivor player to attempt saying 'wing-wangs' on national television
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Survivor contestants put themselves through all sorts of emotional and physical torture in the hopes of walking away with a million dollars. But that doesn't mean they can't have some fun along the way — sneaking in specific words or symbols with special meanings. Maybe it's Boston Rob convincing his fellow players to name the merged tribe Murlonio by telling them it was Spanish for "for the sea" when it was actually the name of his wife's stuffed animal collection. Or perhaps it's Brendan Shapiro flashing three fingers to his family back home in every confessional interview. And there's always Jesse Lopez's obsession with 'dangily-doodily."
With all that in mind, we asked the cast of Survivor 44 (premiering March 1 on CBS) to pick a weird word or phrase to try and seamlessly work into an episode, and we're not gonna lie: They picked some damn fine words.
For example, Lauren Harpe wants to sneak the word "onomatopoeia" onto the show, while Claire Rafson wants to work in an actual onomatopoeia with "Zoniks!" In fact, zoinks is part of a broader campaign by Claire to create her own memorable go-to saying.
Robert Voets/CBS The 'Survivor 44' cast
"I've been joking about this with my friends that I want to have a catchphrase," explains Claire. "What's my catchphrase going to be? Am I going to walk around and be like, "Zoinks!"? Or, like, "That's the way the cookie crumbles" all the time? Or "That's showbiz, baby!"? So I don't really have one, but honestly, if I could work in "That's showbiz, baby!' or "Zoinks!" a lot, honestly, that's fine."
Let this be said now and let this be said loud and clear: If Claire ends every confessional interview and/or comment to Jeff Probst at Tribal Council with "That's showbiz, baby!" she will automatically become my favorite Survivor player of all-time. That's just tremendous on every level.
But those aren't the only weird words and sayings cast members picked to slip onto national television. We would be gobsmacked if Frannie Marin can actually get "gobsmacked" onto the show. "It's so descriptive," explains Frannie. "I feel gobsmacked a lot of the time. And I think I'll be really gobsmacked by some of the things that happen this season. So I would be pleased as punch if that word was worked into an episode somewhere." (It should be noted that we would also accept "pleased as punch" as an acceptable substitute.)
Sarah Wade picked "serendipity" because it has her name in it, while Maddy Pomilla made up her own word — "legiterally." Says Maddy: "That's a word that I made up and I say it all the time. It's legit and literally — smack 'em together. Legiterally."
And then there's Kane Fritzler: "I'm going to choose the word 'wing-wangs' because it's my favorite substitute word for money, and I feel like they talk about money a lot and it's a goofy way to say money. So if anyone ever says, 'Do you want to play for the million dollars?' then I can just easily slide in wing-wangs instead and see if anyone raises eyebrows at that."
Consider our eyebrows raised! But there are more. So many more. Watch the video at the top of this post to see the entire array of weird words players will try to work in this season, as well as a bizarre story about someone who shoved his hand into the fire — someone whose name is not Michael Skupin. And then tune in on March 1 to see who takes the first steps towards winning a million wing-wangs.
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