Note: This was one of the first articles I wrote when I started this website. Given the sad news that came out today regarding Rudy’s passing, it felt appropriate to recirculate it. While this article isn’t what I would consider to be up to my current standards, I can live with that to give Rudy some well deserved shine. RIP Rudy, we will all miss you. Hope you get to be with Marge eternally whenever you are.
One of the draws for people who go on Survivor is having the chance to be on television. Ever since the dawn of time, these people, often called mactors, have seen reality television as their big break to make it into Hollywood. While shows like the Real World and Big Brother are more appealing to these types because of the more comfortable living conditions, Survivor has had its shares of camera hoggers too.
The thing with people who willingly want to draw the attention onto them is that they are usually unfunny. It’s rare that the people who go on the show with the intention of making a name for themselves actually shine in the way they intended. It has happened before when you think of players like Jonny Fairplay, who was essentially cutting wrestling promos on the beach, or Coach Wade who basically created an entire Survivor persona. Unfortunately, for every Coach and Fairplay you have many more Phillip Sheppards trying to do the same without any of the accompanying charisma.
In fact, most of the “quote machines” Survivor has featured throughout the years are people that are just naturally funny. Think of people like Colby Donaldson, Rob Cesternino, Big Tom Buchanan, Sandra Diaz-Twine, Courtney Yates or Tyson Apostol. These people became popular because they know how to deliver a punchline and back that up with natural charisma. I dare you to go back to Survivor: Amazon and listen to Rob’s confessionals and tell me that he didn’t know how to formulate a joke.
All of that said, there’s one person above all else who seemed to really resonate with pretty much everybody in the fan base. Whether he even meant to be funny or was simply being himself is hard to tell but he was without a doubt the series’ first breakout star, Survivor: Borneo’s Rudy Boesch.
Survivor is a young man’s game in so many ways. The challenges require athleticism and strength. Surviving the elements asks for a certain ruggedness and willingness to put your body through hell. The social part of it all makes it so important to be attentive, approachable and perceptive. Rudy is essentially none of those things and yet has a way to still endear himself both to his fellow players and the audience.
Think about it, who else in the Survivor franchise could go on about being friends with Richard Hatch but “not in a homosexual way, that’s for sure” and have it played for laughs? Throughout both Borneo and All-Stars, he has multiple moments where he threatens his fellow players with bodily harm and it’s legitimately funny. Picture Coach trying to do these things and have it be funny.
Maybe it’s his age and the “well that’s how he grew up factor” or the fact that people just kind of accept that Rudy has no filter but something about Rudy allowed him to just say whatever the hell he wants and have it be funny. Much of that is just the natural charisma he exudes on camera, rooted in how comfortable he is in his own skin.
In a roundabout way, players like Tyson and Courtney became viable casting choices because of a 72 year old man trying to qualify his friendship with a gay man. Among some of the most improbable things to happen on Survivor this has to rank near the top of the list. Especially considering how the early game of Borneo played out with the likes of Sonja Gould and B.B Andersen going out early. Almost everyone figured that old man Rudy would be next out the door. Of course there are some legal issues with the whole Stacey Stillman ordeal but the fact remains that Rudy found a way to survive an early exit and with that, likely changed the game forever. He became a shining example that people who can be funny on camera could get celebrity status from doing a show like Survivor.
For so long people have talked about the importance of Richard Hatch to the show’s long term growth. Many believe that had he lost to Kelly Wigglesworth in the final two, the show might not have developed so quickly strategically and would have petered out within a few seasons.
There is a lot of weight to that but I would argue that Rudy is just as much, if not more important to Survivor’s current tenure. The Tagi alliance was largely despised by the audience and were deemed cheap players. Everyone wanted to see Pagong somehow win the day. The lone exception to that was old man Rudy and his funny one-liners. If he goes when Stacey Stillman left, Tagi is now without a single likable person to the general public and viewership may have even died down during the inaugural season.
Rudy is still kicking around in 2017. He proved twice on Survivor that he was as tough as anybody and funnier than them too. In 2010, Xfinity TV created something called the “Survivor Hall of Fame”. While it isn’t curated by CBS and thus not technically official, the alumni all recognize its importance and those already in the hall even take part in voting for who gets inducted each year. For some reason, Rudy had to wait five years before making the cut. He should have been part of that original class with Hatch as the two most important Survivors from Borneo. At least we can all be happy that he got the chance to know he was inducted into the hall and that for at least one more time, we can tell Rudy how much we appreciate his contribution to the franchise.
To conclude, I swear that this wasn’t written because Rudy threatened me because “he has a lot of friends”, simply to remind everybody of the shining star that is Rudy Boesch.
