jeff
i am as confused as a goat on astroturf when most people hear the word goat they think of the phrase
greatest of all time and reference people like michael jackson and tom brady who legitimately
are the greatest of all time in their respective fields however in the world of survivor goat has a
much different meaning a golden survivor refers to somebody who has no shot whatsoever winning
and is seen as an easy beat at final tribal council for the true contenders thus those two
contenders drag the goats with them to the end so for today let's look at the long history of goats
in survivor and the different types of games these contestants played to end up as a goat i'm going
to touch upon all the goats and survivor history as best i can but mainly just highlight the most
important ones also keep in mind just because a player got blown out at final chapel council that
doesn't mean they're goats as players like spencer and lisa absolutely had a path of victory but due
to circumstances or self-sabotage they ended up in a spot where they had no chance before we begin
don't let me become a zero subscriber get her goat as hitting that like and sub button
would mean a lot for this channel the first true goat and survivor history was the man who inspired
the phrase keith family and the ironic part is he didn't even end up actually being a goat at the
final tribal council and the first true dumb move in survivor colby cost himself the game by taking
tina with him to the end over keith simply because he didn't feel a pair like kev deserved to be
taken to the end and he would rather lose the game to a player like tina as opposed to beating keith
99 of survivor players would take keith with them to the final two without even thinking twice about
it but with survivor being a global phenomenon in 2001 and kobe wanting that hero image he felt
bringing a goat with them to the end would be looked down upon by the fandom we saw a similar
case to this the following season in africa as kim johnson was an easy beat for all the bronze 3 but
when it came down to the final four the bronze three men were actually ready to get rid of her
not because they felt like taking her to the end would be unethical but simply due to the fact that
they are closer to one another again if this was modern survivor there is a very good chance that
we see kim virtually be guaranteed to spot at the final tribal council as the bronze iii would
realize taking her to the end would be the safest bet thus they would turn on each other instead she
was on the outside of the group but was able to clutch up to win the final two immunities
of the season and essentially decide who won africa the 14th person voted out of the tribe
but then in season 5 survivor thailand we got the first example of the go term being used as
a legit survivor strategy clay jordan came into survivor as an obvious weak link and realizing
he was obviously no challenge beast nor had much control over chewie gone clay turned to brian to
protect him when his name was getting thrown around early on and once chuwigan entered the
merge with numbers clay realized that brian who had all the control would most likely take him
to the end over ted helen and jan so instead of trying to make a big move against the big time
player clay aligned himself with that big time player in hopes of brian taking him to the end
to at least guarantee himself a spot in the final two this is exactly what happened as brian felt
clay was the easiest to beat out the other four chewing gum members however in a complete shocker
clay almost beat brian and hedy answered a couple questions better or had brian had one more slip up
clay freaking jordan would be a survivor winner and possibly come back to win winners at war
good god is that a world i want to live in even though nowadays the ghost strategy
is almost universally looked down upon the first installment of this strategy by clay
was a good look as he nearly won survivor thailand by doing nothing at all except for
appearing to be an easy beat for everyone in the game when in fact he had a fighting chance
you barely won over a guy who literally and clay i know this is fresh and probably hard to be sitting
there right now but you won by one vote over a guy who badgered three people on the jury and still
got three of the other four votes you had to be a little surprised that you you squeaked this out
well i mean clay he's a very tough competitor
we're not doing this anymore the next season we got one of the more fascinating goats in
survivor history and matt matt came into the amazon not knowing much about the game and
learned a lot from rob throughout the season with the two banding together to make it to
day 38 against the mean girl jenna who almost quit a couple days prior and learning from one
of the best matt pulled a richard hatch stepping out of the immediate challenge
knowing both rob and jenna were taking him to the final two and when jenna won the challenge
and used her sole vote to eliminate rob it looked like matt would have won the
greatest growth arcs ever leading to a survivor victory but then the winner of survivor amazon
we of course saw plenty of moments during the amazon that made matthew look bad like
his general cluelessness and the infamous machete incident but still his growth that it was far more
positive than jenna's mean girl whiny brat edit that she received other than the fact that there
were spoilers for the season i think this was also survivor's way of showing that goats and survivor
don't have to be so one-dimensional and there can be a lot of positives in a player that ultimately
ends up being a goat in the end it's been such an incredible evolution for me to go from being
an underdog and to have everyone gunning for me at every corner and to eventually learn how to build
strategy and make it to the final two it's almost absurd but somehow i did it the next couple of
seasons we got some of the most notorious ghosts in survivor history lillian notably loses to
literally anyone at the merge of the pearl islands as even the pre-jury players hated her and the
reason why they voted her back in was due to not wanting to have to deal with her on the pre-jury
trip katie against tom is possibly the most laughable final tribal council pairing ever as tom
was the leader of the dominic corps alliance and won five immunities while katie got on everyone's
nerves and she received a pretty brutal beat down by the jury at the final tribal council speaking
of palau the underdog of that season in stephanie did a complete 180 and played a villainous role in
guatemala when she finally had power backstabbing many players but this meant she had no chance
against any of the players in the end game however the following season we saw a new strategy take
place in survivor that countered the goat strategy at the final stage of survivor panama courtney was
revealed to be the season's goat as everyone made fun of her at the sketchy questions challenge who
never shuts up courtney seree has it right shane has a right to step forward
who is the biggest poser somebody's feeling's about to get hurt what is a poser reveal
the answer to what is a poser is you courtney was the right answer paris is the only one who
got it right this was a catch-21 for courtney as yes she was a goat but she was now guaranteed to
spot in the final two and would be at least a hundred thousand dollars richer with even
her enemy shane saying how much of a dream it would be to sit by her at the end so knowing
courtney was taking up one of her final two spots siree pulled off the infamous 321 blind side on
courtney to take the goat out of the game making it easier for the nine goats to have a greater
shot at making it to the end a pure genius move especially for somebody like saree who's
a big time player but also has to rely on players taking her to the end as she's no challenge beast
shane wants to take courtney to the final two he's told me that terry wants to take
courtney to the final two that to me makes courtney the most dangerous personnel here
i want to kind of mess up terry's plans and mess up shane's plans and hopefully we get rid of
courtney next and then it could possibly give me ours and danielle a little more leverage in this
game in season 13 we were introduced to the first final three in survivor the big knock that haters
have against the final three is that it's still pretty much a two-person race as it's very rare
to have a final three where all finalists have a shot to win this is what happened in the cook
islands as becky had no shot to win in this final three scenario however she was anything but a goat
as if this season was a final two like the 12 seasons prior she beats dundra and actually has
a pretty decent shot at beating ozzy which was the most likely final two scenario but the following
season we got the first true final three goat in dreams again it's hard to label dreams and
for that matter of cassandra as goats as they win up against earl who is one of the greatest winners
of all time and there's no shame in losing to a great player but due to dreams backstab on yawman
from the car deal dreams went from a respected final 3 member who simply wasn't beating earl
to absolutely despised by the jury in survivor gabon we got arguably the most bizarre case of
a goat ever in sugar kuiper sugar as funny as it is to believe absolutely dominated gabon
as she controlled many of the tribal councils and was able to make close connections in large part
due to her public idol however despite playing far and away the best game out of the final three
she received no votes and the main reason for this was because she didn't even really want to win
um sugar i don't know i i'm not necessarily think you have to vote for me but it would be nice
huh okay so barbara gabon ladies and gentlemen how can you not love it let's now talk about
the most famous goat in survivor history russell hands russell is of course a legend of survivor
essentially breaking the game with his combined six idol finds in samoa and heroes vs villains
and of course he made plenty of other big moves along the way as he made it to day 39 in both
those seasons yet despite this insane gameplay russell was absolutely despised by both the season
19 and 20 juries as yes he was a great player when it came to strategy but his social game
was a much different story you think i care about how you know you don't give a damn about anything
about you i know i don't think you give a damn about anybody but yourself
the second coming of christ you can say whatever you want because it doesn't really matter anymore
you're such a dumbass rubric you could argue that natalie and sandra won these seasons in a way that
clay jordan was hoping to win back in thailand with the original goat strategy as both sandra
and natalie attached onto the big time player in russell knowing they could beat him in the end
while also realizing russell thought that he could beat both of them at the end since he thought they
were in fact the ghost not realizing he was the true goat all along my strategy was to be myself
and at the end of the day you know i wasn't out to get anybody or make anybody look bad russell made
it clear he was okay with making people look bad sash is another interesting goat as even though
most fans agree he played the best game out of the final three from survivor nicaragua the mortgage
incident with jane that wasn't shown on tv made the jury disregard him entirely natalie and philip
are notable goats for basically gift and rob the win as they were both major parts of the buddy
system albert and scooping were both delusional ghosts from their respective seasons as while they
didn't play bad per se they simply had no chance against their competition which is something they
didn't realize until it was too late in season 28 we got another legendary goat and cast cass
became a public goat in survivor kaguyan after spencer said what everyone was thinking when
she flipped on sarah cass zero chance of winning the game and yeah cass didn't exactly do anything
to improve her goat's status during the kagyon post merge as she got into many confrontations
and arguments with her fellow castaways but for the first time since season two a player's goat
perception came back to haunt them as wu felt that cass wasn't deserving to be in the final two and
the jury would in fact look down on wu for taking her to the end this of course would go on to be a
million dollar mistake for wu and a three million dollar life changing decision for tony so in a way
as ironic as it is casp being such an outspoken survivor goats ended up being the catalyst for
tony to become the king of survivor in season 32 survivor co-wrong we got arguably the most heroic
goat in survivor history in tai tring if you would have told the viewers at the start of the season
that tai would end up being a final three goat they would probably have laughed in your face
as tai was literally put on the beauty tribe for his inner beauty and displayed so much gratitude
throughout the season however this didn't stop him from playing a ruthless and somewhat sloppy game
resulting in a zero vote finals finish with no chance to win pretty much any final three scenario
but again tai was a massive fan favorite and even created the modern day fan favorite award in the
sea of prize money it's so interesting to me that tai was literally awarded fifty thousand dollars
by a megastar due to his massive popularity but yet that popularity on screen didn't translate
to the survivor jury let's finish off the video with some modern day goats with the first probably
being the most frustrating goat in survivor history in laurel johnson many players end up
being ghosts due to their lack of self-awareness a failed strategy origin simply had a terrible
trait that they couldn't hide on survivor making them an easy day 39 beat laurel however was none
of that she was a well-respected player formed plenty of bonds and had a great mind for the game
as she realized she would be a goat if she sat next to wendell and dominic in the end
and yet despite knowing this she never made a move to take one of them out to the frustration
of survivor fans watching laurel wasted a chance at their chance to turn on diamond wendell
and became a textbook example of nobody to blame but yourself when it comes to being
a goat and survivor i had been thinking i gotta get wendell out of here tonight but
i want to do it the right way and if he did finish first today and could have won immunity it almost
doesn't feel right to send him home i'm going with the smart move rather than the big move tonight
in seasons 37 38 and 39 we saw three females get a third place finish with zero boats and angelina
julie and nora and they were all portrayed in the same way as despite being decent players with big
personalities the edit went out of his way to make them look paranoid at certain points throughout
the game because in this fast-paced modern day version of survivor the editors need an easy way
to explain a goat finish for certain players we finish off the video with the most recent survivor
goats in xander not only is xander the most recent goat but he just might be the most confusing as
well again with likable goats like sugar match and tai we got clear justification on why there were
ghosts despite their positive edits with xander we didn't really get anything i mean one could
say he didn't play his advantages to the best of his abilities but other than that he went from the
bottom to the top one two immunities and obviously played extremely hard especially compared to the
much quieter erica but as it turns out he was terrible socially making no bonds with anyone
in the post merge and nobody bothered to target xander in his public idol due to him being an easy
beat at the end this unfortunately sparked much controversy for the casuals as while the hardcore
fans who read exit interviews knew that xander would be a goat the casuals were flabbergasted
to see him receive zero votes after what seemed to be a good underdog survivor run more specifically
i wanted to ask was there a point in the game where you had a good read in terms of social
awareness where you use that to your advantage to make a move in the game yeah um i would say
i would say my social awareness um
so there you have it guys the history of goats and survivor let me know in the comments who
your favorite goat in survivor history is and give your predictions on who you think
the goat of survivor 42 will be or if there will be one at all if you like this video
then be sure to smash that like and subscribe button for more fun survivor content like this
and with all that said have a good one guys and i'll see you next time