Joker Joel & Zoltan The Insignificant

I was a little surprised last night on two fronts. First, I thought Joel was more universally loved than it appears he actually was. And second, I can’t believe Zoran (the entirely unimpressive and unintelligible) had more save votes than his jocular buddy. In fact, I can’t believe I-bring-nothing-whatsoever-of-value-to-the-House Zoran lasted more than a few weeks on the show.

But first things first: I know it’s not the popular opinion in this ‘ere blogosphere to have any affection whatsoever for Joel, but I guess I ain’t gonna curb my preferences for no one (just as I wouldn’t expect you to change how you feel about any of the Housemates based solely on my opinions of them). I thought Joel was great value; he was lots of fun and he was bloody hilarious. I would have liked to see him get to the final three. I’ve said it before; my preference for the final threesome was always Travis, Joel and Zach (and before Zach came along, I was happy enough for the third to be Aleisha).


Joel always brought a smile to the other Housemates’
faces. Whether it was through doing so poorly at
Friday Night Live, through his use of silly faces and
amusing voices, or simply by falling down all the time.

Some people didn’t like that they never saw the “real” Joel when he was in the House (as if we could ever properly determine that when we know no other Joel to begin with). Some thought he was nothing but a guy with silly voices, stupid facial expressions, amusing wisecracks and lame pratfalls. But I tell ya this: If I was in the Big Brother House, I’d be being just as stupid as well - because that’s who I am. After all, Joel is in there to entertain. I see nothing wrong with him making his fellow Housemates laugh (as well as those viewers who are also amused by his antics - and I appreciate that that’s not everyone’s idea of chuckle worthy behaviour); if that’s the way he carries on in his real life (as it very much appears he does, based on what he’s said numerous times in the House and has been backed up by his “loved ones” on the odd Eviction Night special), then good on him.

I always got a chuckle out of the way he looked at the roof in silent bewilderment when Big Brother spoke to the Housemates, and he was good natured enough to go along with the whole “You’re the worst play in the history of Friday Night Live” thing. He brought amusement and happiness to the show and to many viewers nationwide - how does that make him ineligible to win?

Clearly, by others being preferred winners. But I can’t see how Zoran ended up higher on the scale of winning worthiness than Joel.

Zoran is one of those people who seemed to avoid elimination whenever he was up, purely because there were others far more vile and repulsive who were nominated along with him - so he was the lesser of two evils. I can’t see that he’s an attractive guy to look at (but I’m happy to be corrected on this if necessary; after all, what would I know about it!?), and as far as being an interesting person, … *snore*

The most interesting thing about him is his name. Zoran. Cool name. It speaks of mystery and intrigue and magic tricks with a top hat and a cape. But in reality, he was nothing like it. He was boring as.

Okay, so he made up part of the Susannah/Thomas/Zoran triangle, but he was clearly never a major player in that incident, because Thomas and Susannah are now a couple on the outside (she didn’t wait for Zoran, for example - and while we’re on the subject, I thought it was more than a little mean to string Zoran along with the news that Susannah and her boyfriend has split up … in front of the live audience … and make Zoran think he might have a chance with her or maybe even that she possibly split up with the dude so she could be with him [Zoran]; just because I thought he was boring doesn’t mean I enjoyed watching him potentially humiliated on a live national television show simply for wearing his heart on his sleeve a little bit). He also spent a few weeks there flitting back and forth between not being able to stand Daniela, and finding her somewhat attractive (and even flirting with her, it must be noted). But those (fairly mild) instances aside, what exactly did Zoran bring to the House?

I’ll tell ya. Nothing. Except maybe frustration for many viewers (and the occasional Housemate) who couldn’t understand what he was mumbling about. He certainly kept the caption-writers at Network Ten busy - almost every conversation Zoran had in the House had to have the dialogue appear along the bottom of the screen so it could be understood. Particularly at night when he was tired, and/or had been drinking. I wonder how long it took the poor caption-writers to work out what to type on the screen. How many times did they have to watch the footage over and over before they could work out what he was saying? Did they just make it up, and have a lot of fun while they were at it? Maybe they pieced it together from what the other Housemates were saying back to him in all of his conversations.

He seemed like a nice enough guy, and there were a couple of instances there where he genuinely seemed to learn from his fellow Housemates (Laura about water usage - although I don’t know if he took this onboard; Zach about the way the gay community is often treated; Nick about talking over people; Zach again about how he can unintentionally come across as intimidating; and the group at large about his volume and food-pecking habits), but there just didn’t seem like enough of a personality and character to warrant him staying in the House for anything NEAR as long as he did.

I think, of all the guys on the show this year (including Cruz and Harrison in The White Room and Golden Key Winner Nick, who had less ‘screening‘ than any of the other Housemates because he won a competition, rather than going through the whole audition process), Zoran was easily the most bland and uninteresting … simply because I thought he had nothing to offer (besides a hairy chest and stomach for the others to wax in one action-packed, edge-of-your-seat thriller of an episode).


When he found out he’d been evicted, Zoran had this to say:
“IhadsuchagreattimeintheHousesoIcouldneversayanything
badabouttheplaceorthepeopleinitdoyouknowwhatImean?
ItwassogreattohaveeveryoneintheHouseandIhadafantastic
timegettingtoknowallthesepeoplefromdifferentyouknowwalks
oflifeorwhateverdoyouknowwhatImean?”

But when I put my astounded surprise to one side for a minute, I can see that the new twist this year after winning Friday Night Live is what caused a few of the less interesting characters in the House to still be there so late in the game. Personally, as much as I wish them well and think they’re a lovely pair, I would have preferred for Billy and Alisha not to be safe for the final four. Zoran shouldn’t have survived as long as he did, and some of those who were voted out only went because the Housemates we, the viewing public, would actually have preferred to be eliminated were either not nominated, or were saved at the last minute by the winner of the Games that week (Emma, I’m looking at you, here).

Here’s the twist I’d like to see incorporated in the 2008 season, if it goes for another year: Each week, viewers can vote to save or evict ALL of the Housemates. The Housemates don’t know it, but everyone in the House is up for possible eviction EVERY week. Nomination nights still go ahead as normal (so we can see what they all think of each other - it’d help a lot of us determine who we did and didn’t like, after all), but the playing field is level and fair.

They’d have to come up with a different kind of twist for the winner of the Games (not saving themselves or any other Housemate from the chopping block), but once they come up with some alternative perk for them, this system would be a win-win-win situation. The producers would win because they’d get a lot more money from all the possible evict and save votes being dialled through for everyone in the House, the viewers would win because we could literally get rid of the people we didn’t like in the order we truly wanted to (not being limited to directing our ire at a chosen few), and the Housemates would win because only those truly deserving of being evicted would (in theory) find themselves joining Gretel on stage “after the break”. No more free rides because your buddy won the Games and saved your neck, therefore dooming a Housemate who’s more worthy of winning being evicted before their time.

But these are just pie-in-the-sky dreams, I know. Since when have the show’s producers ever cared much for ‘fair’? Or when have they listened to something someone’s suggested online Their natural enemy appears to be the blogging community (even though we make up so much of their viewership). Oh well. Nothing ventured nothing gained, I guess.

My preference for next week is definitely that Billy and Aleisha get evicted together (aww, how sweet for them!), leaving Travis and Zach for the final two. And then I honestly wouldn’t care which of them won (although I certainly agree with a comment MelbourneGirl made on an earlier post here, that the money would probably be wasted or unnecessary on anyone other than Travis, who’d undoubtedly put it to better use with his young family and low-earning income). Zach, Billy and Alisha would all spend a lot of the money at nightclubs and on the silly purchases of youth. I know I might spark some heated debate with these closing comments, but I stand by my view that - by and large - there’s a certain kind of common sense with spending money wisely that comes with age and maturity. (Plus, Travo’s been my number one tippo since the begino.)


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