It was the tribal council heard round the world…you know, the one the men’s winning tribe shouldn’t have even been attending. Survivor fans witnessed a great deal of ignorance from Colton Cumbie, the homosexual, rich, Republican, college student who grew up in Alabama charging everything to his parents’ credit cards and hanging out at the country club.
Colton, who fancies himself the leader of the Manono (having received the immunity idol from the women doesn’t hurt his rank either), unleashed some ugly on his hated nemesis, poor stand-up comic Bill Posely. As his tribe mates looked on, most staying silent, Bill was voted off the show. As he said his parting words, Bill displayed, in my opinion, a great deal of class in his dismissal.
In an interview with People.com, Bill opens about why he decided to agree with the Manono to give up immunity to the losing Salani – a first in the history of the show, as well his thoughts on “spoiled brat” Colton. Read that interview below.
Why would you agree to give up immunity?!
I thought I had guys like Jonas, Troy, Matt and Jay on my side and that I could get them to help me blindside Colton. I figured we could go in to Tribal Council and reveal Colton for who he is. I didn’t know how much power Colton had. I didn’t know he didn’t like me. I didn’t even know he had an idol until Leif said something. It all came crashing down at Tribal Council.
Why did Colton have such an issue with you?
I think that the tribe gave me a lot of attention when I was being funny and goofing off and unfortunately it took the spotlight off of him. I think he was used to being in control of his life. He hated having a lot of attention being on someone else.
Your confrontation with him at camp was very heated.
I tried to go up and make some sort of offer of the olive branch and see if we could talk this out, but he didn’t want to talk. Finally I was fed up with playing nice. Nobody else was standing up to him and I couldn’t take it anymore, so I said what I feel like everybody needed to be saying: “He’s a spoiled brat and can’t talk to anybody the way he wants to.”
Colton called Leif a munchkin and an Oompa Loompa.
It is horrible. Colton comes from a spoiled, sheltered, ignorant background. To be able to go to your church with your boyfriend and live with him as an openly gay man and not be persecuted and ridiculed in a town in Alabama – that’s so rare. He was never persecuted and ridiculed because his family is so affluent and they spoil him. He doesn’t know the hurt that a guy like Leif had to deal with his whole life. Colton doesn’t know how it is to be picked on so he thinks its okay to call Leif a munchkin or Oompa Loompa. He thinks it’s okay to call me ghetto trash and say that I should kill myself. It’s crazy.
You two had it out at Tribal Council.
He said in Tribal that he “doesn’t associate himself with poor people” and to “take my broke ass home.” I think it was just a classist thing. He’s ignorant and just didn’t like that I was from a different walk of life than him. To have everyone sit quietly while Colton said those things about me was hard.
Tarzan spoke up.
For him to defend Colton after what he had heard was appalling.
Did you take anything positive out of this experience?
I had a mom write to me and tell me her and her daughter were tearing up listening to me talk at Tribal and were so sad about what Colton had said. I thought I would be the funny guy not somebody that people would be inspired by.
As one would expect, Colton is quick to respond to Bill’s statements, and like any good reality star, he’s learned that Twitter is where people air their dirty laundry regarding their celebreality peers. After receiving well-deserved backlash, Colton took to the twitterverse to defend himself and apologize…sort of…okay, not really.
The controversial Survivor tweeted recently, “Were my comments ignorant? YES! They were meant to be funny..I see they weren’t. Do I regret them? I’m torn. In a way, yes b/c it hurt ppl.”
He continued, in 140 characters or less, by stating, “..but seeing myself act that way on television helps me to grow as a person b/c it’s uncomfortable and embarrassing for ME to watch. It’s kind of one of those situations where you you don’t really realize how you sound until it’s played back and you’re literally cringing..”
Colton sums up his response tweets with the following nugget, admitting, “I seriously don’t hate anyone. I make fun of MYSELF..my sense of humor as always been kind sarcastic and somewhat critical. I call myself a “queen” as a joke. Am I a bigot? I don’t think so. I think I was a 20 year old brat who had never been out into the real world, and what I thought was funny and ok wasn’t. I’ve learned I can still be funny and it doesn’t have to be at the expense of some1 else. *pageant wave*”
Well, I’m happy that both he and Bill can agree that Colton acted like a total brat, at the very least. I’m all about letting stupid behavior slide (you have to when part of your job involves writing about Kim Kardashian!), but I can’t help but think that Colton is trying to do more damage control and less soul-searching. Here’s hoping Jeff Probst *pageant waves* him out of tribal council sooner rather than later!
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF BILL’S INTERVIEW? DO YOU BELIEVE THAT COLTON WAS TRYING TO BE FUNNY? ARE HIS TWEET SINCERE? HOW MUCH LONGER DO YOU THINK COLTON WILL LAST ON THE SHOW?
