To all of us Coach is such a humongous, obvious, unignorable douchebag; but his teammates seem to be oblivious or are choosing to ignore that fact. Sierra’s scrambling to save her fate and outing part of his constant stream of lies seemed to do no harm. I wonder now if the remaining players’ mouths are just hanging open watching the shows at home?

Coach has been lying and strategizing since day one and they haven’t seen it? And he is such an unpleasant grandstanding person to be around – good God that daily Dragon Slayer ritual in the water is just over the top unbelievable! The hubris! (And when he yelled out “DragonSlayer” at the challenge I almost choked on my dinner!)

Coach (or Benji if you prefer) is so delusional, he makes Johnny Fairplay look sane! At least HE only made one huge lie - that will haunt him through eternity.

Not that I have an opinion one way or another ;)
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• RE: Coach vs Johnny Fairplay,Snidget, 05:28 PM, 05-03-09
  • RE: Coach vs Johnny Fairplay,Belle Book, 06:18 PM, 05-03-09
  • RE: Coach vs Johnny Fairplay,PsychoKitty, 08:29 PM, 05-03-09
• RE: Coach vs Johnny Fairplay,MissRaven, 06:57 PM, 05-03-09
• RE: Coach vs Johnny Fairplay,more_cowbell, 06:26 PM, 05-04-09
• RE: Coach vs Johnny Fairplay,suzzee, 08:34 PM, 05-04-09

For watching purposes I think I prefer lying scum that actually is self-aware enough to know they are lying scum.

You know, in life I think I prefer lying scum that knows that they are actually lying scum.

The ones that know they are lying will sometimes acknowledge they are scum and often once you and they agree that they are scum you can actually set the parameters to make some sort of agreement about how the relationship will work.

The ones that are delusional enough that they believe their lies and require all around them to also believe the lies are the ones that the only possibility is a completely toxic relationship and they will never even be able to acknowledge the damage they cause because in their world no damage occurred.

At least the ones that know they are jerks may not care if they cause you harm but at least they'll know they hurt you even if they would do it again. They'll take the blame when it is deserved. If they can't believe they are jerks the only option left is to convince their victims were the only ones doing something wrong.

I agree with you -- I didn't like Johnny Fairplay at all, but at least he knew when he was lying. In that way, he's like Dr. Will from Big Brother -- they knew they were lying and aren't really deceiving themselves. Coach is lying to himself, and that makes him sad -- and when he tries to convince others that the victims were the only ones doing something wrong, that makes me mad as well.

I think most of the others on the tribe know Coach is a jerk but choose to ignore him -- I think Debbie is the only one who may not realize that little fact.

Belle Book

Very detailed and well put Snidget!!! And at least the cognizant jerks, who may continue to hurt you, do it with honor! - as that is who they truly are and they know it.

Coach's self-deluding comments remind me so much of Steve Carrell's character in "The Office". I knew he reminded me of someone and now that I've made that connection, I can't listen to his spewing without picturing how Carrell would portray him.

(Or do I have that backwards...maybe Coach is the one who developed the character of Michael Scott?? He has so many talents, ya know )

Interesting comparisons. I agree 100% with your assessment, Snidget. It's all about motivation and intent.

Johnny Fairplay's Big Lie was mainly motivated by strategy. Even though it was utterly despicable of him to use people's sympathy to win a reward challenge, a very small part of me respected his evil genius. He knew darn well what he was doing, and cheerfully copped to being an amoral slimebucket.

Coach's lies, on the other hand, are motivated by narcissistic exceptionalism and contempt. There's a constant, desperate need to elevate himself above others. It's not enough for him to play trumpet, coach soccer, and enjoy kayaking. He has to be THE BEST! YOUNG TRUMPET PLAYER! IN THE ENTIRE WORLD! and COACH! OF THE YEAR! and A WORLD! RECORD HOLDER! Tremble in awe at the awesomeness!

He demands that everyone worship him, even though the real Ben Wade isn't all that impressive: one of several dozen high-school ITG scholarship winners; a string of coaching jobs at fifth-rate colleges; conductor of a podunk symphony that plays for audiences of 50 at the local church; and so on. It's that insistence on being admired which makes him way more objectionable than Johnny Fairplay. Fairplay didn't care if the others thought he was full of it. Ben throws a major hissy fit if anyone so much as cocks an eyebrow at his integrity.

I suspect all the Noble Warrior/Dragonslayer B.S. comes from the fact that Ben feels perpetually under siege by reality. It must take constant vigilance to defend that house of cards.

Outstanding! PK, Snidge, Belle, Miss R, & more cowbell you have all nailed Coachbag. The fact that Jeff compared him to Hatch was way off base IMO. Hatch should be insulted. I hope that that windbag never ever makes an A$$ II appearance. Should there ever be one and by some chance they cast him I would hope that he is shredded painfully by the rest of the cast by the time they vote his demented a$$ out of there.

Fear and Loathing Tribe style 2008