The 6 funniest things in the Big Brother House

With its primetime show airing three times a week and the Live Feeds on for almost the entire time the Houseguests are in the house, CBS’s hit reality competition show Big Brother delivers some of the most random funny moments you can find on a TV show. Let’s look at six things—four players and two non-humans—who have made the 26-year ride so enjoyable.

Evel Dick Donato, Big Brother 8, Big Brother 13

Love him or hate him, Evel Dick Donato provided some of the most hilarious moments on the show, most of them on Big Brother 8, a season the then 44-year-old resident became the oldest winner of the show when he defeated his 20-year-old Daniele Donato by a 5-2 jury vote in the season finale on September 18, 2007, an episode that attracted 8.51 million viewers.

Evel Dick needed Dani to get to the Final 2 as much as Dani needed her father, and the two have stood the test of time as being two of the best teammates in the game. And in surviving all 81 days, the fiery bar manager from Los Angeles managed to irk everyone in the house—including Dani, who turned 21 before the season ended—but in the process provided some of the funniest moments we have ever seen on the show.

Who can forget when Evel Dick woke up the house by banging a pan and screaming and insulting in an effort to get the remaining contestants focused and mad at him and not Dani? CBS had Evel Dick back for a special guest appearance on Big Brother 9 where he again woke the house up banging on pots and pans.

And how about when he dumped iced tea on Jen Johnson’s head in the kitchen? Or when he went off on both Amber Siyavus and Jameka Cameron in the kitchen? Often alone with just the cameras smoking cigarettes outside as he talked to himself, Evel Dick, a staunch New York Jets (NFL) fan, would often turn to the camera, flip the bird at America and shout “F**** the Raiders.”

Since then the Live Feeds have been much more politically correct with production cutting away when any big arguments or sensitive subject matter comes up. But when the show was at the height of its pure entertainment value and the Live Feeds were as raw and real as TV could get, Evel Dick was extremely fun to watch.

This BB icon had no filter, no remorse, and came in the house to win the $500,000. And he did. Recently, the now 61-year-old Donato has moved to Ireland and you can still get laughs from him by subscribing to his tri-weekly (when the season is on) Dick at Nite podcasts which feature past BB13 Houseguests Keith Kenderson and Porsche Briggs.

Enzo Palumbo, Big Brother 12, Big Brother 22

One of the funniest and most lovable Big Brother Houseguests was Enzo Palumbo, a 32-year-old insurance adjuster from Bayonne, New Jersey who came in an impressive third place on BB12 and in second place on BB22.

Nicknamed the “Meow Meow,” Enzo was always providing the accidental or purposeful laugh, and like Evel Dick, he was a great watch on the Live Feeds for both seasons he played the game.

On BB12, Enzo teamed up with eventual winner Hayden Moss and runner-up Lane Elenburg in The Brigade alliance, and the trio proceeded to march to the Final 3 where Enzo was ultimately evicted on Day 75.

Some of Enzo’s funniest moments included when he got his eyebrows waxed by Christmas on BB22: All-Stars, when he and eventual winner Cody Calafiore tried out the bidet in the house, when he lamented about not have a Showmance, and when he told his fellow Houseguests about some of the jobs he had in his life on the Live Feeds.

And how did he get his famous “Meow Meow” nickname? Enzo explained it on the BB12 Live Feeds. After a heavy night of drinking with one of his friends and riding home in his car with two drunk girls they picked up, he said the girl he picked up farted in the car and then tried to blame it on Enzo.

When Enzo confronted the girl, she snapped back at him saying, “Whatever, meow, meow, meow.” After that, Enzo and his friends used the hilarious inside joke of “Meow Meow” to change subjects, and it eventually evolved into his perfect nickname.

Josh Martinez, Big Brother 19

Like Evel Dick, Big Brother 19 winner Josh Martinez, was loud and brash and didn’t care about getting into arguments with other Houseguests. The then 23-year-old haircare salesman from Homestead, Florida ended up defeating Paul Abrahamian—who had returned after playing on Big Brother 18—on finale night in a Big Brother season when it seemed neither had much of a chance at making it to the Final 2 when the season started.

Josh was just as funny and fun to watch when he was screaming as when he was crying. His Diary Room confessionals were always loud and when some players really angered him, he would call them “Meatballs.” One player Josh developed a rivalry and bitterness with was 26-year-old personal trainer and Incredible Hulk lookalike Mark Jansen.

In one of the funniest moments ever in the Big Brother franchise, Josh and Mark got into a nasty verbal brawl in the kitchen where Josh proceeded to grab two pans and bang them together and approach Mark—dressed in a lime green tutu he had to wear for losing a competition—and sing circus music as taunted Mark in a mocking fashion.

The muscle-bound Mark was having none of it and rose out of his chair and went to grab the pots and pans from Josh’s hands and the Live Feeds suddenly cut out and went to the famous fish. Despite his strange style and babyish mannerisms, Josh somehow won the $500,000 and left us with some very funny moments in the House.

Josh, who also was Houseguest on Big Brother: Reindeer Games last year, has gone on to compete in MTV’s The Challenge an impressive seven times, will be a cast member in NBC’s new competition Reality TV series Destination X (premiering this spring), a contestant in the new Reality TV show called Bear Hunt (Netflix) starring Bear Grylls, and will also compete in the Reality TV competition show Los 50 (Telemundo).

Tucker Des Lauriers, Big Brother 26

After some rather dry recent seasons humor-wise, Big Brother 26 gave us two pretty funny Houseguests this time around at Studio City in Tucker Des Lauriers and Angela Murray. And it seemed that Tucker was always trying to be funny whereas Angela accidentally created some of the funnier moments of the season with her attitude.

A cross between Enzo and Jim Carrey, Tucker was a very good player when it came to competitions, winning three Power of Vetos (PoV) in four weeks, but the fact he would often leave himself up as a potential evictee became his ultimate downfall.

Tucker probably played too hard, too early, and by winning so many times when he had to, he became a huge threat to the rest of the house who saw him building an incredibly strong resume early on. So, he had to go.

Still, the 30-year-old marketing and sales executive from Brooklyn, New York, who had a fling in the house with ally Rubina Bernabe, was always a pleasure to watch and he ended up being voted America’s Favorite Houseguest in the BB26 season finale on Sunday night. His take and love-hate relationship with Lisa Weintraub was TV gold.

Like many former Big Brother Houseguests, expect to see Tucker in a show like The Challenge (MTV) or The Traitors (Peacock) or possibly in another future All-Stars season of our favorite show.

Team Ants

Nothing alive in the Big Brother house at CBS Studio Center in Studio City in Los Angeles has ever been as hard to get out or eradicate as the infamous ants, dubbed “Team Ants” by the Big Brother faithful.

No matter how hard the Houseguests tried through the season to keep the kitchen clean, Team Ants have always found a way to get into the show—and into the Houseguests’ food supply. And few things are funnier than when Team Ants rear their ugly little heads and send the contestants into a tizzy each season.

There always seems to be a period at the start of the season when we don’t see any ants on the Live Feeds, but inevitably the eusocial insects make their presence known and change the focus of the house from getting fellow players out, to killing the ants and trying to get them out.

Team Ants always wins. Period.

And these little unwanted black ants always seem to make BB fans laugh and forget about the game and who they are pulling for or against and we wonder if CBS, Fly on the Wall Entertainment, and Endemol Shine North America even care about exterminating these little pests who have somehow become a perennial part of the summer show.

Zingbot 9000

The thing in the Big Brother house that season-in and season-out provides the most laughter when it arrives is Zingbot 9000. This sassy robot first appeared on our TV screens as Zingbot 3000 on Big Brother 12.

Zingbot has become so iconic on Big Brother that Houseguests always hope to last long enough in the season to get the honor of being “zinged” by Zingbot—and the insults and language of this mechanical creation—really a human in a robot costume—would make Don Rickles proud. And they always end with its signature phrase “Zing.”

Here are three of the Zingbot’s better Zings:

To Jordan Lloyd on BB13: “Hey Jordan, the only reason Jeff hasn’t proposed yet is because he knows you’re terrible at answering questions.”

To Frankie Grande on BB16: “That’s a nice tan but I am surprised you get any sun at all considering how much time you spend in your sister’s shadow.”

To Paulie Calafiore on BB18: “Paulie, anyone who says that you’re a less attractive, less charming, and all-around lesser version of Cody is … correct! ZING! POOR MAN’S CODY ZING!”