Following some interesting comments from one of his castmates on The Challenge, Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio took the opportunity to do some clever trolling.
Bananas, who hasn’t been on MTV’s show since winning the Total Madness season, came up during former castmate Paulie Calafiore’s comments in a recent podcast interview.
While Paulie didn’t say Bananas was one of them, he did mention a few things including that some of he and Cara Maria Sorbello’s Challenge castmates were “like snitches” trying to keep them off the show.
Bananas’ castmate mentioned him in comments
Over his many seasons on MTV’s The Challenge, Johnny Bananas has become known for his ability to trash talk and troll with the best of them. That’s helped him get inside some of his castmates’ heads and may have contributed quite a bit to some of his seven Challenge wins.
On Sunday, comments made by his Challenge castmate of several seasons, Paulie Calafiore, started making the rounds on social media. In Paulie’s comments, he discussed how he and his Final Reckoning teammate Natalie Negrotti were involved in an elimination against Bananas and Tony Raines that was changed.
Apparently, there was a certain elimination that the teams were set to compete in, but something went wrong with part of it, leading to complaints. So that elimination was halted, and another elimination supposedly took place the next day. That was the one that made it onto Final Reckoning, in which fans saw Paulie and Natalie victorious.
Paulie mentioned during Mike Lewis’ podcast interview this weekend that he had to be careful “because you’re really not supposed to talk about production” or things left on the cutting room floor. That’s when he brought up how certain castmates will go around like “snitches” to production trying to get him and Cara in trouble for things they say off-camera. Paulie said sometimes those things being told to production by others aren’t even truthful.
While Paulie never mentioned any specific castmates or incidents during his comments, he also indicated in the interview that he is on good terms with Tony but said “we’ll see” when it came to Bananas. Earlier in the podcast interview, Paulie said Bananas was someone he hit it off with at the start of Final Reckoning.
Interestingly, Paulie, Cara Maria, and Johnny Bananas all appeared on War of the Worlds 2. During that season, Paulie and Cara were part of a big alliance on Team USA. Paulie promised not to send Bananas into elimination, even shaking his hand on it. Later, both Paulie and Cara voted Johnny in, and he was eliminated.
Paulie and Cara haven’t been on The Challenge for the past two seasons now, with Paulie also saying in the recent podcast interview that he turned down Season 37 so he could train for the Winter Olympics.
Bananas shared clever post after castmate’s comments
Johnny Bananas has been away from The Challenge, as he’s been working in other media ventures. Those have included him hosting NBC’s Celebrity Sleepover and 1st Look, shows which appeared following Saturday Night Live.
On Sunday, he shared an Instagram post from Monterey, California, showing off his recent fishing expedition. In the first photo of two, he’s holding up two fishes that he appears to have caught.
“You guys wouldn’t be in so much trouble had you just kept your mouths shut ??,” he wrote in a clever caption on his post.
While Johnny Bananas last appeared on and won the Total Madness season, he didn’t return to the show for Season 36, Double Agents. Based on Season 37 spoilers, he isn’t part of the latest season filming in Croatia either.
Bananas has not made any indication of if or when he’d return to MTV’s regular seasons, and some fans believe he could next show up on an All Stars season on Paramount Plus.
Meanwhile, Paulie seems to believe he will make a return to the MTV show at some point and win multiple Challenge seasons. His girlfriend Cara Maria Sorbello seems to be a mystery as far as if she’ll return. She has made recent social media posts talking about appearing on other TV shows even though she admitted The Challenge is her “unrequited love.”
The Challenge Season 37 premiere date is TBA for 2021 on MTV.
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