Big Brother 9 Houseguest Joshuah Should Have Been Loyal

Welcome to the first installment of Reality Review, the series that puts you, the viewer, at a safe distance while observing human nature at its finest. On April 2, 2008, Joshuah Welch was evicted from the Big Brother house. He left after more than seven weeks of seriously campaigning the other primates in the Big Brother habitat to forge alliances and pick off the other houseguests like fleas off a monkey's heinie.

It was a big week for Joshuah, the Big Brother 9 houseguest whose name became synonymous with the word "antics." From going on wild dusting sprees to dancing to turning on fellow guests like a rabid poodle, determining what he was going to do next could keep a reality show player up all night.

But no one seemed to have any sleepless nights in the wilderness where Joshuah was concerned.

The only people who seemed to have much to say about Joshuah were the two girls he snarled and snapped at for no apparent reason. He was not put up on the block until Week 8, at which time he was released back into the wild with only one vote in his favor.

Let's take a look at Joshuah's strategy, of which the unprovoked attacks did seem to play a part, or so his mother Darlene hopes. These Big Brother strategies did seem to work, if only because they forced the other Big Brother houseguests to take sides in the issue, making the girls he targeted vulnerable.

But why did no one put Joshuah on the block for being such a mad, bad guy? There are three reasons:

One, he probably scared people. When he attacked, he went all-out, and was through with his victim socially from that point on. He had alliances in the house, and was not afraid to use them, so his victims were at least partially ostracized at that point.

Two, he was a fun guy around the habitat when he wasn't gnawing someone's head off. He was a ray of light in a house where so many other people spent so much time complaining. (Can we say Sheila, boys and girls?) It wouldn't be surprising if everyone secretly wanted to be his friend, even if he was a Big Brother houseguest to approach with caution.