Villains might be a thing of the past in Survivor's new era, but we'll always cherish certain conniving moments from the early-aughts reality TV boom. From Omarosa's first Apprentice appearance, to Evel Dick's "hell week" on Big Brother 8 and, well, most things Puck did on The Real World, we can't help it. We love a devious bad guy -- especially while watching from the cozy comforts of our couches. While Survivor certainly had its fair share of cantankerous characters, we hadn't see anything until Jon Dalton stepped onto that sand in Season 7's Pearl Islands.

Best known by the name Jonny Fairplay, the man, the myth, the legend told one of the biggest lies in reality history during the season's eleventh episode. When the cast's loved ones hit the beach to take part in a reward challenge, Fairplay's best friend Dan had some bad news to deliver: Jonny's grandmother had died while he was out on the island.

The kicker? It was a complete and total lie.

The grandma lie (watch a clip of it above) helped Jonny win the challenge, which banished the rest of the cast to another beach without their family members. When Jonny and Dan were alone at camp, the two friends revealed that the entire story was a ruse! A pre-planned falsehood that Jonny used as a tactic to gain sympathy from his tribemates during the last stage of the game. (There were only seven players left at the time.)

"That was a brilliant performance, sir!" Fairplay told his friend. Then to the camera: "My grandmother's sitting home watching Jerry Springer right now," he confessed with a laugh. In his perspective, he had one shot at winning the game and the million dollars at stake. "The fake dead grandmother could easily go down as the dirtiest thing ever to be done in this game," he added.

If it wasn't the dirtiest move of all 48 seasons thus far, it's certainly up there. (It's got my vote!) Fairplay himself said during the reunion special that he wanted to be the most hated Survivor contestant of all time. Grandma -- Jean Cooke -- even attended the reunion, telling Jeff Probst that she had no idea about her grandson's ploy, but that "it was a game."

Fairplay received loads of live boos after stating, "Shoot, maybe All-Stars my grandpa will die!" He would go on to play again, but not until Season 16's Micronesia -- Fans vs. Favorites. But after worrying about his expectant girlfriend at home, he asked his tribe to vote him out and he was the first person to leave the game. At least that's the story that was told on TV. While there may be a lot of reasons why he wasn't chosen to return for Heroes vs. Villains, his omission (plus Survivor: Panama's Shane Powers, while we're at it) is still a damn shame.

To this day, whenever Fairplay's name is mentioned, one can't forget the masterclass of deception and manipulation that made him a reality TV staple, both inside and outside of Survivor. He went on to appear in countless other series, but most recently wound up on the show where he most belonged, House of Villains, further cementing his grandmother lie in television history. Love him or loathe him, concocting such a grand scheme in the 2003 TV landscape unheard of and dare we say... legendary? It was a move so wild, so outside the realm of possibility at the time that the Survivor cast and crew -- Jeff Probst included -- never saw it coming. And neither did we.