Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,921
edits
The Amazing Race: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
m (Mass update links) |
No edit summary |
||
| (19 intermediate revisions by 6 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{
[[File:127_amazing_race_468.jpg|frame]]
{{quote|''"The world is waiting for you. Good luck. Travel safe. Go!"''
|'''Phil Keoghan''', starting off every season.}}
Emmy-winning [[Reality Show]] created by Elise Doganieri and Bertram van Munster and aired on [[CBS]] since 2001. Hosted by Phil Keoghan, the show could vaguely be considered the [[Reality Show]] version of ''[[Around the World
Eleven or twelve two-person teams go on a journey around the world, following clues and performing tasks in order to be the first to arrive at the designated Pit Stop; the last team to arrive is usually (but not always) eliminated.
Line 24 ⟶ 25:
Fittingly, other countries have produced their own versions of the show:
* ''The Amazing Race Asia'': Having run four seasons, this version is open to English-speaking citizens of South and East Asian countries or foreign nationals living in Asia (Russian and Middle Eastern citizens are not eligible). Contestants travel throughout the Eastern Hemisphere. The final prize is US$100 thousand, compared with the US version's million dollar payout.
* ''The Amazing Race en Discovery Channel'': Having two seasons, this version is open to Spanish-speaking residents of Latin America and the Caribbean (Cubans, French Guianians, Puerto Ricans, and most citizens of the Lesser Antilles need not apply). Contestants only travel throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. A third season titled ''The Amazing Race Latinoamérica'' is currently airing. The final prize was US$250 thousand.
Line 37 ⟶ 39:
Not to be confused with [[Amazing Freaking Grace]], though that hasn't stopped some from making that pun [[Malcolm in
{{tropelist}}
== All Versions ==
* [[All There in the Manual]]:
** The full rules of the Race are never fully disclosed to the audience during the show, and they find out about many rules only when a team breaks them. According to former Racers, however, the teams spend a good bit of time being briefed on the actual Manual before the Race starts.
** The audience only sees a single fairly brief page in the task envelopes that the teams open at each box. Again, teams have stated that there are usually supplementary sheets as well, with more details, limitations, and requirements for successfully completing the task.
* [[The Alleged Car]]: Some of the cars the teams are given turn out to be this, and it's obviously quite deliberate.
* [[Anticlimax]]: Sometimes no matter how carefully producers arrange things teams will make mistakes and the outcome to an episode or a season will be perfectly obvious.
* [[The Artifact]]: The Fast Forward. For the first four seasons, there was one on every leg, in theory giving each team a chance at one free pass. However, for budgetary reasons (as it was not cost-effective to set up all these single-use tasks, especially when half of them never got used, and therefore never made it onto the show), starting with Season 5 (and in all the foreign versions) the Fast Forward was cut back to only one or two per season, although the "one per team" rule still applied. With all the strategy drained out of it, the Fast Forward has mostly become a cheap and/or easy win for a team that was already in the lead, as no team outside of the lead pack would dare risk it, as to not get it would mean certain elimination (as happened to Terence & Sarah on US Season 13, or Joey "Fitness" & Danny on US Season 20).
* [[Back for
* [[Backseat Driver]]: All the time when teams are tasked with driving themselves. As a bonus, because of the way the camera crew positions themselves in the car, the non-driving teammate is always positioned directly behind the driver.
* [[Blindfolded Trip]]: Sometimes the teams are given charter buses or planes to sign up for, but are not told their ultimate destination.
* [[Boring but Practical]]: Some of the Detour choices can end up being a choice between an exciting but more skill-intensive task and this. In the worst-case scenario, the viewers don't get to see the exciting task at all. This was less apparent with earlier seasons when "fear" was a supposed "con" of the more exciting tasks and the boring tasks were more time-consuming.
* [[Born Lucky]]: A few teams manage to have extremely lucky streaks, just finding the right cab drivers, or even being bailed out by friendly locals.
* [[Born Unlucky]]: In contrast, some teams have ''terrible'' luck, always finding the worst cab driviers and getting bad information from locals.
* [[Climbing the Cliffs of Insanity]]: When the producers realized teams were no longer intimidated by jumping off things, they started making the teams climb them instead, such as in the US Season 10 premiere where the teams had to climb the Great Wall of China to get to the Pit Stop on top.
* [[Confession Cam]]: A variant, as teammates almost always do them together.
* [[
* [[Culture Equals Costume]]: Costumes play a big part of the race; locals hired to run tasks and pit stop greeters will usually be in traditional costumes, and often racers will be put in costume as ''part of'' a task. Averted, of course, for everyone else the racers encounter.
* [[The Day the Music Lied]]: Happens when a team realizes they've made a mistake, generally accompanied by a [[Record Needle Scratch]] or alternately a [[Fan Nickname|Gong of Stupidity]] for particularly bone-headed moves.
* [[Difficulty Spike]]: The Race intentionally tries to make the tasks start off relatively easy; but they get more and more difficult as the season goes on (Partly because a lot of difficult tasks early-on would be hell on the editors.) However, generally a third of the way through the season there's a notable difficulty spike.
* [[Directionless Driver]]: Comes up more than you would expect, but there seems to be at least one team per season who would prefer to work off of maps than ever ask for directions from locals.
* [[Drives Like Crazy]]: Some cab drivers, especially in countries where traffic is prone to be like this in general. In US Season 4, Tian & Jaree's driver in India drove on the wrong side of the highway at night with his lights off.
** During US Season 3, while in Portugal, Andre & Damon were this ''without'' a driver:
{{quote|
* [[Eat That]]
** [[Foreign Queasine]]
Line 69 ⟶ 71:
* [[Elimination Statement]]: Generally much more positive and supportive than on other Reality Shows.
* [[Epic Race]]
* [[Face Plant]] / [[The Pratfall]]: Racers fall down... ''a lot'', and 95% of the time it's played for laughs, and plenty of times they even get back up and start laughing themselves.
* [[Failed a Spot Check]]: Especially hilarious when the cameraman sees whatever the racers don't.
* [[Failing a Taxi]]: Will happen from time to time, and is always played for drama. Most of the time it happens because teams will be tasked with finding a cab in an area that doesn't have many.
Line 85 ⟶ 87:
** [[Jerk Jock]]: This type included, and they're usually paired with a girlfriend.
* [[Landing Gear Shot]]: Given that The Amazing Race is a race around the world, it uses this trope all the time when using planes.
* [[Let's Get Dangerous]]: There are a number teams who struggle early on, though manage to stick around and turn it on late in the season to become major threats.
* [[Limited Wardrobe]]: Justified, as teams have to carry their entire wardrobe on their backs.
* [[Linked-List Clue Methodology]]
* [[Luck-Based Mission]]: "Needle in a Haystack" tasks. One of the most ''hated'' tasks.
** Whether you get a good or bad taxi driver can have a significant impact on how you do in a leg. In earlier seasons, this sometimes factored heavily in the finales. Later seasons have been designed so that performance on the tasks has a better chance to offset an unlucky choice of cabbie.
* [[MacGuffin Location]]: Everywhere, every episode.
* [[Mercy Kill]]: Of the non-lethal variety. When a team gets so far behind that it would be impossible for them to catch up to the other teams, they are given a clue that sends them right to the Pit Stop for their elimination. If they're ''really'' stuck (usually trying to complete a task) and can't even get to the next clue, the host will come to ''them''.
Line 97 ⟶ 99:
* [[Mood Motif]]: An overabundance of them. When they're not using a [[Regional Riff]], it's probably this. The most notable are those used for the first and last place teams coming into the Pit Stop.
* [[Mythology Gag]]: Although they don't necessarily point it out, many of the later international editions would either recycle locations and tasks from the US edition, or recycle tasks from each other. Australia Season 1 utilized this the most, as every other leg featured a task or location borrowed from the US or Asian versions.
* [[Needle in
* [[No Damage Run]]: Seventeen teams have made it to the Final 3 without ever being in danger of elimination (that is, finishing in the bottom 2 on any given leg), and eight of them can be considered [[Flawless Victory|FlawlessVictories]], that being Meghan & Cheyne on US Season 15, Kisha & Jen on US Season 18, Ernie & Cindy on US Season 19, Rachel & Dave on US Season 20, Adrian & Collin on Asia Season 2, Shay & Guy on Israel Season 1, Mauricio & Carlos on Latin America Season 2, and Nicolás & Cristóbal on Latin America Season 3. The others are:
** Both Rob & Brennan and Frank & Margarita did it on US Season 1, but [[Unwinnable By Mistake|due to the way the course was set up]] it was impossible for them to finish below 2nd place after leg 9, and considering at least half a dozen teams have lost their No Damage Runs after leg 9, there's no telling what would have happened had the other teams been allowed to catch up.
Line 107 ⟶ 109:
** Jill & Thomas, US Season 17, also made it to the Final 3 unscathed, though whether or not they were never in danger of elimination is debatable. They then finished 3rd in the finale.
** Anaelle & Akiva did on Israel Season 2, and were in the lead most of the final leg, but struggled with the final task and ultimately fell to 3rd.
* [[Non Gameplay Elimination]]: Generally happens at least [[Once a Season]], mostly due to the tight shooting schedule and loads of travel making it impossible to wait around for a single lagging team to finish a leg. Specific examples listed under the regional folders.
* [[No Sense of Direction]]: At least one team a season gets eliminated after getting tragically lost. Has led to a few [[Shocking Elimination|Shocking Eliminations]].
* [[Odd Name Out]]: Take a look at the names of all the tasks and related material: Detour, Roadblock, Yield, Intersection, U-Turn, Speed Bump, Express Pass, and...Fast Forward? One has to wonder why no one thought of calling it a "Shortcut" instead.
* [["On the Next..."]]: Somehow manages to combine [[Trailers Always Spoil]], [[Trailers Always Lie]], and [[Pseudo Crisis]] all into a 15 second clip.
* [[Only Smart People May Pass]]: Tasks like this are becoming more and more prevalent as the seasons pass, some of the clues as well.
* [[Path of Most Resistance]]: Showed up on a lot of early Detours, where one was scary or physically challenging, but fast, while the other was safe, but tedious and time-consuming. Used very frequently on the first four seasons, but not too often anymore, as the longer option was rarely taken.
* [[Pitbull Dates Puppy]]: Some couple teams come off like this under the stresses of the Race, though most don't tend to act that way in real life.
* [["Previously On..."]]: Usually only the finale references more than the previous episode.
* [[The Power of Friendship]]: One of the main themes behind the race, with "teamwork" being one of the main skills necessary to win the Race that Phil brings up in his pre-Race speech every season. Sure, teams like Zach & Flo (3), Freddy & Kendra (6), and Eric & Danielle (11) have managed to win with less than stellar teamwork, but bickering and in-fighting usually kills a team's chances.
* [[Pseudo Crisis]]: Both in episode and in the previews.
* [[Read the Freaking Manual|Read The Freaking Clue]]: Read it ''all''.
* [[Reality Show Genre Blindness]]: Actually averted most of the time; the majority of teams in later seasons make it clear that they have seen previous seasons. That said, failure to [[Read the Freaking Manual|Read The Freaking Clue]] properly still happens way more often than it should.
** Expect to hear a variation of "We did all that work on the last leg, only to have every team get on the same flight," at least once per season, despite equalizers having been a staple of the race since the beginning.
** Some teams don't seem to realize that there's going to be a thrill challenge somewhere. Or that there will actually be tasks where they have to swim, or that the final leg of the race is going to have a puzzle. [[Driving Stick|Same with people who don't know how to drive a stick shift.]]
* [[Recurring Traveller]]: Phil Keoghan, Allan Wu, and all the other hosts, showing up at the Pit Stops to officially check the teams in.
* [[Regional Riff]]
* [[Rubber Band AI]]: For various reasons, production creates "bunching points" or "equalizers," usually involving operating hours or transport schedules, so no team gets too far ahead or behind: Logistically, it's easier to keep the crew in a single country at a time and you don't want to tie up locals in assisting/judging tasks for days on end. Dramatically, having wins or losses be a [[Foregone Conclusion]] every week [[Boring Invincible Hero|is]] [[Boring Failure Hero|boring]].<ref> And in the American version, during the first season, a few teams got caught too far behind because of factors outside their control, resulting in the race becoming [[Unwinnable By Mistake]]</ref>
* [[Sadistic Choice]]: The producers learning how to balance Detours means that instead of choosing between a hard Detour and an easy one, there are now times when teams have to choose between two brutally hard ones.
* [[Scenery Porn]]: The world is a ''very'' beautiful place!
* [[Screw the Rules, I'm Beautiful]]: Heavily subverted. A lot of female teams talk about using their looks to their advantage. However, this rarely comes into play, and bringing it up pretty much guarantees a team's elimination down the line.
* [[Sibling Team]]: There's a couple of them every season.
Line 131 ⟶ 133:
* [[Surprise Difficulty]]: [[In-Universe|Even racers who have been fans of the series for years]] have finished the first leg in shock of how difficult the Race actually is. Even racers who've won other [[Survivor|Reality]] [[Big Brother|Shows]] have commented on it.
* [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]]: The U-Turn, which replaced the Yield.
* [[The Taxi]]: The second most common form of transportation (after airplanes), with entire ''seasons'' turning on teams getting good or bad cab drivers.
* [[Technology Marches On]]: Cell phone and smartphone proliferation has had a huge effect on the race metagame. Racers are barred from carrying phones themselves, but it's become increasingly easier to borrow a local's phone to call a cab or Google information about their clue or something.
** This very thing helped Nat & Kat win US Season 17, as in the finale they made sure their cab driver had a phone the could use to figure out their puzzle clue, while the other two teams just jumped in a random cab. Jill & Thomas in particular got hopelessly lost as a result.
Line 138 ⟶ 140:
* [[Tempting Fate]]: All the time, mostly on legs when a team in the front of the pack boasts about how good they've been doing, that generally means they're about to struggle for the first time. It's almost expected to happen now.
* [[There Is Only One Bed]]: Never shown, but frequently talked about, especially when teams spend the night in a remote location.
* [[
* [[Those Two Guys]]: Since all teams are pairs, you will end up seeing several of these.
* [[Time Passes Montage]]: Usually when an "operating hours" equalizer is involved.
Line 145 ⟶ 147:
* [[Trailers Always Spoil]]: Both inverted and played straight, depending on the episode. The safest team on any given leg is ''usually'' the one made to look like they were in danger in the trailers at the end of the previous episode, which makes it all the more shocking when they play it absolutely straight.
* [[Travel Montage]]: Given that traveling is the main premise of the game...
* [[Universal Driver's License]]: The show takes full advantage of the fact that many people believe this trope to be [[Truth in Television]], making teams operate things like doubledecker buses, armored personnel carriers, and shipyard cargo cranes, as well as extending it to things like dogsleds and donkey carts. Count on at least one shot each season of a team member saying something like, [[What Could Possibly Go Wrong?|"How hard can it be?"]] just before they screw up royally.
* [[Viewers are Morons]]: Generally, the audience is told the location of the Pit Stop when the first team receives their final clue. However, when a Fast Forward is taken, viewers are told both after the Fast Forward is won and after the final clue, even if the two events are only a minute or two apart.
* [[Vomit Discretion Shot]]: A part of most eating tasks. Occasionally a [[Vomit Indiscretion Shot]] (or, at times, as close as it could get without trying to cram the cameraman into the bathroom stall with the racer).
Line 186 ⟶ 188:
** Season 19, Ernie & Cindy completely dominated the finale when the other two teams made vital mistakes early in the leg, to the point where they didn't see another team after leaving the first task.
* [[Asian and Nerdy]]: Both played straight and averted, though the most prominent Asian racers (Ronald & Christina from Seasons 12 & 18, Tammy & Victor from Season 14, Kat from Season 17, and Cindy from Season 19) tend to fit this trope.
* [[Awesomeness By Analysis]]:
** Colin (Season 5) ran all of two legs before he reinvented the Race's entire [[Metagame]]. Some of his strategies included:
*** Being the first team to realize there was no downtime on the race. If he and Christie were not at a Pit Stop or sleeping, they were doing something to give them an advantage over the other teams.
Line 194 ⟶ 196:
*** They called ahead for a car in the Final Destination city, so that they were guaranteed to have a fast driver waiting there for them.
** Nat & Kat (17) who, among other things, memorized a song by turning into a number pattern and managed to find a piece of fake food in a full buffet of real food in a matter of minutes.
* [[Back for
** In Season 13, 4th place team Toni & Dallas were absent from the Finish Line, as they had yet to recover their lost passports.
** In Season 15, Eric & Lisa were eliminated before even leaving the US, and instead of going to the Elimination Station, they chose to leave the Race, and were therefore were not present at the finale.
* [[Bar Slide]]: A task in Season 6 had the teams do this while aiming for a target on a bar made entirely of ice.
* [[Base Breaker]]: [[In-Universe|Jaime & Cara cited themselves as Base Breakers in the pre-race interviews for Unfinished Business,]] saying that they were a team people loved or hated, there was no middle ground with them.
* [[Batman Gambit]]: Used by Rob during the four pounds of meat Roadblock in Season 7. After deciding that eating four pounds of meat was impossible, he quit the task and took the four-hour penalty. Since the penalty did not start until the next team showed up, he used that to his advantage, waiting for his own penalty to start before convincing two other teams to also quit the task, counting on their squeamishness to cause them to follow his lead. Cue [[Evil Gloating]] about how he could not get eliminated that leg.
** In Season 5, Chip & Kim built up Colin & Christie's egos and made them over-confident, trusting that any sort of struggle later would cause them to [[Villainous Breakdown|self-destruct]]. Earlier in the Season their plan was to encourage the rivalry between Colin and Mirna in order to get them to focus more on each other than the race, however Charla & Mirna got eliminated too quickly for this to come to fruition.
* [[Bad Liar]]: In Season 18's penultimate leg, Flight Time & Big Easy and Zev & Justin had a flight that would put them in Brazil half a day in front of Kisha & Jen and Gary & Mallory, but when Mallory asked the Globetrotters if they had found a better flight, Flight Time's horrible lie all but gave away that they had, and all four teams got on the same flight.
* [[Badass Grandpa|Badass]] [[Never Mess
** Bill & Joe, Season 1, invented most of the show's basic [[Metagame]] and went into All-Stars with the other teams seeing them as one of the biggest threats.
** Donald, Season 12, carried his grandson Nicolas into the Final 3.
** Teri & Ian were in their fifties during both Season 3 (where they placed second overall) and Season 11 (where they placed seventh, but were generally doing well outside of the leg they were eliminated in). A major theme of Season 3 was how everyone overlooked them as a threatening team when they were too busy trying to knock Derek & Drew out of the race. In Season 11, Bill & Joe also commented on how Teri & Ian were more competent at racing than they were generally given credit for. At one point on Season 3, four teams put unleaded fuel in their diesel cars. Ian was the only one who took the initiative to fix the car by draining the unleaded fuel out of the tank.
** Bill & Cathi, Season 19. Being a farmer, Bill blew through a Roadblock involving transporting 200 lb. bales of tobacco across a warehouse via handcart, easily beating former NFL tight end Marcus Pollard in the process. Cathi was no slouch either, carrying an entire bedframe on her back to the Pit Stop on that same leg. Two legs later, they were U-Turned and shrugged off the additional task without dropping a spot.
* [[Bald of Awesome]]: Kevin & Drew (Season 1, [[Not
* [[Bi the Way]]: As stated in Brandy's (16) bio:
{{quote|
* [[Binocular Shot]]: Season 5, Episode 12, the racers had to identify the Philippines flag through binoculars. At one point, Brandon looked through the binoculars with the lens cover still on one side, and a single circular frame, offset to one side of the screen, was shown.
* [[Big Eater]]: Chip was notable for how quickly he finished Season 5's two eating challenges.
** Uchenna (Season 7) scarfed down the infamous 4 pounds of meat like it was just an everyday meal. Debbie also put it down quickly enough that she almost made up the four hours she and her teammate spent lost driving around.
* [[Big Fun]]: Kevin & Drew (Season 1, [[Not
{{quote|
* [[Black and Nerdy]]: Azaria & Hendekea (12) and Justin (19).
* [[Blessed Are the Cheesemakers]]: Exploited and subverted in a Season 3 Fast Forward, where John Vito & Jill are tasked with eating squares out of a giant wheel of cheese, and both quickly become queasy from the massive amounts of cheese they're expected to eat.
Line 225 ⟶ 227:
* [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]]: Though different from the usual kind. The show normally ignores stuff surrounding the production, but Season 19's premiere showed how spoiler hounds tracking racers' progress on Twitter helped Kaylani & Lisa recover their lost passport.
* [[Breather Episode|Breather Leg]]: Each of the first four seasons had a non-elimination leg between the final elimination leg and the finale. Since there were no penalties given out to teams saved by the non-elimination, most teams considered this a free leg, and on Season 3, Zach even deliberately threw the second-to-last leg just to appease Flo. The non-elimination leg in the Final 3 returned for Seasons 7 and 9, but with penalties in place for non-eliminated teams, it was no longer a [[Breather Episode|Breather Leg]].
** Though the penultimate leg in Season 17 was technically an elimination leg, the 4th place team had fallen 9 hours behind due to a penalty from the previous leg preventing them from making a flight. This basically made the leg a [[Breather Episode|Breather Leg]] for the other 3 teams, who could then treat the leg as a free non-elimination leg.
* [[Brother-Sister Team]]: Blake & Paige (2), Tramel & Talicia (3), Azaria & Hendekea (12), Nick & Starr (13), Tammy & Victor (14), and Justin & Jennifer (19).
* [[Bowdlerise]]: Season 4, in most foreign airings there is no mention of Reichen & Chip being "married", plus their kiss at the Finish Line is edited out.
* [[Busman's Vocabulary]]: In Season 19, former NFL player Marcus can always be counted on to pull out a football metaphor.
* [[But for Me It Was Tuesday]]: Rob & Amber (7 and 11) stated in their Reality News Online interview that they had to look up on the Internet to remember who Susan & Patrick (7) were after receiving a spiteful letter from them during All-Stars. Similarly, Brook & Claire (17) were totally unaware of Katie & Rachel (17) and their grudge against any other all-female team winning. This occurs in general due to teams often being far apart from each other on the race, leaving little room for interaction, especially between teams who made the Final 3 and teams who finished 8th.
Line 256 ⟶ 258:
* [[Cassandra Truth]]: Wil in Season 2. He never missed an opportunity to tell Tara that helping out Chris & Alex was a bad idea, and they should be concentrating on the race instead of helping another team. Though he was ultimately proven right, he was portrayed as a ''villain'' since he frequently antagonized most of the people he met.
** Subverted on Season 20 with Art & JJ. They told everyone that Nary & Jamie were cops, not teachers, in the hope that it would put heat on them and cause the other teams to distrust them. The other teams didn't disbelieve them, they just didn't care because Nary & Jamie were nicer, and proceeded to tell Nary & Jamie exactly what was going on.
* [[Catch Phrase]]: Almost everything Phil says, though in more recent seasons, Phil's [[Averted Trope|stopped using]] most of his catch phrases (most notably the Detour and Road Block ones, as seen above). He still uses a few, though (The last team to check in *[[Dramatic Pause
** Ian (3 & 11) would yell, "We're comin', Phil," on approach to each Pit Stop. He also had, "Hoorah!"
** Jet & Cord (16 & 18): "Oh my gravy."
** Brook's (17) Catch Phrase might as well have been, "Claire! Claire! Come on, Claire!" with as much as she yelled it.
** Cindy's (19) "Oh my god."
* [[Chewing the Scenery]]: Almost every season has at least a few racers who act completely over the top. This may be due to stress, the cameras, or just their natural personality, but oh boy do we see them.
** Flo Pesenti and Ian Pollack from Season 3, Jonathan Baker from Season 6, and Rob Mariano from Season 7 are all great examples.
* [[Clothes Make the Legend]]: Harlem Globetrotters Flight Time & Big Easy (15 & 18) at least acted as if this applied to them, as their entire race wardrobe consisted entirely of Globetrotter gear.
Line 277 ⟶ 279:
** Colin & Christie (5) had a streak of eight legs where they were only out of first place at two points (both following eating tasks in which they were passed by [[Big Eater|Chip and his bottomless stomach]]), and they won several legs by over an hour.
* [[Cutting the Knot]]: On Season 11, Danny became frustrated while doing a Roadblock that involved finding and collecting old newspapers from locals in a Malaysian neighborhood, so he just went to a store and bought a bunch of papers to complete the task (though this would cause them further problems later in the race).
* [[Daddy's Girl]]: Mallory (17 & 18) is a text book example of this. Heck, Mallory even stated that she's the youngest, and only girl, of four.
* [[Dark Horse Victory]]: Dan & Jordan on Season 16. They did not get much attention preseason, and because Dan was vocal that he did not want to be on the race, and only came on because it was his brother’s dream, most people dismissed them right away, and they were a favorite to be eliminated on the first leg. They were never one of the strongest teams, nor were they one of the weakest. Their only win came while completing a Fast Forward, thus they mostly spent a lot of time in the middle of the pack, rarely thriving, rarely struggling, and were summarily dismissed by both the fans and the other racers. But when it came time for the final leg, they ran a perfect leg to beat "obvious favorites" Jet & Cord and "villains" Brent & Caite, who had finished 1-2 for the previous two legs.
** Kisha & Jen on Season 18. When the teams were announced for Unfinished Business, they were not one of the stronger teams that previously made the Final 3, nor were they one of the other notable fan favorites. In fact, most fans mostly remembered them either for Jen's fight with Luke, or Jen getting them eliminated when she stopped for a bathroom break in Season 14's penultimate leg. Though many considered them a good bet for early elimination, they hung around in the background for most of the Race, not creating any waves, while all of the high-profile teams eliminated themselves, and then made their move in the final leg to win it all.
* [[Dartboard of Hate]]: A variation occurred in Season 4, during a Taekwondo Detour in South Korea, Kelly was having trouble breaking her boards, so Jon told her to picture his face on the boards, and his line was even used as the episode title quote.
{{quote|
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Season 3 brothers Ken & Gerard were snarky towards practically everyone (especially Ian), but perhaps surprisingly they did so in a playful and non-vindictive way.
** Also from Season 3, Aaron & Arianne were a much more straightforward example in a very non-playful and vindictive way.
* [[Deal
* [[A Death in
** The most egregious example has to be from Season 15, when the other eight teams were ignored in favor of devoting an entire episode to Zev & Justin. Zev & Justin had more airtime, both on the course and in interviews, than the other eight teams combined.
* [[Decoy Protagonist]]: Zev & Justin seemed to be set up for a run late into the race on Season 15, including a burgeoning rivalry with Maria & Tiffany, that is until they lost a passport.
* [[Defeat
* [[Delicious Distraction]]: Ron picked up this trait in Season 18. Several times he lost his concentration, even mid-task, and tried to get his daughter to stop to get food.
* [[Description Cut]]: Has been done several times, typically when one team says something about the placement of another team that turns out to be completely wrong. Examples:
** Season 1, Episode 5:
{{quote|
''(cut to Kevin & Drew dancing it up at the Pit Stop oasis)'' }}
** A slightly different, but still deliciously ironic, one from Season 2, Episode 11:
{{quote|
''(cut to pouring rain outside)'' }}
** Season 5, Episode 4:
{{quote|
''(cut to Christie and Nicole breaking down as they try to eat 2 lbs. of caviar)'' }}
*** A similar cut was done with Susan & Patrick (7) on their way to the 4 lbs. of meat Roadblock.
** Season 7, Episode 9: The ''entire first half'' of the episode played out like this. Rob was feeling so overconfident with Lynn & Alex gone that he asked older couple Gretchen & Meredith if they had gotten on the earlier flight, just to mess with them. Gretchen & Meredith freaked out and went running to Uchenna & Joyce. [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain|The two couples borrowed someone's phone,]] [[Accidental Truth|and actually found a flight that would get them in two hours earlier.]] Rob, after "confirming" there were no faster flights to Istanbul, sat around mocking the "idiot" teams that were already in the air, getting a two-hour jump on him. Even Rob & Amber fans found this episode [[Hoist
** Season 10, Episode 8:
{{quote|
'''Rob''': We're going to be so far ahead.
''(cut to Dustin finishing the Roadblock, her and Kandice about to take first place on that leg)'' }}
** From leg 1 of Unfinished Business:
{{quote|
*cut to a confused looking Amanda*
'''Amanda''': What? Great, doesn’t make sense. }}
* [[Determinator]]: Lena, on the hay bale Roadblock on Season 6. She unrolled hay bales for ''8 hours'', long after all the other teams had come and gone. She unrolled over one hundred bales without finding a clue, and did not stop until Phil came out to the field to eliminate her and her sister. It's the reason Lena & Kristy are so well remembered despite only lasting three legs.
** Zach Behr, one half of the winning team of Season 3. He basically won the Race by himself, doing all the Roadblocks except for one, and having to deal with and console Flo and her constant nervous breakdowns and convince her not to quit the Race when they were almost through with it.
** Vanessa (20) performed a running Roadblock with a sprained ankle. Despite Ralph repeatedly telling her to take a penalty, she flat out refused to do so and managed to complete the task.
* [[Did Not Get the Girl]]: Poor Zach (3), he didn't get the girl, but at least he still managed to win the Race.
* [[Digital Avatar]]: Used in the Industrial Light & Magic challenge in the Season 16 finale.
* [[Dog Walks You]]: A Season 5 Detour had the teams walking a group of dogs through three checkpoints, it quickly turned into this.
{{quote|
* [[Doom Magnet]]: You would not believe just how many tragedies have happened in places that were just featured on the race:
** Season 1: The ''series premiere'', which left from New York City, aired on September 5, 2001. I don't think I need to explain that one.
Line 324 ⟶ 326:
** Season 18: In a less direct example, Phil's hometown of Christchurch, New Zealand was hit by a major earthquake mere hours after the premiere. It then took a more direct turn when the 2011 Japan earthquake hit right after the Tokyo leg aired.
** Season 20: Shortly after the premiere, one of the show's facilitators (the people who set up the challenges) was poisoned and died in Uganda while working on another show.
* [[Down to
** Several individual legs have been decided by a footrace, with the eliminated team in sight of the mat when the second-to-last team checks in. Season 7 had three legs decided this way, and Season 9 had [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeI_VFmg7mc one of the most intense footraces in Amazing Race history decide the leg in Australia.]
* [[Dramatic Pause]]: Phil Keoghan does it quite a lot, both in his narration and his appearances at the end of each episode telling contestants whether they're eliminated or not. Teams have actually broken down in giggles in the middle of his pause and told him to just get on with it already (Ken & Gerard, Season 3, and Kisha & Jen, Season 14).
Line 344 ⟶ 346:
* [[Education Mama]]: Overachiever Cindy (19) apparently came from one of these "Asian Tiger Mom" households, and it shows.
* [[El Spanish-O]]: The contestants are guilty of this every season, especially when they get into Eastern Europe or Asia.
{{quote|
** Mirna (5, 11) became famous for her mangling of the English language, such that her "version" of Spanish was called [[Fan Nickname|Mirnish.]]
** In Season 8, while asking for directions in Costa Rica, Linda Weaver asked a local "On righto or lefto?"
Line 355 ⟶ 357:
* [[Epic Fail]]: Dana & Adrian were eliminated from Season 16 without even completing a single task. While they were the third team to be eliminated without completing a leg, the other two were at legitimate elimination points, whereas Adrian was foiled by a Roadblock.
* [[Everyone Knows Morse]]: Averted by Joe & Heidi (16), who were then eliminated.
* [[Everything's Better
* [[Everything's Better
* [[Everything's Worse
* [[Evil Gloating]]: Rob, on every episode he was on, on both Seasons 7 and 11.
** Caite in Season 16 obviously qualifies after having an axe to grind against Carol & Brandy since the start of the race, due to an insult she heard, not from the "mean lesbians" themselves, but second-hand through Louie & Michael. She finally got her chance to strike back by successfully U-Turning them, leading to their elimination. She gloated to the other teams at the airport in the very next leg as they waited to board their plane to Shanghai. It was from this point on that she was portrayed as the villain.
Line 375 ⟶ 377:
** Exploited in Season 19, Episode 2, when one task included a sign of additional directions that weren't in the clue. Eight of the eleven teams missed it and had to backtrack, causing the three who did notice to jump as many as seven places to the top of the standings.
** Vanessa & Ralph (20) took several minutes to find a clue in a rug shop despite said clue being perched in plain sight on top of a rug.
* [[Fake Balance]]: The first nine seasons favored physically strong teams (the first four seasons especially so). It was exceedingly simple for fit teams to power their way through the race, waiting for fatigue to take out the smarter teams. However, since then the game has tilted more and more towards favoring intelligent teams, as (1) teams have learned that cardio is far more useful than brute strength, and started preparing accordingly, (2) while physical teams can still dominate and string wins together at the beginning of a season, they are put at a huge disadvantage late in the season when the puzzles and mental tasks get harder, while the strength tasks remain relatively the same, and (3) budgetary cuts at the beginning of Season 12 (see [[Screwed
** Since Season 12, only three physically inclined team have won the race (Meghan & Cheyne, Season 15, Kisha & Jen, Season 18, and Rachel & Dave, Season 20), and they all had the advantage of having all the mentally inclined teams getting eliminated prior to the finale, nor did any of them have to face the big puzzle that's normally found in the [[Final Exam Finale|final leg]].
* [[Fan Disservice]]: Not just for the fans in Season 20, as one Detour had the teams scrub oil off of hairy, nearly naked men.
Line 385 ⟶ 387:
** Kelly from Season 4 was also one of these.
* [[Foiler Footage]]: The 4th, 5th, and 6th place teams generally keep racing, even after their elimination, in order to thwart spoilers. This has not always been successful.
* [[Foreshadowing]]: Done both subtly and not-so subtly. There are times when you can tell [[A Death in
** One example of the subtle variety came from leg 2 of All-Stars, where, upon leaving the Detour at the same time as Eric & Danielle, Rob said that even on Eric's best day, he had no chance of beating them.
** Mallory, at the end of Season 17, after the winner had already been decided, and all that was left to do was take the final cast picture, gave this line right before the trailer for "Unfinished Business" was shown:
{{quote|
* [[Fun
* [[Game-Breaking Injury]]: A knee injury hampered Steve & Dave (4) from running at all, so they never really had a chance after leg 1.
** After Season 18, it came out that Kynt cracked his rib and sprained his ankle while falling of a ladder during a Roadblock in leg 5, yet hid the injury from the production staff for fear that they would get eliminated due to the injury. He ran the rest of the Race before getting medical treatment, which caused him to suffer greatly on any tasks that required physical exertion.
Line 410 ⟶ 412:
** Despite being constantly reminded that they were going to Chile, Season 16's Jordan (the female one) proceeded to request tickets to Santiago, ''China''.
** Season 12:
{{quote|
** Season 17:
{{quote|
'''Vicki''': We're in London, right?
'''Phil''': That's right, the country of London. }}
** Also in Season 17: The teams were visiting a school in Ghana and tasked with identifying Ghana on a map. It went about as well as you would expect.
Line 434 ⟶ 436:
* [[High School Sweethearts]]: a big part of Meghan & Cheyne's (15) story.
** Bill had this exchange with Cindy, about him and Cathi, on Season 19:
{{quote|
'''Cindy''': Aw, so cute.
'''Bill''': Went together for 8 years and got married on the day of graduation from college.
'''Cindy''': Wow, we just met in a bar.
'''Bill''': Well that's okay too.
'''Cindy''': Over a shotski. }}
* [[History Repeats]]: Both All-Stars and Unfinished Business had teams get eliminated (or just in bad situations) in the exact same way they did on their original season:
Line 449 ⟶ 451:
* [[Ho Yay]]: [[In-Universe|Greg got a bit overexcited over the apparent "closeness" Debbie & Bianca exhibited at LAX on the Season 7 premiere.]]
** Jamie, Season 20, on her and Nary setting up a camp shower:
{{quote|
* [[Holier Than Thou]]: The Weaver Family, Season 8. They believed they were the only team who deserved to win because they were the only good people on the Race. Everyone else, on the other hand, found them insufferable and were pulling for any team ''but'' them to win - including the other teams to such an extent that by the final leg, the other two remaining teams (the Linzes and the Bransens) were [[Enemy Mine|united in the agreement that they wouldn't mind if the other team won, as long as it meant that the Weavers wouldn't win]].
** Charla & Mirna (5 & 11) were a less severe case of this, but that still didn't stop them from condemning the other teams for being untrustworthy and back-stabbing them. Season 5 even saw Mirna rant that all the other teams were jealous of them. Their "feud" with Dustin & Kandice (11) was full of this.
Line 462 ⟶ 464:
* [[Hot-Blooded]]: Jonathan (6) did everything with insane intensity, including bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet during Phil's entire intro speech.
* [[Hypocrite]]: In Season 20, both Vanessa and Rachel (of Brendon & Rachel) made blatantly insulting comments at each other both behind their backs and to their faces. Vanessa would later go on to say she wanted to set an example for her kids, while Rachel seemed oblivious to having done the exact same thing on ''[[Big Brother]]''.
* [[I Was Beaten
** Flight Time & Big Easy begrudgingly acknowledged Kisha & Jen's racing skills in the Season 18 finale, though their hyper-competitiveness meant they probably would have had this reaction to any team beating them.
** Chip (Season 5) usually groaned "The moms freakin' beat us" whenever the Bowling Moms finished a task or leg ahead of them.
Line 474 ⟶ 476:
* [[In-Series Nickname]]: Some team nicknames become so prominent, that they're used in place of the team's actual names by the other racers. This includes [[Ironic Nickname|The Guidos]] (Bill & Joe, Seasons 1 & 11), The Clowns (Jon & Al, Season 4), Mirna & Schmirna (Charla & Mirna, Seasons 5 & 11), The Hippies (BJ & Tyler, Season 9), The Beauty Queens (Dustin & Kandice, Seasons 10 & 11), The Goths (Kynt & Vyxsin, Seasons 12 & 18), [[Portmanteau Couple Name|Dandrew]] (Dan & Andrew, Season 13), and The Cowboys (Jet & Cord, Seasons 16 & 18). Two different teams (David & Mary, Seasons 10 & 11, and Mark & Bopper, Season 20) have been called "Kentucky".
* [[Incredibly Lame Pun]]: Mel (Seasons 14 & 18) liked to pull these out:
{{quote|
'''Mel''': Yeah, um, Mai Tai.
[[Beat|*beat*]]<br />
'''Mel''': [[Don't Explain the Joke|That was a pun.]]<br />
Line 488 ⟶ 490:
* [[Insufferable Genius]]: Azaria (12) and Victor (14).
* [[Insult Backfire]]: After discovering that Dustin & Kandice had used their Yield power in both Seasons 10 and 11, Charla & Mirna decided to nickname them the "Yield Queens". A few episodes later, Dustin & Kandice bought Danny & Oswald's Yield to keep it from being used on them, and were the only team not upset by the whole exchange.
{{quote|
* [[Invincible Hero]]: Though half the seasons have a dominant team played up as being near invincible, these teams are rarely framed as the "hero", and on top of that is that these teams only remain invincible up until the finale, as on the Race it seems that [[Underdogs Never Lose]]. However, there are a few times they have tried this:
** Meghan & Cheyne (15) were played as this, though most fans didn't buy into the "hero" part.
** Season 19's Andy & Tommy were a subversion. Though they did win six of the first ten legs prior to their elimination, and though their dominance was constantly talked about, so was the fact that they were insanely lucky, and that half of their wins were due to the team(s) in front of them incurring penalties.
* [[Invincible Incompetent]]: Dan & Andrew were played as this more and more as Season 13 played out. The other teams openly mocked them, the editors portrayed them as fools, even Phil told them that he thought they should be the next team eliminated, something he's ''never'' done to ''any other team''. Joel McHale even got into it on ''[[The Soup]]'', listing the basic everyday tasks [[In-Series Nickname|Dandrew]] screwed up, including getting dressed and ''walking''. Despite all this, they made it to the Final 3.
* [[Ironic Nickname]]: Team Guido (Bill & Joe, Season 1) was a pair of middle-aged, cultured gay men, who nicknamed themselves after their dog.
* [[It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY"]]: Ian's wife Teri (Seasons 3 and 11) insisted on pronouncing his name "Eye-an", despite everyone else (including him) pronouncing it the usual way. This is because that's how his mother intended for his name to be pronounced, and how he was introduced to Teri.
* [[It Seemed Like a Good Idea At
* [[
* [[Just Friends]]: Zach & Flo, Season 3.
* [[Laser-Guided Karma]]: Inexplicably, what happened to Rob & Amber at the end of Season 7. In the finale, after dominating most of the season, albeit in a [[Magnificent Bastard]] sort of way, the two of them were sitting alone on the plane to the Final Destination City, the race pretty much in hand... until Uchenna & Joyce begged their way onto the plane, despite the gate already being closed and the pilot already having pulled away. Uchenna & Joyce ended up winning despite running out of money and having to beg to pay their cab driver at the Finish Line, as Rob & Amber got lost looking for the final clue in Little Havana. The comeback was so improbable (especially with Uchenna & Joyce getting all their money and possessions taken away for losing the previous leg) that it had some fans claiming the whole thing was staged (of course, this rumor was started by a bitter Rob).
Line 504 ⟶ 506:
* [[Let's Get Dangerous]]: Teri & Ian were best described as fodder through the first half of Season 3, but found their stride with the Fast Forward in leg 6, and even won the last two legs leading up to the finale outright.
** Dan & Jordan were an afterthought up until the Season 16 finale, where Jordan's Race knowledge became a [[Chekhov's Skill]] that allowed them to dominate the final leg.
* [[Lingerie Scene]]: In Season 14, a roadblock required one team member to run through the streets of a Russian city in their underwear. In winter. And, in Christie's case, in a thong.
* [[Like an Old Married Couple]]: Terri & Ian (Season 3) ''are'' a married couple who've been together over twenty years and fit this trope like a glove.
* [[Limited Wardrobe]]: Certain teams have become associated with certain garments, such as Linda & Karen's "Bowling Moms" shirts from Season 5.
Line 518 ⟶ 520:
** Jill (Season 17) not only was a malaproper, but she tended to mispronounce words as well.
** In the Season 20 premiere, the teams are tasked with making empanadas:
{{quote|
'''Mark''': It ain't a pinata, my brotha, it's a empi-za- Well, you call it whatever you want. I don't know neither. }}
* [[A Man Is Not a Virgin]]: Millie & Chuck (Season 4), had dated for 12 years but said they never consummated. This was apparently notable enough that where most teams are labled "Dating", "Married", "Best Friends" or the like, the show labeled these two "The Virgins".
Line 566 ⟶ 568:
== United States Version N-Z ==
* [[Never Live It Down]]: [[In
** Jet (Season 16), a cowboy, missed lassoing his target while doing the Roadblock on the third leg. After successfully roping in his target on his second try, Cord started cracking jokes on how everybody will be ribbing Jet about missing it the first time back home.
** Claire (Season 17) said in an interview that no matter what she does for the rest of her life, she expects to always be remembered as the woman who got hit in the face with a watermelon.
Line 588 ⟶ 590:
* [[The Not-Secret]]: Ethan & Jenna (19) wanted to keep it a secret that they had both won ''Survivor'' in order to keep the other teams from targeting them. However, at the same time they were telling this to the camera, the other teams were talking about it at the gate.
* [[Not That Kind of Doctor]]: Inverted in Season 17 when, after being U-Turned, Chad started taunting Nat at the Roadblock. Though really, it might have just been because Chad didn't know the difference between an MD and a PhD.
{{quote|
'''Nat''' (in a voice over): For the record, I have an MD, I do not have a PhD. }}
* [[Nothing Can Stop Us Now]]: Rob (7), after the elimination of Lynn & Alex in 5th place, as he saw them as the only real competition left between him and the million dollars. Of course, he, like the audience, [[Out of Focus|overlooked Uchenna & Joyce lurking in the background...]]
Line 607 ⟶ 609:
* [[Odd Friendship]]: Sometimes, teams you probably wouldn't expect to ever be friends become just that over the course of the Race, such as the quartet of Kentucky hicks David & Mary, African-American single moms Lyn & Karlyn, Ivy League Asian brothers Erwin & Godwin, and gay couple Tom & Terry from Season 10.
** [[Intergenerational Friendship]]: Examples include "wonder twins" Derek & Drew and balding middle-aged brothers Ken & Gerard in Season 3, married African-American couple Chip & Kim and blonde twins Kami & Karli in Season 5, bickering young couple Brent & Caite and middle-aged cops Louie & Michael in Season 16.
* [[Oddly
* [[One-Hit Kill]]: The U-Turn usually functioned as one, especially in its early seasons, though there were often other factors that contributed to a team's loss than just the time spent on a U-Turn. The Double U-Turn was introduced so that at least one team would survive it.
* [[One Steve Limit]]: Averted, as almost every season has at least two racers with the same name.
Line 613 ⟶ 615:
** Season 4 ''also'' had the team Russell & Cindy, while Season 2 had the team Russell & Cyndi.
** Season 4 was particularly bad about this, as it had three Steves, two Jons, and two Davids (although one of them went by Dave).
* [[Only Known
** Season 20 includes a guy called Joey "Fitness" (quotes included on the onscreen captions) and a guy who goes by Bopper.
* [[Opening Narration]]: Only on Season 1.
* [[Opposites Attract]]: Season 19 had uptight, [[Asian and Nerdy|study freak]] Cindy paired with self proclaimed slacker Ernie.
* [[Out of Focus]]: Particularly bad on the first few legs, when some teams can go entire episodes getting only one or two lines, though these are [[Spoiled
** Brennan from Season 1 was almost never shown talking in the interview segments; all the talking came from his partner Rob. He later explained in an interview that this was probably due to his tendency to ramble on compared to his partner's terser, and hence more editing-friendly, talking.
** Derek got pushed into the background in Season 3's later episodes in favor of the Drew/Flo/Zach [[Love Triangle]].
Line 625 ⟶ 627:
** Jeremy & Sandy (19) finished in second, but didn't get much screen time until one of the late legs.
* [[Out-of-Genre Experience]]: The Japanese Game Show Roadblocks in the Season 15 premiere and Season 20 finale, including the sound effects and graphics to go along with them.
* [[Overshadowed
** Long before that, Colin & Christie did the same thing to every team on Season 5, especially Charla & Mirna, who had three 2nd place finishes before going out in 6th place due to a gamble on a flight backfiring. When Charla & Mirna returned on All-Stars, they surprised a lot of their fellow racers (and even more fans) with how competent they were.
** Guaranteed to happen on any All-Star seasons, as an increase in competition means that teams who led their seasons are all of a sudden running with the pack, while teams that would otherwise be expected to make the Final 3 on a normal season are all of a sudden scratching and clawing to stay in the race. Unless they're a top tier team like Dustin & Kandice and Rob & Amber (on All-Stars), or Zev & Justin (on Unfinished Business), no team really has a chance of standing out.
Line 642 ⟶ 644:
** Despite her hatred of anyone who could not speak English, Jaime (14) was repeatedly shown to go out of her way to communicate with the deaf Luke.
** In between trying to incite fights between other teams and being all around arrogant, Art & JJ gave half of their leg 4 winnings to Bopper ($5,000) for his daughter when they though he and Mark were about to be eliminated.
* [[Pie in
* [[Politeness Judo]]: Nat & Kat (Season 17) used "please" and "thank you" to make their way around the world, and never lost their temper, even at each other. They used their politeness to get a man to buy them a travel guide, and to defuse Chad's temper after they had U-Turned him.
{{quote|
** Danny & Oswald (2 & 11) also used politeness to get ahead, but ended up using too much "Politeness" and not enough "Judo", as they tailed off at the end of both of their seasons.
* [[Potty Emergency]]: In Season 14, Episode 11, Jen ''really'' had to go after downing four bottles of water during the food-eating Roadblock. So she did, even though Jaime & Cara were right behind them, because she didn't want to pee in her pants. Her pants stayed dry, but she and Kisha ended up eliminated thanks to the time lost in the restroom.
Line 657 ⟶ 659:
** Leg 7 of Season 16 had a "7" theme, including a sponsored prize by 7-Up at the end of the leg.
** Season 18 included a leg in India with a lot of tea-themed tasks, sponsored by Snapple. In a subversion, they resisted the urge to plug Snapple at every opportunity and didn't even explain that the teas used were Snapple-brand until the finish line. Zig-zagged when one clue was a bottle of iced tea, as the bottles were unlabeled but the racers still recognized them; Jen and Kisha even thought they had to find a Snapple factory until they found the real clue under the cap.
** Leg 10 of Season 19 had teams drive to the Ford Proving Grounds in Belgium where they had to drive Mustangs. The prize for winning the leg was a Mustang for each team member. Oddly enough, the next leg had a task based on the comic ''[[Tintin
** In general, seasons often have Ford loan cars for a leg for the contestants to drive, in exchange for the show going out of its way to point out that the cars were made by Ford (usually once near the beginning when they get to the cars, and again at the Pit Stop) and usually including a challenge designed to show off some aspect of the car model being used.
* [[Promoted Fanboy]]: [[In-Universe|Being a huge fan of the show was a major part of the story lines for both Luke on Season 14, and Jordan (the male one) on Season 16.]] For Jordan, his race knowledge even turned into a [[Chekhov's Skill]] in the finale, when he used it to beat out the dangerous team of Jet & Cord.
* [[Produce Pelting]]: One Detour late in Season 10 had the locals pelting racers with tomatoes as part of La Tomatina, the local tomato festival.
* [[Proud to Be
** Mark & Bill, Season 13. Mark's even the treasurer for Comic-Con.
* [[Punny Name]]: Starr Spangler (of Nick & Starr, Season 13).
* [[Rage Quit]]: Eric & Lisa (Season 15) were eliminated ''at the starting line''. They were ''not'' pleased at all, and didn't even go into sequester or attend the final leg. According to show staff, they just walked right on out and went home. [[Your Mileage May Vary|Arguably]], they were actually justified or at least understandable. Not many people get to go on The Amazing Race, being eliminated first sucks and all, but at least you get to have fun in sequester. As one fan put it, being eliminated at the starting line was akin to qualifying for the Olympic Games but being eliminated during the starting ceremony.
** Nick & Vicki, or rather just Nick, provided one of the Race's uglier moments in Season 17. Nick, who had come off as something of a rageaholic for much of the season, finally snapped in Hong Kong and quit in the middle of a task, literally lying down and refusing to help Vicki find a boat in Hong Kong harbor. This dragged out for two episodes, as that was a non-elimination leg, but the six-hour penalty for quitting a Detour caused them to miss the flight with all the other teams and insured their elimination in the next episode.
* [[Real Men Love Jesus]]: Andy & Tommy (19) were quite open about their faith.
Line 685 ⟶ 687:
** Brent & Caite U-Turning "mean lesbians" Brandy & Carol on Season 16, even though Jet & Cord were also behind them.
* [[Rock-Paper-Scissors]]: How Andy & Tommy (19) decided who would do what Roadblock.
* [[Romance
* [[Rule of Cool]]: The Season 14 premiere had the teams bungee jumping off of the dam from the beginning of ''[[
* [[Rule of Funny]]: Almost any time they make the racers dress in costume. There's no special need for it, it's usually not for safety, and it's just there to make the racers look ridiculous.
** Several challenges have a band playing local music, for no apparent purpose except driving the racers completely nuts as their patience wears thin and the music keeps distracting them.
** Then there are the non-musical locals whose only purpose is to laugh at the teams when they mess up.
** In Switzerland, the racers had to take 200-pound wheels of cheese down a ''very'' steep hill... and were ''intentionally'' provided with very cheap equipment.
* [[Running Gag]]: Season 5, Episode 6: The Roadblock has teams digging through a patch of sand searching for a wooden scarab. As each team reads the clue, they invariably ask: "What's a scarab?"
{{quote|
'''Christie''': That's a rock. }}
** Brook & Claire from Season 17 had a "kiss count" for every guy they would kiss during the race. It totaled out at 9.
Line 701 ⟶ 703:
* [[Self-Deprecation]]: A number of racers are fairly self-aware about their failings:
** Ken & Gerard (Season 3) did this to each other throughout the race, garnering several memorable quips, like when Ken was repelling down a cliff in Portugal and his brother replied with:
{{quote|
** Steve & Dave (Season 4) would make fun of themselves both during and after the race in their [https://web.archive.org/web/20131030235103/http://www.tarflies.com/article.php?cat_id=29 recaps]. From when Steve bungee jumped in Austria:
{{quote|
** Dan & Andrew acknowledging how they weren't that good at the game.
{{quote|
** Part of what made Zev (15 & 18) so charming was his ability to make quips about his Asperger's syndrome.
** Vanessa in Season 20, in response to her partner Ralph commenting that the locals seem happy to see them:
{{quote|
* [[Sequel Difficulty Spike]]: "Unfinished Business" replaced two early non-elimination legs with super legs, forcing teams to keep going without a break; justifiable in that everyone in Season 18 had played the game before and knew what they were in for.
* [[Sequence Breaking]]: Either by pure chance or by following another team, teams can skip clues, or even entire challenges, yet still find their way to the Pit Stop. Subverted when Phil forces them to turn around and complete the task/retrieve the clue that they missed.
** In Season 1, leg 5, Paul & Amie got lost looking for the Roadblock and came across the Pit Stop by mistake. They were already in last, so were eliminated instead of being sent back to complete the leg.
Line 726 ⟶ 728:
** Azaria & Hendekea, Season 12, won three of the first four legs, but had airport trouble on the sixth leg, resulting in their elimination.
** Toni & Dallas from Season 13, who seemed a lock for the Final 3 until Dallas made the fatal mistake of leaving their fanny pack, containing all their money and passports, in a taxi.
** Zev & Justin, in Season 15, also lost a passport (on a leg they would have otherwise won), but their elimination was not quite as shocking due to the combination of [[Trailers Always Spoil|CBS playing up the lost passport in promos]] (which in itself is none too damning as the Race has a history of [[Pseudo Crisis]] in promos), and getting a fairly-obvious [[A Death in
** Margie & Luke on Season 18, after Luke fell apart at a tea tasting Roadblock. This was the first time in a season and a half they had ever been in danger of elimination, and was made especially shocking by the Producers breaking one of their main guidelines in that [[Trailers Always Lie|they showed Margie & Luke to be in danger at the end of the previous episode, which usually means that team is safe.]]
** Andy & Tommy (19) came in first on 6 legs, and were looking like they were going to get a 7th in the second to last leg. However, due to nothing more than bad luck they ended up falling just short of the final 3 (only Jeremy & Sandy got the clue right, and their cab driver shared info with the drivers of the two teams by them; Andy & Tommy weren't with the pack and so missed out).
Line 736 ⟶ 738:
** Andy & Tommy finished 4th on Season 19, becoming the first team with at least five leg wins to miss the Final 3.
** Ken & Gerard (3), Nicolas & Donald (12), and Dan & Andrew (13) all made the Final 3, only to finish a distant third.
** There's the "[[
** Starting with Season 7, 5th place became the axing point for such teams with Lynn & Alex (7), the dysfunctional Paolo Family (8), Fran & Barry (9), Erwin & Godwin (10), Uchenna & Joyce (who on All-Stars did not seem to have the same drive after winning Season 7), Kynt & Vyxsin (12 and Unfinished Business), and Mark & Bopper (20) going out.
* [[Shopping Montage]]: There was one of these in Season 2, with several teams involved, and was used to set up the flirtation between Alex and Tara, as well as the cliquish nature of the teams. This was obviously before teams learned the importance of money management.
Line 751 ⟶ 753:
* [[Something We Forgot]]: Leg 4 of Season 4, the race to the mat between Kelly & John and Steve & Dave was edited to look like the battle to avoid elimination, with even the sad elimination music being played as Steve & Dave strolled up to the mat. Only after Steve & Dave were told they were still in the race did it cut to Steve & Josh, who had fallen hopelessly behind and quietly disappeared from the episode halfway through.
* [[Split Screen]]: Beginning with Season 14, which made it easier for viewers to keep track of where teams were in relation with each other...[[Manipulative Editing|so long as the editors were being honest, that is]].
* [[Spoiler Opening]]: Season 1's opening titles showed actual locations teams would be going to and tasks they would be doing, making it quite easy to work out whether certain teams were going to make it through to the next leg of the race. It was not until Season 14 that they started to show shots from the season during the credits again, and then they were only ever shots from the current or previous episodes.
** Early seasons included the phrases "Who will be eliminated... tonight?" and "The last team to the Pit Stop will be eliminated," and any deviation was an instant tip-off that it was a non-elimination leg. Production quickly made it standard procedure to use ambiguous language ("Who will be eliminated... ''next''?" and "The last team to the Pit Stop ''may'' be eliminated."). Even the teams picked up on this, and it was pointed out by Tara & Wil in Season 2.
* [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad]]: Were there any teams on Season 9 other than BJ & Tyler? Alternatively, were there any teams on Season 9 worth paying attention to other than BJ & Tyler?
Line 757 ⟶ 759:
** Charla & Mirna at the beginning of Season 5 (though not so much during Season 11). Being the Race's first [[Inspirationally Disadvantaged]] team, they were naturally featured heavily during advertising, and had by far the most airtime in the first several legs (until Colin became the much more interesting racer). They later became the only team to finish lower than fourth to make their season's DVD cover, displacing a team who made the Final 3.
** Rob & Amber for the first four legs of Season 11, to the point where every other team seemed to have a fixation on what Rob was doing. It was almost like watching him on ''[[Survivor]]''.
{{quote|
** Dan & Andrew, Season 13. They were horrible racers, yet they got more airtime than any other team, and were even featured in promos more than anyone else. There was massive complaining from the fans that such a bad team was getting so much spotlight shone on them, until fans realized that they were so hilariously bad, they were the best part of what was otherwise an ultimately lackluster season.
** Zev & Justin, up until their elimination by lost passport, seemed to be the entire focus of Season 15 (with only small breaks to watch Maria & Tiffany alienate the other teams, and Lance be a [[Jerkass]]). Their elimination episode even gave them more airtime than all the other teams combined. After they were gone, Maria & Tiffany were the only team left with the ability to carry the season, and once the girls were gone, the entire season devolved into one of the most boring stretches of episodes since the beginning of Season 9.
Line 766 ⟶ 768:
** However, sometimes his neutrality breaks and his emotions and opinions show through, such as midway through Season 13, when he told mistake-prone Dan & Andrew that he thought they would be the next team eliminated, or when he fled from coal dust covered Danny & Oswald during All-Stars. He also stepped out of his neutral role in Season 6, when he cautioned Jonathan to talk to his wife after shoving her for coming in second at a Pit Stop.
* [[Storming the Castle]]: Literally in Seasons 7 and 17, while in Season 12 it was more of a cliffside fortress. Other seasons have involved castles, including [[Dracula|Bran Castle]], but these were the only three that involved scaling the walls.
* [[
* [[Stunt Casting]]: It's been going on since at least Season 5, though some of the more notable examples are:
** ''[[Big Brother]] 4'' runner-up Alison Irwin in Season 5.
Line 773 ⟶ 775:
** Harlem Globetrotters "Flight Time" & "Big Easy" in Season 15.
** Professional poker players Maria Ho and Tiffany Michelle, also in Season 15. Tiffany was recognized at the airport in Tokyo.
** ''Big Brother 11'' players Jeff & Jordan in Season 16.
** Also in Season 16, Caite Upton, the former Miss Teen South Carolina, famous for [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww this response to the question of why one fifth of Americans can't find the U.S. on a map]. One of her fellow racers even did an impersonation of her speech:
{{quote|
** Season 17 features [http://www.youtube.com/user/kevjumba KevJumba].
** ''[[Survivor]]'' couple Ethan Zohn from ''Survivor: Africa'' and ''All-Stars'' and Jenna Morasco from ''Survivor: The Amazon'' and ''All-Stars'' on Season 19.
Line 788 ⟶ 790:
** Notably averted with the one team [[In-Series Nickname|nicknamed]] 'Bama, Lyn & Karlyn (10).
* [[Talkative Loon]]: Ronald (12 and 18), ''especially'' in leg 2 of Season 12, when he told his daughter to be a "happy leaping monkey". Sometimes it was hard to tell if his English was just that bad, or he really was crazy.
{{quote|
* [[Team Mom|Team]] [[Team Dad|Parents]]: Older teams sometimes become regarded as such by the other racers. Bill & Cathi were even nicknamed "Ma and Pa" in Season 19.
* [[Tempting Fate]]: "Boston" Rob managed to do this several times, on both Seasons 7 and 11. You think he would have learned his lesson the first time he said [[Nothing Can Stop Us Now|"There's no way we can lose this."]]
** Season 16's Louie & Michael boasted that they would not be surprised to win every leg, made several wolf/sheep analogies, U-Turned another team because they needed to be "humbled", badmouthed another team to Phil's face, [[Smug Snake|made claims to controlling the race while later making claims that they were underdogs]], and, to top it all off, they invoked [[I'm Not Here to
* [[That's Gotta Hurt]]: The general reaction to watching Claire take a watermelon to the face in the Season 17 premiere.
* [[Theme Twin Naming]]: Played straight with Derek & Drew (Season 3) and Kami & Karli (Season 5), but averted with Shola & Doyin (Season 2), Liz & Marie (Season 19), and Elliot & Andrew (Season 20). Also applies to a couple of non-twin teams, like Danielle & Dani (Season 9), Nat & Kat (Season 17) and Misa & Maiya (Season 20).
Line 798 ⟶ 800:
* [[Title Drop]]: It seems required that someone say, "Amazing," at least [[Once an Episode]]. And while most of the episode titles [[Idiosyncratic Episode Naming|are just random lines said by the racers]], others are significant enough to become Title Drops as well. Such as:
** "Follow That Plane!" (Wil, Season 2, Episode 11); After losing their clue, Tara & Wil direct their charter plane to follow Chris & Alex by using this line. Later in the leg, Chris & Alex tail Tara & Wil to the Finish Line, and pass them up in a footrace.
** "Good Doing Business With You" (Dustin, Season 11, Episode 10); Dustin & Kandice buy Danny & Oswald's Yield (the last Yield ever used). Danny & Oswald later act like it was a [[Deal
** "It Starts With an “F”, That’s All I’m Saying" (Dan, Season 15, Episode 10); the infamous "Franz" incident, where Dan refuses to help Big Easy at the Roadblock, and Big Easy ends up taking a four hour penalty instead.
** "They Don't Call It The Amazing Race For Nothin!" (Brook, Season 17, Episode 1); counts as both a regular [[Title Drop]], as well as providing the title for that episode.
Line 805 ⟶ 807:
** Season 10 is the one exception, as 8 of the 12 teams could be considered a minority in one way or another.
* [[Token Romance]]: Brian & Greg with Megan & Heidi on Season 7, Eric & Jeremy with Danielle & Dani on Season 9, and Dallas and Starr on Season 13.
* [[Too Clever
* [[Took a Level
* [[Trailers Always Spoil]]: The final episode of ''Unfinished Business'' was a two-hour finale with two legs - the last elimination leg and then the final leg of the race. One of the trailers CBS aired for the finale, however, showed all of the teams but one in the final destination city, leading a number of viewers to guess (correctly), that the team in question was eliminated in the penultimate leg.
** The Season 20 premiere, instead of featuring the normal, [["On the Next..."|"Next week on ''The Amazing Race'',"]] instead featured a preview for the entire upcoming season, including scenes from the 7th episode, the 8th, the 10th, and even the finale. It became fairly obvious that certain teams were safe until those scenes aired.
Line 812 ⟶ 814:
* [[Trash Talk]]: An integral part of Flight Time & Big Easy's game, what with being Globetrotters and all. Used most notably against Mika at the top of the water slide in Season 15, and against Kent & Vyxsin during the chocolate Gnome Roadblock in Season 18. It failed them in the Season 18 finale when Kisha & Jen (college basketball players themselves) just ignored them.
* [[Twin Threesome Fantasy]]: Kami & Karli (5) used this to their advantage when begging for money.
* [[Twinkle Smile]]: Used almost seemingly as parody in [https://web.archive.org/web/20100620020110/http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/the_amazing_race_1/dumb_did_us_in.php?page=18 at least] [https://web.archive.org/web/20101011232016/http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/the_amazing_race_1/a_kiss_saves_the_day_1.php?page=6 two episodes].
* [[Two Men, One Dress]]: The cow costumes teams were forced to don in Season 13. They then had to run all around Almaty, Kazakhstan wearing them.
* [[Twofer Token Minority]]: Danny & Oswald (2 & 11) who were Latino and gay.
Line 823 ⟶ 825:
** Played straight again on Seasons 18 and 19, with Zev & Justin and Andy & Tommy looking unbeatable, only to suffer [[Shocking Elimination|Shocking,]] [[Foreshadowing|albeit heavily foreshadowed,]] [[Shocking Elimination|Eliminations]].
** Averted in Season 20.
* [[
** Averted in Season 18, where Snapple was a sponsor. It appeared the prize was solely to taste two new Snapple flavors, and then Phil revealed they were also getting a feast that night, a private Bollywood-style performance, and a million rupees (or roughly $20,000 cash).
* [[Unwinnable By Mistake]]: Season 1, three teams were essentially eliminated on leg nine, as poor course design made it impossible for the two teams who technically did survive to ever catch up to the lead pack. This was fixed in later seasons with the introduction of deliberate equalizers. This has not stopped some fans from complaining about equalizers ruining the game.
Line 839 ⟶ 841:
* [[I'm Not Here to Make Friends|We're Not Here To Make Friends]]
** As eloquently stated by Rachel in their final leg of Season 17:
{{quote|
** Rachel (of Brendon & Rachel, Season 20) invoked this in her team introduction speech, [[Reality Show Genre Blindness|despite having previously won]] ''[[Big Brother]]''.
*** Invoked yet again later in the season by yet another Rachel (this one of Rachel & Dave). Even stranger in that they actually ended up winning the season.
Line 854 ⟶ 856:
* [[You Keep Using That Word]]: Season 7. Can it ''really'' be called a "race around the world" if you head east, then do a 180 in India and head back west?
** Some of the racers also need to brush up on vocabulary:
{{quote|
'''Vicki''' (season 17): Are you a battlement? }}
* [[Your Princess Is in Another Castle]]: Used on the racers themselves in Seasons 7, 8, 9, 14, 18, and 19. The teams get a clue telling them to go to mat and find Phil, only to have him tell them that they're still racing, and hand them their next clue.
Line 874 ⟶ 876:
* [[The Casanova]]: Shay & Guy's (Israel) plan for the race during their introduction was to flirt with the many female teams in competition.
* [[Cassandra Truth]]: In Australia Season 1, two different teams tried giving advice to Sam & Renae but due to the vague instructions, the girls were convinced that the other teams were trying to get them eliminated.
* [[Celebrity Resemblance]]: Some teams in the Brazilian version gave married couple Perri & Maristela the nickname "[[Mr. Bean|Mr. and Mrs. Bean]]" due to Perri's resemblance to [[Rowan Atkinson]].
* [[Crazy Consumption]]: Michelle from Asia Season 4, she started to act very loony and twitchy as she consumes the live witchetty grub.
Line 880 ⟶ 881:
* [[Dark Horse Victory]]: Zabrina and Joe Jer, from the first season of the Asian version of the race, were considered underdogs, not athletic, never won a leg and were lucky to be saved by a non-elimination leg. They then excelled in the final leg and became both the first female team to win the race, and the first team to win the race without winning a previous leg, even by Fast Forward.
* [[Determinator]]: Sharon, on the "[[Luck-Based Mission|dig through sand until you find a mini surfboard]]" Roadblock in Asia Season 1, Episode 3. She kept on digging long after the sun had set and all the other teams had left or given up, telling her teammate Melody that even if they were definitely in last place, she just wanted to finish this task, no matter how long it took. Unlike with Lena from US Season 6, this paid off for her in the end as she ''finally'' found the surfboard well into the night and overnight bunching enabled her and Melody to catch up to the other teams and pass those who had given up on the task and taken the 4-hour penalty. (They finished 3rd for that leg, out of 9.) Their efforts are best summed up in this exchange:
{{quote|
'''Sharon:''' "If I-you know if we got eliminated today, because...we didn't give it our best shot? Ugh...I couldn't take that." }}
* [[Dramatic Pause]]: Like Phil Keoghan, Asia host Allan Wu does this in his narration and his appearances at the end of each episode telling contestants whether they're eliminated or not.
* [[Down to
* [[Dumb Blonde]]: Subverted: Suspected [[Dumb Blonde|Dumb Blondes]] Renae & Sam powered through the first leg of Australia Season 1, overtaking an overwhelming number of more physically imposing teams, and eventually snagged a first place finish. Come the final four, they were the only females left on the race, and beaten the rarely defeated "Marked For Elimination" penalty.
** Hadas & Inbal (Israel Season 1) were generally a subversion, but the [[Hilarity Ensues|results]] of their first task almost played the trope absolutely straight. To explain, during the safari drive task of the first leg, instead of tying their log to the towing hook like everyone else did, they actually tied it to the truck, and to make sure it didn't fall off, they double and triple knotted it; cue them falling from 1st place to 4th place when they try everything they can to get it off, including trying to untie it unsuccessfully, burn the rope, cut it with their leg razors, and eventually smashing a mirror they had with them and using a shard to cut the rope. They [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] their stupidity only moments after leaving the task.
* [[Enemy Mine]]: In Asia Season 1, during the second half of the double leg in India, ''every single team'' decided to Yield Andy & Laura when they had the chance, mainly in retaliation to the incident mentioned below and other intentional efforts to sabotage the other teams, such as hiding maps at airports, and [[
* [[Failed a Spot Check]]: Matt & Tom (Australia 1) failed to notice that, during the money-counting task in Indonesia, they had dropped one of the money notes, and only discovered this when Dave picked it up for them. This cost them a few places.
** Also from Australia Season 1: In Prague, Tyler & Nathan's taxi pulled up ''right next to the clue box'', which they failed to notice.
Line 901 ⟶ 902:
* [[Informed Ability]]: Matt's (Australia 1) ability to shoot. Apparently he's been shooting things since the age of four, but he performed poorly on the skeet shooting Detour, and was the only contestant to use all his arrows on the archery Roadblock without completing the task, and had to resort to begging the other teams for their unused arrows.
** Paul (Australia 2) has an IQ that apparently places him in the top percentile of Australia, and boasted that he was the alpha male of the season, yet he had a complete and utter breakdown at the last task before the Pit Stop, which involved putting a raft together, to the point where he and Steve got to the task first, yet their first raft fell apart, Paul tried to get Steve to take a penalty, then they went back to the beginning of the task to build another raft, ended up leaving the beach last, and barely overtook Lucy & Emilia, a pair of relatively out-of-shape teachers who left only a few minutes before them.
* [[Inspirationally Disadvantaged]]:
** Adrian, Asia Season 2, was deaf.
** Sticky, Australia Season 2, was born without his left forearm.
Line 912 ⟶ 913:
* [[Mrs. Robinson]]: In Australia Season 2, Sarah (age 32) & James (age 23) had been dating on and off for 3 years. Joseph & Grace initially thought they were a mother/son team.
* [[Non Gameplay Elimination]]: Dave & Kelly (Australia 1) were subject to the Field Elimination after falling very far behind the other teams in Israel.
** Hannah & Margalit of the Israeli version were forced to quit the race after Margalit suffered a severe abdominal infection in leg 5 and was rushed to hospital. She recovered soon after they were removed from competition, and thus were able to [[Back for
** Perri & Maristela of the Brazilian version, despite being the strongest team in the season, quit the mandatory eating task in the finale resulting in them being disqualified, reasoning that the cold temperature and number of times they were vomiting wasn't worth it.
* [[Oh Crap]]: In the second leg of Asia Season 4, [[Huge Guy, Tiny Girl|Ivan & Hilda]] arrive at the pitstop location before any other team. Hilda, [[Sarcasm Mode|being her usual bubbly self]], doesn't want to run because her legs are sore, so the two walk along the pier where the pitstop is located. Behind them, arriving almost a minute later, are Richard & Richard, who observe the married couple "strolling romantically down the pier" and bolt. Upon seeing the two behind them, Hilda says the trope, and it turns into a footrace for first place. {{spoiler|Ivan & Hilda win.}}
* [[One-Hit Kill]]: Averted. Suinana & Dimple from Asia Season 4 were the first team in Amazing Race history to be U-Turned (excluding the Double U-Turn) and survive. Even though they were expected to get U-Turned by Michelle & Claire, they were actually '''glad''' that they get to do the other task near the Nevis Highwire and '''thanked''' them for it.
* [[One Steve Limit]]: Averted, Asia Season 4 had a team whose names are Richard & Richard, Latin America Season 1 had a mother/daughter team who were both named Casilda, and Latin America Season 2 had a father/son team both named Edison.
* [[Only Known
* [[Out of Focus]]: In Australia Season 1, Jeff & Luke seem to get the least amount of airtime of all the teams at any given stage of the race, despite making the Final 3.
* [[Product Placement]]: The Asian edition is known to make a lot of product placing. Many of the miscellaneous tasks require teams to use a brand-product provided by their sponsors just to do a task or go to another destination. For example, one team member had to take a picture of another team member doing the roadblock or locals singing a traditional song while another team member is recording using a cam-corder.
Line 929 ⟶ 930:
{{reflist}}
{{Best in TV: The Greatest TV Shows of Our Time}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Reality TV]]
[[Category:American Series]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Live-Action TV of the 2010s]]
[[Category:Live-Action TV of the 2020s]]
[[Category:TV Series]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amazing Race, The}}
| |||