The Real World/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Several:
    • Puck was cast mainly because the casting directors thought he would be (out of the seven cast members ultimately picked) the most likely to accept everyone for who they were. Instead, the casting directors cast an obnoxiously gross homophobic jerk who was the poster child for "Worst Reality TV Roommate".
    • In a similar vein, Neil in the London season was cast because (as a punk rocker), the casting people thought he would be Puck V2.0 and cause all sorts of ratings boosting drama. What they got instead was an intellectual Deadpan Snarker that was well adjusted and got along with everyone, even the people he couldn't stand. In other words, he was what they wanted from Puck in the first place.
    • On her way out of the show during the Seattle season, Irene told Stephen (who she had an antagonistic relationship with) "A marriage between you and I would never work out. You know that. You're a homosexual." Stephen angrily denied this and slapped Irene. Years later, Stephen not only admitted that he indeed was gay, but was arrested for prostitution....
  • Retroactive Recognition: Michael Mizanin has since moved on to bigger and better things, but there's a chance The Real World will be a case of Never Live It Down.
  • Romantic Plot Tumor: Got really bad during the Austin Season.
  • Seasonal Rot: Depends on who you talk to, the rot took place around seasons three (San Francisco) or four (London) while some state that the show stayed relevant up through season six (Boston).
  • Straw Man Has a Point: For all of the bad things he said to Pedro, Puck did have a point when he pointed out that Pedro having AIDS was his own fault due to him not using protection when he had sex. Granted, it was still an extremely douchey thing to say, especially when you consider that, before the show began, Pedro worked as a lecturer on the importance of safe sex to young people after finding out that he had AIDS and was quite open with the foolishness of his actions when it came to having unprotected sex.