Amazing Race 11/15 - "We're Not Meant for the Swamp"

I wonder if the Globetrotters are gonna get the villain edit? I mean, we’re at the final four and the remaining teams run the gauntlet from “Meh” to “They’re not bad”. There’s no team left I love, but there’s no-one who I hate either. ANY of the final four with the possible exception of Team Zebra who’s winning on luck, not skill–would be an ok ending.

Problem is, the Amazing Producers want a “villain” and it’s not beyond this show to manufacture a villain. (The funniest example of this was the hyperactive southern dentist around S7 or so. They desperately wanted to make him Jonathon 2–the Revenge and he just wouldn’t cooperate. He called his wife a dumbass (or something) and the audience gasped…until she smiled, showed him the text of the clue and called him a double-dumbass (or something). He blew a gasket at her…then paused, looked at the map and said “Honey, you’re right, I’m an over-excitable moron. You were rahhhht an’ ah wuz wrong.” I’ve never seen such a blatant attempt to make someone look bad. What’s really funny is around episode 4 or 5, you can see the editors just shrugging and saying "We give up. He’s not a bad-guy…just hyperactive.:slight_smile: )

If I remember correctly, Meghan & Cheyne were finished with the volleyball before the peloton arrived, so the other teams wouldn’t have seen them there. The Trotters and Sam & Dan may have figured that M&C[sup]*[/sup] got lost, and that their race to the Pit Stop was for first place. They knew they weren’t last, because Brian & Ericka were still at the Detour.

As it was, the risk was way too much for the reward. At best, you get a one-minute lead at the start of the next leg. At worst, I could see someone coming down on their hip on the edge of that boardwalk and taking themselves out of the Race.

But what if this had been the last leg, and there was a race like that to the Mat? I assume there are rules for how much you can screw over other teams (I can think of one penalty for it). Could the brothers legally block the path, or could the Globies push them out of the way?
If we were still doing nicknames, would Meghan and Cheyne be Team Mac & Cheese?

…and pushing and shoving, and copping a macho attitude about it.

I was really disappointed at the end – not about what happened in the fall (the camera was too far away, I really couldn’t see who went down first and who touched who) – but by the 'Trotter’s “okay, you wannna play rough, we’ll play rough” response. What I’ve liked about this team is their ability to shake off whatever happens and move on with a good attitude – and that’s not what they were showing last night. Hope that they come back after a good night’s sleep and decide to return to form.

Bummer about Pinky and the Brain, but that was a seriously boneheaded leg for them. Ah well, they did well, esp. for having An Old Guy on the team.

I would have had the same problem, especially since there were items that I would consider to be candelabras spread around the outside of the room. I would have assumed that the ones on the table were just elaborate candlesticks.

My guess is that the Boner Brothers are showers, not growers, and were peeking out of the fly on their boxer briefs.

I dont “think” that the Globetrotters were the aggressors in the situations with the brothers, but as you mentioned, the camera work made it hard for me to be certain. As you pointed out, the Globetrotters have usually (though I wasnt really fond of them teasing Mika on the waterslide, but it is a Race, so i somewhat understand) seemed like laid back, decent guys, so I guess I am giving them benefit of the doubt, as the brothers seem more like the high strung, freak out types, even when just dealing with each other, let alone other competeing teams.

That said, even though I still like the Globetrotters best as people, I dont really think its right for two high paid professional atheletes to win a show like Amazing Race.

Just my opinion, and one I dont expect everyone to share in…

I still don’t get the Meghan/Cheyne hate. Sure, they’re boring and attractive but they can’t really help that. I don’t see where they were dishonest. They’ve played extremely well, using alliances when it would help them and going their own way the rest. They have meltdowns but they get over them quick and the reason they won today is because figured out the roadblock clue faster than the other teams. They’ve been my favorites from the beginning and I hope they win.

This came up before, and someone IRL said something to me about this today, and I just wonder how people know (or why people assume) that Flight Time & Big Easy are “high paid” professional athletes. Professional athletes, yes – but here is one cite (post #32) from an earlier thread (and I also posted another cite in a different thread which I can’t find now) regarding their salaries. These are not necessarily “rich” people – at least, not in the sense that I would consider them rich. They make more than I do, but so does the local dogcatcher, no doubt. If they spend carefully and invest well, they might be more than comfortable. What is “wrong” with them winning on the basis of how much they made before they went on what is basically a game show? I … don’t get it. I’m not saying anyone is wrong here, I just don’t understand it.

(I also wonder if they might to donate their winnings, if they win – they are playing in honor / tribute / remembrance of their friend and teammate Chris “Flash” Richardson, who died suddenly last year. Maybe they want to give the money to their friend’s family, or the charities he supported? They haven’t said they would, but who knows?)

Actually, I thought I had read that they were planning to donate their winnings to Katrina relief… I’ll try to find a cite for that.

Well, not really a cite, but I read it in our thread a few weeks ago:

I can’t say for sure if it’s true.

Sorry for the sequential posting; keep missing the edit window.

The TWOP post that Drain Bead was referring to:

While I wasn’t sure why junk-blurring was necessary for Sam and Dan, I did appreciate the Amazing Editors blurring out Pinky’s plumber crack.

I found this episode rather boring.

I just spent a while searching for some definitive statement that the Globetrotters plan on donating their winnings, and all I can find are people who “heard somewhere” that that was the plan. Sooo… it still could be true, but I suspect that, if so, they’ve not actually said officially that it’s so. However, Big Easy, according to his bio, is active in a Katrina charity, “We Have Not Forgotten,” so I would be unsurprised if he donates at least a portion of his earnings to said charity.

In any case, I can’t get too worked up about the Globetrotters competing. They make a comfortable living playing ball, I’m sure, but this show has also had multiple lawyers and MBAs as contestants, who probably make as much or more as the Globetrotters, and will continue to do so through their sixties.

I don’t think having lawyers on the show is fundamentally unfair, and I don’t think that winning lawyers would be morally obligated to donate their winnings to charity. Neither do I think that having athletes on the show is fundamentally unfair, and neither do I think they should be morally obligated to donate their winnings to charity.

The post I remember was someone saying that they’d heard that they were donating winnings and would be back later with a link. I never saw a link, though.

On one of the “secret scenes” that they show on CBS, Big Easy does say that they & the Bros don’t need to be mad at each other, but mad at Megan & Cheyne. They also kind of apologize to each other. Those are often a lot of fun to watch. I’ve only seen a couple so far this week, but I love it.

Just a quick note - am I the only one the keeps reading Cheyne as Cheyenne and then wondering “where the hell is the all girl team everyone keeps talking about”?

I also wanted to add to this - the Globetrotters seem to be seriously fast on foot - what I saw of the latest episode they seemed to catch up to the bros damn fast man.

Would also be cool to know just how much one team is allowed to screw with another, in terms of outright stealing taxis, knocking them down or whatever. Call me stupid if you like, but it would be seriously cool to see the globe-trotters really use their size to full on shoulder check somebody and just bounce them out of the way.

Finally a “challenge” series may also be fun. Professional atheletes vs professional brains, vs porfessional travellers vs linguists vs team that never had passport before etc etc…

Forgot to mention…I am so over the brothers. “Toe-vair”? Really?

I was curious about the reference at the end of the show to the large number of meteor craters in Estonia, so I asked about it in GQ.

OMG, I was giggling like a loon at the pixelated shorts. It was like a fan dance - concealment made it much more titillating as you tried to imagine just what was going on behind the blur!

Poor Matt - to go out in part because you did something really humiliatingly dumb is tough. Until the day he dies, he will cringe whenever he hears or reads “candelabra.”

Don’t get me wrong, they are excellent racers, much less susceptible to full on meltdown and killer fatigue than I anticipated. They also weren’t necessarily dishonest either in the cab, just not helpful.

I think part of the hate stems from the fact that they are both good, young, blonde, and pretty, but both come off a little too much like they know they are all of these qualities, and are a bit smug about it. And they are really not that attractive- they just don’t have physical features that make them unattractive.

Lastly, there is the douchey way that Schoeayne’s name is spelled. I know, he can’t help it, but it still makes me want to punch him on principle.