# TAR 12/4: "We Are Charlie Chaplin" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 4, 2011, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-12-4-we-are-charlie-chaplin/605065 "2011-12-04T22:37:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-12-4-we-are-charlie-chaplin/605065/21 "2011-12-05T03:28:46Z")
Didn’t the Snowboarders say they were Thompson as opposed to Johnson? Weren’t they the ones looking at the internet with the camera hovering over their shoulders with the camera plainly showing “Thompson”? Another team – I don’t remember which one – also gave an answer that sounded similar to Johnson but definitely wasn’t Johnson… ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-12-4-we-are-charlie-chaplin/605065/22 "2011-12-05T03:30:45Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > After being told they’re characters from a famous comic strip and looking up said strip on Wikipedia… the Snowboarders decided they were Charlie Chaplin. Buster Keaton? Harold Lloyd? Ten-out-of-ten for style, but minus several million for good thinking. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-12-4-we-are-charlie-chaplin/605065/23 "2011-12-05T03:30:46Z")
> [@kiz](#): > > Didn’t the Snowboarders say they were Thompson as opposed to Johnson? Weren’t they the ones looking at the internet with the camera hovering over their shoulders with the camera plainly showing “Thompson”? > > Another team – I don’t remember which one – also gave an answer that sounded similar to Johnson but definitely wasn’t Johnson… In different translations, the detectives are known as Dupont & Dupond, Johnson & Johnson, and Thompson & Thompson. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-12-4-we-are-charlie-chaplin/605065/24 "2011-12-05T03:55:28Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > Marcus is one of the least intelligent, least perceptive Racers that I can ever recall, and he has stumbled his way ass-backwards this entire season. He will crash and burn at the 1st challenge that requires a modicum of critical thinking or deductive reasoning. > > (Amani seems like a reasonably intelligent woman, however) I don’t get this impression at all. What, specifically, has he done to give you that impression? He has a degree from Bradley University. ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-12-4-we-are-charlie-chaplin/605065/25 "2011-12-05T03:58:57Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > In different translations, the detectives are known as Dupont & Dupond, Johnson & Johnson, and Thompson & Thompson. Ah, I didn’t realize that. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-12-4-we-are-charlie-chaplin/605065/26 "2011-12-05T04:02:34Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > Over-all, this has been an outstanding season. No teams to hate (Cindy annoys me but…that’s all…annoys), some excellent tasks, good local color (and local-related tasks), > > I hope this is the beginning of a renissance for TAR. There have been a bunch of really excellent tasks this season. The “name written on the skirt” thing was very cool, very subtle. Lots of puzzle-oriented stuff, not all just speed and strength. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-12-4-we-are-charlie-chaplin/605065/27 "2011-12-05T04:02:45Z")
I liked the Tin Tin task but it seemed like a waste of a good task before a guaranteed bunch. They should have used it as a part of the race when it mattered. The collusion of the drivers may have been okay under the letter of the rules but it certainly violated the spirit. It seems wrong when you have two teams who have no idea where they are going next while their drivers do and I say this as someone who found the Snowboarders pretty insufferable. ETA: I had assumed Dupond and Dupond where their first names… ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-12-4-we-are-charlie-chaplin/605065/28 "2011-12-05T04:17:37Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > After being told they’re characters from a famous comic strip and looking up said strip on Wikipedia… the Snowboarders decided they were Charlie Chaplin. > > I’m sure MENSA has already offered them lifetime membership. Well, one of the people on the street told them they were Charlie Chaplin, and they’d never heard of Tintin, so I think that could be excused. I’ll miss the boys. They were nice, good-natured men who clearly enjoyed every leg of the race. Most tasks (things you wouldn’t normally say they had an advantage on, like shoemaking) they excelled at. They didn’t get flustered or angry and were graceful in their parting interview. I’m glad they’re going home with so many prizes, and I hope they have the cash to pay the taxes. They remind me of the cowboys. Also, kudos to Marcus and Amani for choosing the fish market. Their strategy seemed to work. StG ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-12-4-we-are-charlie-chaplin/605065/29 "2011-12-05T04:37:07Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > Also, kudos to Marcus and Amani for choosing the fish market. Their strategy seemed to work. > > StG Yeah, that kind of surprised me. I’ve always thought it very unwise to accidentally get to the Detour fork you didn’t intend to take, see that everyone else was there already, then decide to do the other one. You have no idea just WHERE the other one is, or how long it’s going to take. Seeing that even just one other team is just starting the task you’re at, I’d have thought your best bet was to do that same task, because at least the unknown variable of travel time can be eliminated. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-12-4-we-are-charlie-chaplin/605065/30 "2011-12-05T05:13:57Z")
But when all three teams are there - you know you’re in last place if you do the same task. Doing the other means you have a chance at getting ahead if the other task is shorter and nearby. If one of the teams had told their cab driver “Call the other taxi and find out where they’re going,” I would have called it good racing (assuming it’s not against the rules to do that). But that the cab drivers took it on themselves and it happened without the teams’ input (Ernie and Cindy even argued with their cab driver about changing directions) makes me think the snowboarders got screwed. I don’t particularly like them, but the teams who are not Jeremy and Sandy should realize that they got lucky. weird episode. “Tintin” was a great clue, but it was right before a bunch, so it didn’t matter. And the line for the tattoos was right after a bunch where they were told explicitly where to go next, so the teams pretty much got a 20 minute lead based on lucking out with a cab driver and a boat driver (those kinds of sign in things should happen after teams have done something to earn going first). The towers, rooster, and Panama Viejo clues were great. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-12-4-we-are-charlie-chaplin/605065/31 "2011-12-05T05:18:50Z")
Yeah, the inter-cab collusion sucked. But I don’t know what you can do about it. The players didn’t ask for it, they wouldn’t even have necessarily known it was happening. I don’t know how you can punish them for it. (Though it makes my case for what I suggest every season. Dump the cabs. Give them hired drivers under strict instructions that the players have to navigate.) ---
**Author:** ![Lusus\_Naturae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Lusus\_Naturae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lusus_Naturae)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-12-4-we-are-charlie-chaplin/605065/32 "2011-12-05T07:06:34Z")
Well, frapsnackery. While the Born-Again element of the snowboarders for me was a turn-off, I respected them for being a strong, overall capable team. I can honestly say I am sad to see them go, but as mentioned above, they took it with great grace and that’s good. So… What’s left, good gravy. I think I’m going to have to back Amani and Marcus, just for Amani. Team Bland and Team Annoying Girl just annoy me, while I’m almost looking at Marcus’ “YO WE GOTTA DO THIS FOR THE _TEAM_” yammerings as almost cute, like they’re his personal teddy bear, a security blanket. If you think of them that way, he’s curiously vulnerable. Of course, they can’t navigate their way out of a paper bag with neon signs pointing to the opening, but… We shall see! ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-12-4-we-are-charlie-chaplin/605065/33 "2011-12-05T08:07:14Z")
I agree with **amarinth** , these were good tasks but poorly structured for the race. The tightrope walk ended up being nothing more than a time delay task as well. About all it did was give the snowboarders a bigger lead. Hasn’t it happened a few other times that the lone lead team missed the tough clue, while the others ended up working together more or less? I figured that once they all were there, it was almost a given that they’d all take off at around the same time, and if one of them saw something the others would to. Even though it didn’t work out quite like that, something similar happened just because they were bunched. Don’t forget the snowboarders also got bad taxi luck when their cab driver decided that “Balboa?” means “take me to the canal, rapido!” I got the feeling Amani & Marcus ended up almost being burned by the taxi collusion, which was likely what took them to the sandal stop. The fish task looked more confusing than it turned out to be. Somehow I thought they had to bring the right amounts to every vendor there; instead it was just “empty you buckets but you can’t take it all to one spot”. Aside from the smell of it, straightforward. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-12-4-we-are-charlie-chaplin/605065/34 "2011-12-05T10:32:15Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > I also thought it was really nice of Conan O’Brien to come on the show to play TinTin. 😃 I really wanted them to do a split-screen comparison of Ernie and TinTin. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-12-4-we-are-charlie-chaplin/605065/35 "2011-12-05T11:00:29Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > In different translations, the detectives are known as Dupont & Dupond, Johnson & Johnson, and Thompson & Thompson. To be precise, that’s Thomson, without a ‘P’ as in ‘Venezuela’, and Thompson, with a ‘P’ as in ‘psychology’. In a show chock-a-block full of product placements, I’m surprised that there wasn’t an ad for the _Tintin_ movie. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-12-4-we-are-charlie-chaplin/605065/36 "2011-12-05T11:33:47Z")
I’m no fan of the snowboarders, but what a lame way to go. They were really the only fully competent team and now we’re left with a pair of meandering ones, and one that’s completely bumbling. It suggests to me that TAR needs a better way of dismissing teams. A team that got first the majority of the time really shouldn’t be going home for one mistake (which the other teams were also making, but only got out of it by virtue of a real-life deus ex machina), while the team that’s been ranking in the bottom-half of nearly every leg, including the most recent one, is still in it. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-12-4-we-are-charlie-chaplin/605065/37 "2011-12-05T12:59:25Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > I missed the first 15 minutes or so of tonight’s episode, so I am not sure what you are referring to, but just judging by the way they pronounced the names of the various locales from the Clues that they read aloud throughout the Race, I can tell that without a doubt the Snowboarders are brighter, more worldly and more articulate than anyone who is still in the running, even if they have the occasional fuck-up, which in this case just potentially cost them a million bucks. My recollection is of them constantly mispronouncing place names. I don’t recail specifics prior to last night, but last night they read “Suez” as “Swez”. They clearly had no idea who Charlie Chaplin was, and given the clue Tintin and access to the internet, their guesses as to which characters they were all involved early 20th century commedians. I was not a fan, since they seemed like dim-bulbed quasi-god botherers, but I still thought they got ripped off by the cabbie collusion. Sure, it isn’t the fault of the ride along teams, but the spirit of the race should be that you have to figure stuff out. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-12-4-we-are-charlie-chaplin/605065/38 "2011-12-05T13:30:07Z")
They’re professional athletes in a sport that requires traveling around the world to compete. Regardless of how smart they are or aren’t that’s going to give you more familiarity with place names and comfort with being in foreign countries. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-12-4-we-are-charlie-chaplin/605065/39 "2011-12-05T14:29:48Z")
It’s too bad; the snowboarders were clearly the best team in this race, and although they made a mistake in mis-identifying the pit stop location, two other teams behind them made the same mistake. When they all left the square with only one team knowing about Panama Viejo, I figured the boys would come in second after Marcus & Amani and Eric & Cindy ran the Balboa goose chase. It just goes to show again that in order to win the race, you have to be good **and** lucky (or at least not unlucky). Oh well - they still go home to a pair of new Mustangs and a half-dozen vacation trips, so I can’t feel _too_ sorry for them. Although I wonder what car insurance costs for a single 29-year old male driving a brand new souped up Ford Mustang. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-12-4-we-are-charlie-chaplin/605065/40 "2011-12-05T14:36:53Z")
I agree that it was a shame how the snowboarders got eliminated, but I can’t see how you can prevent it, short of the cabbies being pre-screened and hired by the TAR producers, which would eliminate all the taxi drama. How can you enforce it otherwise? Penalize racers because their cabbie talked to another racer’s driver, who he’s been hanging out with for the past 4 hours? > [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > It suggests to me that TAR needs a better way of dismissing teams. A team that got first the majority of the time really shouldn’t be going home for one mistake (which the other teams were also making, but only got out of it by virtue of a real-life deus ex machina), while the team that’s been ranking in the bottom-half of nearly every leg, including the most recent one, is still in it. I could not possibly disagree more. Part of the fun of watching the Race is that each leg is a totally separate event. If you wound up guaranteeing people a spot on the final because they did well in a bunch of previous legs, the last few episodes would get very dull. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-12-4-we-are-charlie-chaplin/605065.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-12-4-we-are-charlie-chaplin/605065.md?page=3)