# TAR 3/17: "Your Tan Is Totally Cool" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 17, 2013, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-3-17-your-tan-is-totally-cool/653209 "2013-03-17T22:52:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![zut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zut/32/2875_2.png) [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-3-17-your-tan-is-totally-cool/653209/21 "2013-03-18T12:19:57Z")
> [@lorene](#): > > I feel like the team who gets U-turned first shouldn’t get to u-turn anyone unless they complete the second task. I disagree, because I think the way it works right now makes for a more interesting U-Turn strategy. Right now, when a team uses the _first_ U-Turn slot, the target team is rarey eliminated, because the target team will immediately U-Turn a second team, so they won’t be eliminated. That means teams using the first part of a double U-Turn to knock someone else out of the Race rarely actually accomplish their goal. That _should_ affect the strategy of using the U-Turn. The fact that a lot of teams haven’t actually figured that out is kind of amusing. > [@lorene](#): > > I had to laugh at the hockey guys in the beginning, saying they had a target on them because they were doing so well in the challenges. 😕 They were second to last!! I think nearly all of the hockey brother’s misfortunes stem from getting shitty taxi drivers. As I recall, they were dead last for a good chunk of last week’s episode because their driver got lost, but they wound up making up time on the Detour and Roadblock to come in seventh (of nine). > [@lorene](#): > > Team mullet is just…not very smart. ☹ To be fair to Chuck, he’s kind of running the race all by himself - the point of having a teammate is to have someone to _help_, particularly when you’re getting frazzled. Whatever Wynona’s doing, it doesn’t quite rise to the level of “helping.” ---
**Author:** ![zut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zut/32/2875_2.png) [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-3-17-your-tan-is-totally-cool/653209/22 "2013-03-18T12:26:50Z")
> [@lorene](#): > > Seriously? That’s…dumb. It’s Vietnam’s culture; TAR is just visiting. When I used to read TWOP, people seemed pretty spot-on about calling TAR contestants out when they were being Ugly Americans, so that surprises me. Do they think we’re all going to get brainwashed and become Communists? Yeah - the propaganda was _so obviously_ propaganda, when you’re used to much subtler commercial advertisements, that it’s hard to take it seriously. If anything, showing it should make people happy that we Western imperialists have much more believable propaganda. Like television shows where people travel the world and occasionally note how lucky they are to be living in America. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-3-17-your-tan-is-totally-cool/653209/23 "2013-03-18T12:50:52Z")
> [@zut](#): > > I think nearly all of the hockey brother’s misfortunes stem from getting shitty taxi drivers. As I recall, they were dead last for a good chunk of last week’s episode because their driver got lost, but they wound up making up time on the Detour and Roadblock to come in seventh (of nine). That’s true. For some reason, when I had my amused reaction to that statement, I hadn’t been remembering their performance accurately. I stand corrected. > [@zut](#): > > To be fair to Chuck, he’s kind of running the race all by himself - the point of having a teammate is to have someone to _help_, particularly when you’re getting frazzled. Whatever Wynona’s doing, it doesn’t quite rise to the level of “helping.” That’s also true, but I suppose part of my feeling about this is the general “why go on the Race if you don’t want to go on the Race” feeling. Like someone said about the OB/GYN brothers a few weeks ago, there are plenty of people who \*really really \*want to go on TAR. Yes, it makes for far more interesting TV to have an out-of-shape woman who calls the Race “torturous”, but it also kind of sucks. There were times last night when I found Wynona relatively funny, but overall, she’s someone who doesn’t seem to have made one single effort to be prepared for the race, other than packing her fanny pack. And Chuck probably did that, too. ---
**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:** [March 18, 2013, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-3-17-your-tan-is-totally-cool/653209/24 "2013-03-18T12:51:57Z")
> [@lorene](#): > > Seriously? That’s…dumb. It’s Vietnam’s culture; TAR is just visiting. When I used to read TWOP, people seemed pretty spot-on about calling TAR contestants out when they were being Ugly Americans, so that surprises me. Do they think we’re all going to get brainwashed and become Communists? Seems like they would have to understand what was being said before it would even remotely have any effect. Or is it subliminal? Who is so simple that a lyric like “Socialism, you’re getting better every day” is going to affect them? The B52 Memorial site is complicated. Which sadly puts it beyond the reach of a large chunk of US tv viewers. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-3-17-your-tan-is-totally-cool/653209/25 "2013-03-18T12:57:56Z")
I was surprised at the beginning of the episode that most of the teams did not know that John & Jessica had been eliminated on the previous leg. So, other than Phil telling them where they finished when they hit the mat, they are not informed of the results of the leg? I guess I always just assumed that the producers would keep all the teams up-to-date at the end of the leg (or beginning of the next one). ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-3-17-your-tan-is-totally-cool/653209/26 "2013-03-18T14:17:25Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > I was surprised at the beginning of the episode that most of the teams did not know that John & Jessica had been eliminated on the previous leg. So, other than Phil telling them where they finished when they hit the mat, they are not informed of the results of the leg? I guess I always just assumed that the producers would keep all the teams up-to-date at the end of the leg (or beginning of the next one). I don’t quite remember when I noticed that they stopped doing that. There was much more of an emphasis on the Pitstop and teams being allowed to “eat, aleep and mingle” in the early seasons. There were some really great scenes with teams getting involved in the cultural life of the places they visited and getting to know one another. Now it seems that they don’t have much interaction at all in between legs. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-3-17-your-tan-is-totally-cool/653209/27 "2013-03-18T15:09:28Z")
> [@zut](#): > > Yeah - the propaganda was _so obviously_ propaganda, when you’re used to much subtler commercial advertisements, that it’s hard to take it seriously. If anything, showing it should make people happy that we Western imperialists have much more believable propaganda. Like television shows where people travel the world and occasionally note how lucky they are to be living in America. 🙂 And two of the people listening to their song will be given $1 million. “Our beloved Socialism is growing more beautiful with time, but give me a million dollars anytime” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-3-17-your-tan-is-totally-cool/653209/28 "2013-03-18T16:01:12Z")
> [@zut](#): > > I disagree, because I think the way it works right now makes for a more interesting U-Turn strategy. Right now, when a team uses the _first_ U-Turn slot, the target team is rarey eliminated, because the target team will immediately U-Turn a second team, so they won’t be eliminated. That means teams using the first part of a double U-Turn to knock someone else out of the Race rarely actually accomplish their goal. That _should_ affect the strategy of using the U-Turn. The fact that a lot of teams haven’t actually figured that out is kind of amusing. This only happened because Joey & Meghan got to the W-Turn before someone else from Pam & Winnie’s alliance had a chance to use the second slot on Mona & Beth. I disagree that teams haven’t figured out the use of the W-Turn – it’s not that hard to figure out. The majority alliance was trying to get both Joey & Meghan and Mona & Beth whammied. In a previous season, there was one target left, so the majority alliance agreed to whammy that target first and use the second slot on the leaders, thereby preventing the target from using it on a downstream team. Seems like they were able to figure it out pretty easily back then, too. ---
**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:** [March 18, 2013, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-3-17-your-tan-is-totally-cool/653209/29 "2013-03-18T16:16:04Z")
I cracked up when Max said they eat pho all the time, and now he’d be able to say “This pho is OK, but not nearly as good as the pho I had in Hanoi.” He was so thrilled to find yet another way to be an asshole. ---
**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-3-17-your-tan-is-totally-cool/653209/30 "2013-03-18T17:07:54Z")
> [@zut](#): > > _David & Connor_ (down from “Flat Tire”) - On the one hand, it is completely unsurprising that David & Connor are eliminated. On the other, it did surprise me that they just threw in the towel at the beginning of the episode without at least trying to give it a go. I suppose it must be a specific medical reason, but the logic of doing exactly two legs escapes me: if Dave’s injury is critical, get it fixed right away. If it’s not, keep racing. Trying to finely gauge how long to delay treatment before it becomesa huge issue seems foolish to me. They said pretty clearly in the opening that his Orthopedic surgeon recommended surgery within 7 days (this wait time pretty typical for orthopedic injuries to allow some of the initial swelling to go down; makes the surgery easier for the surgeon). So I guess they figured they had a few days, why not go balls out and try to win a couple of legs to get the juicy prizes. Low and behold they did! ---
**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:** [March 18, 2013, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-3-17-your-tan-is-totally-cool/653209/31 "2013-03-18T18:22:09Z")
I wonder about the timing of David & Connor’s mat scene. I know that Phil is often barely ahead of the Amazing Racers themselves. He still has to go to each location and film the explanation of each task. Then he has to get to the Pit Stop to wait for the racers to trickle in. With Fast Forwards and Express Passes, it’s often a close thing. It appeared that David & Connor bypassed all that and went straight to the Philimination mat. ---
**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:** [March 18, 2013, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-3-17-your-tan-is-totally-cool/653209/32 "2013-03-18T18:47:38Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > I wonder about the timing of David & Connor’s mat scene. I know that Phil is often barely ahead of the Amazing Racers themselves. He still has to go to each location and film the explanation of each task. Then he has to get to the Pit Stop to wait for the racers to trickle in. With Fast Forwards and Express Passes, it’s often a close thing. It appeared that David & Connor bypassed all that and went straight to the Philimination mat. I thought that was more the case for the very isolated locations, where there may only be one useful flight per day, so he can’t leave any earlier than the racers. But playing around on travelocity, it looks like there are plenty of Bali-\>Hanoi flights per day, so he probably could have dashed out right after “Oy Vey”. Alternatively, it’s quite possible that once David & Connor decided to quit, they just completely staged & scheduled their Mat scene around Phil’s schedule. It easily could have been filmed after everyone else checked in. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-3-17-your-tan-is-totally-cool/653209/33 "2013-03-18T19:29:00Z")
> [@lorene](#): > > I feel like the team who gets U-turned first shouldn’t get to u-turn anyone unless they complete the second task. The whole reason they changed it to a double U Turn (and it was a good reason, if they have to have U Turns at all) was when it was only one team being U Turned, they usually lost which takes the drama out of it. Allowing two teams teams to be U Turned keeps it a race and letting a team who has been U Turned do it to someone else, facilitates that. ---
**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:** [March 18, 2013, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-3-17-your-tan-is-totally-cool/653209/34 "2013-03-18T20:14:41Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > Who is so simple that a lyric like “Socialism, you’re getting better every day” is going to affect them? Oh, yeah, [our propaganda](http://www.scoutsongs.com/lyrics/proudtobeamerican.html) is so much more subtle. ---
**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:** [March 18, 2013, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-3-17-your-tan-is-totally-cool/653209/35 "2013-03-18T20:39:26Z")
I missed the titular line from this ep. Where was it said? StG ---
**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:** [March 18, 2013, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-3-17-your-tan-is-totally-cool/653209/36 "2013-03-18T20:56:17Z")
Right at the beginning, when Pam & Winnie and Max & Katie were camping out at the hotel. They switched to a post-leg confessional with P&W, and they said now that they’ve hung out with Max & Katie for a while, they won’t make fun of them anymore, and immediately started to make fun of them - “Wow Max, your tan is totally cool.” ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-3-17-your-tan-is-totally-cool/653209/37 "2013-03-18T21:25:41Z")
Team Mullet: “Muchas gracias.” Re: last week’s discussion of the little critter that Caroline (or Jen- the shorter one) used to keep in her bra, which evidently died of loneliness- I remember thinking at the time, and it was reflected in the Dope discussion, that perhaps the tall one made that joke implying that the shorter one had small breasts, or something. So I made a point last night of checking out the theory, and was not disappointed. Girl’s got some rack. ---
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-3-17-your-tan-is-totally-cool/653209/38 "2013-03-19T02:38:37Z")
I don’t think Wynonna is useless weight, in fact, in this episode she routinely had good ideas that Chuck didn’t listen to. She wanted to take the chickens, look for the temple near the market, etc. If Chuck had paid more attention to her ideas, the challenges would have gone quicker and smoother. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-3-17-your-tan-is-totally-cool/653209/39 "2013-03-19T04:25:44Z")
The chickens were superfluous and unnecessary. It was a mistake and a waste of time to go back for the chickens. ---
**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:** [March 19, 2013, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-3-17-your-tan-is-totally-cool/653209/40 "2013-03-19T04:41:29Z")
> [@The\_Controvert](#): > > The chickens were superfluous and unnecessary. It was a mistake and a waste of time to go back for the chickens. Phil certainly made it sound like the chickens had to be delivered, also. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-3-17-your-tan-is-totally-cool/653209.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-3-17-your-tan-is-totally-cool/653209.md?page=3)