# TAR, April 21, 2013 - "The Ultimate Fun House"" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 22, 2013, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-april-21-2013-the-ultimate-fun-house/656360 "2013-04-22T01:21:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-april-21-2013-the-ultimate-fun-house/656360/21 "2013-04-22T14:45:32Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > What gets me about TAR and it’s getting worse to almost be unwatchable: there are almost no penalties for screwing up. Finish 4 hours behind everyone? Don’t worry, you’ll all be on the same plane or camping out from 5:30am to 9am with everyone else until the door/gate opens. Don’t know an answer to a question? Ask someone with no penalty for wrong answers. Don’t know where to go? Follow every one else. It has gotten so ridiculous that Kesha and Jen actually won a season by following everyone else or asking someone else for an answer. Look back on their season and try to find one task they did without help from someone else except putting together the mobile home yard on the final leg. > . Yes and the tasks this season have been simple and uninspired. ---
**Author:** ![HammerJoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a6a055/32.png) [@HammerJoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HammerJoe)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-april-21-2013-the-ultimate-fun-house/656360/22 "2013-04-22T14:48:47Z")
You cant blame the game for this lack of strategy but rather the players that forget that they are in a race and decide to help other player. Look how the Uturns work out. They are not played because people dont want to upset other players if they use it. Imo for Uturns it should be mandatory for the first teams that gets to it to play it. As for bunching its inevitable otherwise it would get to a point where teams would be behind not hours but days, not much drama that way is there? ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-april-21-2013-the-ultimate-fun-house/656360/23 "2013-04-22T14:54:19Z")
I like when a team could finish a day behind the other teams. Much nicer to have a big penalty for messing up. ---
**Author:** ![Rudiger\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@Rudiger\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rudiger_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-april-21-2013-the-ultimate-fun-house/656360/24 "2013-04-22T14:58:23Z")
> [@](#): > > I thought they were manufacturer plates, which makes blurring them out a bit odd. I’m pretty sure if you bothered to track them you’d find the cars belonged to Ford. They showed one non-blurred shot of a rear plate and it looked like there was a little **D** in the middle of it. A Michigan manufacturer’s plate would have had an **M** instead. So, if the cars were owned by a dealership, maybe _they_ requested that TAR blur the plates. I don’t know why the cars would be coming from a dealership and not Ford itself, though. ---
**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:** [April 22, 2013, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-april-21-2013-the-ultimate-fun-house/656360/25 "2013-04-22T17:16:02Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > The last couple teams before the final leg teams continue racing instead of heading over to sequester to try and throw the public off on exactly who won or lost. > > So, for example, Chuck and Wynona ran this leg, but of course we don’t see that on the show. Seriously? I had never heard of that before. I always assumed there were extra cars/clues to help obfuscate which position the racers were in. For example last place team gets to a clue location, there are two clues left, they may think there is still another team behind them. Of course this doesn’t work if there is ALWAYS an extra clue/car/whatever. It just seems that having a team continue to race when they are out of the race is… I don’t know, rubbing their nose in it I guess. (Especially Wynona, who would probably rather just go home.) ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-april-21-2013-the-ultimate-fun-house/656360/26 "2013-04-22T20:23:33Z")
No bunching at all would also be bad because eventually you would end up with one or two teams so far ahead, there would be little or no drama plus it would spread your production teams out too far but I agree that the bunching is over done. ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-april-21-2013-the-ultimate-fun-house/656360/27 "2013-04-22T20:47:30Z")
Thinking more about this I’d really like to see more wide open racing. Allow teams to figure out the best way to get from place to place. Cut down on the number of pit stops and allow teams to keep moving 24 hours a day. They’re mostly adults and can decide for themselves if they’re tired. At each break give them four places they need to check in at and grab some type of token to show they were there. For example, you must check in at Seoul, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Hanoi before checking in with Phil and being forced to rest. The last two teams to check in are eliminated. Have more arduous tasks. A scavenger hunt that covers an entire large city perhaps. Not sure if anyone remembers the eco-challenge. I’d like to see it more like that. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-april-21-2013-the-ultimate-fun-house/656360/28 "2013-04-22T21:11:02Z")
A move towards Eco Challenge probably wouldn’t make for enough of a viewership for network TV. But I do wish Expedition Impossible a couple seasons back had done better. I liked that format and going global with it could be cool. Since they’re so rarely allowed to get more then a few hours apart from each other I’d prefer they just get rid of the fiction that finish order matters for anything beyond who gets eliminated. Just restart them as a group in each leg and get on with it. All that including plane travel to the next country as part of the leg generally does is introduce the possibility that some team will get screwed by plane problems. And that’s even less fun to watch than taxi lotteries. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-april-21-2013-the-ultimate-fun-house/656360/29 "2013-04-22T22:31:40Z")
The Eco-Challenge ruled. “Our strategy is to start slow and then taper off.” hehheh. ---
**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:** [April 23, 2013, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-april-21-2013-the-ultimate-fun-house/656360/30 "2013-04-23T00:32:22Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > The Eco-Challenge ruled. > > “Our strategy is to start slow and then taper off.” hehheh. That sounds hilarious, but that’s the context? ---
**Author:** ![Kaboodle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8edcca/32.png) [@Kaboodle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaboodle)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-april-21-2013-the-ultimate-fun-house/656360/31 "2013-04-23T01:34:50Z")
> [@randwill](#): > > \ > One girl’s letter was not illuminated when they delivered it. I was sure they would have to go back, but TPTB let it slide for some reason. I was noticed that too, did a quick rewind and saw that the letter wasn’t illuminated when it was picked up. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-april-21-2013-the-ultimate-fun-house/656360/32 "2013-04-23T03:44:23Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > No bunching at all would also be bad because eventually you would end up with one or two teams so far ahead, there would be little or no drama plus it would spread your production teams out too far but I agree that the bunching is over done. But have some penalties. For example, at any bunching point where you need to wait for something to open, the first team gets in when it opens, the second team 15 min later, the #3 team 15 min after that, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-april-21-2013-the-ultimate-fun-house/656360/33 "2013-04-23T14:29:23Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > What gets me about TAR and it’s getting worse to almost be unwatchable: there are almost no penalties for screwing up. Finish 4 hours behind everyone? Don’t worry, you’ll all be on the same plane or camping out from 5:30am to 9am with everyone else until the door/gate opens. Don’t know an answer to a question? Ask someone with no penalty for wrong answers. Don’t know where to go? Follow every one else. It has gotten so ridiculous that Kesha and Jen actually won a season by following everyone else or asking someone else for an answer. Look back on their season and try to find one task they did without help from someone else except putting together the mobile home yard on the final leg. You talk like it hasn’t been this way for years and years. Also, the words “The Amazing Race” haven’t been used in this thread yet, making it invisible to search. So Amazing Race Amazing Race Amazing Race Amazing Race Amazing Race Amazing Race Amazing Race. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-april-21-2013-the-ultimate-fun-house/656360/34 "2013-04-23T17:37:58Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > You talk like it hasn’t been this way for years and years. > > Also, the words “The Amazing Race” haven’t been used in this thread yet, making it invisible to search. So Amazing Race Amazing Race Amazing Race Amazing Race Amazing Race Amazing Race Amazing Race. I mentioned Kesha & Jen who epitomize the problems with the Amazing Race and won $1M doing it. ---
**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:** [April 23, 2013, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-april-21-2013-the-ultimate-fun-house/656360/35 "2013-04-23T18:16:49Z")
The “fun house” would’ve freaked me out. I wonder if you had a flashlight on you if it would be against the rules to use it? StG ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-april-21-2013-the-ultimate-fun-house/656360/36 "2013-04-23T19:18:32Z")
> [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > That sounds hilarious, but that’s the context? Well, wiki has a nice synposis of the Eco-Challenge [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco-Challenge): > [@](#): > > Each team comprised a mandatory mix of both men and women, racing non-stop, 24 hours a day, over a rugged 300-mile (500km) course, participating in such disciplines as trekking, whitewater canoeing, horseback riding, sea kayaking, scuba diving, mountaineering, camel-back riding, and mountain biking. Teams originally consisted of five members, but the team size was reduced to four members early in the event’s history. There were no dopey\* challenges like on TAR or last year’s Expedition Impossible, no bunching points of any kind. When you got tired and wanted to sleep, you looked for a campsite and set up your own. No pitstops to check into. One of the better teams, who had finished in the top few teams for the first few years (and possibly won it, maybe more than once) had an old guy on the team. Probably in his 50s, tall, lanky, but was clearly one of the better expedition racers in the world. Around the third or fourth year they asked him his team’s strategy as they were starting: “Our strategy is to start slow, and then taper off.” That guy ruled. The Eco-Challenge was great to see how the “favorites” pretty much always crashed and burned. There was a Navy SEAL team one year who crashed and burned. They had trouble with every part of the race, and finally had to withdraw when their kayak overturned in the ocean. Yep, Navy SEALS were disqualified because they couldn’t handle a boat. “Jock” type teams like that never dominated; it was always the wiry teams with arms like Madonna who dominated, regardless of their age. The most iconic image from the Eco-Challenge had to be the Japanese team one year. The girl on the team twisted or broke her ankle during a rock scramble portion of the race. She and her teammates refused to withdraw; instead, they decided to **carry her**. You haven’t seen the true power of the human spirit until you’ve seen a tiny little Japanese guy carrying a woman piggy-back style over a goddamn rock scramble. The “money shot” was them running up a mountain with her on one of the guy’s back. They took turns carrying her; there wasn’t an ounce of quit on anyone in that team, including the girl. She was brutalized while being carried but held on without complaint. (Oops, I _dropped her_ onto rocks.) Eventually they were forced to withdraw, but my god what compelling television that was. Imagine being in a 300-mile race, carrying all the gear that entails, and then having to physically carry your teammate for the last 100+ miles. Of course there wasn’t much “team vs team” drama, as the teams were almost never anywhere near each other. Most of the drama was “team vs nature”, and much like a marathon the point wasn’t to win but to finish. \*I do love me some dopey physical challenges, which is almost the entire reason I watch TAR, Survivor, and MTV’s The Challenge. The Eco-Challenge was something else entirely. ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-april-21-2013-the-ultimate-fun-house/656360/37 "2013-04-24T02:55:55Z")
I remember that Japanese team. Hard fucking core to carry her like he did. My wife says that an Eco challenge type format would eliminate the sometimes dramatic interaction between teams. Shes right but I enjoy the mental and physical torture the Eco teams go through. Its less about teams fighting with each other and more about inward battles and stress amongst team members. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-april-21-2013-the-ultimate-fun-house/656360/38 "2013-04-24T04:39:40Z")
Apologies for this hijack: It turns out a lot of the Eco-Challenge is on youtube; not just clips but entire episodes. Out of a fit of overwhelming nostalgia I went in and found the Japanese team’s saga from Eco-Challenge: Australia (episode 3 of 3) and direct linked their sections: [They get the news](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMh1JMT94UA#t=15m10s) (15:10 to 16:50) [Carrying her over a mountain](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMh1JMT94UA#t=20m00s) (20:00 to 22:40; this is the signature clip) [Long slow hike after mountain](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMh1JMT94UA#t=27m52) (27:52 to 29:45) [Reaching next checkpoint](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMh1JMT94UA#t=34m14) (34:14 to 36:15) [Starting final ocean leg…](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMh1JMT94UA#t=37m07) (37:07 to 38:00) […which goes horribly wrong](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMh1JMT94UA#t=39m12) (39:12 to 42:20) Bonus clip: [Navy SEALS require rescue from sea](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMh1JMT94UA#t=30m50) (30:50 to 34:14) Also, side note: That old guy I quoted who said “We’ll start off slow and taper off” is named John Howard. Though racing with different teammates most years, he won or finished in the top 3 every year except one where he had to pull out (while in third place.) Picture of him [here](http://www.napieraj.pl/index.php?option=com_multicategories&view=article&id=218). His team won Australia. His quote is from the following year in Morocco, but that season isn’t on youtube. ---
**Author:** ![magnusblitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@magnusblitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magnusblitz)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-april-21-2013-the-ultimate-fun-house/656360/39 "2013-04-24T05:31:12Z")
> [@HammerJoe](#): > > You cant blame the game for this lack of strategy but rather the players that forget that they are in a race and decide to help other player. > Look how the Uturns work out. They are not played because people dont want to upset other players if they use it. > Imo for Uturns it should be mandatory for the first teams that gets to it to play it. That would be a very good rule change, actually; I hate it when the first teams that get there don’t play it because they don’t want to piss anyone off and don’t need to because they’re far enough ahead. Also you should be forced to pick a team that’s behind you (instead of allowing teams to “waste” it on teams ahead of them) ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-april-21-2013-the-ultimate-fun-house/656360/40 "2013-04-24T10:27:07Z")
I actually kind of like the teamwork strategy of “First one of us to get there UTurns the targeted team, then the next one of us there UTurns the first team.” It is super cheese, of course. I just like it because it allows tangible, meaningful teamwork among teams. What would happen, I wonder, if there were a UTurn where everyone is required to UTurn somebody behind them? As in, 1st place must UTurn anyone but themselves, 2nd place must UTurn someone behind them, 3rd must use it on someone behind them, etc… First place gets through free and clear, much like a FFWD leg. A couple other teams likely slip through unscathed due to racers not having perfect knowledge of who will show up next. Those in or near last place don’t even bother going to the UTurn but instead immediately go to the second task after completing the first to try and save a little time and catch up a bit. It would still allow alliances to work together. I haven’t really thought it through, but maybe it could be interesting. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-april-21-2013-the-ultimate-fun-house/656360.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-april-21-2013-the-ultimate-fun-house/656360.md?page=3)