History YMMV / TheAmazingRace

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: In Season 23, as the teams were racing out of the airport in Indonesia, the editors randomly cut from Ashley & Ally in their cab, to a monkey walking on stilts in front of a line of motorcycles, then to Leo & Jamal in their cab.

** Anna Leigh from Season 35 was heavily disliked due to her unpleasant attitude towards her out-of-shape father, as she constantly berated him, screamed at him (with "Move your ass!" almost becoming a catchphrase for her), and whined about them falling behind because he wasn't moving as fast as she wanted him to.

** Also in Season 6 was Kendra. She complained about every single place they went that did not live up to her standards and whined about Sri Lanka smelling. Made worse by the fact that she seemed completely oblivious to how offensive she came across.

** Colin & Christie were not necessarily [[TheScrappy Scrappies]], but incredibly divisive due to Colin's aggressive nature. When they returned for Season 31, they underwent one of the biggest transformations in reality TV history being calm and flat-out friendly while losing none of the skill from their previous season. They even arguably gained strength due to Christie adjusting to the Roadblock rule with little issue. The duo is now regarded as one of the most beloved teams of all time and a huge factor to 31's popularity.

** Dave from Season 20. He and his wife became the season's fighting couple (which is quite impressive, given then the 2 other couples in the race essentially played the same "fighting couple" role as them), with him treating Rachel more as a soldier than a partner. He had a large ego (that was somewhat justified because they won the most legs with 8), but unlike Art & JJ, he had no PetTheDog moments and his winning streak sucked out the excitement of the season.

** Season 31 didn't go over too well due to it being seen as a boring, predictable CurbStompBattle stemming primarily from the unfair advantage the returning ''Race'' teams had over the ''Series/{{Survivor}}'' and ''Series/BigBrother'' teams due to having experience with the game before[[note]]Only one non-''Race'' team member, Rachel Reilly, had any prior experience with the show whatsoever[[/note]]. Even the early stacking of non-elimination legs from Leg 3 to 8, the non-''Race'' teams still dropped like flies, comprising five of the first six eliminations. The last non-''Race'' team, Nicole and Victor, was knocked out in the penultimate leg, leading to a dull all-''Race'' finale that many fans had predicted, down to the three teams who would participate, since as early as the ''second leg''.

* WTHCastingAgency: This will happen on any All-Star edition:

* OnceOriginalNowCommon:
** In the early seasons, thrill tasks like bungee jumping and sky diving were seen as some of the more difficult tasks, with them often appearing as the "scary" side of Detours late in the game. However, as the seasons went on, they became less intimidating as teams came to expect them, to the point that post-Unfinished Business, thrill tasks are not only expected, but they're usually put early in the season as an introduction to the game, and unless someone completely freaks out, little time is spent on how "scary" the task is, and even became a hindrance for teams that lagged behind to have any chance of catching up.
** Reichen & Chip winning Season 4 might not seem like a big deal now, but in 2003 a pair of ManlyGay guys in a loving, stable relationship excelling at a physically and mentally based competition was a huge deal, to the point that it was one of the the main story lines of the season, especially near the end, and their kiss at the Finish Line was hugely controversial, and was even censored in many places. In comparison, when gay couple Brent & Josh kissed after winning Season 21, people barely batted an eye at their relationship or their kiss at the Finish Line.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny:
** In the early seasons, thrill tasks like bungee jumping and sky diving were seen as some of the more difficult tasks, with them often appearing as the "scary" side of Detours late in the game. However, as the seasons went on, they became less intimidating as teams came to expect them, to the point that post-Unfinished Business, thrill tasks are not only expected, but they're usually put early in the season as an introduction to the game, and unless someone completely freaks out, little time is spent on how "scary" the task is, and even became a hindrance for teams that lagged behind to have any chance of catching up.
** Reichen & Chip winning Season 4 might not seem like a big deal now, but in 2003 a pair of ManlyGay guys in a loving, stable relationship excelling at a physically and mentally based competition was a huge deal, to the point that it was one of the the main story lines of the season, especially near the end, and their kiss at the Finish Line was hugely controversial, and was even censored in many places. In comparison, when gay couple Brent & Josh kissed after winning Season 21, people barely batted an eye at their relationship or their kiss at the Finish Line.

* WTHCastingAgency: This will happen on any All-Star edition:
** All-Stars 2007 fostered complaints about the validity of teams chosen to Race in a season consisting of "the best of the best." This includes Teri & Ian and John Vito & Jill (3), for being chosen over fan favorites Ken & Gerard or Derek & Drew, who were considered the best team from the season at the time (this was prior to Zach being fully RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap), Charla & Mirna (5) for perceived weakness, Eric & Danielle (9) for not racing together in their original seasons, and consist of a team who placed 8th, and David & Mary (10) for again, perceived weakness. Though they all raced to varying degrees of success, Charla & Mirna were the only ones who fully redeemed their casting in the eyes of most fans.
** Unfinished Business had Amanda & Kris and Mel & Mike (both 14), Amanda & Kris for being an 8th place team who most people didn't remember, and Mel because most people thought a 70-year-old wouldn't be able to handle the increased competition of an All-Star season. Plus, there were three other teams brought back from Season 14, giving a bit of Season 14 overload. They ended up being the first two teams eliminated, so the complaining didn't last long.
** All-Stars 2014, so much that the general reaction to the cast list was overwhelming disbelief. The complaints included Margie & Luke (14), Flight Time & Big Easy (15), and Jet & Cord (16) for being brought back for a third time, bringing in Malory (17, 18) to race with Mark (20) after Bopper suffered from pancreatitis [[note]]for (1) being another manufactured team after the disaster that was Eric & Danielle on All-Stars, (2) them not knowing each other that well and making no sense as a team, and (3) being made up of the weaker members of two teams[[/note]], Brendon & Rachel (20) for being a ''Series/BigBrother'' import that was hugely polarizing amongst viewers, Caroline & Jennifer and Meghan & Joey (22) for perceived weakness, Leo & Jamal (23) for being the more hated and less entertaining villain from their season(next to Tim & Marie). John & Jessica and Dave & Connor (22) would have had more justification on another second chance season, due to how they were eliminated, but did not go over well on an All-Star cast. Though the racers raced with varying degrees of success, Leo & Jamal are the only team that fully redeemed the casting of many fans, and to a lesser extent, Brendon & Rachel.
** Season 31. Obviously the contestants being all imported from reality shows wouldn't fare well with people wanting to see normal people competing.
*** Specifically, for the Amazing Race group the complaints include bringing back Leo & Jamal (23, 24) & Rachel Reilly (20, 24) for a third time and Art & JJ (20) for being unlikable villains. While the biggest questionable casting comes from the Survivor team of Bret & Chris (33) as they are not the most memorable contestant even in their season.

** The incredibly upsetting crapshoot in Season 29 where teams were paired up as total strangers. One team that got along very well and was interesting to watch went out first, another favorite suffered an elimination by default when one member got heatstroke, and ''many'' teams bickered. Worse, the final few to go to the end were considered either dull as dirt or annoying, and the winners were essentially a [[CampGay gay banshee]] and [[TheLoad Flo 2.0.]]

** The 1st season of second China version as compared not only to China Rush, but every other version of the show in the traveling aspect. Where the celebrity teams sleep in rather comfortable hotel rooms, book flight tickets before the race starts and taking breaks before resuming the race [[note]]which ended up taking 20 weeks for this season to end[[/note]], lessening a huge part of the frustration that teams usually face in the other versions. This was done due to the logistics of trying to get celebrities to run the Race, but Vietnam still managed their celebrity editions without such concessions.

** Ask the fans to rank the seasons. Though there seem to be a few seasons that will hit the bottom of most people's lists (the forgettable Season 4, the bickering couple-dominated 6, the Family Edition, the StuntCasting riddled Seasons 15 & 16 and the poorly produced Season 24), every single Season will hit the top of someone's list. Especially since most fans tend to favor one group of races over all the others.
** The Decision to move the show to Fridays. Some don't mind because they don't have anything to do on that night, hated having the show preempted by sports overruns, and it make recording the show much easier. Others hated it of the fact they are otherwise busy and were used to watching it on Sundays. Not helped by the fact that the change after Season 24 and FridayNightDeathSlot.

** Raquel & Cayla would not stop talking about empowering women, positive vibes, and losing their jobs from COVID it felt more like a soliloquy from a spoken word event. Alongside their unpleasant attitude towards foreign countries it feels like they came on the show as an ego trip.

** While other versions of the race took place in their hometown, local viewers Amazing Race Canada surprised fans with them wanting the race to mostly focus on Canada.

** The Philly Jawns (35). Is their loudness (including [[{{Catchphrase}} the "Out of towners!" exclamation]]) annoying or entertaining? In-universe, some Vietnamese locals subscribe to the latter interpretation and give their hats to the ladies (albeit not on camera - we only learn they received their hats for free [[WordOfSaintPaul when Todd and Ashlie mention it in their recap of the episode]]).

** Pretty much any task involving eating/making sausages are full of these.
** Also any milking task.

** Leg 11 of Amazing Race 29 was this, after a very grueling leg. Teams only had to do Cup Stacking (Which, while intended to be HarderThanItLooks, was still easy enough to learn with practice), make Kimchi, and beat a korean eSports player in VideoGame/StreetFighterV (with some handicaps added later to [[AntiFrustrationFeatures make it possible]]). It felt an awful lot like a first or second leg, in comparison to a penultimate leg. This might have been because the 10th leg was ''very'' grueling.

* CaptainObviousReveal: While there is a standard accepted "winners' edit" among the fanbase, sometimes the show makes it so obvious that even those who aren't trying can tell who wins, such as [[spoiler:Meghan & Cheyne and Kim & Penn]]

* DarthWiki/MostAnnoyingSound: Justin & Jermaine calling each other "girl" started off harmlessly enough, their use of it increased a lot over the season as the progressively lost their likeability. It got to the point that by the final leg, it was as annoying as hearing Rob & Kim call each other "babe".