Welcome to the Ridonculous Race!
Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race (also known as Total Drama: Ridonculous Race, or simply The Ridonculous Race) is a Canadian animated series and a spin-off of Total Drama, as well as the second series created as part of the overall franchise. The series was created by Fresh TV and aired on Cartoon Network in both the United States and Canada.note It premiered first in the United States on September 7, 2015 and began airing in Canada on January 4, 2016. It featured a return to form with 26 episodes in its debut season rather than the 13 that had been used for later Total Drama seasons.
Like Total Drama, the series is an animated parody of reality television, in this case The Amazing Race. It features a completely new host and 32 new contestants (as well as 4 returning contestants from the parent show) competing in 18 teams of two. These teams must race to different locations around the world and strive to arrive first at the "chill zone" in each locale, completing challenges before stepping foot on the "carpet of completion" at the end of each leg of the race to win prizes and to avoid coming in last, which carries the possibility of elimination or a significant disadvantage in the following leg. The teams are gradually whittled down this way until the final where the last pair goes head-to-head in the final leg of the race with whoever crosses the finish line first winning C$1,000,000.
Ridonculous Race was well-received by critics and audiences with many fans seeing it as a return to grace after several lackluster seasons of its parent series (that said, a vocal minority would say otherwise). Initially, it was stated in late September 2018 by Fresh TV co-president and co-creator of the Total Drama franchise, Tom McGillis, that there were no plans to continue this series or the parent show. However, with the original Total Drama having been Uncancelled, the possibility of continuation has now re-opened up.
Tropes found in the series:
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Tropes #-G
- A Death in the Limelight: It's not uncommon for a team to get more focus than usual in their elimination episode. Particularly notable examples include the Tennis Rivals and the Geniuses.
- Aborted Arc:
- Early on, it was strongly implied that Jacques & Josee's constant string of luck during the first portion of the season was due to the latter's lucky charm rabbit's foot Bun-Bun. She loses Bun-Bun in "Hawaiian Honeyruin" and replaces it with a lava rock that looks like a trophy which begins their arc of them being cursed with bad luck. After they lift said curse in "My Way or Zimbabwe" which is also the episode where they officially become the Arc Villains, Bun-Bun is completely forgotten about and they're just as successful as they were when Josee still had her good luck charm making the idea of them even having one seem pointless.
- Two about Emma's romance with Noah.
- The ending of "I Love Ridonc & Roll" suggests Emma and Noah's roles will be reversed, with Emma now focusing more on her relationship with Noah while the latter claims he'll prioritize the competition over her. Come two episodes later, the next time when they interact again, and they're both attracted to each other and slowly become too focused on their relationship instead of the race.
- When the latter is eliminated in "Got Venom", Emma says that they'll go out if he meets her at the final Chill Zone referring to the finale. But because she & Kitty are eliminated in the episode right before the finale, outside of one brief line of Emma saying that she's gonna call Noah when they get home the entire plotline ends up without a proper resolution.
- The Odd Friendship between Carrie & Ryan is completely dropped in the latter's elimination episode to the point where neither characters interact once in said episode.
- Acrofatic:
- MacArthur is extremely athletic and coordinated. She's a sharp contrast to Sanders, who looks fit but actually has terrible stamina.
- Chet too thanks to his background in rhythmic gymnastics.
- Ancestral Name: One of the pairs consists of a father and son duo named Dwayne and Dwayne Jr. The father mostly calls his son just Junior.
- Action Girl: Most of the female contestants have their moments, but the Cadets are the best and most consistent examples.
- Actor Allusion: In "I Love Ridonc and Roll", the Adversity Twins (voiced by Lyon Smith, the voice actor for Corey Riffin) go on stage to play air guitar. Ironically, they end up doing poorly, while Corey Riffin is a lead guitarist.
- All Animals Are Dogs: In "My Way or Zimbabwe", MacArthur tries to tame a rhino by pretending that it's a dog, and is surprised when it doesn't work.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Carrie towards Devin at least at first.
- All There in the Manual: Just like the original series, the character biographies, audition videos, and online interviews reveal more information about the cast.
- Almost Kiss: In "Maori or Less" Noah and Emma nearly share their first kiss when they're suddenly shoved out of the way of the Surfer Dudes, Geoff and Brody. Noah then promises if he ever catches the surfers kissing, he'll make it a point of interrupting them the same way.
- Alpha Bitch:
- Taylor is a Rich Bitch version of an alpha bitch, especially to her mom.
- Stephanie is a Jerkass to Ryan for a good majority of the season.
- Always Camp: Fashion and figure skating are occupations that stereotypically attract effeminate men, and neither fashion vlogger Tom nor ice dancer Jacques do anything to undermine that stereotype. Quite the contrary; Jacques, in particular, does a good deal to enforce it.
- Ambiguously Brown: Noah, though
Word of God says he's Indian.- This trope also applies to Lorenzo and Brody, to some extent.
- Amusing Injuries: Just like Total Drama, plenty. To the point where nearly every character has had at least one, and some of the Butt Monkeys have had more than a few.
- Animals Hate Him: Owen still gets this.
- Appease the Volcano God: After Josee and Jacques return their cursed volcanic rock to Hawaii, a nearby volcano mildly reacts as a reference to this trope, signifying (in the Ice Dancers' minds) that they had been forgiven.
- Arch-Enemy:
- The Ice Dancers and the Police Cadets.
- Ryan and Stephanie until they make amends before their elimination.
- Arc Villain: The Ice Dancers gradually assume the role of main antagonists when their competitive fire gets the better of them and the resulting "win at any cost" mentality drives them to underhanded acts. Most notably, sabotaging other teams becomes their tactic of first choice instead of last resort.
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: MacArthur has shades of this. Sanders usually helps keep her in check.
- Artifact of Doom: Rockrock, Josee's cursed Hawaiian volcanic rock.
- Aside Glance: Noah and Sanders both do this a lot during the interview segments.
- Attention Whore: Jacques and Josee, although they sometimes get the wrong kind of attention when someone recalls them as the Ice Dancers who lost the Olympics.
- Back for the Finale: All of the contestants that competed are brought back to watch the final two compete.
- Backstabbing the Alpha Bitch: Taylor gets this from her own mother. Granted, it was very much deserved by the time it happened.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Between the Daters/Haters towards the end of their run.
- Berserk Button:
- Not coming first is this to the Ice Dancers. Josee in particular.
- Stephanie when Ryan does basically anything.
- Laurie having to eat meat to stay in the game even though it turned out to be needless since it was a non-elimination round quickly becomes this for her.
- Carrie loses it a few times when Devin compares her to his girlfriend Shelley.
- Beware the Nice Ones:
- Laurie when someone reminds her she ate meat without there being any real need. She even ends up beating up Don.
- When Kelly's patience with Taylor finally runs out, mother puts her insolent daughter in her place first by revealing that all her trophies and achievements are fake, then hoisting Taylor high above on a window washing platform when she shows her mother disrespect one too many times.
- Big Eater: Owen hasn't lost his touch. MacArthur can give him a run for his money though.
- Big Fun: Owen and MacArthur when the latter is in the gold part of her Jerk with a Heart of Gold persona.
- Bilingual Bonus: Jacques occasionally slips into French. Josee does, too, but only in the first episode.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The Ice Dancers dress in bright colours, are always smiling and eternally peppy. They're also the season's Arc Villains with a "win at any cost" mindset.
- Blended Family Drama: Chet and Lorenzo's single parents married one year before the start of the show and they still hate each other at the beginning of the race. They were forced by their parents to take part to in order to learn how to get along. They spend most of their episodes fighting each other, but it ends up working in the end after they discover they have more things in common than they thought.
- Body Horror: The contestants' swollen hands in "Brazilian Pain Forest" after they're forced to reach into a glove of bullet ants to find a key. Poor Laurie gets a face full of them and swells up like an overripe melon.
- Boxing Kangaroo: The Stepbrothers are beaten up by one in Australia.
- Break the Cutie: Poor, poor Laurie.
- Break the Haughty: The Ice Dancers get this after they place third. Josee does not take it well.
- Breather Episode: The non-elimination rounds can be seen as this.
- Bridal Carry: The honeymoon-themed challenge in "Hawaiian Honeyruin" where one teammate has to carry their partner over burning coals this way. Some contestants decide to use piggybacking instead, but others played the trope straight.
- The Bus Came Back: This season marked Geoff and Noah's return since the first episode of Revenge of the Island. Most of all, this was Geoff's first season since Action, where he was the first contestant eliminated.
- Butt-Monkey:
- Ryan, who frequently has to put up with Stephanie's bullying and complaining.
- Laurie. Has to break her vegan vows and eat a plate of meat to stay in the race only for the round to be revealed as non-elimination, starts craving more meat and is chastised by her partner for it, gets a face full of bullet ant bites and is then sent home relatively early.
- Dwayne. If something bad is going to happen, it's probably going to be to him.
- Kelly, mainly as a result of Taylor's spoiled demeanor.
- The poor, poor interns. Don may have more morals than Chris but he still has no problem torturing and even killing these wretched souls to "test" the challenges.
- Call-Back: Mr. Coconut and the Eskimo both return for a cameo.
- Jacques and Josee mention in the first episode that they competed in the Olympics, but only got silver because Jacques dropped Josee on her head. In "Not So Happy Campers Part 1" of Total Drama, Beth mentions that "one of the [skaters] dropped his partner on her head."
- Cannot Spit It Out: Carrie to Devin and later Devin to Carrie!
- Cast of Snowflakes: Each character has a unique design. Word of God says this was done intentionally so that each character could easily be recognized in silhouette.
- Cat Fight: Happens once between Josee and MacArthur.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander:
- Owen is still a few sandwiches short of a picnic at times though he's noticeably more focused than he was in Action or World Tour.
- Leonard is just as kooky as he was in his first appearance.
- Cloud Cuckoo Landers Minder: Noah is back to keeping an eye on Owen.
- Continuity Cameo: In the finale, Chris and Blaineley appear, except their faces are obscured by a newspaper and shopping gifts respectively. Anne Maria can also be seen wandering around New York.
- Continuity Nod:
- Owen reveals that he's still scared of flying, even after World Tour, so he got a teddy bear to keep him calm; however, in "Brazilian Pain Forest", he ends up eating his teddy bear after having to board a plane similar to the Total Drama Jumbo Jet.
- Dwayne and Junior watch an episode of Pahkitew Island during their flight to Alberta and Dwayne later suggests binge-watching the season once they get home.
- Owen brings up the fact that he won Total Drama Island in "Got Venom".
- Josee frequently mentions that she and Jacques got silver in the Olympics when Jacques dropped her on her head, which Chris, Trent, and Beth briefly talk about in the premier episode of Total Drama Island.
- Coordinated Clothes:
- The Ice Dancers have matching uniforms.
- The Rockers wear shirts with a matching logo.
- The Sisters both wear the same style of swimsuit.
- Crossdresser: Jacques and Ryan both wear dresses during the magic show challenge.
- Curse: In "Hawaiian Honeyruin" Josee takes a Hawaiian lava rock to be her good luck charm. The Ice Dancers immediately start having bad luck and placing lower until they fly back to Hawaii and return it.
- Deadpan Snarker:
- Noah, naturally.
- Sanders is usually pretty reserved but she becomes exasperated and snippy when her patience thins.
- Ryan gets in a few good ones against Stephanie.
- Death Glare:
- Many pass between the Ice Dancer and the Cadets. Usually between Josee and MacArthur.
- The Daters/Haters to each other after their break-up.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Emma thanks to her Taking a Level in Kindness by the time the series ends.
- Destructive Savior: A challenge in Australia involves all the teams going to a farm to catch rabbits. The invasive species are pests to the farmers. Right from the get-go, all the teams race to catch 10 rabbits, and end up destroying many of the crops in the process without even thinking about it.
- Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat:
- In "None Down, Eighteen to Go - Part 2," Leonard and Tammy stop to cast a slow motion spell, despite being ahead of the other stragglers. Naturally, this doesn't work, and they get eliminated that episode.
- The Ice Dancers are both The Ace of the competition, in no small part due to their excellent physical condition. By simply concentrating on staying in first place rather than trying to sabotage the other contestants, they would probably win the race. However, In Darjeel, they have a close call after disconnecting the train cars gives them a one hour penalty, even though their position on the train would give them a comfortable finish. Then, in the finale, by causing The Surfers' taxi to crash, they inadvertently provide a shortcut for the other team. By driving carefully, the two teams could be neck and neck into the next leg, where the Ice Dancers' superior athleticism would give them the edge.
- Domestic Abuse: Stephanie frequently does this to Ryan throughout the season.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Stephanie being an abusive control freak towards Ryan for most of the season. This also is portrayed as the main commentary of the show, similar to World Tour's commentary on stalkers and Revenge of the Island's commentary on Dissociative Identity Disorder.
- Dumb Blonde: Owen, Geoff and Rock.
- Dumb Is Good: Owen and the Surfers are probably the nicest contestants in the series. It doesn't hurt that the latter end up winning the whole race either.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: This actually happens to a lot of teams - very few teams who end up eliminated don't end up at least having somewhat of a happy ending because of the show.
- Easy Come, Easy Go: Averted. Unlike most past seasons/the main show, the winners get to hang on to their money when the season/show was over.
- Eiffel Tower Effect: Used for some locations during the Race.
- "None Down, Eighteen to Go - Part 1", set in Toronto, has its first challenge at the CN Tower, where teams have an Either/Or challenge of climbing 144 flights of stairs or taking the elevator to the observation deck and traverse the exterior sky-deck.
- "French is an Eiffel Language" has the Eiffel Tower as the site of a Botch or Watch challenge and the Louvre as the episode's finish line.
- "Hello and Dubai" prominently features the Burj Al Arab, where teams have an Either/Or challenge of facing off against a killer tennis robot or cleaning a column of the skyscraper's windows.
- "New Beijinging" has teams parachuting in tandem into the Bird's Nest Stadium. Teams then must race to the Great Wall on rickshaws.
- "My Way or Zimbabwe" has Victoria Falls, where teams must take a selfie while riding over the falls.
- "A Million Ways to Lose a Million Dollars", set in New York City, has both the Empire State Building and Central Park as the part of the finale.
- Enemy Mine: The Ice Dancers and the Cadets team up twice during the course of the series. Neither alliance lasts long.
- Everyone Has Standards: Don may not care very much about the safety of his interns, but he comes to loathe the Ice Dancers for their backstabbing, cheating ways and is gleeful when they finally lose and place third.
- Evil Is Burning Hot: Josee follows the Total Drama tradition of being featured as a flaming silhouette accompanied by an Evil Laugh.
- Everyone Meets Everyone: The first episode has every pair meet every other pair for the first time.
- Evil All Along: Stephanie, who is tired of her team's low placements in the earlier episodes, becomes an abusive control freak towards Ryan and also takes her cruelty out on other contestants such as Kitty.
- Evil Laugh: Josee and Jacques, especially after "My Way or Zimbabwe".
- Exact Words: Don treats the rules in this fashion. For example, Owen tries to claim he was the cheese because he ate the cheese they used of transportation. While Chris permitted this in "Slap, Slap Revolution" with the sausage, Don doesn't give him leeway and penalizes him and Noah.
- Expy:
- Dwayne is Clark Griswold. His son, Junior, is visually inspired by Justin Bieber.
- Taylor and Kelly are visually inspired by Melissa and Joan Rivers, respectively, but are based more off of Regina George and her mother.
- MacArthur and Sanders are based off Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock's characters from The Heat.
- Mary is one of Amy Farah Fowler.
- Chet and Lorenzo are pretty clearly inspired by Step Brothers.
- Josee and Jacques are confirmed to be based off of the villains from Blades of Glory, an incestuous ice dancing duo.
- Fun fact, the Ice Dancers were originally going to be brother and sister, but it was cut out for an unknown reason! ...uh...
- Extreme Omnivore: Owen as always; however, the Goths have seemingly stronger stomachs than Owen, first eating the Icelandic feast with no problem, and Crimson eats a hot Mexican pepper with a flat "ow". as her reaction. MacArthur's eating prowess also cannot be denied, almost singlehandedly downing a large pot of beans.
- Failing a Taxi:
- After Dwayne got a face tattoo in New Zealand, he has trouble getting a taxi as he mistakenly got a woman's tattoo. Junior eventually steps in and conveniently cover the tattoo with his ticket to get one to stop.
- In another episode, the Cadets face the same dilemma (minus tattoos). Eventually, MacArthur jumps into traffic with her badge and commandeers a vehicle.
- Fanservice: Several of the more attractive cast members (Ryan, Jacques, Josee and Emma to name a few) all strip down to swimwear for various water based challenges.
- Fanservice Extra: The Brazilian Local who judges the Carnival outfits from Brazilian Pain Forest.
- Faux Affably Evil: The Ice Dancers are this crossed with Stepford Smilers. They need to be always smiley and peppy in case they run into the paparazzi.
- Fetch Quest: A few of the challenges were this.
- Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Best Friends and the Daters do this at least until the latter break up and become the Haters.
- Flanderization:
- Geoff was always a bit of a Dumb Blonde but here he seems to have lost most of what intelligence he did have.
- Somewhat averted with Owen, who the writers seemed to make an effort to restore to his original, pre-Flanderization personality. Though every once in awhile they still fixate on his post-Flanderization characteristics of eating and randomly farting (see "Down and Outback" as a good example of the latter).
- Flashed-Badge Hijack: MacArthur pulls this several times.
- Follow Your Nose: MacArthur has a highly trained sense of smell. She can sniff out wheels of cheese in a Parisian sewer!
- Force Feeding: Josee does it to Jacques in "New Beijinging". Owen does it to a nearly catatonic Noah.
- Four-Fingered Hands: Everybody.
- Foreign Queasine: The Chinese street food challenge in "New Beijinging" involves deep-fried scorpion kebabs.
- Free the Frogs: In Crimson's case it's bats, which were supposed to be part of the kebabs in "New Beijinging".
- Friend to All Living Things: The Vegans are this. They spend a lot of time talking about how they'll use the prize money to help various animal charities if they win and once refused to ride a camel and walked beside it instead. However, Miles said that she's crossing sharks off her list after one attacks her in the south of France.
- Friendly Rivalry: The Tennis Rivals.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: Almost. The series starts with 20 males and 16 females. The semi-final has 3 males (the Surfers and Jacques) and 3 females (the Cadets and Josee) competing and the final comes down to 2:2 with the Surfers and the Cadets.
- Gentle Giant: Owen and Ryan.
- The Ghost:
- Shelley; Devin's ex-girlfriend and Carrie's romantic rival.
- Bridgette from Total Drama also counts. She's mentioned by Geoff a couple of times, but never physically appears on the show.
- Gilligan Cut: Used at least once.
- Gold Digger: Noah shows shades of this after he and Emma become a couple. He tells Owen that even if they lose, she'll be a lawyer and he'll "never have to work again". He does genuinely like her though, the money just sweetens it.
- Graceful Loser:
- Most of the contestants are this after they lose the race. In particular the Cadets and the Surfers are quite serene in the ending where the other team wins.
- The Ice Dancers (very surprisingly) when they think they're going home in "My Way or Zimbabwe", though it could just be because the cameras are still on them.
- When the Ice Dancers get third, Jacques is too busy worrying about Josee to have a tantrum of his own.
Tropes H-P
- Hair-Contrast Duo: There are a lot of teams that consist of one blonde and one brunette where many of them contrast in personalities (for example the cheerful Owen paired with the cynical snarky Noah or the upbeat extroverted Rock paired with the quiet mellow Spud)
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Owen, Carrie, Rock, Junior and Geoff are all this. In fact the only real exception is Jacques.
- Harmless Electrocution: Brody in "Mediterranean Homesick Blues" when Geoff uses him as a connection for a faulty boat motor. However, he was comatose for almost all of "Bjorken Telephone".
- Hartman Hips: Taylor is a rare case where it's the daughter and not the mother (Kelly) to have this. Carrie has big hips also. And Emma, definitely, ditto for MacArthur.
- History Repeats: The final three is reminiscent of Total Drama Island's: the main antagonist (The Ice Dancers/Heather), the heavily focused-on anti-heroic protagonist (The Police Cadets/Gwen), and the Plucky Comic Relief, All-Loving Hero (The Surfer Dudes/Owen). With the antagonist being eliminated just short of the finale.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Many of them are shown in this series, mainly among the racing partners. Geoff and Brody are perfect examples as they refer to each other as best buds
- Owen and Noah continue this kind of relationship from where they left off in World Tour
- MacArthur and Sanders are this as well as MacArthur cares deeply about Sanders, going as far as carry Sanders when Sanders cannot keep on going.
- Gerry and Pete are this as well as they knew each other for decades, although they are still in a rivalry but it has mellowed down to joking.
- Ellody and Mary are this too. They are scientists
- Laurie and Miles as they have veganism in common between them
- Rock and Spud are this too as they both belong in the same rock band
- Hollywood Atlas: Most definitely.
- Hollywood Healing: Mostly. Besides : Sanders' arm, the only real exception was Devin's injuries in "Last Tango in Buenos Aires" being severe enough to send him and Carrie home.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl:
- Ryan and Stephanie. Though Stephanie actually isn't that small, she's almost as tall as Jacques. It's just that Ryan is gigantic.
- Jacques and Josee, too.
- Immoral Reality Show: Though not quite as bad as Total Drama thanks to Don being a much less sadistic host than Chris.
- I'm Not Here to Make Friends: Emma at first.
- Impossible Hourglass Figure: Virtually every girl except MacArthur and Tammy.
- Improbable Falling Save: In "Hello and Dubai", Noah catches Emma by the hand when she falls while both are cleaning the windows of Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. Despite the height and Noah's rather lean physique, he catches Emma with ease.
- In Name Only: In-Universe, the show has no connection with Total Drama despite the name of the title.
- In-Series Nickname:
- Josee is fond of these. Her lucky rabbit's foot is "Bunbun", and so-called lucky lava rock is "Rockrock". Jacques sometimes refers to her as "mon petit chou".
- The Ice Dancers and the Cadets show their rivalry with insulting nicknames for each other. The Dancers call the Cadets "pigs" and "pigs in training" and the Cadets call the Dancers "ice-nerds" and "ice-capades". Kitty later calls the Ice Dancers the "ice dunces".
- Intended Audience Reaction: Reception to the LARPers was almost overwhelmingly negative. The writers most likely intended it since they are the first team to leave the race.
- Interrupted Declaration of Love: Happens frequently to Carrie when she decides to confess her love to Devin. Then later happens to Devin when he tries to confess to Carrie!
- Iron Butt Monkey: Basically every single contestant has suffered multiple incidents of physical damage that should have, by all rights, left them permanently crippled or dead. The most frequent victim is Dwayne, although Josee takes a fair amount of punishment too.
- Jerkass:
- The Ice Dancers were this even before they gave up on all pretense of playing fair. Jacques often suffers during Josee's worst moments. Of course, Jacques proves he's just as much of a jerkass by purposefully ignoring Josee during a panic attack as revenge.
- MacArthur during her worst moments, though she's more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, particularly post Character Development.
- Taylor towards her mother.
- Jerkass to One: Stephanie towards Ryan and occasionally vice-versa especially after the breakup. Stephanie tends to start the fights with mocking words; Ryan tries to remain level-headed, but eventually gets riled up to respond.
- Jerk Jock: Stephanie, The Ice Dancers, and occasionally MacArthur.
- Just Friends:
- What the Best Friends are at first.
- Word of God has confirmed this of the Ice Dancers and Fashion Bloggers.
- Killer Rabbit: The Goths' pet rabbit (which they name Loki) is this crossed with Badass Adorable.
- Lampshade Hanging: Happens quite regularly, given the Troperrific nature of the show.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- Taylor spends all her early appearances treating her mother like crap and telling her how useless she is while rubbing her (Taylor's) many achievements in Kelly's face. Guess who's the one to Kick the Dog with her later on and triumphantly humiliate Taylor by revealing it was all a lie.
- Laurie invokes this when Dwayne finds her fossil, saying the Goddess of Karma will punish him for taking it.
- As for Geoff and Brody, they get the good kind. After sparing Carrie and Devin in Vietnam, they were selected to replace them, after Devin sustained serious injuries due to the Ice Dancer's sabotage on Kitty and Emma. In the following episode, Geoff and Brody were grateful about this and promise to split the prize money with them ($250,000 for each Carrie, Devin, Geoff and Brody) if they win.
- Left Hanging: In "A Million Ways To Lose A Million Dollars"), Don tells the viewers to "stay tuned for more of... The Ridonculous Race," implying the show will return. However, following the show's cancellation in September 2018, no more seasons have been made, meaning that "The Ridonculous Race" is the last season of "Total Drama".
- As of 2021, there *are* plans for more "Total Drama", but it doesn't appear that there's any more "Ridonculous Race" on the horizon, so Don's statement still ultimately falls flat.
- Leitmotif: Each team has a special theme tune (Josee & Jacques have victory fanfare, Ellody & Mary have a chiptune, Laurie & Miles have flute music, etc).
- Stephanie and Ryan have a jazz motif that plays whenever they flirt or sit in the confessional together. When they fight, it's replaced with a tense drumbeat.
- Similarly, Noah and Emma have a psychedelic pop tune that Noah can apparently hear.Noah: Oh no, was that out loud?
- Lesser of Two Evils: Josee is more aggressive than Jacques, but both of them frequently torment the others.
- Lighter and Softer: In comparison to its predecessor, especially its last few seasons. The host is fairer, eliminations end on much more positive notes, and the main villains are more comedically zealous competitors rather than outright sociopaths.
- Limited Wardrobe: The characters wear the same outfit 90% of the time unless the challenge requires they wear something else.
- Lovely Angels: Mac Arthur and Sanders, with all of the buddy cop tropes included.
- Male Frontal Nudity: Happens but all instances are pixelated.
- Male Gaze: Just like its predecessor, several female characters gets plenty of butt-shots throughout the season. Emma and MacArthur gets this the most.
- Manchild:
- Geoff and Brody as they sometimes behave immaturely
- Chet and Lorenzo as all they do is bickers and make childish insults at each other. Junior lampshades this by asking how old Chet and Lorenzo are
- Owen as he brought a teddy bear with him
- Medal of Dishonor: The Ice Dancers consider any medal that isn't gold to be this. Josee even spits when she talks about winning bronze.
- Mr. Fanservice: Ryan and Jacques are shown off for the female viewers a few times. Don also gets a skimpy speed and some full frontal.
- Ms. Fanservice:
- Emma and Kitty. Beyond Emma's butt shots, both are shown in bikini twice (especially Kitty).
- Josee's extra-short skirt could be considered part of this, too.
- MacArthur has more butt shots than Emma, and bonus points for her to show it off at times
- Multiple Endings: Just like Total Drama it has two: one where the Surfers win and one where the Cadets win.
- Naked People Are Funny: The only instance of nudity to occur on "The Ridonculous Race" (so far) is from Don in "I Love Ridonc and Roll".
- Never Say "Die": The show defies this trope every which way.
- Nice Guy:
- Geoff and Brody are both total sweethearts.
- Owen.
- Devin, at least when he's not in his stages of breakup.
- Rock.
- Ryan at least up until he and Stephanie break up.
- Nobody Can Die: Exaggerated. Except when it comes to interns.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: "Bjorken Telephone" features a woman who is clearly supposed to be Björk, but no one refers to her by name.
- No One Gets Left Behind: MacArthur firmly follows this rule and will even carry Sanders if she gets worn out. This is touched on in "Bahamarama", where she rescues Josee from an underwater cavern because of a combination of this and The Only One Allowed to Defeat You.
- Odd Friendship: Owen and Noah.
- Oh, Crap!: Nearly every team that winds up coming in last automatically gets this expression.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Rock and Spud probably aren't their real names. And Sanders and MacArthur are most likely their last names.
- Only One Name: Everyone except Valentina Escobar, i.e. MacArthur. Word of God says that name was fake, though.
- Parental Bonus: MacArthur's real name, Valentina Escobar, coupled with her claim of being a fugitive, is likely a reference to the real-life drug lord Pablo Escobar, something no kid would get.
- Parent-Child Team: The Race features two such teams: Dwayne and Junior, Father and Son, and Kelly and Taylor, Mom and Daughter.
- Platonic Life-Partners: A number of male-female relationships are these.
- Devin and Carrie were called this until they got a relationship upgrade.
- Tom and Jen, who have been working together for years, have zero romantic interest in each other.
- Josee and Jacques are also business partners.
- Pyrrhic Victory: The reward for coming in first in challenges is getting to have a head start in the next challenge. However, 8 times out of 10 something will happen that causes the winning teams to have share their ride to the next location with the rest of the teams or even causes them fall behind the other teams.
Tropes Q-Z
- The Quiet One:
- Tammy of the LARPers and Mary of the Geniuses both barely speak in the brief time they're on the show.
- The Goths didn't talk at all for their first few episodes.
- Red Shirt: The interns once more. One even falls to his death during the first episode.
- Reformed Bully: In the episode "Darjeel With It", after Stephanie spends a majority of her time on the show being abusive towards Ryan, she realizes just how cruel she was to him and apologizes. Despite Ryan forgiving her, this doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of their tenure on the show as they are eliminated shortly after.
- Rhyming Names: In "Lord of the Ring Toss", Don has a snowman named Chilly Billy.
- Rules Lawyer: In-Universe for Don, who will often point out infractions and give penalties.
- The Runner-Up Takes It All: Just like in the main series, whether The Police Cadets (Canadian winners) or the Surfers (U.S. winners) deserved to win more is debatable.
- The Police Cadets (who placed 2nd in the United States) were more deserving then the Surfers (who won in that country) as they stayed throughout the race.
- However, The Surfers (who placed 2nd in Canada) deserved to win since they were kind to other teams (namely The Best Friends and The Sisters).
- Just like some of the other seasons in the main show, there were more people that were popular than the Surfers and the Police Cadets, such as the Sisters, The Best Friends, The Goths, and some others.
- Running Gag: Owen's farting and eating anything that can fit in his mouth are back again.
- Sadist Show: It's only a little better with Don in charge. The challenges themselves are still diabolical. Lampshaded by Sanders in "Mediterranean Homesick Blues", where she notes on a Travel Tip that "eaten contestants will result in disqualification".
- Sassy Black Woman: Stephanie.
- Saying Too Much: In "Last Tango in Buenos Aires" when Kitty and Emma are talking about how they already have experience with dance class, Kitty lets slip that she went with Emma to prom as her date when she couldn't find a boy to go with.
- Screams Like a Little Girl:
- Jacques screams higher than any other male in the history of the franchise.
- Tom gives off one when he sees sharks in the south of France.
- Ryan gives off one as he and Carrie jump off a high cliff in Mexico.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Kelly reveals this is how Taylor won all her awards: she only got them thanks to her mother bribing the judges.
- Series Continuity Error:
- Kitty says in "French is an Eiffel Language" that Emma broke up with her previous boyfriend Jake two years prior to the series. But in "Hello and Dubai" she says to Owen that it's been three years since the breakup.
- At the end of "I Love Ridonc & Roll" Noah claims to be over Emma and will instead be more focused on the competition. When the two of them next interact two episodes later in "Shawshank Ridonc-tion", he's suddenly gone back to being obsessed over her and very unfocused on the competition.
- At the end of "Got Venom", Owen remarks that he wasn't upset about being eliminated as he had already won a million dollars. He actually only won a hundred thousand dollars in Island which he forfeited by accepting Chris' million dollar scavenger hunt.
- In the very first episode, Stephanie claims that she and Ryan have been together for two months and six days before the series began. Later into the show's run, this suddenly changes to where they claim to have been together for at least a year.
- Series Mascot: Owen is the primary advertising figure of the series, partly because he's the first winner.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: In "Bjorken Telephone", Laurie and Miles ate the feast after losing their fossil to Dwayne. They end up getting last place that episode, which was revealed to be a non-elimination round. Laurie was upset because she could've gotten another fossil and still come in last.
- Shaped Like Itself: Josee's nicknames include "Rockrock" for a rock.
- Shared Universe: The Ridonculous Race is part of the Total Drama universe, being different reality show to the main one.
- Sibling Team: Three of the teams: the Adversity Twins, Sisters, and the Stepbrothers.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Most idealistic season so far. With the exception of The Ice Dancers, pretty much every team has a happy ending even if they don't win from simply being dignified and relaxed in defeat to gaining better relationships with each other.
- Snap Back: Most character's injuries are undone in the transition to the following episode. Except for Sanders' broken arm in "How Deep Is Your Love", which persists to the end of the season.
- Spin-Off: Of Total Drama
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad:
- The Ice Dancers (Josee and Jacques) and Police Cadets (MacArthur and Sanders), with their rivalry being one of the most heavily focused plots, beginning from the first episode and carrying over all the way to the finale. Both have the highest team rankings, coming first multiple times. For the Ice Dancers they never placed lower than third in the first eight episodes, and serve as the Big Bads of the first season.
- The Sisters (Emma and Kitty). They have had quite a lot of focus so far, especially the gradual over Emma's attitude towards Kitty, and that's before Emma's romantic plot with Noah. Kitty also interacts with the most characters (with only the Ice Dancers surpassing her).
- The Daters/Haters (Stephanie and Ryan) had a lot of focus with their Belligerent Sexual Tension, of having them go back and forth between loving and hating each other. They
evaded elimination three times before ending up in the final 5.
- Squee: Kitty has her moments, as does Owen.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
- Taylor to Heather and Amy (all fall into the spoiled brat group)
- Miles to Dawn and Brigitte (both calm girls who care about nature)
- Devin to Trent (both kind and caring, and go a little insane over their love)
- That Came Out Wrong: What Owen quotes whenever he says something inappropriate.
- That's Gotta Hurt: The contestants have taken dozens of spills. Thank goodness for Hollywood Healing.
- The Unsmile: The Ice Dancers are always smiling even when they're angry. The other contestants find it creepy thanks to this trope and them both being Stepford Smilers.
- This Is a Competition: The Ice Dancers will do anything to win and definitely have this attitude. Josee actually says "This is a competition!" to Jacques in "New Beijinging".
- Throw the Dog a Bone: The contestants often get this when they leave. Good examples would be Dwayne and his son finally connecting, Ryan forgiving Stephanie, and the Stepbrothers becoming friends. Both happen not long before both their teams lose and must go home.
- Toilet Humour: Owen and MacArthur.
- Token Evil Teammates: The Ice Dancers are easily the most evil pairing on the show. After the first half of the season, they don't even try to hide their cheating ways.
- Tongue on the Flagpole: MacArthur gets hers stuck to a trash can in Siberia after Josee pushes her.
- Top-Heavy Guy: Jacques and Ryan by muscle; Chet, Owen, and Spud by fat.
- Town Girls: There is the final three female competitors in the race: The roguish impulsive lad-ette MacArthur (butch), her partner Sanders (neither) is smart, law-abiding, level-headed and well-meaning of and their enemy Josee (femme) is an ice dancer and snobby Attention Whore who dresses in flamboyant pink-and-purple colors and wears brightly-colored eyeshadow.
- Trailers Always Spoil: The commercials often spoil who isn't getting voted off. This is particularly bad for the commercials on Cartoon Network, where you are shown which teams will be staying for at least another five episodes.
- Troperrific: Obviously, since it's meant to be a lampooning of contemporary reality shows, specifically The Amazing Race.
- Tsundere: Emma, being a bit of a Control Freak, often changes impulsive compliments and praise into insults at the last minute.
- Macarthur also fits under this as she can shift gears from sweet to sour and vice versa in just seconds.
- Unaffected by Spice: In one task, one teammate has to eat one of three peppers, Mild, Middle and Spicy. Almost everyone picks the latter two and suffers from the spice. However, when Crimson eats the spicy one, she barely reacts beyond a dull "Ow".
- Ungrateful Bitch:
- Josee after MacArthur goes back to save her from drowning. Once they're all back on dry land, she doesn't hesitate to trip MacArthur up to get ahead.
- Stephanie, who will extremely harshly bully and harass Ryan even when he does well in challenges.
- Unrequited Love Switcheroo: Carrie has been crushing on Devin since they were young kids, but he has stayed oblivious to her feelings. Eventually, Carrie decides to try and give up on him and focus on the race...just in time for him to realize he's actually in love with her. So most of the series involves Carrie trying to confess her feelings to Devin with the last third reversing this and having him trying to confess to her. In the end he does and they get together.
- Vacation, Dear Boy: It's clear that some of the teams are more interested in sightseeing than winning the game. The Bloggers take the time to shop in whatever location they go to, the Surfers only joined because they wanted to tour the world for free, Kitty takes photos of every landmark she finds, and even the usually apathetic Goths nearly lost a round because they were too busy touring around Dracula's castle to check in at the Don Box.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Rarely. Mostly the puking is shown in full.
- Vomit Chain Reaction: "Don't say 'barf'!"
- We Cannot Go On Without You: Enforced. Both members of a team must be present in order to continue or win.
- Wham Episode: "My Way or Zimbabwe", in which the Ice Dancers become the show's villains.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Josee has very bad claustrophobia. There are three separate challenges that involve her being trapped in a small space, leading to panic attacks.
- With Friends Like These...:
- Spud was one of The Load variety to Rock. He gets better later on.
- Josee gets away with a lot of abuse towards Jacques thanks to Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male. Similarly, Jacques ignores her cries during an underwater panic attack, leading to Josee almost running out of air.
- Same with Stephanie towards Ryan and vice versa.
- Would Hurt a Child: Jacques is willing to chase down Junior and try to steal his ticket.
- Josee was willing to hit Junior with a coconut, though her aim was off.
- Younger Than They Look: The Ice Dancers are only in their early twenties but have designs that look like they could easily be pushing thirty.
