These are what we call the 'YMMV items.' Things that some people find in this work. We call them 'your mileage might vary' because not everyone sees these things in the same way. This starts discussions in the trope lists, a thing we don't want. Please use the discussion page if you'd like to discuss any of these items.
Nausea Fuel: The Foreign Queasine challenges, or, if the food is palatable, the teams then have to eat either massive amounts of it or eat it really fast.
Scrappy Mechanic: The Intersection. Making two teams work together is more in line with something a show like Survivor would do. Instead of creating interesting interactions between the racers, it made whatever team arrived in an odd-numbered position stand around and wait for the other teams to show up. Sometimes they would be stuck waiting for hours.
Not only that, but several of these were placed in legs where a team was "Marked for elimination". The intersection pretty much made survival impossible for these teams, as it bunched them with the pack until it's too late to get 30 minutes ahead of anyone else.
The "mugging" penalty of American Seasons 5-9 for teams saved by non-elimination legs was widely loathed because it forced the awkward situation of well-off Americans begging for money (and later, other possessions) in impoverished nations just to survive in a reality TV competition. On top of that, it barely penalized teams time-wise since, most of the time, begging easily made up for the resources lost and they could do it even during pit stop breaks in its debut. At least it was a step in the right direction, as it was still better than the saved teams getting off scot-free like in Seasons 1-4.
Any early elimination twist is reviled for giving the first out team less airtime, especially the Starting Line Elimination of US Season 15 in which the victim got virtually none. Also, since the draw of applying for the show is the opportunity to experience different countries, getting eliminated before leaving the first airport (Israel Season 2, Norway Season 1) or even the starting line as mentioned runs counter to that purpose.
Serial Numbers Filed Off: ABC's Expedition Impossible is basically "Amazing Race, only 13 teams instead of 11, three team members instead of two, a far lamer prize ($150,000 + 3 SUVs, as opposed to Race's $1,000,000), and a helluva lot less exciting."
Spoiled by the Format: It's a pretty sure sign that it's a "To be continued..." leg if it's just a few minutes until the end of the episode and still no teams whatsoever have checked into the Pit Stop.
That One Leg & That One Challenge: Almost every race, a couple teams state they had difficulty with one or two legs. Not to mention, there's almost always one challenge of any kind that trips up almost every team on it. These include:
"Needle-in-a-haystack" challenges, where the teams have to find the right object in a sea of similar ones, a specific sign in a sea of neon, or a bunch of signs in a certain order. Especially if you're on a moving object and don't have time to stop if you didn't read a sign properly, or missed it.
Repeating a phrase you hear.
For female racers, there's the oft repeated head shaving Fast Forward.
Bill & Joe during Season 1 were seen as the Wicked Cultured gay couple who thought they were better than the other teams, and would do anything to win rather than play "fair." This portrayal has become increasingly debated since, with their "sinister side" being mostly chalked up to Manipulative Editing. It didn't hurt that their style of play was emulated by other teams from the second season on, making them seem like that smarter team in retrospect.
The Amazing Race anthology My Ox is Broken!, which repeatedly asserts that what is shown of the Racers on-screen is not necessarily reflective of their true selves because of Manipulative Editing and the unique stresses of the Race, did this with Flo, arguing that instead of the common view of her as a bitchy, useless drama queen who didn't deserve her half of the million dollars or the continuation of her friendship with Zach one bit, she was ultimately just someone who found that she wasn't as ready for the rigors of the Race as she thought, gradually cracked under very real stresses and found the strength to go on with the support of her best friend, and was able to laugh afterwards at the terrible impression she left on-screen.
Margie & Luke (14 & 18) either came off as a group of nice/average racers who performed beyond Luke's disability... or Luke was a Karma Houdini who acted like a spoiled asshat and managed to avoid being called out on it, especially since Margie refused to see him do any wrong.
Brook & Claire, big time. View #1: Brook was one of the single greatest racers ever, whose boundless energy and inability to be embarrassed made her the best part of Season 17, only she was held back by a partner who was average at best. View #2: Claire was a likable Everywoman, partnered with an annoying, hyper, shrieky-voiced ball of energy that dragged her along at a pace she could never hope to meet. View #3: Their contrasting personalities fed off well in relation to each other, with Brook keeping Claire motivated and Claire controlling Brook's manic personality.
Arc Fatigue: The Love Triangle/alliance between Tara & Wil and Chris & Alex in Season 2 lasted the entire season, with only the first leg being free from its influence. It was not that it lasted so long as much that it got so much focus despite it cycling through the same plot points over and over (Tara forsaking Wil to flirt with Alex, Wil constantly changing his mind on whether he wants to be in an alliance or not), and neither team being all that popular.
Base Breaker: It's very common for one person's favorite team to be the same team another can't stand. Thus, some teams have garnered extremely polarized opinions in the fanbase:
"Alpha Male" teams in general. As fansite TARflies Times put it: "A term of great confusion. Some folks define an "Alpha Male" team as one that is young-ish, fit, relatively intelligent, and aggressive in the way they run the Race. (Rob & Brennan from TAR1, for example, or Chris & Alex from TAR2.) Others use it to refer to any team of young, good-looking males, no matter what their Race attitude (Brian & Greg from TAR7 or BJ & Tyler from TAR9). For some it's simply a descriptor. For others, it's an insult. Some posters believe that a team of Alpha Males is a shoo-in to win, and would be happy if no more of them are ever cast. Others have no problem with them. Some TARflies regard them as eye-candy. Context is your best friend when you come across a reference to Alpha Males." The base breaking nature of these teams has been generally alleviated over time, as "Alpha Males" have only won three times since Season 4 (or twice if you don't count BJ & Tyler), meaning most modern viewers don't even realize why there is a bias against such teams.
BJ & Tyler (Season 9) are the biggest example of this. Either you think that they're a quirky, lovable team that's fun to watch or an annoying, self-pretentious team that needs to stop mugging for the camera ASAP. There is no in-between. The majority of viewers fell into the first camp, but the ones that fell into the second camp instead were...quite vocal about it.
It didn't help that, when they weren't chosen for All-Stars, they started whining about it online, complained about the validity of the teams chosen, and called themselves the most popular team to ever run the race and the "most winningest winners ever to win." That temper tantrum alone might have cost them their title as the most popular team to ever run the race.
Dustin & Kandice (Seasons 10 & 11), especially early on. An intelligent, stereotype-defying team that knows how to play the game and deserves to win over teams that have an inflated opinion about their so-called moral superiority, or an obnoxious mean girl team that deserves to be taken down a peg by nicer teams? You decide!
Eric Sanchez (Seasons 9 and 11), not so much due to whether or not people liked him (most people don't), but more towards whether or not he's one of the strongest racers ever. On one hand, he was part of one of the most dominant teams ever in Season 9, he and Jeremy setting the record for best finishing average (only Rachel & Dave (20) has also managed a sub-2.00 finishing average) and then came back and won All-Stars with Danielle. On the other hand, the Season 9 cast was extremely weak, and he performed poorly on All-Stars, to the point where he and Danielle had 5 bottom-2 finishes and only 3 top-2, were outshone by Dustin & Kandice, Rob & Amber, Danny & Oswald, and even Charla & Mirna, and won due to a mostly luck-based matching task.
The entire Top 4 from Season 14. Tammy & Victor, Jaime & Cara, Margie & Luke, and Kisha & Jen were all so polarizing, they had the fans split into four groups, not so much rooting for one team as they were rooting against the other three. This was not helped by the Luke/Jen fight in China being played up to encourage base breaking.
Jaime & Cara even cited themselves as such in the pre-race interviews for Unfinished Business, saying that they were a team people loved or hated, there was no middle ground with them. Though really, it was more so Jaime.
Maria & Tiffany were set up as Season 15's Designated Villain team from the get go, first when they decided to withhold that they were professional poker players who'd raked in millions in winnings, instead telling the other teams that they worked for a charity (which they did), then later when they were shown to get into an argument with fan favorites Zev & Justin. However, while the majority of the fanbase naturally disliked them, the This Is A Race fans immediately took to them for (1) being the only female team cast against four male teams (at a time when a female team still hadn't won the race), (2) having an open and honest, if not snarky, attitude that was not playing up to the cameras (something that was starting to be particularly rare at that time), and (3) for being the most entertaining part of what was quickly becoming one of the Race's worst seasons.
Flight Time & Big Easy (Seasons 15 and 18), like BJ & Tyler, were a popular team with a small group of detractors, those who either thought they were trying, specifically and too hard, to be a fan favorite team, or else felt that "professional athletes" (as much as Harlem Globetrotters can be considered professional athletes) had no place on the Race. Made even worse when they came back for Unfinished Business, as they proceeded to consistently follow and leech information off of all the other teams. Though this strategy did not bother their fans, their detractors took issue with them "not running the race for themselves". Then they U-Turned the Cowboys, which pushed them into full on Base Breakers.
Midway through Season 19, Andy & Tommy started talking about their Christianity while at a Buddhist temple, and were, to say, a bit narrow-minded in their commentary (as opposed to fellow Christian Jennifer, who said the temple, while not her religion, deserved the same amount of respect). This incident, along with being another Stunt Casting team (completely embodying what fans hated about Seasons 15 and 16), and the most blatant Expies of BJ & Tyler yet, caused a bit of a rift. And that's not even touching on the explosion caused by their elimination by cabbie collusion, with their fans upset that they were beaten by two teams who never figured out how to get to the Pit Stop on their own, and their detractors calling it Karmic retribution for being so cocky when most of their wins had come more from other teams' mistakes and legs being specifically designed towards their strengths rather than their own racing skills.
Brendon & Rachel, Season 20. While they had some fans migrate over from their stint(s) on Big Brother, their presence was immediately dreaded by Race fans, and for good reason, too, as Rachel immediately turned into a whiny Attention Whore, and most people who dreaded them said that it's the only thing you see, especially whenever they were down. That being said, seeing Rachel getting bullied by Art & JJ throughout the Race took a lot of the hatred off of her and put it squarely on the shoulders of Art & JJ. That and Rachel's constant meltdowns eventually ended up becoming some of the most-entertaining parts of that season's hated final four.
Not to mention, Brendon has been known for bullying Rachel or lashing at her for little reason, sometimes justifying her frustration.
Natalie & Nadiya from Season 21, with them being seen as either a strong, stereotype-defying team that had great potential to follow in Nat & Kat and Kisha & Jen's footsteps, or a shrill, obnoxious team whose Brutal Honesty comes across as mean-spirited. Episode 6 deepened this rift further with their decision to keep James & Abba's lost money, causing many fans to argue about whether what they did was tantamount to stealing, or it was more James & Abba's fault for being careless with their money. And yet another group of fans take issue with what they did for a different reason: they had no problem about them taking the dropped money from a race perspective (seeing as they didn't technically break any rules) - but were angry with the fact that the twins did so knowing that James & Abba would have to beg for money... on the streets of Bangladesh.
Season 22's Vietnam leg became an unusually (for this show) politically charged Base Breaker as it featured a patriotic Vietnamese song glorifying communism and the wreckage as a B-52 Bomber from the Vietnam War used as a monument. Both of these sparked enough political controversy that CBS had to apologize to the veterans and any offended viewers, though other viewers were pleased that they presented aspects of Vietnamese culture so candidly including the Vietnamese perspective of the War and some were even disappointed at what was to them an unnecessary apology. Of special note is that channels outside the USA did not air the apology as the Vietnam War is primarily an American political issue.
Season 22 also had Joey. Though he had his fans, especially those who watched him on YouTube prior to the race, his tendency to act like a Man Child alienated a good portion of the fanbase. Normally, this would not be enough to make him a base breaker, but his fans so vehemently defended him that simply saying that you disliked Joey quickly became a heated argument.
Broken Base: There's the This Is A Race fans, and the Call It Karma fans. They generally get along at the beginning of a season, until something sets them off and the flame wars carry on for the remainder of the season. Arguments about team selection and how the courses should be planned out can get pretty heated as well.
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 oft forgotten Season 4, the bickering couple-dominated 6, the Family Edition, and the Stunt Casting riddled Seasons 15 and 16), 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.
Canadians Love The Amazing Race: The show is consistently top-rated in Canada, and is much more popular there than it is in its home country (it's consistently in the top 5 most watched shows in the country, with ratings that are at times comparable to Hockey Night in Canada). The many, many requests to let Canadians apply can attest to this popularity. Phil claimed that passport issues prevented Canadians from appearing and suggested they make their own version (said version is currently in production).
Designated Hero: There are many teams who the producers expect to be popular, and are edited thusly, but instead end up coming off as preachy or annoying. This was pretty much most of the teams on Season 10, which led to Dustin & Kandice's popularity. (See Base Breaker)
They tried so hard to sell Meghan & Cheyne as Invincible Heroes in Season 15, but most of the fans just didn't care either way about a team that came off as simply boring.
Designated Villain: Played fairly straight early on with Bill & Joe (Season 1) and Wil (2). However, later seasons tend to treat teams more fairly, showing the good sides of even the biggest Jerk Asses.
Thomas edged on this during Season 17, simply by having a Y-chromosome. While not that bad of a guy all around, had he prevented a female team from finally winning the race, there's no doubt he would have become one of the most hated winners ever.
Phil has stated in interviews that, as of Season 17, The Race is deliberately trying not to create teams like this, as they feel it makes the show better, and the fans enjoy it more when they're not given a specific team they're supposed to root against.
The best example of this, so far, has been Art & JJ, who spent the first four episodes of Season 20 looking like the typical dominating, egotistical villain in the same vein as a Colin (5) or a Rob (7), but, starting with their giving Mark & Bopper half of their prize for winning leg 4, the editing has begun to show that there's more to their personality than brash egotism, and that their "villain" status was more than just editing.
Disappointing Last Leg: The first eleven seasons suffered from this in general, as multiple flights in every finale would negate all but the last part of the leg, which would many times include just a single task and some cab rides. This resulted in the winner coming down to whoever got the better cab several times. Especially noticeable in Season 10. For the most part, the season is filled with a wide variety of challenging and visually engaging tasks, but as the season goes on, less inspired tasks start showing up. This culminates in a final US leg consisting of a long taxi ride with a 30-block run down the street in between. This was fixed post-All-Stars by setting the entire final leg in the same city, though cabs still often make the difference between staying or being taken out of contention.
Dork Age: Seasons 15 and 16, notable for being the only year in which the Race failed to win the Emmy for best Reality-Competition Show (Even Seasons 8 (The Family Edition) and 9 (which was widely considered sub-par for the first eight episodes) managed to win it). The biggest complaints came from the casting, which relied far too heavily on gimmick teams and pseudo-celebrities (of the 23 teams, 9 fit into one of these categories), though the courses and the competence of the teams also caused complaints.
Ending Aversion: The Race is notorious for having weak finales, especially before Season 12 (see Disappointing Last Leg). The worst are probably Seasons 10 and 11, the former which involved three teams most of the audience didn't like or care about, and the later involving one of the most unpopular teams to ever win the race beating one of the most popular, during the All-Star season.
Ending Fatigue: Gary (Season 2) managed to make his elimination this by making a show out of leaving the mat.
After losing a passport in Season 21, James & Abba's inevitable elimination dragged on for an entire episode when the leg turned out to be a non-elimination.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Teams like Lena & Kristy (Season 6) and Debbie & Bianca (7) are quite popular with portions of the fanbase, despite only lasting three or four legs apiece. Part of this was because no all-female or parent-child team had reached the Final 3 until Season 10 and 12 respectively, so expectations were high for such teams. Zev & Justin even got an invitation back for "Unfinished Business" despite being eliminated on the fourth leg of Season 15. (Amanda & Kris, who were eliminated fourth on Season 14, also got an invitation, but there was a lot more complaining from the fans about their inclusion.) Interestingly, 9th place, which all the aforementioned teams finished in, tends to be the Ensemble Darkhorse spot (with Wanda & Desiree (9) and Mark & Bill (13) also finishing 9th).
Despite Season 8 being hated by most, if not all fans, especially for the inclusion of children, the Gaghan family garnered their own small fanatical group of fans, and the two kids were asked to write intros for the My Ox is Broken anthology.
Some Pit Stop greeters become popular just due to their appearance, costume, or behavior at the Pit Stop. Such as the town crier from Australia in Season 2, and a whopping four different greeters from Season 13, Phil's dad in New Zealand, the woman with the feathered hat in Bolivia, the woman with fire on her head in India, and the gardener, also in India, who instead of standing next to Phil, continued to water the lawn until a team appeared, then ran over to the mat to greet them.
Lenny & Karyn, Season 1, beat out several stronger teams despite finishing in the bottom 3 in every leg except the first one. They barely avoided elimination on several occasions due to a team getting lost in the desert, another team not having the proper currency to pay their taxi, and a non-elimination leg.
Steve & Dave, the air traffic controllers from Season 4. After an injury in the first leg they refused to run, yet lasted four more legs thanks to a Fast Forward and major blunders by other teams. On their penultimate leg, the show even played the "sad elimination" music for their finish, only to subsequently cut to a forgotten team that had taken a wrong turn and fallen hopelessly behind.
Kami & Karli, Season 5, finished either last or second-to-last on 6 of the first 9 legs, making many blunders along the way (such as being the only team who didn't figure out how to use puzzle pieces and a map to find out the next destination on their own), before finally getting eliminated on leg 10.
Adam & Rebecca, Season 6, finished in the top half of the field only once on their way to making the Final 3, and that one leg they won was by Fast Forward. They made several mistakes along the way, barely avoiding elimination at least 4 times. In the Sri Lanka leg, they had fallen over an hour and a half behind behind every other team, only to be saved by arguably the most badly placed equalizer in the series (at the END of the leg).
Also from that season were Don & Mary Jean, who stumbled through 5 legs despite accidentally stealing another team's car in leg 2, wasting over 5 hours at the counting detour in leg 3, and choosing the slower, luck-based detour in leg 4 (and finishing almost 4 hours behind the first team). They were finally eliminated in 8th after getting lost at the beginning of the leg, after which not even Lori & Bolo accidentally walking several miles could save them.
Meredith & Gretchen, Season 7, who were the first team to succeed while deliberately using the "Just beat one team" strategy, even though Gretchen got injured and they had their bags taken away on an early leg.
Ray & Yolanda, Season 9, appeared to be slow at everything, surviving mostly because Season 9 teams were extremely mistake prone. They finished second-to-last in 4 of the last 5 elimination legs, and at one point survived because another team Yielded the team right in front of them.
Despite winning five legs, BJ & Tyler went through a Houdini stage in the middle of Season 9. Over the course of four legs, they came in last on two different non-elimination legs, and survived a third time when another team got lost looking for the Pit Stop.
Probably the only reason Lyn & Karlyn, Season 10, don't fully qualify as Houdinis is that they teamed up with two hapless teams (David & Mary and Erwin & Godwin), and then capitalized off the mistakes of these other teams.
Karlyn: We just won't die. Like roaches.
Eric & Danielle from Season 11, were the first Elimination Houdinis to win the race. In the first 11 legs, they had one top 2 finis), and their five bottom 2 finishes without getting eliminated is tied for third most ever, trailing only Kami & Karli's six in Season 5 and Josh & Brent's seven in Season 21. They also had two legs where they finished more than twelve hours behind the lead team, and were only able to catch up to the leaders due to the most blatantly contrived equalizer in race history. And ultimately, they only won because of a task involving guessing their partner's responses to questions about the other teams. Aside from being hugely luck-based considering it was the final task, the favorites to win, Dustin & Kandice, claimed in a post-race interview that Dustin's initial response wouldn't go through.
Dan & Andrew from Season 13, who only made it to the Final 3 because they were repeatedly saved by non-elimination legs or another team making an even worse blunder than they did. They are probably the Race's worst offenders/best examples of this trope, and are widely credited as being the worst team to ever make the Final 3. Phil even told them at one point that he thought they were going to be the next team eliminated. They even acknowledged how bad they were, saying that there should be a YouTube compilation video of all their mistakes - and one *was* created. They at least are able to laugh at themselves.
Mark & Michael, Season 14, who had a knack for getting tragically lost on every single leg. They are the only team to ever get multiple penalties on two different legs, and two different penalties on the same task (for sabotaging the other teams, and getting outside help when the clue told them that was not allowed), yet they managed to barely escape elimination on at least three separate occasions. This includes another team getting U-Turned, a team not having enough time to make up their Speed Bump, and a non-elimination leg.
Brian & Ericka, Season 15, survived twice, despite huge deficits, because another team quit a task. Maria & Tiffany quit a Detour where they were physically unable to do either task, while Big Easy quit a Roadblock where he was unable to unscramble the name "Franz".
Brent & Caite, Season 16, they went through dehydration, got lost several times, and constantly bickered, yet made it to the Final 3 over several stronger teams.
Cops Louie & Michael from the same season also count, as other than a stretch of three legs without an equalizer, they spent all their time at or near the back of the pack, barely avoiding elimination at least four times.
Nick & Vicki, Season 17. They spent most of their time in the back of the pack, and rarely completed non-physical tasks on the first try, yet despite all this, and Nick's constant verbal abuse towards Vicki, they finished 4th due to other teams making mistakes, and twice were saved by non-elimination legs. On the third-to-last leg, Nick even gave up and napped during the Detour; and eventually dragged Vicki into accepting a 6-hour penalty to skip it, only to be saved by a non-elimination leg. Thankfully, it only turned out to delay the inevitable - their late start time on the following leg caused them to miss the flight the other racers took out of Hong Kong, and they never came close to catching up after that.
Season 17 also had mistake prone Chad & Stephanie, who at one point were saved despite finishing in last with a 30-minute penalty because another team had a longer penalty.
Season 18 had Kent & Vyxsin barely escape elimination several times, including after running probably the worst leg of any team ever. Leg 4 started with them driving in the wrong direction for several hours, and catching their mistake so late that they missed the production-arranged flight out of Japan; the usual equalizer that everyone else reached with hours to spare. They continued to panic and melt down throughout the leg, topping it off by leaving their Race pack behind on a gondola, losing their passports for the second time in the same leg. They got saved by the fact that it was a double leg, catching up at the next equalizer. Then, on the next leg, Kent fell off a ladder during a Roadblock, cracking his rib and spraining an ankle, yet the lasted five more legs after that.
Marcus & Amani, Season 19, were constantly making mistakes and putting themselves in the back of the pack and being forced to play catchup, surviving mostly due to other teams making even worse mistakes at the last minute. Marcus, despite being a former NFL tight end, got shown up on physical tasks by a 60-year-old man. And in the penultimate leg, despite not discovering the location of the Pit Stop for themselves, their cab driver got it from another team's cab driver, putting them in the Final 3.
Vanessa & Ralph, Season 20, several times got themselves dreadfully behind the lead pack, yet managed to survive because someone did just a little bit worse than them. They survived once when Elliot & Andrew struggled with the Detour for as long as they did, again when Joey "Fitness" & Danny wasted time on a Fast Forward they didn't get, then later almost blew a two-hour lead on Nary & Jamie on a leg without an equalizer.
Also from Season 20 are Mark & Bopper. While they are competent enough, they were consistently plagued by injuries, illness, and bad navigation (mostly in leg 4, where they somehow ended up about 6-9 hours behind the leaders). They were saved twice by non-elimination legs; and even benefited from great luck on their final leg - just not enough to make up the massive time lost on the previous leg (nobody else had claimed the Fast Forward ahead of them, and it was shaving their heads when Mark was already bald).
Gary & Will, Season 21. They survived two legs in a row consisting of massive blunders (including U-Turning a team ahead of them) and being ready to give up because the teams they beat out were derailed by bad drivers, before finally getting eliminated in leg 4.
From the same season were eventual winners Josh & Brent, who set the franchise record for finishing in the bottom 2 for seven straight legs and surviving all seven legs (Their final leg victory was the first time since leg 4 where they finished at least 2 spaces from last). They spent most of their time at the back of the pack, were saved once by a non-elimination leg, survived a leg where they fell more than 5 hours behind the lead four teams and had to take a 4-hour penalty after Brent was unable to complete the swimming detour when James & Abba lost their passports and were unable to retrieve them, and again the next leg after that, in spite of their flight being over 2 hours behind the other teams' when Abbie & Ryan 1) had their earlier flight delayed and ended up arriving at Amsterdam the same time as them and 2) were U-Turned by Jaymes & James. If there was ever a team who suffered from unbelievably bad and unbelievably good luck at the same time, it's them.
Chuck & Wynona in Season 22. In three straight legs they were saved by a fake Pit Stop non-elimination, Jessica & John getting eliminated because they refused to use their Express Pass, and Dave & Connor quitting the race, which saved them despite finishing almost three hours behind the other teams. They were later eliminated due to a 30-minute penalty for not using their sleds on the cheese hill task, even though they were nearly saved by Meghan & Joey walking to the Pit Stop when a local gave them bad directions.
Max & Katie also qualify. After they got two other teams to quit a task with them in the first leg and take a four hour penalty, they were handily beaten by the other surviving team in the next leg, only staying in by having their penalty cut down by an Hours of Operation bunching point and two other teams' major screwups. In the next leg, they screwed up navigation so badly that they were only spared from last place by Chuck & Wynona screwing up worse. They were later saved by a non-elimination leg after being the last team to quit the longer end of a Detour, and in the leg after that, despite a Speed Bump, navigation issues, and having to pay a speeding ticket, they managed to survive again due to Pam & Winnie imploding on the Detour. However, they did end up winning three straight legs in Europe just before the finale.
Mona & Beth then took up the Elimination Houdini mantle in the last third of the Race as their ineptitude at navigation and mental tasks started to show, only making the Final Three since they had company on the former front that also weren't as good at physical tasks. In one leg, they managed to survive both a Speed Bump (one of the harder ones in the series) and a U-Turn, just beating out Joey & Meghan.
Fan Dumb: This can apply to certain fans of several fan favorite teams, but most specifically to Jet & Cord (16 & 18) fans. Said fans vilified Dan & Jordan for cutting in front of Jet & Cord at the airport in Season 16's final leg, even though it was Dan & Jordan taking the initiative to move up to first class, not the cutting, that gave the brothers their big advantage. Then, upon the Cowboys' elimination from Unfinished Business, their fans cried cheater again, this time against all the other teams for sharing answers on a Roadblock, something that's never been against the rules, and many threatened never to watch the show again just because the Cowboys were "cheated" out of winning again. Not only that, but the fallout of this incident may have caused Flight Time & Big Easy to fall from "fan favorites with a small group of detractors" to full on Base Breakers.
As My Ox Is Broken states repeatedly, fans have a tendency to make harsh extrapolations of the racers' personal lives based on only several hours of footage in which they are subject to intense stress and Manipulative Editing (and in fact, most racers turn out to be far nicer off the race as their fan interactions demonstrate). While a lot of racers do display immature and out-of-line behaviour, sometimes the fan hatred goes beyond Heel booing and even escalates into threats of physical harm. Not even the children from the Family Edition are safe from Fan Dumb.
There's also the fans who insist that non-elimination legs are moved around to save the producers' favorite teams, even though this would be a) illegal according to game show laws (and no one wants a repeat of the quiz show scandals) and b) either a logistical nightmare to switch things up at the last minute or a waste of resources to set up multiple potential non-elim points (involving things like Speed Bump tasks) ahead of time when only one is going to be used (the same situation that basically killed Fast Forwards).
Then there are the fans who don't seem to realize that the Race is completed before the show ever airs, and will complain that CBS should rectify whatever wrong they thought happened in the previous episode. Such as when Rob & Amber fans complained that they had been cheated on All-Stars (spurred along by Rob saying that he had not found his letter in their final Roadblock in his own bag, but on the floor having been discarded from another team's bag), and complained each week that CBS had still not put them back on the show.
Fetish Fuel: In Season 11, one Detour had the teams use a large bamboo pole to flatten dough while making a bundle of noodles. Kandice decided the best way to do the task was to straddle the pole and bounce up and down on it.
Fridge Logic: This gem of a comment came from Mirna on All-Stars:
"The Yield wasn't really necessary. Why would you ever Yield a team in the beginning of a leg knowing that they're not that far behind and they can catch-up and pass you at any moment? It didn't make logical sense to me."
"Funny Aneurysm" Moment: David & Connor's promotional photo for Season 22 had them wearing Livestrong jackets. The cast reveal occurred soon after Lance Armstrong had his Tour de France titles taken away for doping (and mere days after his confession in an interview with Oprah). Not only that, but Connor is a professional cyclist who racers for the Livestrong team.
Game Breaker: For a large portion of the series (mainly Seasons 3-9) allowing the teams to beg for money destroyed the whole "money management" part of the game, as begging easily garnered more money than whatever the teams were given at the beginning of the leg.
Also from the All-Stars era, there was the practice of teams getting locals to guide them throughout the legs (known as "Ferns" to fans). It wasn't that bad at first, but Rub & Amber abused it horribly on Season 7 using their Survivor popularity) then both they and Charla & Mirna abused it on All-Stars, forcing the producers to make rules against it from Season 12 on. Rob & Amber recruited four such locals on Season 7, each time gaining huge amounts of time on all the other teams who ran the legs for themselves.
The U-Turn, which replaced the Yield, from Seasons 12-16. It forced the team hit by it to go back and complete the other side of a Detour, and all but ensured they would finish last, especially if the they were already in last place to begin with. It didn't help that during these seasons the U-Turn was always placed on an elimination leg. The Double U-Turn was introduced in Season 17 to alleviate this, and it immediately became much less of a Game Breaker.
Giving away answers to other teams has happened every now and then on the race, but it was so widespread in Unfinished Business that it reached this level. Since the teams have raced before and had figured out that the only goal until the final leg is to avoid last place, alliances formed in which teams would give away answers to guarantee they would not be eliminated. Individual task performance was de-emphasized, and as a result, Flight Time & Big Easy, who rarely solved a puzzle by themselves, managed to get into the Final Three with this strategy.
Genius Bonus: One recurring element of the race is putting racers in silly costumes based on the foreign country they're visiting. In Season 19, one such set of costumes was the detectives from Tintin - characters who regularly attempt to blend in foreign countries using costumes that turn out ridiculous and conspicuous.
Intentionally invoked by Eric & Jeremy and BJ & Tyler from Season 9. The half naked pictures of them "frolicking" together that leaked onto the internet attest to that.
Tyler & James (Season 10), who did not so much sit next to each other as on top of each other during post-leg interviews, and at the beginning of leg 8, Tyler gave a confessional about how James was too passive, and he needed to take a more "dominant" role over him.
Nat & Kat, Season 17.
Internet Backdraft: Jet & Cord fans still hadn't dropped the whole "Dan & Jordan cutting in line" complaining a year later when the Cowboys returned for Unfinished Business.
Also, Andy & Tommy's elimination in Season 19 due to the other teams' cab drivers talking to each other.
Natalie & Nadiya "stealing" James & Abba's money in Season 21 is also quickly verging into this territory.
Jerkass Woobie: Wil (Season 2) spent most of the Race arguing with his separated wife Tara and ticking off everyone else who came into contact with him. However, Tara harangued and pushed him around to a degree surpassing his, flirted with another Racer in front of him (it's understandable that she would want to hang out with people other than Wil, but it's worth keeping in mind that she was still technically married to Wil and seemed to think that any complaints from him about it were not worth listening to, not even the gameplay-related ones that did turn out to be justified, as her insisting on dragging Chris & Alex into the Final 3 cost them the race), and had maybe one or two moments of showing something other than irritation or disgust regarding him even during the occasional moments where he seemed to be genuinely trying to reconcile with or impress her. All of which led many fans to comment that as much as they hated Wil, they also felt sorry for him due to the way Tara treated him.
Tara has stated in interviews that, during the Race, Wil treated her better than when they were a couple, while she'd been treating him worse. Given all the onscreen evidence of friction between the two of them, that's a sorry statement indeed.
While it's no secret that Rachel Reily could be the Trope Namer for Attention Whore, sometimes her outbursts were actually a little more justified - such as Art & JJ's bullying of her and Brendon, or when Brendon is rude to her. (Which he actually does a lot.)
Ryan may have been a pompous blowhard, but he and Abbie went through a horrible series of events in their last three legs. They missed two connecting flights in the same city, putting them hours behind the other teams both times, Abbie struggled with the Trees of Love roadblock, Ryan struggled with the Russian time zone Roadblock, Ryan was the only player to struggle with ditch vaulting, and they got U-Turned out of the race thanks to the other teams' manipulation of the Double U-Turn.
Bill & Joe (1) broke every unwritten rule set up by the other teams on the first season and did everything they could to win, even going so far as to try to prevent three teams from making their flight by blocking security. At the same time, they established the basis for what would become the Race's Metagame, and were by far the most memorable team from Season 1. Their Love to Hate status led to people actually being disappointed they weren't more cutthroat in All-Stars.
Wil (2) spent the majority of the Race arguing with his separated wife Tara and irritating everyone else he came into contact with. He was also the single biggest driving force behind that season, even over fan favorites Danny & Oswald, and actually became something of a Jerkass Woobie when it became clear that Tara was no better than him (and even *worse* in some aspects).
Flo (3) was the worst partner imaginable, both slowing down Zach because she was a bad racer, and actively finding ways to screw him over, but she was inherently quotable, and still holds the record for most episode quotes in a season. She became the standard by which useless partners and race breakdowns were judged.
Colin (5) was a Jerk Ass with a short temper that irritated the other teams and almost landed him in jail, but he also redefined how teams ran the Race, and provided the series with it's single most memorable line.
Rob (7) had an ego you dearly wanted to see punctured, and yet had to also grudgingly admire him for walking the walk and being just as good a Racer as he made himself out to be. His Evil Gloating and Nothing Can Stop Us Now boasts also made the two crucial times he got asskicked by karma extremely satisfying to watch.
Linda Weaver (8) initially garnered a lot of sympathy from viewers for her back story of having lost her husband in a race car accident, but that sympathy evaporated when she (and the rest of her family) became a Holier Than Thou hypocrite who harped on other teams' supposed deficiencies and sinfulness, and alienated them to the point where they declared an Enemy Mine against her family. All of this made her as entertaining to watch as similar Holier Than Thou wives showcased on Wife Swap.
Mirna (11) was already kind of annoying in Season 5, but her prissiness and self-righteousness came into full bloom during the All-Star season. At the same time, she decided to start a feud with the increasingly popular Dustin & Kandice, hypocritically harping on all their supposed deficiencies. However, she also became almost as quotable as Flo in the process.
Jennifer (12) was one of the poorest sports in the history of the race, constantly sabotaging her game by yelling and arguing with her partner Nathan and treating other teams getting ahead or catching up as a personal offense, yet that made it ever so satisfying to see her foiled time and time again at her first place ambitions and the way she clashed with the other teams, particularly since this season's teams were friendly with each other for the most part. Also, she had the most awkwardly hilarious way of running, just watching her try to get anywhere was a treat within itself.
Jaime (14) constantly yelled at her teammate Cara and any cab drivers that didn't speak English, but there was something about her freak-outs that separated her from the "Ugh, here's another Ugly American tirade coming" likes of Kendra and placed her into "Ooh, let's see just how badly she reacts to this!" territory instead. It helped that in the end, when she was unable to complete the final roadblock without help, she took full responsibility for it and showed that she meant no malice towards Cara.
Brandy (16) spent almost her whole time on the race arguing, complaining, screeching, harping on her teammate (Carol) and generally looking like she might have enjoyed maybe ten minutes of the entire race as a whole. She and Carol also got more airtime and more press than anyone else from Season 16 outside of Jet & Cord, and viewership dropped by a million after they were eliminated.
Art & JJ (20) were a throwback to the arrogant, dominant villains who were so prevalent in the show prior to All-Stars, like Colin (5) and Rob (7 & 11), and in between their bullying of other teams and their failed attempt to turn everyone against Nary & Jamie, they were just as entertaining to watch as well.
Ryan (21) started off with an ego and a competitive fire on the same level as Colin (5), and went on to start a feud with Natalie & Nadiya. Aside from his eventual Karmic beat down being entertaining as all hell, he and Abbie had some of the best lines of the season.
Magnificent Bastard: Rob on Season 7. Over the course of the race, he chewed out another team for calling him a liar right after he lied directly to their faces, stole that same team's taxi in the next leg, only to have them apologize to him for calling him a liar, paid off a bus driver to delay other teams by not opening the bus's second set of doors without using his own money, got teams to quit a Roadblock (involving eating four pounds of meat) and take a penalty after he himself quit it so that he would not be eliminated, managed to weasel his way onto a flight that was already closed, passed right by another team who had flipped their Jeep on the side of the road without even slowing down to see if they were okay, used his Survivor fame to get numerous locals to help him and hinder the other teams, and had everyone else chasing their own tails for the entire season.
Most Annoying Sound: There's always at least one team who starts yelling at each other when they get stressed out. Of course, if they last until the final few legs, when the Race is at its most stressful...
"Charla!" (Though really, any time Mirna opened her mouth could count.)
Expect at least one overexcited person a season to constantly and repeatedly tell their partner to "Come on!" to the point it annoys even them.
There tends to be at least one young couple in each race who like to call each other "Babe" or "Baby" to an annoying amount. Some of them really start ramping it up as the race gets further along, in basically a passive-aggressive way when they get annoyed at each other (My Ox Is Broken really brings this home).
Rachel Reilly's near weekly break-downs or Brendon's scream became this. Granted, they weren't nearly as bad as they were on Big Brother...but they were so commonplace, you quickly begun to think she was an Expy of Flo. How bad was their Wangst? If you cut out every example of Wangst or only watched the episodes where they didn't wangst...you would have only one episode.
Most Wonderful Sound: The triumphant fanfare that plays in the Previously On segments and during moments of success, nicknamed the Horns of Perseverance by fans.
Nausea Fuel: One Season 6 Roadblock had teams eating a spicy Hungarian soup. Freddy not only threw up, but some of it got in his bowl, forcing him to eat it again unless he wanted a four hour penalty.
Also from Season 6, eventual winner Kendra talking about the way people in Africa keep "breeding and breeding," which moved her and Freddy from a bland, inoffensive team to one of the most hated in record time. She was quickly stuck with the nickname "KKKendra."
In an interview, Claire (Season 17) said that no matter what she does for the rest of her life, she expects to always be remembered as the woman who got hit in the face with a watermelon.
Portmanteau Couple Name and Idiosyncratic Ship Naming: Applied to some of the teams either by the fans, or by other racers and the fans adopt them. Examples of portmanteau names are Momily (Nancy & Emily, the mother/daughter team from Season 1), Heave (Heather & Eve from Season 3), MoJo (Monica & Joseph from Season 9), and Dandrew (Dan & Andrew from Season 13). Idiosyncratic nicknames include Team Guido (Bill & Joe from Season 1, self-named after their pet dog), Team Cha-Cha-Cha (Oswald & Danny from Season 2), the Double-Ds or the Pinks (Dani & Danielle from Season 9; the latter name for their wardrobe, and the former given by another team as a play on their names (but with a Double Entendreinvolved)), and Team Glee (Jonathan & Connor from Season 17, as collegiate a capella singers).
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: The fanbase themselves did this with Season 3 winner Zach. Initially he was dumped in with Flo as the worst team to ever win the Race, but as time went on and more races were run, fans started to realize that he was a pretty good racer who just happened to be saddled with the worst handicap possible. Though Flo is still pretty much hated (albeit with a significant Love to Hate contingent of fans), Zach now gets quite a bit of respect from the fans.
Dustin & Kandice, who went from being the most hated team at the midpoint of Season 10 to being the fan favorite on All-Stars when the editors started showing their "evil acts" were actually them caring more about running the race than socializing with the other teams.
Ronald became Season 12's most hated team member after Episode 2 showed him acting like a complete Jerkass toward his daughter Christina, constantly heckling her in front of other teams, and even telling her that she needed to lose weight. He continued to berate Christina later on at times, but eventually pulled himself together enough to regain the respect of a significant portion of the fanbase.
The most famous one was in Season 2, when the Wil/Tara/Alex Love Triangle took over the season, despite the racers involved being less than popular, starting in leg 2 and lasting all the way through the finale. In comparison, the Flo/Drew/Zach Love Triangle in Season 3 started halfway through the season, and was then only a part of Zach's overall story.
Eric & Danielle being included on All-Stars, even though their relationship was nothing more than casual flirting on Season 9, and Danielle (& Dani) lasted all of four legs. This was an obvious attempt for Race producers to create their own Rob & Amber, as Eric & Danielle were offered the spot in replacement of Season 3's Flo and Drew (as Flo turned them down). Instead of a Super Couple, they got an unpopular bickering couple that won the race over several more popular teams, and broke up right after the race was over.
Leg 8 of Season 17 got sidetracked by Chad deciding to propose to Stephanie in the middle of the leg. The entire leg then became devoted to them and their relationship. However, all that airtime did keep them from getting A Death in the Limelight episode on the next leg.
The Scrappy: Most teams — even unlikable, annoying, or incompetent ones — still contribute something. However, every once in a while some team comes along that just completely annoys the hell out of everyone with no redeeming qualities.
Gary & Dave, Season 2. They were cast as a supposedly funny friends team, in the same vein as Kevin & Drew (1 & 11). However, their humor came off as ugly and irritating, had a tendency to start arguments with other teams (both real and fake... and somehow the fake ones were more annoying), and Gary would never shut up, much to the chagrin of every other racer.
Kelly & Jon, Season 4, especially when they started mocking Millie & Chuck for no apparent reason.
Marshall & Lance, Season 5. They did nothing but complain during the entire race. Like Gary & Dave, their humor (which included a drive-by "BITCH!" at Mirna) came off as mean-spirited instead of funny. Marshall even admitted in My Ox is Broken that they got a good edit.
Jonathan, Season 6. Maybe the most hated racer ever. The man verbally abused his wife for most of the race, and shoved her at one point. Not even Phil wanted to see him back on All-Stars.
Then he and Victoria went on to compete in an episode of Fear Factor alongside contestants of other reality shows. Jonathan was so insufferable and horrid that it took the Fear Factor production to prevent host Joe Rogan from beating the living daylights out of Jonathan.
Also in Season 6 was Kendra. Her boyfriend Freddy was not too bad (relatively speaking), but she complained about every single place they went and whined about Sri Lanka smelling. Even though she did not whine as much, in many ways she was worse than Flo, as she seemed to despise any place that did not live up to her standards. Made even worse by the fact that she seemed completely oblivious to how ugly a person she came across as.
Rob & Kim, Season 10. In Madagascar, Rob started talking about how all the locals' brains were less developed bcause they got less protein. Also, their passive-aggressive usage of the word, "babe" (see Most Annoying Sound), and their inability to do anything without yelling at each other was bad enough, but then they had to go be the most hated team in what is generally considered the second most hated Final 3 in Race history.
Eric & Danielle, Season 11. Not only had they not raced together in Season 9, but they had been dating less than a year when they were foisted upon the fans as a Romantic Plot Tumor for All-Stars. They were even chosen from Season 9 over BJ & Tyler, who at that point were probably the most popular team to ever run the race. They became that season's fighting couple, somehow won over the far more popular Dustin & Kandice... and Danny & Oswald, and Charla & Mirna, and Uchenna & Joyce (pretty much every team except Rob & Amber). Then, to cap it all off, they promptly broke up after the season was over. Eric at least had some justification for being on All-Stars with the highest finishing average of any team at the time of his original season and fans who enjoyed his homoerotic relationship with Jeremy, but Danielle finished 8th and was regarded as a weak cannon fodder racer.
Dan & Sam, Season 15. They could not stop fighting, ever.
Brent & Caite, Season 16. "Shut Up!!" "You Shut Up!!!" "I hate those mean lesbians." Repeat ad nauseaum. It's quite telling that most of their storyline revolved around Carol & Brandy, and how much Caite hated them.
Laurence, Season 19. First he tore his son apart for struggling on the spirit house reassembling Roadblock when he was the one who refused to let Zac take notes in the first place. Then, in the next episode, he relentlessly mocked Sandy (a nurse practitioner) for not being able to sew.
Scrub: There are teams who complain about others not playing the game "right", though this was much more common on the early seasons.
Both Joe & Bill (1) and Blake & Paige (2) got a lot of flack for not "playing fair" and following the unwritten rules set down by the others, though most of the things they got complaints about are considered common practice now, and they were not so much "cheating" as they were "making every effort to win the Race".
Kevin & Drew were pretty scrubby on Season 1, but they became the Race's ultimate scrubs on Season 11 when, after being eliminated on leg 2, they forced the production crew to stop the race for six hours, forcing the other teams to stand out in the heat and waste half of their Pit Stop while the crew reviewed the tapes to make sure none of the other teams had gone even 1 kph over the speed limit. This was because Drew didn't realize that halfway through the driving trip the speed limit increased by 10 km/h, despite having both a road sign and the clue to tell him so. His staying well below the speed limit wreaked havoc on other teams' driving through that stretch, to the point where Mirna yelled at him that he drove like a girl.
Competing for that title is Jennifer of Nathan & Jennifer (12), who complained that Azaria & Hendekea, who won three of the four legs at that point, should let someone else have a turn at being first.
Seasonal Rot: The Family Edition. Having children on the Race, as well as having teams of 4 (as the show already requires a huge travel budget with teams of 2), restricted international travel, meaning the entirety of the race ended up taking place in North and Central America. The challenges had to be watered down for the families, and viewers watched as families turning seemingly dysfunctional while being challenged to such difficult tasks as pitching a tent in exotic Pennsylvania. Some people actually think it wasn't that bad; just better on paper than it was in practice.
Season 4 had a cast full of unlikable teams (Jon & Al being the exception, possibly Tian as well) who resorted to bickering and ugliness whenever anything didn't go their way. There was far too much fighting over what was "fair" and who had what place in line, with team playing cutthroat one second, then complaining about other teams doing the same the next. Then Jon & Al had to go and get eliminated in 4th, leaving the fans no one to root for in the finale.
Season 6 is viewed in this light by some fans, as almost all the likeable teams were eliminated early on and by the latter half of the race, Kris & Jon were the only likeable team left with the rest of the teams being whiny, annoying, and constantly bickering. Pretty much every single ongoing storyline involved racers bickering with each other, and there were a lot of bad feelings all around. And then Kris & Jon lose the million to the most hated team of the lot. Another point against the season was the overuse of equalizers, which sucked a lot of excitement from the legs knowing only the last portion mattered. The season also had the bad luck to be sandwiched between two seasons that are widely considered among the series' best.
Season 15 had a whiny, mediocre cast full of pseudo-celebrities running on a subpar course (of course, the H1N1 virus scare was taking place at the time, which meant that several of the planned countries had to be switched and new legs had to be put together on the fly). It did not help either that three teams essentially quit the race when they came up against something "too difficult" (which included, of all things, going down a waterslide and unscrambling the name "Franz", though the other instance was being physically unable to complete one of two strength-based detour tasks and wasn't for lack of trying). The season started off fine, but took two noticeable dips, first when fan favorites Zev & Justin lost a passport, then again when Maria & Tiffany quit the race, essentially removing the only two teams who were keeping the season afloat.
Seinfeld Is Unfunny: Reichen & Chip winning Season 4 might not seem like a big deal now, but in 2003 a pair of Manly Gay 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.
"Stop Having Fun" Guys: It doesn't happen in the Race as much as in some other shows, though there are a few. Specifically, Colin from Season 5 and Rob from Season 7 are the best examples, as well as the Top 4 teams in Season 14.
For example, Colin & Christie constantly complained in the final two episodes of Season 5 that Chip & Kim had "played unfairly" by Yielding them, and insisted that karma would get them in the end, when: 1) the Yield was a perfectly fair (if new) part of the game rules, and 2) every team left at that point agreed to Yield Colin & Christie if they got the chance, as the couple had been so dominant up to that point, that it was the only way any of them thought they might win the race.
One of the few complaints about Season 18 was that the final four teams were all far too nice and willing to help each other, and there was not as much of a sense of urgency and competition as in some other seasons. It got to the point where people were calling for rules to be made against teams helping each other complete tasks. That's right, the fans were the "Stop Having Fun" Guys.
Art & JJ (20) decried other teams for "not deserving to be on the Race with them," pointed out that they were fine finishing second to a Fast Forward because it meant they had really won the leg, called out other teams for copying them simply because they went to the same travel agency, and then criticized Rachel & Dave for choosing to break a deal and not U-Turn Brendon & Rachel on a leg that they essentially saw as a Foregone Conclusion.
It's been pointed out by Jordan on Big Brother that people are generally a lot more friendly on The Amazing Race than other social game shows. One of the most important things on The Amazing Race isn't so much getting people to like you as it is being able to work with your partners.
That One Task: Some of the challenges can be flat out sadistic. Examples include:
The Hay Bale Roadblock (Season 6). Showing an example of a Random Number God, there were 270 hay bales, and only 20 of them had clues. If you do the math, you'll find that you have around a seven percent chance of finding a clue in that one. Not to mention unrolling the bales was a task in itself, as they stood almost as tall as the racers. And that wasn't the worst challenge of the season in terms of luck. The penultimate leg's Roadblock required racers to unlock one of 3000 locks.
Any eating task, though special note goes to Seasons 5-7, which included two pounds of caviar, an ostrich egg, a bowl of spicy Hungarian soup, and four pounds of meat.
Season 12's Final Roadblock required the racers to figure out a specific combination of 10 items on the race out of 15 fulfilling several specific conditions. It establishes itself as this immediately when Phil ends the complicated explanation with "If you think it sounds easy, think again." The racers were all prepared for a final memory challenge, but every one of them got stuck for at least an hour trying to figure it out and attempting to remember such things as a human being considered an animal and a stick being used as transportation.
In Season 17, it was pretty much nails on both sides and picking which one would hurt the least - Either take parakeets to a boat which you had to correctly identify by locating a series of numbers on the hull (made even worse with how the teams had to do this at night), or ride on a tram and look for three signs that were well hidden if you didn't know what you were looking for; and if you didn't get them then you had to ride the tram again and again until you got them. To make matters worse, this came after a roadblock combining two of the most hated kinds of tasks into a needle-in-a-haystack eating challenge.
The leg 7 Detour in in Season 21. One side involved searching through a Russian card catalog for four specific books from a list, while the other side the teams had to learn a synchronized swimming routine.
The sand castle Roadblock in Season 22's first leg, in which teams had to search through over 400 sandcastles for a cluse, and every sand castle they tore down they had to rebuild, all in 100 degree weather. Three teams ended up quitting the task.
Charla & Mirna (5 & 11), despite constantly trumpeting about how no one gave Charla any respect because of her size, constantly played up her dwarfism in order to get favorable treatment at airports and from locals.
Don & Mary Jean (6) had no money at the start of the fifth leg, which began with the racers paying tribute at the Gate of No Return in Senegal, Africa where slaves were once shipped away. They couldn't bring themselves to beg for money from the locals afterward for obvious reasons, and thus got money from the other contestants.
Nearly every season has had at least one gay male racer (ranging from Camp Gay to Straight Gay), but the show didn't feature an out lesbian until Season 10, and both lesbian couples they've cast have been over the age of 40. This is probably done in an attempt to avoid Girl on Girl Is Hot, which has its own set of Unfortunate Implications.
Caite's obsession with being the last woman remaining on Season 16, and her constant trumpeting of that fact. It only got worse when Phil brought it up in the finale.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: Dustin & Kandice were originally cut as the "villains" of Season 10, but a combination of the other teams being either preachy and self-righteous or outright stupid, and the fans being happy to finally see a competent female team who weren't just competing, but were the favorites to win, caused them to jump in popularity, especially after they beat out the Fast Forward in leg 8. Their elimination, which was supposed to lead to much rejoicing from the fanbase, instead led to what would be the show's most hated Final 3 until ten seasons later.
Joe & Bill can come off as this to fans who only watched the early seasons after some of the later ones, as the "villainous acts" other teams hated them for are now common use strategies. Also, because post-race interviews indicate they didn't want to be portrayed as villains because of the impression it would leave on gay people. They manage to be one of the few teams who actually sound genuine about claiming to be screwed by the editing.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The Weaver Family (8) started out this way, until the whole sympathy angle was dumped, and they were turned into outright Love to Hate villains.
Unpopular Popular Team: Dustin & Kandice were the most popular team on both Seasons 10 and 11 despite being hated by most of the other teams to the point where, in both seasons, others were plotting their elimination. It did not help that the only two friends they made (Peter & Sarah, Teri & Ian) both finished 7th.
Values Dissonance: The early seasons have this from time to time, which is shocking considering the first season was filmed in 2001, but some offhanded remarks come off as sexist or homophobic, and there are several uses of the phrase "This is/We're retarded." All things the editors wouldn't include now, but didn't think twice about then.
Villain Decay: Happened to Joe & Bill on All-Stars, when they were overshadowed by Rob & Amber. Then again, everything "villainous" they did on Season 1 that the other teams complained about is now considered standard practice (except for trying to block the other teams from getting on their plane, which they would probably get penalized for now). Things like being secretive, piggybacking on flight booking, extracting information (or just outright spying), and tailing other teams is considered such an integral part of the game, that modern teams that don't do them are considered underprepared by the fans.
On Unfinished Business, Jaime was very subdued compared to her appearance on Season 14, but that, combined with Cara being distracted by her upcoming bar exam, meant that the cheerleaders were not the same threat they had been on Season 14, when they had been running even with Margie & Luke and Tammy & Victor, nor were they still a Love to Hate team.
Wangst: There was nothing Flo (3) couldn't manage to complain about and blow out of proportion. She even almost quit the Race on the penultimate leg, when it was already down to the final three teams.
Rachel (Season 20). She somehow manages to cry in every single episode.
What an Idiot: Happens at least once every episode, especially when Killer Fatigue sets in for the teams. Just see Season 1, Episode 9 (or go to the Trope page) for the two most shining examples of this.
One of the most important rules in the Metagame is to never make long-term alliances because they always turn out bad for the "stronger" team — always. Anyone who watched Season 2 would know this (Tara & Wil, at Tara's insistence and despite Wil's objections, dragged Chris & Alex into the Final 3, only to get passed up by the younger, faster males on the way to the Finish Line). Not only do the Cho Bros (Season 10) make long-term alliances with two "weaker" teams, they sat around after finishing tasks, waiting for their alliance members to finish as well. Their own alliance members even called them on this.
What Does She See in Him?: Brendon regularly bullies Rachel, usually pushes her way too hard for her own good, cheated on her over Skype, loses his temper at the drop of a hat...and yet Rachel says that they are made for each other. Likewise, Rachel is arrogant, an Attention Whore, and cries so much she made Flo look normal by comparison, and threatens to Rage Quit because they're not instantly winning. How the heck these two even got through the race without throwing the other off a cliff or leaving them behind in Africa is anyone's guess.
Flo herself has some fans who see her as this, claiming that her periodic nervous breakdowns throughout the show are equal parts hilarious and endearing.
Claire (Season 17) hit herself in the face with a watermelon, was stranded dangling from a bridge when she had trouble using an ascender, spent hours eating through a Chinese buffet looking for a piece of fake food, and through it all was partnered with Brook, who moved at a pace far beyond that of a normal human, and kept up a constant chant of, "Come on, Claire!" whenever Claire started lagging.
Linda (Season 14), especially when she got lost during the Roadblock on leg 2 and wandered way off course, you just wanted to give her a hug when she started crying.
Vicki (Season 17), though mainly during their penultimate leg, where Nick was at his nastiest towards her and decided to take a nap at the Detour while Vicki (who had pretty much done all the hard work during that leg) continued to try until Nick convinced her to quit too.
Eric & Lisa from Season 15. They're told that they don't even get to play as they get eliminated at the starting point. Even if you're the first team eliminated, you would at least gotten to go to one other country that you probably wouldn't have under normal circumstances.
James & Abba (Season 21). Over the course of four legs, Abba got his knee injured, James's father was revealed to have stage 4 cancer, they dropped their money (forcing them to beg in the streets of Bangladesh), and then their cab driver drove off with their bags and passports. They're like the Job of Amazing Racers.
Foreign Versions
Base Breaker: Marc & Rovilson (Asia Season 2) are possibly the biggest examples of this in any foreign version. They were similar to BJ & Tyler (US Season 9) in that they were either fun and lovable or annoying and needed to stop mugging for the camera. On top of that, with a total of eight first place finishes including seven consecutive wins, some people also began to dislike them for making the season so predictable. Their third place finish was either a depressing end to one of the best teams or a satisfying finale in which one of the most annoying teams got what they deserved.
Designated Villains: Played with and conversed: Jess & Lani became this near the end of Asia Season 4 not by Manipulative Editing (the team had remained relatively Out of Focus and obscure until they started leading the pack, not even a single hint that they were "villainous"), but due to fingers pointed by the remaining teams; they theorised that since that they were the only serious racers left, and the only other "villain" team Dimple & Suinana had been eliminated two legs earlier, the rest of the Final 4 needed someone to take out their aggression on.
Elimination Houdini: Terri & Henry, Asia Season 2. They were consistently second-to-last place on several legs. Also, they were spared by two consecutive non-elimination legs despite the huge time deficit between the other racers.
Tania & Ida, Asia Season 3. They were also spared by two consecutive non-elimination legs. The only difference is that they were able get through the final three.
Natasha and Hussein, Asia Season 4. They made several critical mistakes throughout the race such as going to the wrong boat on the first leg, they failed the roadblocks twice in Malaysia and Australia and were forced to take the 4 hour penalties. Despite of that, they were spared due to the other racer's misfortunes and found out that the race in Australia was a double-length leg.
Mo & Mos (Australia 1) came last on the first non-elimination leg, were saved from almost certain elimination thanks to Anne-Marie & Tracy quitting the same Roadblock they did, and survived the first leg in South Africa only thanks to karma coming back to bite Richard & Joey in the ass for being unbearable to every other team. They finally were eliminated on leg 5 even though fate seemed to give them every chance to survive, first when they got lucky with an Intersection (allowing them to catch up to Sam & Renae), then again when Chris & Anastasia lost their car keys (and even when, by a small miracle, they found the key, they were unable to open with without Sam & Renae's help).
After Mo & Mos were gone, Matt & Tom slipped into the roll. First, on leg 6, Matt burned through all his arrows on the Rodablock, and only Jeff's charity kept him from having to take a four-hour penalty. They then came in last at the midpoint of the Super Leg, then were the last to check in again at the next Pit Stop, only to be saved by Chris & Anastasia's penalty.
Lucy & Emilia, Australia 2. Despite being outmatched by pretty much every other team there, they managed to make it to 5th place due to being saved by the Salvage Pass in the first leg, and everyone else making huge mistakes afterwards. This includes teams taking 4 hour penalties, a team getting so lost that Grant eliminated them halfway through the leg, and a team missing hours of operation and being broke on top of that.
Fan Dumb: Following Rovilson & Marc's loss to Adrian & Collin in Asia Season 2, some fans cried that the producers rigged the finale so that a team with a deaf person could win in their home country, nevermind the fact that Adrian & Collin had the hardest time with taxis the leg and that Rovilson & Marc had a sizable lead on everyone going into the final memory task. There were also some people who were convinced that the producers were racist against Filipinos.
In Israel Season 2, fans were upset that Bar & Inna won. The final task had teams travel from one building to another on a tightrope, using only each other as support. Fans stated that Bar & Inna, who arrived to the task last, had a stiffer cable than the other two teams, thus making the cable easier to walk across, never mind the fact that Bar & Inna, being models, obviously weigh less than two middle aged brothers. It was also argued that it was rigged so a male team wouldn't win again, even though the fan favorite team was a married couple. If rigging was involved, you would think that they'd have the fan favorite team win.
Fetish Fuel: The Turkish Bath task in Australia Season 2, where teams had to scrub each other with a bar of soap until it dissolved and revealed the clue. This was especially true with Sarah, who decided the best way to use the soap faster would be to straddle her partner James. Keep in mind that they're both in their bathing suits during the entirety of this task.
Growing the Beard: Grant Bowler was kind of stiff and awkward in the first season of the Australian version, and seemed to be doing his best to copy Phil and Allan Wu. By the second season he had loosened up quite a bit, and had self-tailored the host Catch Phrases.
Love to Hate / Creator's Pet: Paul (Australia 2) seemingly relishes this role. Everything he says either makes the audience or the other teams despise him more. In leg 5 he knocked over Grace while running for a clue, supposedly by accident. However, he had clashed with Grace earlier in the leg, and stated to the camera that he would deliberately run over anyone who got in his way. The level of Manipulative Editing used on them puts the other teams' fear/dislike of them on equal levels with the likes of Rob & Amber (US 7 & 11) and Dustin & Kandice (US 10 & 11). It also helped that Steve wore a Cobra Command hat.
The Scrappy: Terri, Asia Season 2. Constantly nagging at her husband whatever blunder they have come across. She does that so much that her husband would often break down in tears.
Natalie Glebova, Asia Season 3. Yes, the same woman from Miss Universe 2005. She pretty much complained about every detail that was outside her comfort zone, claiming that being dirty was the lowest form of existence and that sleeping at the airport had got to be the worst thing that had ever happened to her. Did she expect that the Amazing Race would be like the Miss Universe Pageant?
Scrub: Joseph (Australia 2) twice cited his reason for wanting to U-Turn Paul was that "he wasn't running the race right". Noted, five other teams U-Turned Paul & Steve as well, but they did it because they saw them as a potential threat and thought Paul was a jerk, Joseph gave a diatribe on how he was running the race "wrong".
That One Task: Asia Season 1, Episode 3 had a Roadblock where one team member had to dig deep in sand to search for a mini surfboard. This proved so difficult that it took two hours for the first surfboard to be found, at least an hour and half more for two more surfboards to be found, well into the night for one especially unlucky racer to find her surfboard, and five out of nine teams gave up on the Roadblock entirely and went for the 4-hour penalty. (Although it wasn't helped by most team members somehow not thinking to use or ask for shovels until much later on.)
Unfortunate Implications: Grace (Australia 2) during a cooking challenge mentioned that if a wife couldn't cook, "then what else is she good for."
