History YMMV / TheRealWorld

** Genesis from ''The Read World: Boston'' revealed years later that the producers invoked this trope and pushed ''hard'' for her to hook up with her transsexual best friend. Genesis vehemently refused to do so, and expressed frustration that they edited scenes between them that implied they were more than friends.

* RetroactiveRecognition: [[Wrestling/TheMiz Michael Mizanin]] has since moved on to bigger and better things, but there's a chance ''Series/TheRealWorld'' will be a case of NeverLiveItDown.

* FranchiseOriginalSin: On a broader level, the show can be seen as this for MTV as a whole, in that, while it wasn't the first non-music-related program they ever aired (that would be ''Series/RemoteControl'' in 1987), it ''was'' their first RealityTV show, and one of the first shows in that genre ''period''. The thing was, that was a key part of its success; there was nothing else like it on television in 1992, it was genuinely boundary-pushing at the time in its frank discussion of real-world issues like racism, homosexuality, and politics, and it fit in perfectly with the kind of "cool rebel" image that MTV built its brand around in TheNineties. The problem came when MTV tried to copy its success, leading to the glut of reality shows that turned their NetworkDecay terminal in the 2000s, especially as ''The Real World'' itself succumbed to its below-mentioned SeasonalRot. ''Series/LagunaBeachTheRealOrangeCounty'' and ''Series/JerseyShore'' can be seen, in many ways, as the {{Flanderiz|ation}}ed versions of ''The Real World'', sharing its DocuSoap format but dropping the social commentary in favor of [[HotterAndSexier more sex, romance, and drinking]].

** Wisconsin natives would be surprised to see one of their U.S. representatives (Sean Duffy) in TRR: Boston in full party mode.

* StrawmanHasAPoint: For all of the bad things he said to Pedro, Puck did have a point when he pointed out that Pedro having AIDS was his own fault due to him not using protection when he had sex. Granted, it was still a needlessly judgmental thing to say, especially when you consider that, before the show began, Pedro worked as a lecturer on the importance of safe sex to young people after finding out that he had AIDS and was quite open with the foolishness of his actions when it came to having unprotected sex.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Montana from ''The Real World: Boston'' had a boyfriend at home named Vaj, but started dating a man in Boston named Matt. After having a heart-to-heart with Vaj where he promised he would forgive her for anything, Montana fessed up to cheating. Vaj then broke up with her via her pager. To the surprise of the housemates -- and viewers -- Montana called Vaj up not to apologize for cheating but to ''yell at him for breaking his promise''.

* CrowningMomentOfFunny:

* SeasonalRot: Depends on who you talk to, the rot took place around seasons three (San Francisco) or four (London) while some state that the show stayed relevant up through season six (Boston). Still others say it hung on up to Seattle or Hawaii, where the show seemed to dive from "Social Experiment" to "Trash TV."

*** Poor sleep-deprived Melissa [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7ELmErV-9E delivers]] one of the season's funniest {{Confession Cam}}s after getting woken up by Julie and Danny because two of the bedrooms were occupied by two of the roommates having sex with their respective hookups and the displaced others can't find a place to sleep.

* HilariousInHindsight: Several:
** Puck was cast mainly because the casting directors thought he would be (out of the seven cast members ultimately picked) the most likely to accept everyone for who they were. Instead, the casting directors cast an obnoxiously gross homophobic jerk who was the poster child for "Worst Reality TV Roommate".

** On her way out of the show during the Seattle season, Irene told Stephen (with whom she had an antagonistic relationship) "A marriage between you and I would never work out. You know that. You're a homosexual." Stephen angrily [[HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday denied this]] and [[WouldHitAGirl slapped Irene]]. Years later, Stephen not only admitted that he indeed was gay, but was arrested for prostitution....
* {{Hypocrite}}: Montana from Real World Boston had a boyfriend at home named Vaj, but started dating a man in Boston named Matt. After having a heart-to-heart with Vaj where he promised he would forgive her for anything, Montana fessed up to cheating. Vaj then broke up with her via her pager. To the surprise of the housemates--and viewers--Montana called Vaj up not to apologize for cheating but to ''yell at him for breaking his promise''.
* RetroactiveRecognition: [[TheMiz Michael Mizanin]] has since moved on to bigger and better things, but there's a chance ''TheRealWorld'' will be a case of NeverLiveItDown.

** Genesis from Read World Boston revealed years later that the producers invoked this trope and pushed ''hard'' for her to hook up with her transsexual best friend. Genesis vehemently refused to do so, and expressed frustration that they edited scenes between them that implied they were more than friends.

** Neil of Real World London has defended his season of the show (which was considered so boring by the producers, that the following season saw the introduction of the first of several gimmicks to make things more exciting) by pointing out that it was not so much boring as true to the original premise of the series (watching the lives of seven strangers in a house).

* RomanticPlotTumor: Got really bad during the Austin Season.

** On her way out of the show during the Seattle season, Irene told Stephen (who she had an antagonistic relationship with) "A marriage between you and I would never work out. You know that. You're a homosexual." Stephen angrily [[HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday denied this]] and [[WouldHitAGirl slapped Irene]]. Years later, Stephen not only admitted that he indeed was gay, but was arrested for prostitution....

* StrawmanHasAPoint: For all of the bad things he said to Pedro, Puck did have a point when he pointed out that Pedro having AIDS was his own fault due to him not using protection when he had sex. Granted, it was still a needlessly judgmental thing to say, especially when you consider that, before the show began, Pedro worked as a lecturer on the importance of safe sex to young people after finding out that he had AIDS and was quite open with the foolishness of his actions when it came to having unprotected sex.

* StrawmanHasAPoint: For all of the bad things he said to Pedro, Puck did have a point when he pointed out that Pedro having AIDS was his own fault due to him not using protection when he had sex. Granted, it was still an extremely douchey thing to say, especially when you consider that, before the show began, Pedro worked as a lecturer on the importance of safe sex to young people after finding out that he had AIDS and was quite open with the foolishness of his actions when it came to having unprotected sex.

* SeasonalRot: Depends on who you talk to, the rot took place around seasons three (San Francisco) or four (London) while some state that the show stayed relevant up through season six (Boston).

** In a similar vein, Neil in the London season was cast because (as a punk rocker), the casting people thought he would be Puck V2.0 and cause all sorts of ratings boosting drama. What they got instead was an intellectual DeadpanSnarker that was well adjusted and got along with everyone, even the people he couldn't stand.

** On her way out of the show during the Seattle season, Irene told Stephen (who she had an antagonistic relationship with) "A marriage between you and I would never work out. You know that. You're a homosexual." Stephen angrily [[HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday denied this]] and [[WouldNotHitAGirl slapping Irene]]. Years later, Stephen not only admitted that he indeed was gay, but be arrested for prostitution....
* RetroactiveRecognition: [[TheMiz Michael Mizanin]] has since moved on to bigger and better things, but there's a chance TheRealWorld will be a case of NeverLiveItDown.

* BetterThanItSounds: The London season takes a great deal of crap for being boring, but largely is seen as the last true "pure" Real World, from a documentary stand-point. From Miami onward, the show would start including gimmicks to "spice up" the show.
** Real World Chicago also becomes a lot more tolerable when you watch it knowing that Kyle Brandt is trolling his castmates.
*** The same applies with the Hollywood season, with Greg Halstead intentionally trolling his castmates.
* FridgeHorror: Irene getting hit in the face by roommate Stephen as she left the show. As Irene would later reveal, NO ONE came to her aid or even asked if she was ok after being attacked.
** Similarly, given that they have since become Tea Party Ultra-Conservative poster boy politicians, watching Rachel (San Fransisco) and Sean (Boston) is kind of hard given the douchebaggy things they've since said publicly as part of Sean's political career. Especially Rachel's interactions with Pedro, given how she has become very much anti-gay in her rhetoric when interviewed since becoming a Congressman's wife.

* CompleteMonster: Puck in season three, who, for a long time, had the reputation of worst reality roommate ever. True, some of the stuff played up was kind of sedate by modern standards (picking his nose and eating peanut butter from the jar, not changing his socks, repeatedly telling HIV-positive room-mate Pedro that it was his own fault for not using protection), but at the time, it was thought things couldn't get worse than Puck (though the episode where he was evicted definitely shows the other room-mates to be the smuggest, most self-righteous pills in the pharmacy.) Made more ironic, as the TPTB would later confess, when they honestly thought that Puck would be an easy-going guy who would fit in well with a variety of people of different backgrounds.
** Kyle Brandt counts too, given the revelation at the end of the Chicago season that Kyle had spent his entire time on the show essentially putting up a front in order to look like a super-cool guy, in order to enhance his options for a life in show business after the season ended. On the other hand, with that knowledge in mind, he may get a bump up to AffablyEvil.
** Subverted with Michael Mizanin, who simply plays a CompleteMonster for a living as a wrestler in the WWE under the nickname "The Miz".

* {{Hatedom}}: Generally attracts one in the cities where it is filmed. In Denver, the house was actually a converted bar in the middle of a major nightlife district, and was pretty frequently pelted with eggs.

* GuiltyPleasures

* StrawmanHasAPoint: For all of the bad things he said to Pedro, Puck did have a point when he pointed out that Pedro having AIDS was his own fault due to him not using protection when he had sex. Especially when you consider that, before the show began, Pedro worked as a lecturer on the importance of safe sex to young people after finding out that he had AIDS and was quite open with the foolishness of his actions when it came to having unprotected sex.
** Still an extremely douchey thing to say, especially since it's not like people who contracted HIV that way don't already have to live with what happened for the rest of their lives.

* StrawmanHasAPoint: For all of the bad things he said to Pedro, Puck did have a point when he pointed out that Pedro having AIDS was his own fault due to him not using protection when he had sex. Especially when you consider that, before the show began, Pedro worked as a lecturer on the importance of safe sex to young people after finding out that he had AIDS and was quite open with the foolishness of his actions when it came to having unprotected sex.

* SeasonalRot: Depends on who you talk to, the rot took place around seasons three (San Francisco) or four (London) while some state that the show stayed relevant up through season six (Boston).

* DethroningMomentOfSuck: The Hawaii season; the show cast a bunch of party animals (and one sane guy, who quit midseason due to him being fed up with his roommates) and their drinking and casual nudity caused the show to see massive ratings. As such, pretty much EVERY season afterwords became about nothing more than drunken hook-ups and partying.
** Not entirely true ... Brooklyn was comparatively low-key and seemed to have overall more intelligent and focused cast members, and believe it or not, none of them hooked up during the show, although they did argue quite a lot. (Ryan did later date Baya; however, that took place after the show and was referenced in an after-show.) The only "gimmick" that season was to promote an MTV film about an earlier ''Real World'' cast member who had HIV, but the cast was happy to be involved in that effort. Admittedly, though, Brooklyn was soon followed by the raucous Cancun crowd, among whom there were multiple hook-ups, as well as one guy getting booted for being irresponsible in that season's gimmick.
** Seattle also counts, given the on-screen scandal that was one of the cast members admitting to have had an affair with one of the casting people in order to get onto the show.