Oooh, there's a title to grab your attention! With the elections finally over it seems I have time again for this lil' blog...So, Kelly and Christy. They used to be pretty likeable. We felt a little sorry for them when Starr tried to get them U-Turned a few episodes back. (Although they looked a little silly for accusing Starr of also throwing one of their undergarments out a window, or some such thing.)
But something happened in the last couple weeks. Kelly and Christy became . . . mean. Last week, if I recall correctly, they made fun of Dallas -- a member of probably the most positively depicted team in the race -- for looking like "Teen Wolf." Then this week, they giggled over whether they'd rather make out with Dan or Andrew. Kelly picked redheaded Andrew, saying he was "different" in part because of his "big 'fro." Uh . . . OK?
It seems the team is suddenly acting like they are back in high school. And here's some other things they said or did last night that for various reasons made them look bad:
• Although this made them seem lame more than mean, Kelly and Christy were the only team that had any real problems finishing the paint-powder-attack Roadblock. They misread the directions, resulting in Kelly running around more than she had to as citizens threw water and paint at her as part of a holiday of some sort. This left Kelly to sob, "I can't do it, I'll seriously die." Whine, whine. But we did have one "mean" note: The scene also resulted in Christy saying, "the fact that someone celebrates this annually is just dreadful if you ask me."
• Dissatisfied with their cab driver, the team had let him go when they reached the paint-related roadblock. This was a bad move, since the challenge left both covered from head to two in watery paint, so other cabs in the area were disinclined to give them a ride. So Kelly and Christy ran from cab to cab, saying things like "You have to take us. It's an emergency!" After they finally found someone (and nicely apologized for being so messy), they said of the other taxi drivers, "they wouldn't make eye contact" and "they acted like we didn't exist." The two then made sure that bystanders knew they exist: "Let's scare people!" Kelly bizarrely says, and begins screaming and moaning out the back seat window as Christy laughs and wonders if she is high from paint fumes. Later on, while searching in vain at the Detour for numbers tied to power lines, the team becomes annoyed when their driver points out landmarks. "American McDonald's," he says, gesturing. Understandably, Kelly and Christy would rather he go faster. Still, their annoyed look is more what we remember.
• It seems every time The Amazing Race visits a poverty-stricken area, at least one contestant is bound to utter something inappropriate. They're so used to the cameras on them they forget to guard against this stuff. This time, critiques of the location Kelly and Christy were racing in included saying, "[This is] not a nice area" and "oh man, the stink" as they gagged in the back of their cab and make grimacing looks. Later, one comments, "There's so many people, I don't know how anyone lives here. It's quite miserable." Contrast this with, say, Tina bonding some with the people she was serving water to. The divorcees even managed to imply their ethnocentrism included electrical wiring: "The powerlines are all over everywhere," one complained as they searched for small numbered tags hidden amid lines hanging above a crowded city street. "It's not like normal American straight powerlines."
If only they'd agreed to work with Dan and Andrew. Not only would this have pretty much guaranteed they'd finish the task at the same time and have a cab ride and footrace to the mat, it also prevented them from possibly getting help from Ken and Tina, who nicely explained to "Dandrew" how to perform the Detour once they had completed it. (Ken and Tina also had the smartest move of the week: actually getting out of their taxi and physically moving things out of the way and clearing traffic so it could get them to their next destination)
Now to be fair, Kelly and Christy aren't the only ones who looked bad. Tina got quite upset at the locals for spraying her with green paint. And Terence made all sorts of bizarre noises as he tried to evacuate his nasal cavity of pink paint. Nick and Starr told a small lie to Toni and Dallas, but then teamed up with them on the horrid number-spotting challenge, only to outrace the mother-son team to the finish line. Which isn't necessarily negative so much as an example of their competitiveness.
But over the course of the episode (and to some degree last week) Kelly and Christy seemed to be depicted more and more negatively. What's the reasons for this? Here are the possibilities:
A. Kelly and Christy indeed suddenly became snarky over the course of the race, perhaps due to stress; additionally, they were the only team to critique the socioeconomic status of the area they were visiting, and the editing neutrally reflects this.
or
B. Other teams said "bad" things about the poverty and crowding of New Dehli, but these comments were not included in the broadcast; additionally, Kelly and Christy had always made the occasional personal-attack-type comments common to the high school cheerleading squad, but the editing had ignored that till now.
Which happened? Was the editing "honest" or did the show's powers that be choose to highlight negative aspects of Kelly and Christy's experiences and personalities, as if to prepare viewers for their elimination (and perhaps even cheer it on)?
No way to tell. But that's reality TV for you...
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