NC Penguin

Did anyone see yesterday's episode of the Amazing Race? There's four teams left now and they flew from Turkey and competed in London.

I've not seen any previous episodes of AR when they raced in the UK but the London episode was so corny.

For example, the teams visited the site formerly known as the "Millennium Dome". They had to race to Baker Street and I think you can guess the rest. Yes, the teams had to find 221 Baker St. and get a clue from "Sherlock Holmes". The cheesiest moment was the first clue to be obtained in London. The teams had to find the zebra crossing on Abbey Road made famous by the Beatles

At least I got to see some of my old stomping ground. e.g. St. John's Wood station, Baker St. station and the surrounding area.

The most stereotypical image that featured in AR was that at the pitstop, teams were greeted by a British man wearing a bowler hat (he was fully clothed too). In all my years of living and working in London, I may have seen a bowler hatted man maybe once!

I was hoping that the teams would get to meet Harry Enfield, voice of the gnome in the Travelocity adverts...




NC Penguin

Manc

I saw that.
turned to the wifey and said

"The Queen needs to revoke that ponce's citizenship right now."

mandpete

It must have been filmed in Autumn judging by all the leaves on the floor but the weather was typical - cold, damp and grey. I think it was the most boring leg of AR I have seen so far, most of it was filmed on the subway known in England as the underground. Also noticed how happy and friendly the people on the underground were Also the London Eye and Dome seemed absolutely deserted.

NC Penguin

Must have been between Oct-Nov because it was cold and it got dark early.

I do think driving the double decker through the obstacle course was funny. That was seriously edited because it must have taken competitors hours to accomplish the task. Some started in daylight but finished in the dark.

It would have been better to say the subway known as the "Tube", don't you think?



NC Penguin

mandpete

Or "Toob" maybe.

tony_2003

I can only pray they don't visit Edinburgh then

ladyofthelake

That goes for this guy too, appeared in the nanny 911 spin off, marriage 911.

Texas Brit

Haven't you heard about the new Homeland Security requirements -- all immigrants will henceforth be required to wear national dress at all times?

So get your hats now.

http://www.dadshats.com/derby3.html

(How desparate for modeling work do you have to be to be the guy in that picture?)

NC Penguin

He's trying to do a Steed impression (of the Avengers)...



NC Penguin

Lord Lionheart

More like Freddy 'Parrot Face' Davis as Samuel Tweet, if anyone remembers him??

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/im...ueltweet_2.jpg

I watched the first 3 AR's but I couldn't get into this one?

Pimpbot

I don't understand why it was "corny". This is how they do every leg of the Amazing Race. They take famous locations and sterotypical items from the area to make up each leg. I must admit, the guy at the end kind of threw me, as I said to my wife, I bet it's a Town Cryer meeting them on the mat.

Going to a zebra crossing in Tottenham highstreet doesn't really have the same appeal, does it.

NC Penguin

Could've gone to somewhere other than London. There are many other notable British cities. I'm sure there's direct flights from Istanbul to these British cities.

The episode only perpetuated the stereotype about the UK, i.e. to Americans the London is the UK and everyone from the UK is judged in terms of where they live from London...



NC Penguin

NC Penguin

Ooh. I don't know. Would've been very interesting to see how far those teams got along Tottenham High Road!




NC Penguin

Lord Lionheart

I'm suprised they didn't have a tea and crumpet eating challenge. I play X-box live on line, you can chat live to the person you are playing the X-box video game against, usually when the opponent is losing they start the stereotypical insults after hearing my accent, which invariably have the following content;

The queen
tea and crumpets
fish and chips
mate/governor
You Irish/English/Canadian/Australian/German bastard etc.

NC Penguin

These are my suggestions for challenges for the British leg of the Amazing Race:

teams who can get round the M25 the fastest in a four wheel vehicle (this would have to be seriously edited to fit into the 40 mins program). Footage of problems with white van drivers is a must.

pub crawl round Oxford or some challenge on a bicycle around Oxford

catch the pigeon with the clue round its leg in Trafalgar Square

go apple bobbing in a very large dish of Balti

Try and score a goal against England's goalkeeper (don't know if this is a challenge or not)





NC Penguin