Taking Sides: Real World vs. Road Rules

Road Rules is a different kettle of fish. It's a much shorter trip, but the people are in much closer quarters on a very restrained budget. They're also made to do all sorts of goofy stunts. If watching testy people do dangerous/silly things is your bag, it's gotta be about Road Rules.

The interesting thing is that most of the really conniving people have ended up on The Real World (Beth S, Tami, Justin, Tonya, Cara, Kyle, Kaia, Matt, Stephen, Montana, Miami Melissa, Joe), most of the truly psychotic/sociopathic people have ended up on Road Rules (Abe, Chadwick, Belou, MV Holly, Los, Adam, Laterrian/LT [inventing a second personality to absolve yourself of misdeeds = sociopathic], Ayanna, Veronica).

I want to hear Chief White Lotus chime in on this since he was on Road Rules.

I'm still mad that they kicked Sarah off. I mean, I understand why and all, but she was the most likeable person on the show!

(Please add to your "conniving" list: Miami Flora.)

I thought about listing Gladys, but she was goaded into her actions by Abe (aka The Most Evil Road Ruler Ever).

Puck and David, though... HAHAHAHAHA!!! And the guys losing to the team of Melissa and Amaya.... BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

I realize I've never actually seen Antoine on TV before, though.

it was really interesting, after seeing how puck has been treated in the past, to have the entire cast rally around him

I have no idea if there was any violence, I just wish for violence to be visited upon Julie. Possibly by God, since she makes such a bfd about being Mormon.

Yes, everyone in New Orleans deserved to have the snot beat out of them, but Julie is my Most Hated.

David RWLA got bizarro-furious at Puck RWSF, claiming that Puck's "wife" (actually fiancee) called David continuously, complaining about Puck beating her. Puck was remarkably restrained in his response up until the point at which he spit on David. David then went on a crusade to get Puck kicked off and almost succeeded, but no one else was really having it. (Besides, Gladys RRLA, Jisela RRTQ and Ayanna RRSAS all weren't about to let that happen.) It should be a measure of how bizarrely out of line David RWLA was acting that everyone else on the cast unanimously rallied around PUCK. As Eric RRCC put it, "I'm the youngest guy on this cast [he's 19], and I'm acting more like a man than these THIRTY-YEAR-OLDS." David is so unreasonable that Puck packs his bags and moves over to the girl's bungalow.

Earlier in the episode, Melissa RWNO screamed at Julie RWNO about stealing speaking engagements from her and professed undying hatred. This is what you call FORESHADOWING.

The competition was Simon Says run by drill seargents. The guys suck ass, but the women hang in there, handily beating the guys. The last duo standing is Melissa and Amaya RWH. (HMMMMMM....)

Back at the ranch, David RWLA is upset that no one has his puny, psychotic back, so he packs his bags and gets the fuck out of dodge despite the best attempts of David RWNO to get him to stay. (Aside: David NO didn't utter a single "Woo woo" the whole episode; I AM SORELY DISAPPOINTED.) His departure means the men don't have to vote anyone off.

The women's inner circle (Melissa, Amaya, Genesis RWB, Aneesa RWC) toys with the idea of booting Emily RRUSA (aka THE CHALLENGE HO; perhaps she should take the hint from losing the previous two challenges she was on), but Melissa does a Jedi mind trick and SURPRISE SURPRISE Julie gets the boot. The men cackle with glee because they saw what happened to the Road Rules team when they voted off their stronger members while the women are torn between public "Oh, that's not right" platitudes and internal "YES THE HORSE-FACE BITCH IS GONE WATCH YOUR BACK, BETH!" jubilation. Ellen RRTQ is the only person who is genuinely upset that Julie is gone and, despite some startlingly good advice from the departing Julie about keeping her head down and flying under the radar, runs straight to the inner circle and repeatedly calls them bitches. Beth RWLA, hold off on packing those bags...

Also, Gladys RRLA revealed that she is pregnant, Anne RRNT appears to have turned herself into a melted Real Doll, and Antoine RRE asked Syrus RWB what part of Africa he came from. I LOVE MTV!!!

Uh, more my ex-housemates in their second big blow-up at each other of the day that ended in threats of legal action, destroying things and general hatred. Have I mentioned how glad I am to live on my own now?

Melissa is an annoying prima donna, but I'd still hang with her because she's insane and funny.

Danny and Kelly did a lot to redeem themselves on the last challenge, Kelly by not being an ueberbitch and Danny by developing a personality.

David and Jamie... Urgh.

Matt deserves beatings. Repeated beatings. However, he seems to have realized exactly how annoying he appeared on television and is staying away from the challenge scene.

Julie... I really hate Julie, largely because she was so sympathetic at the beginning of the season, but then as time went on you began to see the Machiavellan wheels spinning themselves into more manipulation of camera time. Notice in the NO season that whenever something happens to another castmember, Julie experiences a crisis. Plus, stalking MATT????

Had the guys started shouting "COCK COCK COCK!" I would have burst a blood vessel laughing.

(seriously though, it does seem like he grew a lot, unlike, say, amaya or ruthie)

I was considering linking to that. He's now vaguely Popeye-shaped!

At first I thought Mike meant that black people being the victims of social inequality resulted in disadvantages of education but was too dumb to explain it. Is this even the case? I think you may be right about something being edited out though, he did seem a bit ignorant, though not malicious. Malik was a very sensible guy. I still think every time I watch it that they always pick people whose constant desire to "resolve" things etc etc causes more trouble.

I mean if I was in there I think I'd leave for a day if I had a big fight. I found the Irish guy on it amusing, them wondering was he an alcoholic and the truth sadly was that loads of Irish people drink that much, I mean all Irish aren't alcoholics but lots of Irish do see nothing wrong with falling over drunk. It was an interesting difference highlighted.

I will film it free of charge

That is EXTREMELY depressing. Also the fact that he's YOUNGER (albeit a few months) than me. Hod on, i have to puke

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i'm actually v impressed w/ Dan's thorough knowledge of all RW/RR episodes past, I'm glad then i'm not the only person who remembers a lot of them. It seems like a curse to actually get on since then you're tempted to come back and do all these challenges and things after the show has ended, it's like how much of your life's identity is then built around having been on this show? Congrats to people like Tami who have rarely ever come back - it's been a decade now and Puck should have said no, but its good for the drama that he said yes. Some seasons were so boring, like that London season - there was no conflict there! I think the current Las Vegas season is the trashiest/sleaziest, with Trichelle the Ho's clueless beating all whoriness from seasons past. Remember "supermodel" Eric Nies? muahaha

Not ignoring Julie (who indeed is a media monster - i saw a snippet of her Larry King Live interview where she's saying somethig like "yes. i am a mormon." - as if she's now a chosen one!!!) I still think the world, most despicable character of alll time is Kaia. She was horrifying, i mean granted Ruthie/Amaya were losers, but the look in her eyes - she could easily kill, and had some weird will-to-power attitude that would shame Hitler. in fact that whole Hawaii season was the worst, not one person had any degree of likability and the token black guy, Tech, i think? was mugging for his "hope-i-get-to-be-an-MTV-VJ!" campaign all along. They should have fallen into a volcano.

It hurts me in my heart that you wrote the phrase "Congrats to people like Tami". I can't think of a single redeeming feature for her (beyond her disinclination to continue whoring for BMP; BETH GET A CLUE). The LA cast in general was deeply, deeply repellent; I think Dom was the only person who I didn't want to see horribly murdered as the show went on.

As presented on the show (remember, we don't really KNOW these people), the ones I disliked the most would be the entire LA cast except Dom, Puck RWSF, Melissa RWM, Montana RWB, Stephen RWS, Nathan RWS, Kaia-Marge RWH, Matt RWH, Julie RWNO, Matt RWNO, Rachel RWB2NY, Vyle Kyle RWC, Cara RWC, Tonya RWC, Trishelle RWLV, and Brynn RWLV.

My faves would be Heather RWNY, Dom RWLA, Pam RWSF, Mohammed RWSF, Sharon RWL, Neil RWL, Cynthia RWM, Sarah RWM, Kameelah RWB, Genesis RWB, Lindsey RWS, Irene RWS, Teck RWH, Ruthie RWH, MElissa RWNO, Coral RWB2NY, Keri RWC, and Alton RWLV.

do i get points for seeing van wilder, aka the acting debut of teck, a year ago?

Jacinda RWL was in _Urban Legends: The Final Cut_, but I missed the part with her in it. Anthony Anderson was in that movie too, and look where his career has gone! (Poor Jacinda, if only she had been a portly black man instead of a wispy white female model...)

So Kaia's real name is Margaret? Whatta ho, she had to lie about that. She was just so..so.. MEAN. I did feel a little sorry for Ruthie, but I don't know if I could bring myself to like her. Amaya was just such a spoiled/weak person, but in comparison to Kaia I liked her a lot and was rooting for her to stand up for herself.

From as little as I saw of that Boston show, Montana was evil. And wasn't Seattle Stephen really gay? Of course imo military David from that season was gay too but he kepy denying it and using that girl as a cover. I really liked Irene, since you could tell she really did have mental problems (lime disease?), but I liked Rebecca much better than Lindswy. I liked Lindsey during the show but saw her on some challenge later and se had morphed into some skanky ho from down-to-earth-firl-getting-over-death. Janey elicited no sympathy either, that was a strangely dispiriting season.

I talked to a guy who used to be a production assistant at that second NY season and he said they do edit it as such to totally demonize some people, in order to create narratives - quelle surprise. Coral really wasn't that mean by the end, and I liked how she changed in the challenge later, but Mike is still someone who deserves to be abused anyway! Chicago's Tonya was very stupid and incrimiated herself repeatedly by verbalizing all her venomous thoughts on air, but what was wrong w/ Cara? Brynn's shallowness is probably as deep as Trihelle's, if that makes any sense. I am surprised you like Melissa, even though David deserves to be hated the most from that season, he was so "enlightened," wasn't he ? Hated the most aside from Julie, of course.

I'm so glad i have a life

Admittedly, there's a large bias towards her because of the free spirit skater girl/Wildstorm comics angle, but STILL! She's great.

And this wasn't clear beforehand how? ;-)

I know somebody who almost made the cut for Real World London. I think she would have had fun on there had she made said cut.

What little I've seen of the show -- bits of the first season or two, so things may have radically changed -- impacted me most with their obnoxious/hilarious used of then-current hits to dramatize sad/happy times. A further reason to hate lyrics!

The whole Ruthie situation is what REALLY made me start hating Matt. "I want her, but she doesn't want me, so I'm going to go into sensitive, caring mode in an attempt to manipulate her sexuality to fixate on me- SHE HAS A TWIN???? Fuck you, bitch, lemme holla at your straight sista!"

It seems they've eased up on not showing people smoking, as the Chicago and Las Vegas casts seem to have butts permanently attached to their lips. (They smoke all the time, too HAW HAW.)

I should talk, I would have ended up decking Trashelle and Steve within the first week.

Nicole and Mike screaming at each other in the street while Coral and Lori walked by with their heads down so they could do work = CLASSIC!

Arissa does have some issues, don't get me wrong, but I think her issues are addressable. Frank and Alton also seem like they could be pulled back from the brink. Brynn, Frank and Trishelle are pretty much gone and Irulan, as I said before, is pretty enough that she's going to be able to manipulate most people into doing what she wants.

On the Real World? I don't think anyone can really challenge Trishelle or Cara among the women, but among the MEN you have Syrus, Teck, Dave RWNO, and Alton (aargh why are all the black men hoes). If you go to Road Rules, though, you get to put THE ALMIGHTY JISELA into play!

The Melissa-Julie fued continues on MTV's website, BTW.

"Trashelle" is great name. Does anyone remember how she totally ho-ed down with that guy on the last RW/RR challenge, from RR...the very last RR, what was his name? And he was involved with another RR chick too. Which may bring up a point: are we just subconsciously playing into men=stud, women = slut dichotomy here, since would we think these girls' behavior was so repulsive if indeed they were all men or um, black men ?

I'm forgetting, who did Cara sleep around with? And wasn't there a lesbian who was pretty slutty too, or am I thinking of somethin else?

Cara also got it on in a lavatory bathroom with a visiting friend and tried to put moves on another ex, who said, "NONONONONO!"

I think I missed all of Aneesa's sluttiness.

Incidentally watching "The Real World" is like seeing Eisenstein's Film Form in action. The varieties of montage to achieve different effects is staggering. Good use is made of the Kushelov effect whereby cutting from some event to "Real World" cast members with blank looks on their faces alternately invokes fright, contempt, disbelief, awe, etc.

ALSO, she told Kyle that she was upset that he was interested in Keri and not her and, the way the show displays it, made some passive-aggressive plays for him behind Keri's back while Kyle and Keri were still mildly involved. This doesn't help you dodge the "slut" tag.

So, while I can definitely see how she didn't "seal the deal" with as many people as it seemed, that doesn't mean she wasn't acting slutty.

All of this pales when placed next to Keri telling off Kyle near the end of the season, though. That was one of my favorite television moments of all time.

What were her reasons? What are anyone's reasons?

I wanted to go on The Real World because I fell in love with the places they were staying, but I never had access to a videocamera so that I could do an audition tape.

She has a boyfriend and feels no shame in calling him up and telling him how wonderful he is and how much he loves her etc, but Alton (who is SINGLE) can't talk to any other girls?

YOU DO NOT GET TO CONTROL SOMEONE ELSE'S BEHAVIOR IF YOU ARE NOT REALLY IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH THEM, YOU PSYCHOTIC COW.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/13/showbiz/tv/real-world-format-change-ew/index.html?hpt=hp_bn9

this won't cause any murders

Being familiar with Real World cast members in time for The Challenge is the only reason to watch the Real World at this point.

What I'm saying is, do any of you watch The Challenge?

haha I haven't watched in several years, have they banned the classic-era ppl who are pushing or over 40 yet?

Do you consider Trishelle "classic-era"? Anyway, she was on the most recent season but she left in a hissy fit in the middle (CLASSIC TRISHELLE).

Las Vegas 1 is right after what I consider to be "classic era" (basically, seasons 1-10, though I could see an argument for 1-15 since so many of the challenge stalwarts came from 11-15)

Have you seen any of the seasons with TJ Lavin as the host? He's so chill!

I mostly remember Johnny Mosely smiling at the idiocy until a fight breaks out, at which point he gets really concerned

I'm sure I've seen TJ though

TJ is pretty chill, until he witnesses something stupid (which is fairly regularly, y'know) and then he unleashes his barely-contained smirk.

haha so the exact opposite of Johnny

I mean, during the reunion show, one of the contestants from the New Orleans season (I think) got up from his seat to literally smack a girl in the face and if I remember correctly, TJ barely moved an inch (though someone else got up to stop the fight).

Wait wait wait, I just remembered. It's Johnny Moseley who hosts the after-shows/reunion eps now, so it's him who didn't get up to stop the fight. Or maybe he did. I don't remember, I don't really find him all that memorable or likeable. TJ's way better.