Episode Report Card M. Giant: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT One Day in Bangkok Makes Two Short Men Grumble
By M. Giant | Season 14 | Episode 8 | Aired on 04.12.2009
Passing under a footbridge, Victor and Tammy yell and wave up at some Trappist monks who are crossing the span. It's like they've never seen monks before. Or they have, back in Phuket, and they think these are the same ones.
Margie and Luke are officially "currently in first place" when they reach the clue box at Peninsula Pier. As their boat pulls away behind them, Margie reads, "Broken Teeth or Broken Record." Walking through a marketplace arcade, Phil tells us this is a choice between "two very routine activities that the people of Bangkok have turned into something very unusual." He continues that for "Broken Teeth," teams need to get to the place he's in now, known unofficially as "the Street of Happy Smiles." There they will find five tables, each holding fifty sets of dentures in bowls, and five locals behind the table with busted-ass teeth who need dentures matched to them. "Rooting around in people's mouths could be unpleasant," Phil understates, "But if they can overcome the squeamishness, they could find themselves finishing quickly." This as he sits next to a woman who spits out a set of choppers practically into Phil's lap. Was that some kind of come-on?
"Broken Record" sends the teams to a parking lot, where five "party taxis" are waiting. What's a party taxi? It's just like a regular minivan-style taxi, except it has a karaoke system. They'll ride the taxi along a five-mile course with a "group of locals" -- each group being composed of three young women, with each group seemingly including at least one transvestite for some reason -- singing along to some T-Pop video over and over. Sounds like fun, but Phil warns that traffic can be a bitch. And we see a clip of the party girls beginning to look bored.
So Margie and Luke are doing Broken Teeth. "I'm a bad singer but he's a really bad singer," Margie says in an interview. Although she doesn't explain why. Does he have pitch issues? Does he get too into it? Sacrifice emotional resonance for technical proficiency? Throw in too many melismas?
Team Go Team arrives at the next clue box, and are still there reading their clue when the Stuntmen come into view of them. The brothers are happy to have caught up to another team, but when they notice that the cheerleaders have their backpacks, they sober up in a hurry. Team Go Team goes off to do "Broken Record" while the Stuntmen climb out of their boat and make the same call. "We need to get back to our cab," Michael says, unaware that behind them, their boat has already pulled away. Clearly those pilots are not getting paid by the hour. Looks like they'll be returning to the boatyard overland.