Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | 44 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Fast Forward, Fall Back
By M. Giant | Season 23 | Episode 6 | Aired on 11.03.2013
The Okies just beat the ER docs to the clue outside, and Tim and Travis will be doing this one for their teams. And Marie snaps at the other Tim when their taxi arrives, "Get out of the car and get our bags!" You can't fake that kind of love.
Inside, Okie Tim is such a completely hopeless singer that I finally figure out who it is he's been reminding me of all this time: Andy Kaufman. His vocalizing is so transcendently awful that it could pass for surrealistic comedy. Travis, on the other hand, plays multiple instruments and sings all the time back home, so I think it's already obvious which of the two of them is going to do better at this.
Jason & Amy belatedly complete the Detour and head to the Roadblock, Amy hoping they'll be able to catch up there. Marie decides that of the two of them, Tim is the choir boy (on multiple levels, probably) so he is soon being coached at length through the German lyrics. He should probably learn German at some point anyway, just so he can mock Marie in a Nazi voice.
Jason & Amy make it to the Roadblock even before anyone has attempted singing, and they're pretty happy to have caught up with all the other teams. But not as happy as Marie is to see Jason show up at the waiting area, given that their arrival means he and Amy are in last place instead of already en route to the Pit Stop.
Travis decides that he's ready to give it a try with the choir, and Jamal's goofy opera-face doesn't put off his teacher from giving him the green light as well. Down in the choir room, Ashley says "hey" to one of the choir boys, who just grins at the camera. Most kids his age would probably blush, but don't forget that this one is in the Vienna Boys Choir and thus has hot and cold running groupies in his dressing room. With racers now on the way to sing, the director calls the choir to order and sits down at the piano. Travis has to stand in the middle of the room, apart from the choir and in front of the other racers, but at least he gets to hold onto his score and doesn't have to do this by memory. On the other hand, neither does the Vienna Boys Choir. They chortle and smirk at Travis's high-commitment but low-skill delivery of the jaunty little march, until the choir master begs him to stop and try again. Travis returns to the music room to work on it some more, and discovers that the problem is that there are notes too high for his range. My problem is that I already cover two shows with competitive singing and I don't really feel like doing a third one.