Great Racers? No. Possibly saved on purpose by Production last night because the rest of the remaining cast is starting to feel like watching sandpaper by rubbing it across your eyes? Could be. The most sophisticated team you've ever going to meet? They don't have to be.

The words we may want here are from TV Tropes: Heterosexual Life Partners. Both being straight and married, but joined to each other for the duration, come what may. We've had our innocents abroad before this and we'll have them again, but the Kentucky duo represent the first time in a while when we've been able to combine it with Brother From Another Mother. This is the only team left which has demonstrated nothing but internal support (combined with some sibling-level ribbing) for each other, the lone family unit in a field of mutual snipers eternally aiming for each other's kneecaps. Yes, they're enjoying themselves as they travel, and sometimes teams forget what a honor this really is. But they're also not inflicting pain on the masses in the name of the drama boost -- and that's not just a rare quality, it's almost extinct.

Not the best Racers. But if they don't win and there's another Second Chances season, I won't have a word of complaint if the producers bring them back.

As it turned out, there was gold in those hills. And it walks.

• RE: In celebration of Mark & Bopper.,Molaholic, 10:01 AM, 04-23-12
• RE: In celebration of Mark & Bopper.,dabo, 10:40 AM, 04-23-12
• RE: In celebration of Mark & Bopper.,Weez, 10:46 AM, 04-23-12
  • RE: In celebration of Mark & Bopper.,rasslinmomma, 11:17 PM, 04-23-12
• RE: In celebration of Mark & Bopper.,curlytop, 01:48 PM, 04-24-12
• RE: In celebration of Mark & Bopper.,MzTee, 01:24 AM, 04-25-12
• RE: In celebration of Mark & Bopper.,michel, 04:04 PM, 04-25-12
• RE: In celebration of Mark & Bopper.,Max Headroom, 09:13 PM, 04-25-12
• RE: In celebration of Mark & Bopper.,dabo, 08:46 PM, 05-03-12

Well said.

YAY! Great post.

Add to that: Not one Ugly American moment between them. Closest they've gotten to anything like that is commenting on the sma'el of th' ayer.

I love these guys, even though I can't understand half of what they say!

This is my favorite team by far. They may not be the strongest racers, but they almost always support each other. Even Bopper teasing Mark about his car sickness seems like more of an "in joke" then spite/meanness.

As far as their accents, I keep wondering why they subtitle them. They speak perfectly understandable Southern English. I have more trouble with some of the New England accents, and they never subtitle those!!

Slice & Dice Chop Shop 2004

Coumt me in. I am root'n for the Kentucky Boys!!!

Mark and Bopper had me in tears...really love this team.

I agree with one note though: It could be good editing. How often have we been served "nice" contestants only to realize that they are just as bad as others when they return?

Well spoken. Metta World Peace is more pleasant than the other remaining teams.

They seem like the same likeable good ol' boys in every interview I've read.

http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/exclusive-bopper-minton-and-mark-jackson-talk-the-amazing-race-13419.php

Mark Jackson: You just said everything. I was hoping to change the lives of my family because it's something that would have made a big difference for my kids -- I'm all my kids have got now. I'm divorced, I have three children, and that was all it was.

And then after the show, and I got back, I didn't know I was going to lose my job and I lost my job. It was just -- that's what the big shock was. But we was just trying to change our families' lives and that was just the bottom line. So anything we had to do to do it...