This was the intended response from the Adversity Twins, Jay and Mickey, with the way they are portrayed as being severely underprivileged to the point of parody. Although the desired outcome was not attained from most of the fanbase, and they were instead disliked for that very reason. This lessened when they didn't even make the halfway point, but they still don't get regarded as such.
The Vegans, especially Laurie. First they get a fossil they worked hard to find stolen by Dwayne, then they are forced to violate their principles and eat meat, only to come in last place anyway. However, since it was a non-elimination leg, their eating meat turned out to be pointless anyway. Things only get worse in the next leg, where Laurie's face is bitten by bullet ants, impairing her vision and forcing Miles to run the leg on her own. Even though they finish the leg first, they get a penalty that winds up dropping them to last place, eliminating them from the race. In the end, unlike every other team, they can't even come up with any positive memories or lessons that they got from the race in their elimination statement.
Dwayne, when he loses Junior in "My Way Or Zimbabwe". He spends the entire episode being terrified that Junior might be dead and is nearly in tears by the time they reunite.
Sanders. She's a good person and very affable, but she has to pit up with MacArthur, her reckless partner, and got her arm broken by her. Sanders then took charge of the team, and even then, MacArthur would sometimes act like an ass.
Devin. He's one of the nicest characters in the Ridonculous Race, but ends up being one of the series' biggest Butt Monkeys. His previous girlfriend Shelley once locked him outside of a car to the point where he got frostbite for not bringing her the right tea, and also got cheated on and dumped by her while he was still in the Race. In addition, he went through quite a few pain gags and strokes of bad luck when he tried to woo Carrie, and got shoved off a cliff by an emu right after they officially got together. This resulted in Devin not being able to continue the game due to his injuries.
