Hell's Kitchen/YMMV

"Chef Ramsay: I'm nobody's bitch!"
 * Adaptation Displacement: Even in the UK, the American version of the show tends to be more renowned than its UK-based forerunner, which was basically just a standard-issue "celebrity cooking challenge" show, except with a slightly more abusive chef involved (Ramsay initially, and then Marco-Pierre White in later seasons).
 * Badass Decay: Debatably, Robert. In Season 5, he was one of the show's leading contenders, but pulled out due to health reasons.
 * Krupa from Season 9. She was by far the best performing cook in the first two episodes, and considered the early front-runner. After the second service though, her performances started getting worse and worse, until she got booted out at the end of the seventh episode. It Got Worse when she came back for the finale, where she did such a horrible job that she had been relegated to doing the desserts by the end of the night.
 * Big Beautiful Woman: Kimmie from S10
 * On the male side, you also have S5's Robert and S10's Clemenza.
 * Crazy Awesome: At one point in S6, Dave was cooking four different dishes simultaneously due to Andy's incompetence, and all four were the best to come out of the kitchen. The most awesome part? He did it literally single-handed.
 * Creator's Pet: Ramsay has been accused of showing blatant favoritism towards certain contestants. Probably the most notable example was Virginia from Season 2, who looked certain to be eliminated after a horrendous performance in the third-last service, but was saved after Ramsay conveniently re-instated the immunity she had lost partway through the service and eliminated Sara, who had been less than stellar but not nearly as bad as Virginia. Then in the following service, Virginia's performance wasn't much better, but Ramsay eliminated Keith instead, which led Keith to openly accuse Ramsay of having "a hard-on for Virginia."
 * Also Nona from Season 8, toward whom Ramsay started showing very obvious favoritism after she aced the "palate test" challenge -- this was exemplified in the following service, where Nona insulted Ramsay to his face and he responded by taking her to one side and calmly explaining that she was being rude. It may actually have been justified somewhat in Nona's case, since she was without much doubt the best contestant from that season (the only real competition being from Jillian, who wasn't a very good leader, and Russell, who was a total douchebag).
 * Of course, he only took Nona to one side after having thrown her out of the kitchen, the only one on the red team to get thrown out that night.
 * Ear Worm: That stupid patriotic score whenever Season 7 Scott was talking in the Confession Cam. Kudos to the music department for making him look like an idiot with that.
 * Elimination Houdini: At least one per season:
 * Season 1 had Andrew, who consistently failed to cook dishes correctly, caused infighting on his team, and would never admit to doing anything wrong. Part of Andrew's survival was probably down to the contestants he was put up for elimination against (Wendy, who was utterly hopeless, and Mary-Ellen, who wasn't quite as bad as Andrew, but wasn't really a great cook herself), but he still lasted several weeks longer than he deserved to. Also from season 1 was Jimmy, who screwed up nearly every service, but kept avoiding being nominated because Michael's strategy was to get rid of all the strong chefs first (remember that Ramsay couldn't overrule nominations during the first season).
 * Season 2 had Virginia, a decent chef for the most part (she actually won most of the challenges), but constantly fell apart during service. Near the end, she won an immunity challenge that would let her into the final 3, but screwed up so badly that Gordon threatened to revoke it. To a lesser extent, Tom from the same season; while he only lasted until the fourth week, he managed to screw his team on virtually every service, but somehow kept surviving being put up for elimination.
 * Season 3 had Melissa, Bonnie, and Josh, the last somehow managed to make it to the final five despite constantly screwing up. With Bonnie, she did horribly for the first half of the season, but most likely because she was one of the most tolerable of that season's "Hell's Bitches", she was able to stay long enough to improve herself and deservedly finish second. Melissa was actually the best cook on the red team for the first two services of that season, but disintegrated spectacularly afterwards, and kept on surviving through virtue of her early good performances until Ramsay finally had enough and threw her out.
 * Season 4 had Jen, Matt and Rosann. Jen was somewhat capable, but completely unable to recognize her faults when she did make mistakes. Matt could cook at times, but was emotionally unstable, which often caused his abilities to drop like a brick. He managed to make it to the final 6. Rosann on the other hand was a consistently terrible performer, but the cliquey nature of that season's red team meant that she kept avoiding being nominated for elimination simply because the other girls liked her.
 * Season 5 had Colleen and Seth, who were both consistently useless on the line, and yet avoided being eliminated for several weeks in succession. Colleen survived mostly because team-mate Ji had to quit due to an ankle injury, while Seth was helped by Ramsay inexplicably eliminating Wil and Charlie, two much better cooks, in favor of him. Lacey from the same season was an unusual case of this -- while she spent a lot of her time on the show whining and acting like a petulant teenager, when she did bother to put the effort in she was actually one of the best performers from that season. The occasional good performances that she did show probably kept her in until relatively late in that season, when she fell apart spectacularly on the meat station and got kicked out in mid-service.
 * The Red team in season 6 had three different Houdinis. During the beginning, Tenille screwed up several times, and got within an inch of being thrown out mid-service after insulting Ramsay to his face. However, after the universally disastrous 6th service, Tenille improved and Suzanne and Sabrina became the Houdinis instead. Suzanne repeatedly screwed her team nearly every service, while Sabrina made several critical mistakes such as serving raw pork. Andy was also an example; despite probably being the worst performer out of that season's men (barring only the grossly incompetent Louie, and the in-over-his-head Tony) he somehow lasted nine services before getting kicked out. Part of that included Gordon inexplicably kicking out Jim out of the blue when he wasn't up for nomination.
 * Season 7 had Scott, who despite his claimed "fine dining experience", constantly screwed up and blamed his team mates, and Fran, who always blamed anyone and anything but herself, despite constant screwups, and Siobhan, who made mistake after mistake, after mistake. Also from that season, Autumn. Despite constant mistakes, blaming others (or just keeping quiet) for her mistakes and the fact that neither team could stand her, she made it to the final four (that being said, she seemed to be semi-capable, and that her lousy attitude made her teammates notice her mistakes more than their own).
 * Season 8 had Raj, who spent a large portion of the first two episodes wandering around as if in a daze, and kept getting into fights with his teammates. His seeming incompetence bothered his teammates so much that Vinny, who was acting as waiter on the second episode, warned customers not to order side dishes because he didn't think Raj would get them out in time. (Ramsay was furious.) Eventually, Raj's behavior pushed Ramsay over the edge, and he eliminated Raj despite the fact that the blue team had actually won Raj's last service. Sabrina also appeared to be an example of this, making it all the way to the final six despite her horribly bitchy personality (although like Lacey from Season 5, there did seem to be at least some talent lurking behind the bitchiness).
 * Season 9's had Elise. She's a decent but not stand-out chef, and has made several glaring errors. Where she does stand-out is her absolutely toxic attitude--no one on her team can stand her because of how arrogant and loud she is, she argues with them constantly, made a point of declaring her intent to get her Arch Enemy Carrie thrown out, always blames others for her mistakes, and claims that any other chef who dislikes her is just threatened by her talent. Furthermore, when the team wins a challenge she makes sure to let them know it was thanks to her--if they lose, she refuses to help them with the prep work or other penalty, invoking "I'm A Chef, Not A Placeholder" to justify why she feels she doesn't have to help. It's obvious that she won't win (even if she somehow makes the final two, she's alienated the other players so much that they'd all probably walk off the line rather than cook for her), so the the goal is now to keep her in as many episodes as is humanly possible without it looking overt.  Carrie was the other Elimination Houdini from this season and was effectively the opposite of Elise, having a much nicer personality but turning in consistently dreadful performances.
 * It is believed that Executive Meddling keeps many of these undeserving people in the running, hopes of raising the drama and therefore ratings. Or that Gordon is contractually obligated to do a certain number of episodes, and can't eliminate every useless individual, lest he get the final four by episode six. Or a streak of good work on one team helps to insulate a shoddy player, especially in a target-rich environment (so if the person who was an Elimination Houdini was eliminated early on, there'd be a different Elimination Houdini to take their place).
 * Also, watch out for chefs with great palates. Chef Ramsay has stated that a great palate is one of the most important things a chef can possess, noting that while he can teach nearly anyone to be a great cook, a good palate is something you're born with and an indicator of a chef's true potential. Chefs who have been noted to have great palates and who do well in the inevitable "blind taste test" challenge, which usually takes place just before or just after the teams merge, have almost always done far better than they would've been expected otherwise. Cases in point: Virginia in season two and Bonnie in season three. There's also Nona in season eight, who made it into the final six even after messing up several dinner services in a row (though Gail and Vinny's collapses just before the merge may have also helped Nona along)
 * There's actually a pretty consistent pattern in how Ramsay eliminates contestants. Chefs who are outright incompetent are the first to go; they might last a bit longer if they show some passion and enthusiasm, but not beyond the first few episodes. The next contestants to be eliminated are the ones who are consistently average, and never put in a truly good performance. After that, we get to the traditional Elimination Houdinis -- chefs who put in a lot of unremarkable or outright bad performances, but also one or two good performances along the way, which gives Ramsay more of a reason to keep them in than the ones who are okay but never excel. Once they're gone, we're finally left with the genuinely good contestants. Ultimately, there are usually two major Elimination Houdinis per season, the absolutely awful chef who somehow stumbles through the first few episodes before being eliminated somewhere between episodes 3-5, and the chef who either has a bad attitude throughout the season and/or dramatically improves throughout the season (they might also have a good palette). This chef usually gets to at least the final six, and sometimes (as was the case with Virginia and Bonnie) even the final two.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: Jean-Phillippe and Sous Chef Scott are more popular among fans.
 * As far as the contestants go, Julia from Season 3. Despite her Waffle House background she was one of the better performers from that season, and is still one of the most popular contestants ever to have appeared on the show.
 * Notice how much Dave of Season 6 is mentioned?
 * Faux Symbolism: Jason's penis-shaped lobster dish in Season 7.
 * Funny Aneurysm Moment: Arguably the entirety of Season 7, since
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: Although it first aired in June 2006, Season 2 contains a contestant named Sara who looks very similar to Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin was elected governor in December 2006, but it's hard not to view it as a No Celebrities Were Harmed parody.
 * Jerkass Has a Point: For some bizarre reason the contestants in Season 8 all seemed to believe that Melissa was by far one of the best chefs in that season's line-up, even in the face of her constant, massive screw-ups. The only person who actually called her out on her mistakes? Sabrina, who was continually ignored since the others just thought she being a bitch whenever she did so.
 * Jerkass Woobie: It's easy to assume that Ramsay's just a bitter, foul-tempered asshole. When you see what he has to put up with from some of the contestants, he becomes a lot more sympathetic.
 * This is pretty much  from Season 5's reaction after she has a turn running the pass.
 * Les Yay: Implied to have occurred with Heather and Rachel in Season 2, although Heather subsequently clarified that there was only ever a bit of good-natured flirting between the two, and that Rachel had a long-term girlfriend anyway, meaning that nothing would have happened anyway. Many fans suspected this was also the case with Bonnie and Jen in Season 3, although it ended up being disproved in the season finale when Bonnie pretty much confirmed that she was heterosexual.
 * Ho Yay, on the other hand has been averted so far. While there's actually been at least half a dozen gay male chefs on the show (so far as is known), there's never been more than one per season, yet.
 * Magnificent Bastard: Michael Wray from Season 1. Testing the final chefs with deliberate screw-ups? He did it first. Hiding ingredients to make the other chefs look bad? He magically found them. Deliberately nominating your strongest competitor to get them thrown out? He's the only person ever to successfully pull it off on this show (though this was before Ramsay could just kick out anyone he wanted). No one since has been so cutthroat.
 * Chef Ramsay himself proved to be this in the first episode of the seventh season and again at the first episode of the ninth season. Just look and you'll see.
 * Memetic Badass: Chef Ramsay.
 * Memetic Mutation: GET OUT! SHUT IT DOWN! YOU BLOODY DONKEY! Now fuck (or sometimes piss) off, will ya?
 * Ramsay's tendency to call the chefs a bloody donkey caught on with a little girl who was waiting to be served in season 7. She drew a picture of Ramsay screaming "YOU DONKEY!"
 * In Season 8, when family came into Hell's Kitchen,  son asked "Did he call you a donkey?".
 * THAT'S WHY IT'S CALLED FUCKING NON-STIIICK!
 * I ain't no (bleep) bitch chef! I don't give a (bleep). I ain't no bitch!
 * I'm not no bitch!


 * The ultimate Hell's Kitchen meme.
 * YOU'LL KILL SOMEOOOOOOOOONE!!!
 *  IT'S RAAAAAAAAAAAWWWW! 
 * Now has its own page.
 * Most Annoying Sound: Every time Sara in season 1 began talking. Not only was she horribly rude and nasty, her voice is very grating.
 * Elise's constant Never My Fault tendencies.
 * Replacement Scrappy: Gloria, the red team's sous chef in Seasons 4 and 5, was nowhere near as popular as her predecessor Maryann, mostly because Maryann had shown she could kick ass as well as Chef Ramsay and Scott, whereas Gloria seemed to spend most of her time on the show standing by the pass and looking as if she'd rather be elsewhere. The red team's following sous chefs, Heather and Andi have mostly averted this; Heather already had a lot of fans from her original appearance on the show, and Andi gained a lot of respect when she helped Chef Ramsay and Scott rescue a service that the red team had screwed up royally (it also helps that Andi is perhaps the best looking of the red team sous chefs thus far).
 * Narm Charm: The narration and sound effects are just hilarious. This troper likes to think it's intentional.
 * The Problem with Licensed Games: The show received a PC game adaptation which is considerably milder than the show. Ramsay looks very odd (Spoony's description was that he looks like he's made of Play-Doh) and doesn't swear or even really raise his voice unless you deliberately screw up repeatedly. There is no competition factor, and seating people is one of the challenges. The game isn't really bad per se -- as Spoony pointed out, it would be pretty decent for an iOS app or a free flash game -- but it isn't worth the $30 asking price.
 * Rescued From the Scrappy Heap: Bobby from Season 4. In the first service of that season he was assigned to be the Blue Team's captain, and screwed up royally, to the extent that Ramsay took the captain's badge off him and gave it to Louross halfway through the service. The only real reason he survived elimination that week was because he was put up against Dominic, who was probably the worst chef ever to have appeared on the show until that point. In the following weeks he improved, though, and was named the Best of the Worst in the fourth service. After that he became one of the more liked chefs from that season's bunch, to the point where many fans were genuinely upset when he got kicked off the show in favor of Jen.
 * Small Name, Big Ego: Roughly a quarter to half of the competitors on any given season. Despite the fact that the highest most of them have ever climbed to is a position as line chef, many have no problems ranting about how wrong Chef Ramsay is, how he doesn't know anything, and he'd best just give them their restaurant now and forget about the rest of the competition.
 * Joseph from Season 6, full stop. Not only did he mouth off in episode 1, he spent episode 2's reward challenge being a total Jerkass for no other reason than he felt like it. He then lost it when Gordon asked him for the nominees, culminating in
 * Ben from Season 5, despite putting an amazing number of dishes in the bin for being inedible and constantly getting a deer in headlights look when it picked up, took offense to Danny calling himself the best chef on the Blue team and ranted how Danny 'couldn't even cook his cock.' Point of reference,  Also a master of the Long Speech Tea Time.
 * Louie from Season 6, a diner owner who served Gordon sausage gravy with biscuits and was so utterly clueless that Gordon kicked him off the show part way through the first dinner service.
 * Andrea from Season 5, despite being a consistently terrible performer constantly belittled other people for the tiniest mistakes and acted like her shit didn't stink despite being a constant bane of sending food out. Her egotism ran wild and she often yelled the loudest for no better reason than to do it.
 * Jen from Season 4, who was basically a combination of S5's Andrea and Ben, but louder. She actually had the audacity to ask Ramsay for a letter of recommendation when she was brought back in the finale to help the finalists, and honestly believed that if she performed well enough Gordon would change his mind and name her the winner.
 * She also liked to proclaim that Chef Ramsay is wrong whenever he disapproved of her cooking and that he didn't know what he was talking about, or who he was talking to.
 * Seth from Season 5. He came across as a stalker for Chef Ramsay (knowing all of his personal information), and thought that if he read his books and visited his restaurants, he could cook just like him. In fact, he served Chef Ramsay ratatouille with honey in it, and was a consistently terrible performer in services, eventually being eliminated quite early on.
 * Tennille from Season 6. Though she started strong being one of only two women whose signature dish Gordon liked (though Tek had been chucked, so it isn't quite the badge of honor), she went on to fall straight through the floor. She screamed in her confessionals like it made up for not saying it to the person, and underperformed on a consistent basis. When confronted about her mistakes and shortcomings, she flipped out like someone dropped a racial slur on her, even going so far to cuss out Gordon despite her miscues messing everything. Needless to say, if she cooked as well as she gabbed, she'd be the best chef in the universe.
 * In the same season, Suzanne also shaped up to be an egomaniac, though more oblivious and/or in denial and not claiming to be the best chef. Despite her being yelled at the most in her team when it comes to screwing up in dinner service and despite her team openly telling Ramsay (several times) in front of Suzanne that she sucked and was not a team player, Suzanne just acted like they didn't know what they were talking about or insisted that she could cook well, despite her screwing up the most. On one occasion, she even openly challenged Ramsay's decision to name the Blue Team the winners, despite the fact that they had fewer chefs and still finished well over a minute ahead of the Red Team.
 * Keith from Season 2. In a slight subversion he was actually a very good chef, easily as good as that season's winner, Heather. Unfortunately his terrible attitude killed off any chance he had of winning, as he constantly mouthed off to Ramsay during services, and when Ramsay chose to put Virginia through to the final instead of him, Keith exploded, accused Ramsay of having a hard-on for Virginia and told him to go fuck himself. To be fair, most of the viewing audience were thinking the same thing as Keith, but he was a real dick about it, even considering the circumstances.
 * Scott in season 7. He had "experience" compared to the rest of the line and constantly used this as a crutch on why he should never be eliminated, despite his screw ups. Every time Scott botched something, either he stayed quiet or passed the blame to someone else, yet he was very eager to run his mouth whenever someone else on the team was messing up. The rest of the red team (which he was punted to) eventually snapped and let him know that all he did was talk about how good he was, but never actually showed it. Ramsay finally had enough of Scott's "my shit don't stink" attitude and eliminated him.
 * To a lesser extent, Fran from the same season. While she wasn't as egotistical as Scott, she constantly complained about her teammates not performing up to scratch, yet refused to ever accept any responsibility for her failings as a cook, constantly blaming either the fact that she's a kosher chef, or her team-mates for not telling her what to do properly (even when we're talking simple stuff like carving chicken). Even after she was nominated for elimination more times than anyone else in the history of the show, she refused to take the hint.
 * Ben as well in season 7. He loved to act like as if his experience automatically made him the better cook, but when it came to working with the others, he pretty much shuts down and focuses only on himself, pissing off everyone else.
 * Raj acted this way in season 8, partly because he was older than the other contestants (nearly 50), but he was up for elimination in both of the first two episodes and never really did contribute meaningfully, so his posturing about being "THE BEST!" was ridiculous. Upping the Narm factor, while doing said posturing at the end of the second episode, he actually fell and hit the Confession Cam. It wasn't very surprising when he was axed the following week.
 * Also in season 8 was Sabrina, who was the youngest contestant (only 22) and frequently the most clueless. She also managed to alienate pretty nearly everyone around her with her attitude and ego; she constantly told the Confession Cam how she was so much better than everyone else and they were just jealous and out to get her. She also claimed on numerous occasions that the pre-service prep work was beneath her... despite the fact that her day-to-day job is as a prep chef. Adding together the numerous mistakes (she was nominated for elimination more times than anyone else in the whole season), her poisonous attitude, and her constant attempts to manipulate Ramsay and the other chefs in her favor, it was quite astonishing that she made it to the final six.
 * Russell managed a late claim to this status in Season 8, in the final episode..
 * Season 9's Brendan was a short-lived version of this. After the blue team was taken to Palm Springs for winning a challenge, Ramsay invited each of them to tell him about their long-term ambitions. Brendan talked at length about how much his family loved his cooking and how he had a hereditary 'tradition of greatness' to live up to.
 * Also from season 9: Elise, so very much.
 * They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Jean-Philippe not returning to the show for season 8 for some mysterious reason (being replaced with another guy with a similar accent) had several fans spouting this trope.
 * Unofficial word is that Jean-Philippe may eventually be back - he was called away to deal with a situation in one of Ramsay's restaurants in Africa. However, as of season 9, James is still the maitre'd.
 * Ramsay has now stated via his Twitter that JP will be back for season 10.
 * Subverted, it would seem, as James is still Maitre'd as of season 10.
 * Too Cool to Live: In a non-fatal example, Cha Ji-Hyun, due to her twisted ankle.
 * Averted with Dave, who went on despite his injuries,.
 * Also averted with Kevin, also from Season 6, who went on despite his injuries
 * Antonia was eliminated in the first episode of season 8 when she collapsed in the kitchen due to a severe migraine. Her exact fate was never explained on-camera, but when Ramsay arrived for the elimination round, he announced that he had just gotten off the phone with the hospital and she would not be returning. (He also announced that he still intended to eliminate someone else.)
 * Jason in season 9, who managed to impress Ramsay with tacos, appeared to be an all-around great chef and had a beard worthy of a Viking; unfortunately, he suffered the same fate as Antonia. After starting to have trouble breathing in the prep for the first service, he was rushed to the hospital and never came back.
 * Unfortunate Implications: In season six, when Joseph stormed out during blue team eliminations, Chef Ramsay still went ahead and eliminated a male chef. After the next dinner service, which the red team failed, when it was time for him to eliminate someone he eliminated... nobody. Because of Joseph storming out, he claimed that would count as the night's elimination, even though Joseph left from the men's team when the men were up for elimination. To some it came off as proof of Ramsay's Positive Discrimination towards female chefs.
 * Both sides were up for elimination, and he eliminated Tony for episode 2 and Joseph for episode 3. The next two eliminations were women too.
 * in Season 8, first episode:
 * Some viewers considered Chef Ramsay's "she should stick to changing diapers" comment after eliminating Shayna to have more than a touch of this, especially considering she had been nowhere near the worst cook that week.
 * There were more than a few accusations of racism after the second service of Season 7, when two black chefs (Autumn and Jason) were nominated despite being not the worst on their teams. In reality this probably wasn't the case, since Autumn had severely pissed off her team-members during the challenge and the service (not that she deserved to be nominated, having said that), and Jason was the second worst cook on the blue team (the worst being Mikey, who eventually got eliminated despite not being nominated). Oddly enough, there wasn't any kind of reaction like this after the second service of Season 6, where the red team nominated both of the black women that were on the team, while one of the men's nominees happened to be the only gay man there that season.
 * Wangst: Lacey from Season 5, who had a tendency to start whining and crying after performing poorly, and would frequently complain about how her teammates hated her (in reality, it was this that was the cause of most of it).
 * Elise from Season 9 would immediately start to cry if her team lost a challenge, or if it looked like she might be eliminated. Because of this, you'd usually see her tear up at least once an episode.
 * What an Idiot!: Season 6's Joseph during his Elimination Statement, saying that anyone would be proud to hire him...immediately after he blew up on national television, displaying a horrendous temper and an inability to follow instructions. (Oh, and threatened to beat up his boss, I'm sure that would go over great in interviews.)
 * Ramsay even commented "What an idiot."
 * The Woobie: In season 7, Salvatore was tasked with taking orders from the diners. His orders came in written incomprehensibly. Ramsay screamed at him: "Didn't you go to school?!" and Salvatore replied: "No, Chef." He explained after he arrived in America, he only worked to help his family and never went to school. Ramsay was so stunned he stopped scolding him and just sorta told him: "Just take your time."
 * Season 10's Barbie is this in the eyes of some fans, and only two episodes in, no less. At least one third of the red team (ESPECIALLY Tiffany) absolutely explodes anytime she does something. Barbie is not the best chef by any means, but her mistakes aren't any worse than the rest of the red team's mistakes.
 * Though many would argue the rest of the team has good reason to dislike Barbie, as her I'm Not Here to Make Friends attitude was counter-productive to the rest of the team and certainly didn't help them much during service, and Ramsey has repeatedly stressed that working as a team is VERY important if you want to do well and that trying to be a lone wolf won't get you very far, so it's not at all surprising she was put up for elimination.