It follows from recent results of V. Bakhtin, R. Oleinik, and the second named author that, given a metric space $\mathcal{X}$, a continuous map $γ\colon [a,b] \to \mathcal{X}$ is a map of bounded variation if and only if $f \circ γ$ is a function of bounded variation for every Lipschitz function $f\colon\mathcal{X} \to \mathbb{R}$. In this note, we show that the continuity assumption is of crucial importance: for many interesting examples of metric spaces there are no analogs of that characterization without the continuity assumption on $γ$. The interesting examples are: $\ell_2$, infinite metric trees, and Laakso-type spaces. However, for ultrametric spaces the said characterization holds without any continuity assumptions.