Joe, what these guy did was clearly the epitome of bad taste, and designed to irritate, but doesn’t the man who refuses to react win the game? Isn’t there enough hate and violence in the world without adding to it simply because someone insulted you? Who guaranteed to us a right not to be insulted?
If a Brit says he’s coming to visit “the colonies”, why should that insult you? We won, remember? Interpreting that comment as an insult to those who fought and died for our freedom is really stretching it IMHO. That is being way, way too easily insulted.
^Well, it comes across that way to me. A lot of better men than he bled and died not to be called “colonies,” and a Brit casually using that term TODAY is mildly offensive.
@VDCdriver…you REALLY need to work on your reading comprehension! THE SENTENCE IMMEDIATELY PROCEEDING my remark QUOTED Mr. Clarkson; it’s patent I was referring to him there, NOT you! TSMB had NO trouble grasping what you “whiffed” at.
(If you care to be pedantic--and I suspect you do--I really ought to have used "one" vs. "you" there...but nobody really talks like that!)
I suspect that this thread will be closed down imminently, but before it is shut down…
NO, it was not patently clear that you were referring to that Clarkson buffoon.
When you used “you’re”, I rightly inferred that you were referring to me.
Yes, TSMB is right on target, and he seems “to get it”–as do I.
Once again…you really don’t seem to want to deal with the issue of folks who undoubtedly consider themselves to be “good Christians”, but whose behavior while on camera is anything but Christian. I would hate to think what that mob might have done if they weren’t being filmed.
I find it hard to believe that anyone could mistake FKL for FaLKlands. It seems to me that FLK would be more like it. And 646 = 649 in reality? Wow. This conspiracy theory is sublime.
And on the subject of the show: Many of the road show segments remind me of the 3 Stooges. The test segments are great; I love the Veyron top speed tests with Captain Slow at the wheel. The one thing that the U.S. Top Gear trio do well is emulate the 3 Stooges in their road show segments. I guess the two shows have that in common.
I might add that the Top Gear presenters are the epitome of political incorrectness and that puts a lot of fun into the show for me even if they do happen to dig at the colonies I live in or my mostly Scottish and German heritage.
Being born in the Deep South I was not offended by their jaunt through there or the way the South came across as there are people like that everywhere. I’ve been to every part of the country except New England and have seen the hicks in the pickup type in all sections including the Los Angeles area when I lived out there.
Not everyone in or from the Deep South is a tobacco chawin’ 3rd grade dropout hillbilly. Some of us grageeated the 4th grade and know what a liberry is…
The Top Gear guys are not biased; everyone and everything is fair game including each other and themselves. The easier question might be who have they NOT insulted?
Points well made, OK4450. It should be noted that the English (and for that matter, the Great Britain and European countries in general) stretch the wings of their humor far more widely than we do. We here are too afraid to offend someone. They aren’t. They have fun. I happen to love England and found it to be a country of truly decent people. English villages are what I imagine American towns were like in the late 1800s, except with modern technology. They’re very family and community oriented, very open and welcoming, and very community oriented. Families gather at the pubs for a good meal and a relaxing evening of socializing. Three generations work at the same place. Their form of government is far more open than ours has evolved into. England is a great country. We just rebelled and won our own freedom. The reasons were complicated and I should point out that they’re no longer applicable. England has changed too.
I can tell you that there is as much racism in new England as there is in the south, if not more. not just against non Europeans either. the whole mayflower crowd can be very snooty. and ride thru southy with some anti irish slogans and see what happens…
Over the past 35+ years working in my career I’ve worked with people from England. One time many many years ago one of the managers came across the pond to give a presentation on what our British counter parts are doing. He starts the meeting off with something - “It’s nice to finally visit the colonies.”…and went down hill from there. It was all in fun and down right hilarious. This guy could have been a stand comic. At the end of his presentation we were all saying “God Save the Queen”.
And with top gear…their show is informative, but it is also very funny. And I’m 100% positive the comment about the colonies was in jest…I thought it was funny…And I’m Irish decent (southern Ireland). The war happened over 200 years ago…get over it.
Truth be told…I don’t care for “Top Gear” at all. My favotite British automotive related show is “Wheeler Dealers” because I can relate to Mike and Edd both. I don’t relate to any of the hosts of Top Gear in the least. I also favor short, blue eyed blondes over red heads and brunettes (my wife made me mention that). Those differences make the world go around.
Seems Comcast has bbc America stuff in the ondemand menu. Found the top gear episode. Still haven’t figured out what they were doing getting stuck on the beach segment.
Wes, I’m disappointed, I didn’t realize you were so racist against the “Mayflower crowd” in New England. You should get to know us. You might even like us.
@wesw: I did not mean to give offense to you or the many enlightened, intelligent people that live down south. There are certainly parts of some southern states you couldn’t pay me enough to live in. (and I’m sure I wouldn’t fit in or be welcome either) There are also quite a few areas in my home state and other parts north of the Mason-Dixon line where I’d never want to live. If Jeremy Clarkson and crew had driven their vehicles on the East side of my city, it’s at least as likely they would have met with violence as in the backwater they were in, and if we were giving IQ tests, I have little doubt a lot of our folks would fall short of that berg too. It’s disrespectful to come to someone’s home and provoke them, but it’s just as shameful to respond in force and not be able to take a joke. If people are so inflexible and reactionary that they are willing to do violence over a half-understood slogan, or because something looks different than what they’re used to, they’re not much better than ISIS.
Basically I just don’t much care for intolerant, provincial, lazy people with more misdirected pride than brains. Flag me for off-topic if you’d like, but I wanted to get that out there.
For the longest time, Finalgear.com used to have every episode of top gear in all its various flavors downloadable via bit torrent. You could get every episode after it aired on BBC 2 in its uncut/unedited for USA format. I remember watching TG:UK episodes before they came on BBC America. In July, they received a DMCA to take their content down.
One of the things that stuck out from season 1, back with black stig and the fat guy, was they reversed the motorcycle jumping over bussed gig. They jumped a greyhound sized buss over a bunch of motorcycles, and when it landed, they had the bus back up and crush the ones left standing.
Hulu has some TG spisodes, but even with a paid subscription to hulu plus, they still make you watch adverts every now and then while you’re watching something.
IMHO ALL “reality” TV is scripted. Top Gear is no exception. The cameramen have to get there somehow too. Don’t get me wrong. I like the British version of Top Gear. The US version is another matter.
Denise McCluggage, editor emeritus of Auto Week Magazine who still writes a column now and then, was asked to participate in an American Top Gear segment where “little old ladies” drove fast cars, supposedly slowly. After I saw it, I suggested that she might have enjoyed being one of those ladies. NOOO! She’d turned them down. Ms McCluggage drove HER OWN Ferrari in the 24 hour LeMans race in 1957 or '58, dated Steve McQueen for a while, and knew Carroll Shelby well. She rejected the Top Gear idea out of hand. No way she was going to lose a race against Rutledge Wood. She says she hates the US show. Too inane. But she likes the British version.
I was unaware that TopGear ever presented itself as “reality TV”… which, as you say, is scripted and pretend anyway. There’s nothing real about “reality” TV. The only TV I’ve ever seen that actually presented reality were documentaries on PBS. And NOVA. And perhaps “Cops”, although I suspect they behave differently when being filmed.
I like the British TopGear. I’ve never seen the U.S. version, but I haven’t heard many good things about it. I’ve heard that the lawyers and censors wield an obvious heavy hand over it.
I think that Top Gear is just like The Bachelor, Big B®other, Survivor of whatever, and all of that genre’ of shows that were supposedly unscripted. Top Gear is certainly more “reality” than any weekly series. “Reality” shows are shows that popped up during the lengthy writer’s strike a few years ago. For some reason, most of the public seems to think they still don’t use writers.
I see your point. I’ve just never thought of TopGear as being in the genre of “reality” shows. I’ve always thought of them as being openly scripted, rather than pretending they’re not.
Eh, I kinda like Pawn Stars. I think Rick is pretty close to “real life” as he’s portrayed…although obviously the incoming goods are heavily “salted” towards the historic and weird: reality would have a lot more addicts selling gaming systems of dubious ownership. He reminds me of myself in a lot of ways. (Chumlee’s clearly an exaggeration or outright fabrication–nobody could be THAT dumb and figure out how to breathe!)
As for Top Gear, I like the British version and actually like RH as he's portrayed--though he has moments where he seems like a "codpeice," to put it discreetly--I'm JUST saying that calling us "colonies" rubbed the wrong way, not that I'm out there burning Union Jacks!
