Dark Cloud over the Idyllic World of 'Top Gear'

Dauntless

Dauntless

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Dang, some lives seem so perfect, how could anything interfere? Such as someone with the dream job of hosting 'Top Gear.' Stories abound of all three of those guys having some nasty tempers, I guess we're finally finding out for sure.

http://www.autoblog.com/2015/03/10/top-gear-jeremy-clarkson-suspended-bbc-official/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmaing11%7Cdl21%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D625898
 
That guys a moron....did u see his reveiw of the tesla? i cant stand his mouth flapping..id like to punch him in the mouth.....lol

btw who says hes not a pedophile?---im lookin at u daniel....
 
I'm a supporter of the Beeb despite the management increasingly violating its founding rules require impartiality and engaging in left-wing politics. Clarkson definitely doesn't fit in with such a politically-correct crowd and I imagine he would have been sacked a long time ago if Top Gear wasn't, by far, their most profitable programme.

He was supposedly on his "final warning" following a number of controversial comments, having been spared by the personal intervention of the Director General.

The current allegation is that Clarkson punched a producer in an argument over catering at a shoot. However, said punch is only alleged, the police haven't been involved and it should be an internal disciplinary investigation. So why did the BBC immediately announce it to the press? It seems unusual and unprofessional.

Rumours abound that they simply using it as an excuse to try and get rid of him. Others that it's a scheme by Clarkson et al to leave the BBC under a cloud of public support and go to a satellite TV channel (Sky).

I'm not sure, but I'm confident that Top Gear wouldn't have been successful on a commercial station. If it moved now, it wouldn't be the same. The priorities would suddenly become minimum production costs and maximum advertising revenue. The excellent cinematography would lost and the content compromised to please advertisers.

That is the redeeming feature of the BBC - they still produce excellent programmes that are commercially unviable.

Anyway, Clarkson: He's apparently only punched one person before and it was Piers Morgan. Just on that basis I'm give might a knighthood and declare a public holiday.
 
The moment that show took a line against EV's, they chose the path of obsolescence.

Dead men walking, dead men talking. I can't believe someone still bothers hold a camera to capture the irrelevance.
 
luke u seem to be positioning yourself at the extreme end ..... hahaha

" He's apparently only punched one person before and it was Piers Morgan. "----ok now i hate him ALOT less :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
 
liveforphysics said:
The moment that show took a line against EV's, they chose the path of obsolescence. ...
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Possibly , but it may be a long path , as that series is one of the most popular shows on the box, and syndicated worldwide.
Clarkson is a bigoted asshole and always has been, but he is smart enough to understand his audience (cashed up petrol heads) and play to their expectations.
Personally I cannot watch the show these days, it's too stupid and full of Mega dollar cars that are unrealistic, but it obviously appeals to a large section of the population...but then so does the Kardashians ! :shock:
The Beeb are in a jam now, as the relative (total ?) failure of the spin off replica shows such as TG Australia , TG USA, etc shows how key Clarkson is to that program.
 
I emphasise that an organisation can't just let one prima donna do whatever they want because they're popular. Same with sports team: no player is bigger than the team.

Luke, a few weeks ago Clarkson did a back-to-back review of the new BMW M3 (supercharged V8) and the i8. He selected the i8 on the basis that despite its limitations it was the way of the future. He also mentioned the wastefulness of a car having both an electric and combustion engine.

I'm not a great advocate of his, but I thought it was a surprising conclusion for an ageing petrolhead representing the average man.

From what I recall the review of the Nissan Leaf was fair.

The issue with Tesla was predictable. I think that showed a cultural difference: Tesla lawsuit might not have been unusual in the litigious society that I believe the U.S. to be, but in the UK (and I suspect elsewhere, too) it made Tesla look petulant. I don't think Tesla have much interest in appearing on TG anyway - it's the wrong audience for them.
 
liveforphysics said:
The moment that show took a line against EV's, they chose the path of obsolescence.

Dead men walking, dead men talking. I can't believe someone still bothers hold a camera to capture the irrelevance.
Click to expand...


yeah they drew my dislike when they did an episode on making fun of cyclists, belittling them the entire show, as if we all should be driving cars around our cities.
 
I've been a Top Gear fan for a long time now, but I got to say, the last couple of seasons seem to be getting darker...

They've always joked around in the show about how they break each other's bawls and all, but it just seems to be getting too mean spirited for me.

And the episode where they went to the Falkland Islands? Hey...let's send a bunch of obnoxious british television hosts to a country we went to war with in the 80's. What could go wrong?

And yah, the whole episode dissing bicycles was funny at moments, but overall pretty obnoxious, considering bicycles beat every other mode of transportation in dense city centers hands down.

To be fair, Jeremy did say he liked the BMW i8....
 
veloman said:
yeah they drew my dislike when they did an episode on making fun of cyclists, belittling them the entire show, as if we all should be driving cars around our cities.
Click to expand...

The show is deliberately provocative and the humour sarcastic and "tongue in cheek" - dry. I doubt Clarkson is as much of a cock as his on-screen persona.

FWIW Hammond is a keen cyclist (and runner) and in the races that have involved a car/cycle/public transport, it's normally the bicycle that's shown to win. With the caveat that the cyclist arrives first but tired and sweaty, which is realistic from my own experience ;)

The whole show cannot and should not be taken seriously, something the presenters repeatedly point out.
 
granolaboy said:
. . . . the Falkland Islands? Hey...let's send a bunch of obnoxious british television hosts to a country we went to war with in the 80's. What could go wrong?
Click to expand...

Well, there is that drive through the U.S. Southern states with cars saying things they expected to create a stir. Now they CLAIM that there was trouble, but funny how they couldn't get an actual shot of it.

Instead of "Bible BASHING" they should have said 'Bible Thumping.'

[youtube]pKcJ-0bAHB4[/youtube]
 
I like the first comment on that article:

"They need to settle it like real men. Twitter feud."

I agree with Luke, can't watch that show, every time an ev comes on they rip it a new one, but everytime another new V8 that looks and drives identical to the same car the year before they praise it......straight Fuelish!
 
what makes the show isnt really the cars, they are just eye candy for the revheads, the show is about entertainment and they have worked out that people want to see them stumble and bumble while insulting someone or each other, and they do it well, be a sad day if it ends.
 
Top Gear is no more a legitimate car show than The Colbert Report was a legitimate news show. It was just 3 blokes being idiots on TV. And if you like British dry sarcastic humor, it's brilliant.

Top Gear's target audience is the average male automotive enthusiast. The average Male has an IQ of 100, Finds cyclist annoying, and thinks electric cars are expensive toys for the rich and nerdy. Getting mad when an entertainer lampoons cyclists or electric cars isn't going to solve anything.Likely, it will just polarize the issue, and those average male automotive enthusiasts will become intransigent in their belief that Cyclist should get off the road and take their battery powered toys with them.

Instead of getting mad, we need to laugh right along with them. share in the jokes and then make a few of our own. The way to seeing the end of the gas powered car is through their acceptance of the alternatives by the common man.

So how do we get that? Not through education. You can only educate people who are interested in learning. The common man doesn't care, he's had his opinion given to him by the media, and he's happy with it. Instead, you change people's minds by indoctrination. And taking a cue from Top Gear, the best way to do that is by making them laugh at the world from our perspective.

What we need TV show as stupid and brilliant as Top Gear, making fun of cars in general. A show that makes people laugh at the absurdities of those old pollutant farting dinosaurs on the road. Maybe even hosted by Jeremy Clarkson? He's just an actor, his opinions are only what the scripts say they are.

Since we need to appeal to the lowest common denominator, the message embedded in the humor needs to be simple. "Gas powered vehicles are silly" That's it. That's all we need. Just a push away from Gas by the masses, and the great social engine of our society will move on to the next popular thing. EV are ready to be that thing.
 
Looks like both him the show is gone according to some published rumours. :D Now all we need is the producer to bring assault charges against Clarkson and the symmetry will be complete.

It's a shambles that he got away with it for so long. Not the first time he punched someone either according to his Sunday Times column he hit some kid who was harrassing him six or seven years ago.
 
I suspect TG will not disappear . It's too much of a rating winner to let die just because of a presenter going rouge.
Remember 2 1/2 men with Charlie Sheene ?, no one thought it would work without him, but it went on for many more episodes.
TG existed before clarkson (35+ years ?) and with or without him it will stumble along....motoring shows have such a large audience sector, the Beeb cannot ignor it.
 
Well he is gone now for good despite one million loons signing a petition to reinstate him.

I hope the police start prosecuting all the threats that the producer received on Twitter. Some people are just insane and shouldn't be allowed to communicate in anything other than crayons and smoke signals.

Of course Hillhater you're correct. You could replace Clarkson with any run-of-the-mill wind up merchant and you wouldn't notice the difference. Maybe this time they won't get someone without a penchant for spouting racist remarks and hitting members of the production team. The BBC executive might also be smart enough to stop farming out the rights of their own content to television presenters in future. :roll:
 
We all know you shouldn't punch people in the workplace and an employer has little option but to sack someone for doing so.

There's something odd about the way that this has been reported in the media: that Clarkson arrived at a hotel late, because he'd kept a helicopter waiting for 2 hours while he drank in a pub. Discovering he couldn't have a steak he bawled out the producer, threatened to get him sacked and then punched him.

However, I read one report stating something quite different: James may had drank wine on the helicopter, but Clarkson didn't as he needed to work on a script that night. They arrived late because it had been a long day of filming and said producer had not provided sufficient producers for the day's shoot, turning it into a farce. No one had eaten all day and it turned out no hot food was available when they returned. Clarkson has recently separated from his wife and apparently has suffered some health issues. Now a bollocking for the producer (and threat of sacking) seems justified. Maybe he made some inflammatory comments in return that escalated the situation into a punch. It's still not justifiable, but would be a lot more understandable.

The truth may well lie somewhere in between.

About a week ago, ahead of the report into the incident, an anonymous source from BBC management also made a press statement comparing Clarkson to notorious paedophile, Jimmy Savile. Also stating that anyone defending him was enabling a comparable level of abuse. That's a pretty audacious statement for BBC management to make and amazingly unprofessional as an employer.
 
Oh, how many people have gone to prison solely as proxies for Savile? Rolf Harris, etc. Are the Savile accusations even true? After him dying before he was even accused of anything any other celebrity in England is guilty until there's no avoiding admitting he's innocent.
 
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