[16x02] January 30th, 2011

[16x02] January 30th, 2011


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I can't believe some of you are actually bitching about the Mexican comments...

Overall nothing special, but i liked it.
 
Where I'm from, there are two types of Mexicans: The illegal ones, who are very hard-working and can be hired to fix things on your house or your farm (they tend to work hard so they can make as much money as possible for their families, good people really), and the legal ones, who are very lazy, can't drive, don't learn English and live off of welfare.

That may sound racist, but unfortunately, it's true.

Mexican is a nationality. Hispanic is a race. If anything, it's xenophobia, not racism.

Anyway. Episode was a bit "meh", though I did enjoy bits and pieces of the Ashes as I've not watched it since downloading TG Australia's take. For those who haven't seen it, I encourage you to download it, as the Aussie POV is much better than the UK one (at least IMO), and you get to see some of the stuff the Aussies had to do that didn't make it to original recipe TG.
 
Mexican is a nationality. Hispanic is a race. If anything, it's xenophobia, not racism.

Anyway. Episode was a bit "meh", though I did enjoy bits and pieces of the Ashes as I've not watched it since downloading TG Australia's take. For those who haven't seen it, I encourage you to download it, as the Aussie POV is much better than the UK one (at least IMO), and you get to see some of the stuff the Aussies had to do that didn't make it to original recipe TG.

I didn't even know the Aussie version came out already. Anyone have an HTTP download link?
 
Yeah, it aired back in September. :) They're on the FTPs, but give me a bit and I'll do a normal upload.

EDIT: Check the Video Offers section.
 
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Boris was more entertaining than I thought he would be. Do you think nothing will come from the speeding admission in Italy way back?

Doubt it. TG is hardly a bastion of fact, truthfulness, and understatement, is it?

I was not sure what he was refering to about how UK cars having their pedals the wrong way?

Nor was anyone else, I think!
 
I was kind of blah about the whole episode. It was OK. Didn't really think the extra helping of racism was funny during the news, but I can't really get offended by people who are so moronic. It's like being offended by the KKK. You just have to laugh at how ignorant they are. I gave it a 6.
 
Kind of felt like a Season 14 episode to me, which isn't a good thing. GTO review wasn't very engaging and the Ashes challenge lacked a certain sparkle. 5/10

To its credit, I did enjoy Becker as a guest, and the News was hilarious! First time in a while that I've genuinely cringed at something Clarkson has said, and his 'Knock yourself out' gag had me in stitches. No way I'm going to pan the season just for this one episode.
 
A bit of a reaction

A bit of a reaction

Hello everyone,

It's great to see some comments supporting the mexican food and some others inviting to calm down, wisely remembering us that TopGear usually bashes many countries (even their own) and their stereotypes.

0201_141341ch.jpg


0201_141353ch.jpg


Well, now I'm afraid that it may have gone too far and may have caused a bit of a reaction. :?

Today, I was watching the news at Teleformula Channel, and they mentioned the bit of news in TopGear that has generated many complains. They invited Leo Zuckerman, a political advisor to talk about this issue, he commented how this is something that souldn't be taken seriously, but with a sense of humor commented that the mexican embassador, may be a little bit more angry than anyone because he was referred as lazy.

I have no doubt that the BBC has received many complaints by now, most of them by the embassador. :p

I just hope everything stops here.
 
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Everyone should lighten up. That is about all. It was funny as was bringing in the Aussie guys in a prison transport.
 
victorloya-
Thanks for the screen caps.
You should see the comments over at The Guardian.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/201...an-ambassador?commentpage=all#end-of-comments

Edit
I probably shouldn't copy and paste from The Guardian but this is just too damn funny:

"Maybe they could make amends by hosting a one-off special from Ciudad Juarez and repeat their comments (in English and Spanish of course) through loudspeakers while standing in the plaza mayor without any police protection or bodyguards...

Next day headlines: 3 dumb gringos found beheaded at Mexico-US border crossing"
 
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Everyone should lighten up. That is about all. It was funny as was bringing in the Aussie guys in a prison transport.

The TG guys often make jokes about Aussies but we don't complain.Maybe it's because we have a sense of humour,unlike people from certain other countries.
Even the Poms have a good laugh when people joke about them.People need to lighten up and not take the TG jokes so seriously.
 
I'm a bit on the fence about the Mexico stuff, really. On one hand, you do have to wonder "How far is too far?". On the other hand, they've made fun of various nationalities for years -- Australians, Americans, French, Dutch, Germans -- and no one from any of those countries (higher-ups or otherwise) have said a thing. How many Mexicans watch Top Gear anyway? And are they familiar enough with the show to realize this?

Plus, there's the fact, as mentioned, that the boys play up various bits of their personality for the cameras and the audience. I bet if you asked either of the three what they really think, without a camera in their face, you'll likely get very different responses from what we'd see on telly. To add, Jeremy once said, in regards to his columns at least, that he doesn't believe what he writes. Somehow, I suspect that translates to what he says on television, too.
 
I'm a bit on the fence about the Mexico stuff, really. On one hand, you do have to wonder "How far is too far?". On the other hand, they've made fun of various nationalities for years -- Australians, Americans, French, Dutch, Germans -- and no one from any of those countries (higher-ups or otherwise) have said a thing. How many Mexicans watch Top Gear anyway? And are they familiar enough with the show to realize this?

Plus, there's the fact, as mentioned, that the boys play up various bits of their personality for the cameras and the audience. I bet if you asked either of the three what they really think, without a camera in their face, you'll likely get very different responses from what we'd see on telly. To add, Jeremy once said, in regards to his columns at least, that he doesn't believe what he writes. Somehow, I suspect that translates to what he says on television, too.

I agree with what you say, and they may have said what they did to create controversy as it's part of the show's appeal. However, when talking about nationality, race, religion or ethnicity in the past they've never taken it this far. Richard actually said "I'm sorry but just imagine waking up and remembering you're Mexican." This goes beyond what could be termed making fun of something and dives headfirst into the realm of flat out bigotry. Richard's statement paints being a person who is Mexican as a negative thing. That's where the line was crossed more than anything else.

As for Mexicans seeing the clip, they've been posting in various places that a clip of the presenters speaking negatively about Mexicans was played in their news. I'd imagine that many may not watch Top Gear, but many have seen the clip and I'm sure are offended.

In the end though, this could all easily be mended with a public apology.
 
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good point

good point

Hello sherrygirl, you hava touch a very good point.

The truth is, Top Gear is only shown in BBC Entertainment, with 2 episodes per week (both shown twice). The reality is that very few people may acknowledge the presence of this channel, even less TopGear, and most of them, saw it first in Youtube.

I'm almost certain that 95% of people complaining never had heard before yesterday the name TopGear. And now, most of them are demanding that the show must apology and some others are demanding its cancellation, they even created a Facebook group page (106 members by now).

The problem here is that this may stigmatize the BBC brand in Mexico.

I just hope that things settle down.
 
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On behalf of all Australia. I would like to apologies for the quality of this top gear episode

You now clearly understand how us the Aussies feel about our version of top gear. Sort embarrassment and lost feeling

However I have Good News...... There isn't any new episodes of Top Gear Australia being made

Unless Top Gear UK recycles the the Shane Warne content cause Clarkson included

Sorry MATE but you are not speaking on my behalf.
They, Clarkson & crew have had years to gel together so give our boys more that 4 episodes to get a repour going. MATE.

As for the quality of the episode it would make better TV if Clarkson wasn?t so one eyed about everything.

What would make a good special is for Top Gear to enter a car in the Bathurst 1000 like they have in some other races that would sort the Clarkson?s from the race drivers.haha
 
This was a very Meh episode for me. The GTO segment was pretty good, but the rest was forgettable. The cheating on the aussie segment was funny at times, but I found myself more curious about what would have happened if everything was legit. It became way too predictable almost immediately. But the rally race was awesome, so the segment is redeemed a bit.

7/10, most of it was around a 2-3, but the rally race and GTO were a solid 9-10.

The context of the Australian bit was that it was already aired prior to the most recent (and last apparently) seasons of TG AUS. It was the first episode with the two newer hosts and Steve and it was all meant to be a loose comparison of car culture between the two countries.

IMO if they took it "seriously", TG AUS would probably lose anyway because two of the 3 guys don't have extensive driving experience and would probably be outclassed by the TG UK trio.
 
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