'American Special' Complaints: BBC Response

Americans seem to be really patriotic people. I can see how it hurts them when Clarkson says these mean things. I don't think he'll stop doing it though, he's just too damn stubborn. I also don't know what to say to Ventura6. He's obviously a Top Gear fan, but gets hurt by what Clarkson says about his country. I hope he doesn't abondon Top Gear because of this.

I can only see more of this America bashing as Top Gear becomes more of an entertainment show and less of a car show.

I really think some of Clarkson's car reviews were a lot funnier than some of his adventures on the side, the Porsche Carrera GT review was hilarious and so was the Ford Focus RS.
 
This is like the people who think professional wrestling is real. It's entertainment, that's what Top Gear is intended to be. It's intended to be entertainment for a British audience.

If Clarkson wasn't entertaining, there wouldn't be a 20 year wait to get to be in the studio audience of Top Gear and the show probably wouldn't even be on the air.

Also, I think turn about is fair play. I mean I see a lot of American television that in some way, shape, or form pokes fun at some aspect of British culture. And what about both of our television programs making fun of the French?

We all need to be able to laugh at ourselves in order to make it through life, IMO, and I thought the episode did play on stereotypes but was also quite funny. I didn't take it seriously at all.

All of that being said, I also feel that if you want to have a discussion about the episode on this forum, discussing what you thought was offensive or not offensive, you should also be allowed to do so. This place is to discuss Top Gear, and that is what we are doing.
 
Well, turning the TV off is the second step. The first is complaining.:p

When Clarkson says that Americans are all a bunch of dumb, rude, chubsters, the appropriate remedy is not to automatically abandon the show you've loved for years, but to make your position known, and give it another shot next week.

Telling people to turn off the show is similar to the asinine position taken by so many of these American truck driving, whore seeking, mulleteers with regards to their nation in general. "Love it or leave it," they say. Turning the TV off is physically simple, but when you spend so much time downloading the show, telling all your friends about it (only to look like a dork), and watching it, with so much of it left over to enjoy, it's emotionally difficult.

So many of us Americans are put between a rock and a hard place when Clarkson makes these comments (and apparently means them). We either shut off the TV, which we don't want to do because there is still 99% of the show there to like, or we come here, to our only outlet, and let the BBC know that the joke is played. It's been played. But we still watch, hoping maybe that one day, Clarkson will abandon his venomous adjectives, if not the actual thought.

The complaints are a testament to the show's greatness.

dude, dont be such a pussy. the show is perfect the way it is. the problem is the anal retentive psuedo-open minded america that the world has grown to hate.

TG ain't broke (although clarkson can't tell the diff between a 4.0 V6, 4.6 S/C, and 5.4 S/C cobra engine on the roush vs shelby bit) the main problem is the same problem i face every day in this country:

completely dead from the neck up retards hell bent on pushing their self inflicted stupidity off on everybody else.

F that.
 
""This particular show was an American special where Jeremy, Richard and James travelled to Florida in order to prove that fly-drive holidays can be more fun if you buy a car instead of renting one."

I once had airline tickets and a oldsmobile hired at Dulles airport for a fortnight in Virginia. That comment presses all the right buttons, the "holiday" they had or rather what was depicted on screen looks a lot more fun. Honestly it looks to me like a perfect holiday/
 
I also don't know what to say to Ventura6. He's obviously a Top Gear fan, but gets hurt by what Clarkson says about his country. I hope he doesn't abondon Top Gear because of this.

dude, dont be such a pussy

It isn't that I'm hurt, or a pussy. Annoyed is more like it. There is a reason the thread discussing this episode is over 1,000 posts long now. I'm not going to stop watching the show, because there is a lot to like. And Clarkson's comments are only relevant because he is so respected, not only here or the UK, but the world over.

It's an issue, and it's been discussed. I won't be talking about it any more. Stick a fork in me; I'm done.
 
When we (the brits) take the piss out of the US or Australia it's only because we like you. The French - they just deserve it :)

quoted for truth. USA, aus. and the UK are like second cousins that don't really get along but will join in with the fun if somebody screws with any of em hard enough.

the french are like paris hilton. overrated, smelly, and probably a carrier of herpes.
 
dude, dont be such a pussy. the show is perfect the way it is. the problem is the anal retentive psuedo-open minded america that the world has grown to hate.

TG ain't broke (although clarkson can't tell the diff between a 4.0 V6, 4.6 S/C, and 5.4 S/C cobra engine on the roush vs shelby bit) the main problem is the same problem i face every day in this country:

completely dead from the neck up retards hell bent on pushing their self inflicted stupidity off on everybody else.

F that.

I agree.

Your S13 is also the exact color my S13 was, and I should be adding a CircuitSports exhaust this spring - glad to see it tucks up so nicely.

-Justin
 
Great news. I'll be pointing some new england 240 guys to your site, since pics of an installed CS exhaust are almost impossible to find.... I can't wait for spring.

-Justin
 
I actually traded my N1 Dual for a stock exhaust a couple of years ago when I swapped in the SR. I have been waiting ever since for a less obvious exhaust with dual tips to come out. By the time I found the CS, I was already packing the car up for the winter.

-Justin
 
I found the episode entertaining, and I'm an American. Who the hell is complaining about the show anyway? It doesn't even air in this country! If you don't like it then don't download it, it's not like you can just run across it while channel surfing.

That being said, it would be nice to hear something positive about my country come out of Clarkson's mouth. The only time he says anything positive is to highlight something he sees as a failure. I'm not complaining about his views, everyone is entitled to his opinion, but it would be nice once in a while. Although there is quite a bit of truth to what Clarkson says, there is much about our country that he overlooks.

No speed cameras (except around Phoenix) for one thing.
 
he's just a guy with an opinion. the problem with our country right now is that everybody is so busy trying to coddle everyone that we've forgotten what it means to have FREEDOM. all these sue happy jerkoffs have ruined that.

freedom of speech does not protect the speech you love so much as it protects the speech you hate. PC is for people who lack the spine to find what they should stand up for so they settle for laying down with the masses.

america is a shell of its former self. i hope she remembers what it means to be alive before its too late.
 
Yeah but the show isn't made for you - it's made for a BRITISH audience and is also paid for by that same BRITISH audience.

If an American decides to go and download it for free from a torrent site and they don't like the content - that's your problem.

x1000!
 
If an American decides to go and download it for free and complain about the content on a website created, owned, and operated by an American - That's your problem.

With due respect, who owns this website (and what nationality they are of), is irrelevant. It has no bearing on the desire to change TG, or rather Clarkson and his motor mouth.
 
I wonder how many complain about Ray Mears when he does the same thing. Except he would hunt the cow down and kill it with his bare hands.

None. Because Ray's a nice lad, inne?
Actually, he'd shoot it with a telescopic rifle. Because that's what he did with a deer on Ray Mears' Wild Food a few weeks back.

(No, they didn't show the bullet hitting the deer. However, they did show him carrying it, then throwing it down, cutting into it and pulling the liver out to cook & eat, then later cooking the rest of it in a couple of ways.)
 
my question is, for the U.S. being such a big place, how come Top Gear is only interested in the south? is that the only place that they can find something to complain about? I mean come one, i'm already bored with all the jokes about the south, try northern U.S. for a change? or is that too difficult? the other thing is, alot of the south has some of the most boring scenery in the U.S. please expand your horizons and open your minds to the rest of a truely beautiful continent, even venture into canada... if you've got the guts.
 
this is a HUUUUGE point i would like to make now that i've just started reading the discussion page. It's something i've thought about for a while due to the way that Clarkson bashes different places.

How scary was this episode???

*cancels holiday to America*

there are enough people out there that take what he says seriously when it's really meant to be a joke that it causes people to think he's actually right like the example i just gave. When you say America, you're talking about an entire continent. in the video they only covered 3 of 50 + states/regions of the U.S. and not to meantion Canada. That's just naive. Did you ever stop to think they chose those states as an example, then proceeded to show the worst those states had to offer? I mean seriously. take the time to travel Florida, some of the most beautiful sights you'll see. Not to meantion the beach life. (girls if you're dumb, and guys if you swing that way) America streaches from the Arctic down to basically the Equator and you choose to change your trip because of some stupid jokes pointing out the absolute worst flaws america has bassed on a T.V. show that let's face it, has been failing to be factual for the last few seasons.

i think Jeremy and crew say alot of the things they say not really taking into consideration the education level of the audience and thus it creates bad vibes and people believe jokes. the end result is attitudes like the example i gave.

for them to have found the worst part of town, they would have had to reasearch it and locate it to be able to find it like they did, they just don't stumble over something like that by accident.

I don't take the comments personally, i just wish the show would use them more wisely. it's kinda sad, makes me feel like a grade 1 student when the cool kid in the class says, "jeff has coodies!!!!" and everyone in the class believes him. then the kind has an inferiority complex for the next 3 grades while everyone is still scared of him till they forget.


in my eyes, the episode wasn't as stupid as the good the bad the ugly. that was just lame.

this eppisode actually had some entertainment value and a good point at the end about how new orleans has really just been forgotten about, which is really sad.
 
Top