BBC Top Gear Inquisition

I just got the Series 21 DVD delivered yesterday, with the "slope" joke taken out.

Honestly? Going straight from bridge completion to ribbon cutting actually tightened the pace.

I think one of the reasons Ofcom came down so hard was that, because it was so gratuitous and therefore unnecessary, the writers were essentially buying trouble for nothing. Being offensive simply for the sake of being offensive. If it were done online, it would be called "trolling." In short, a poor decision.
 
I'm not sure how to word this response without using all kinds of racist terms, but I'll do my best

The word used is a racist term in American English, when used to describe an Asian person. It is similar to two other racist terms, one starting with g, and the other starting with ch, which I will not use here.

It is surprising that such a word can be racist when used to describe a member of a particular race in American English, but not in British English.
You see I have the G one, but that is only because it is on Films and some TV - we'd never ever say that, but the other one - eh?? French Indochina is not a place for us we had a different Empire and got our own racial slurs, thankfully almost never heard anymore.
 
I think I know the other slangs with g & ch...but, honestly, no one I've spoken to here had ever heard the sl word as being a racist insult.

Heck, I've heard g & ch (as well as the infamous n word, I think) on "All In the Family" reruns...don't recall hearing sl there, either. Actually, no...the n word was on the Jeffersons. (doesn't really matter, I suppose. Both were within the last 6 months, anyway) Funny how they don't bleep them out on the repeats of those shows, and there isn't a huge uproar.
 
You see I have the G one, but that is only because it is on Films and some TV - we'd never ever say that, but the other one - eh?? French Indochina is not a place for us we had a different Empire and got our own racial slurs, thankfully almost never heard anymore.

I'm not sure that most of the derogatory/racist terms that people from the US have for Asians have much to do with French Indochina. Most of them came from the 19th century on up to the Korean war. There was a large influx of Chinese people in the 1800's, many of whom worked building the railroads.
 
You can't remove the word from the context and get outraged because the word is said a loud, this says nothing about racism in fact it pretty much just says "I like being outraged and I've found a new excuse".
The Slope comment was a multilayered joke so just replacing it with any old word means the joke isn't funny anymore, First you've got the Bridge over the River Kwai thing going on and on top of that you have Hammond talking about the quality of the bridge and you also have the person walking across the bridge at the time.
They follow it up with the narration "We decided to ignore the slope" which could go either way and it's wrapped up, it wasn't presented in a hateful way and the person on the bridge was not portrayed in a derogatory fashion either they were just casually walking across the bridge.
I don't think this is going to come to a definitive point anytime soon so I'll just end that thought here.
 

I have to agree with most of that article.

It does appear though, that the report Danny Cohen commissioned on Top Gear has exhonerated the programme quite thoroughly.

From The Sunday Times today.

Top Gear faults ?lie with the bosses?
Richard Brooks, Arts Editor Published: 10 August 2014

TOP GEAR, the successful BBC2 programme recently embroiled in allegations of racism, has been praised as ?very professional and operating at the top of its game?.
A confidential report sent to Danny Cohen, director of television, says any faults
with the show, which attracts 5m viewers, lie more with senior managers, who have lost touch with how it is made, its aims and attitudes, according to sources.
The programme, which is seen in 170 countries and is one of BBC Worldwide?s biggest earners, was cleared last week of racism and bullying. Cohen had asked every member of the Top Gear team what they thought of the programme after two incidents earlier this year.
In May it was revealed that the main presenter, Jeremy Clarkson, was alleged to have mumbled the n-word when reciting the rhyme Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe, although it was never broadcast. An episode filmed in Burma then included a reference to a ?slope? as an Asian man walked across a wonky bridge. Two weeks ago the media regulator Ofcom ruled that Clarkson had deliberately used the word as a racially offensive term.
Cohen said Clarkson was not racist; nor were other members of the team. Top Gear was ?an extraordinary programme, loved by millions around the world?, he said. ? I want Top Gear to maintain its unique take, but more controversies of this nature would serve no one well.?
The BBC and Clarkson declined to comment.
 
[video=youtube;NXWBvB4U-cA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXWBvB4U-cA[/video]

Unless Clarkson is a very good actor and they have a very good editing team, he's never come off as racist to me. He's always cracking jokes and getting along with people anywhere they go.
How many white people would go up to a little group of black men in southern USA and start cracking jokes about one of them having golden teeth? Or the many times he's said something positive about the people wherever they're visiting?

It's all too far fetched to me. A witch hunt.
 
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I'm not sure that most of the derogatory/racist terms that people from the US have for Asians have much to do with French Indochina. Most of them came from the 19th century on up to the Korean war. There was a large influx of Chinese people in the 1800's, many of whom worked building the railroads.
There you see - I did not know. As I said we had our own racial slurs, some of which were so embedded that they appeared in nursery rymes 'Eeny, meeny, miny, moe', and Robertsons Marmalade adverts.

As I said before, thankfully normally never heard there days. Usually words only used by BNP style racists.
 
If Clarkson were really a racist:

-- would he have gone to Botswana for a family holiday, then returned there to shoot a Top Gear special?
-- would he have returned to Vietnam, 15 years after his first visit, then shot footage of the locals making a fool of him over starting a motor scooter?
-- would he have gone to the Middle East? India? Uganda? and allowed himself to be filmed interacting with the locals and acting dumber than them?

The thing to remember is that racists tend not to travel abroad, having little desire to confront other cultures on their own. Clarkson has not done that.
 
If all the smoke and heat produced by people fulminating about what Clarkson says could be bottled, it could fuel a new range of anger-fueled cars.
 
I heard about this and thought it was simply more easily butt-hurt people just out there to bring down Clarkson in any way they can. I then found the clip with the muttering and listened to it a few times...
Correct me if I'm wrong, but that "Eeny meeny" thing originated with "Tiger" and that is what I recall from very early days in grade school. I've not seen this argument levied yet, but I've not read through all the news articles either, but this seems so stupidly far-fetched and a shameful attempt to attack Clarkson.
It is true that Clarkson is outspoken and says controversial things, so "finding" the mumbled N-word which shares the same number of syllables and "ger" ending makes for a tasty morsel to try and stoke more fires against the man.

I am not trying to play devil's advocate here, but rather looking at it logically... If both words are muttered, mumbled or otherwise "hummed" without attention to actually forming the "T", I would think the results would be identical. Not everyone's method of muttering would be the same and there are other factors to consider like the sound quality, microphones and such, but has anyone seen where someone in the media has simply made this argument citing that original "Tiger" reference in that childhood pointy thing?

One must also consider the fact that Clarkson cannot be that monumentally stupid to say the ultimate racial slur on camera that brought down so many other celebrities in the past, let alone in front of an entire crew during a take that the intent is for print?
As for the "slope" thing, that was a term I have NEVER heard before and have no idea how it refers to Asian people... I am happy to be ignorant on that bit of racism and thank my parents for raising me in a way I can only WISH can be eventually bred out of people in this country.

I think forcing him to apologize for something that cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt just makes him look guilty and I feel that because Clarkson has let slip the tongue of war before, this is someone merely trying to say "See!!! Clarkson is evil and must be destroyed" like a silly child.
I feel that whomever made the claim in the first place that "heard" the N-Word in there MUST have had that version engrained into their mind from some point in THEIR life and therefore one must consider who is truly the racist in this case?

On top of all this, am I wrong in the assumption that the N-word as a racist term used by asshole white people is more rampant in America and NOT in the UK? I am not saying that it isn't used in the UK and that there aren't racists in the UK, but from my point of view it would seem SLIGHTLY more likely if someone claimed Rutledge Wood said it than Clarkson, but ONLY because of the stereotype of American southern culture. Not calling Wood a racist or picking on southern people, so please don't even head down that road with me as I am trying to make a reference using TG presenters and nothing more.

After all, we are talking about the British who beat the snot out of American GIs in pubs who wanted to kick black people out because of our American legacy of segregation and other horseshit that simply was not accepted in the UK during the war. It stands to reason that with Clarkson being a boomer, his parents and family being part of the generation that didn't tolerate that in the first place would be less likely to expose Clarkson to racism which is often something kids pick up and carry through their lives and thus would make it "easier" for them to blurt out BS like that. Not saying someone can't become racist on their own, but hardcore racists that would let slip something so easily generally hail from racist families and cultures where it was "common place" to say those things. I hope I am making sense...

Maybe I am slightly off-base in my thinking and I am certainly not claiming to know everything, but having grown up in a non-racist environment, I "heard" the word "Tiger" as that is what I grew up with as a white kid in a very diverse neighborhood and schools in Chicago. I have heard the racist version and still remember the kid who said it, where he came from and what his parents were like and how my parents said I shouldn't hang around with him.

I just think there is significant reasonable doubt based on many logical, technical and psychological factors that I wish someone in the media would bring up to perhaps not exonerate Clarkson, but at least bring to light a viable and plausible alternative to whatever racist idiot heard the N-word in there and wanted to add to the bad press. If not to defend Clarkson, then to simply give people something else to think about which is often not the case with the media and an unfortunate part of our society that ultimately helps perpetuate racism rather than try to educate and stop it.

I view racism as an evolutionary deficiency that I wish could be forcibly sterilized in the most painful way possible... LOL - It saddens me that we still have a long way to go before mankind evolves away from this crap.

In closing, I hope my comments have not offended anyone and if anything I've said is unclear or suggests something bad, please let me know so I can clear it up. It is nearly 4am here, so I might be a bit wonky... LOL
 
Top Gear as it stands should be thoroughly revised. The rot has set in a long time ago, and it's affecting the presenters' specials as well. See the 3rd episode of James May's Cars of the People as proof, as there's a lot of contrived for-the-sake-of-laughs cack in it as well.

It feels like they are deathly afraid of there ever being a boring moment, so the show is written to constantly contain pretty redundant japes and quips which result in stuff like the Slopegate. Who cares what he said? There's just the inbuilt need to entertain the percentage of audience who couldn't care less about the cars and only want to see the three blokes as caricatures of themselves, and that results in Clarkson acting like he's holding up the '30s British Empire singlehandedly.

When we visited Romania on our FG roadtrip, it became obvious how they had to massage the script to be more interesting, like they completely accidentally slept in their cars next to the enormous dam, on a side road where you would need to purposefully drive a while to get to. And who believes you would ram a random local Dacia all of a sudden? :p
 
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Top Gear as it stands should be thoroughly revised. The rot has set in a long time ago, and it's affecting the presenters' specials as well. See the 3rd episode of James May's Cars of the People as proof, as there's a lot of contrived for-the-sake-of-laughs cack in it as well.

It feels like they are deathly afraid of there ever being a boring moment, so the show is written to constantly contain pretty redundant japes and quips which result in stuff like the Slopegate. Who cares what he said? There's just the inbuilt need to entertain the percentage of audience who couldn't care less about the cars and only want to see the three blokes as caricatures of themselves, and that results in Clarkson acting like he's holding up the '30s British Empire singlehandedly.

When we visited Romania on our FG roadtrip, it became obvious how they had to massage the script to be more interesting, like they completely accidentally slept in their cars next to the enormous dam, on a side road where you would need to purposefully drive a while to get to. And who believes you would ram a random local Dacia all of a sudden? :p

LOL... Yeah, there are plenty of times since maybe around series 10 or so where the scripting was painfully obvious and then it was like they realized it, got better and then it seems to have ups and downs. The show has always been scripted to a point and I don't think there is a way to genuinely get around that, but it did seem to get lazy for a time and then here and there, etc. When it comes to the Romanian episode, I think they are well aware that the audience knows all that stuff was a put on, especially the Dacia... They beat the "Good News...The Dacia Sandero..." joke to death and then gave it a comedy send off during an otherwise uneventful road trip. I think the producers thought it was a good idea to do Romania and then realized "oh crap, we need filler..." HAHA.

Back in series 10, the "Space Shuttle" episode was far-fetched ONLY when they talked about landing the car. I swear the explosion on the ground went off split seconds before it would have on impact and I just think that they knew they couldn't land it properly, so they wanted to go out with a huge bang rather than see a Robin just fall from the sky with no drama. Sure it would be funny, but series 10 is when they REALLY started going global, so there you have it.
The fact still remains that they DID launch it and it really was breaking records like the rocket guy said... I always wondered if Clarkson didn't want anything to do with it because they knew that landing wouldn't work. Who knows, but staged or not, that was still really funny.

Going back to the Winter Olympics and comparing the parking at the dam you mentioned, this is nothing new... After all, I know of no MP5 that can saw through a tree in one clip... LOL

Even Clarkson laughed when they won the Emmy for "Best Unscripted Show" or whatever it was and then said something about the script for that show... LOL.
I don't think they are trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes, but rather create a weave of scripted and improvisation comedy intermingled with automotive facts, goofy challenges, etc.

What I don't agree with you on would be what you said about "thoroughly revised"... I just think that they simply need to broaden their factual reviews just a bit and get more creative with the challenges in certain ways... There are other threads for that, but one huge thing I miss from the earlier series is how genuine the laughs and general BS was during the news... The news remains my favorite part of the show and I can't stand how they neuter the news out of the show when they air it on BBC America and even on Netflix...
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but that "Eeny meeny" thing originated with "Tiger" and that is what I recall from very early days in grade school.... LOL
When I learnt it was not Tiger - then I am 59 and attitudes were different then.

Did/do I think I am in any way better than a brown, black, yellow or red man? No I do not, did I then? No. It was in the culture of the time, it was only when people started pointing out how hurtful the racist words were that it changed, about the same time (actually a bit later I think) a more enlightened view of homosexuality became normal. Even people who are racist tend not to use them in normal conversation, they do give themselves away sometimes.

Clarkson is Not a racist in my opinion, I suspect he can be stuck in his time a bit.
 
All of this nonsense just confirms that TG has become a vehicle for manipulation. Whether the 3 Musketeers are complicit in it or not I don't know, but they are certainly benefiting from it financially. From the embarrassing "British Industry" spectacle to sacrificing a dove in the Ukraine, it is all part of a very non Top Gear agenda. This latest storm in a tea cup over racism is also part of that same agenda which has, coincidentally, appeared at a time when nationalism is once again raising its ugly head in the form of UKIP, which is nothing more than the BNP in a new frock.

Unfortunately when something or someone becomes as popular as TG and its presenters have become, then it (or they) become useful as a tool to influence people. It doesn't necessarily mean that those being used in this way are in full agreement or even aware of what's going on... but you'd have to be a bit thick not to notice really.

The best thing for TG and the presenters would be to abandon the BBC and set up shop elsewhere.
 
All of this nonsense just confirms that TG has become a vehicle for manipulation. Whether the 3 Musketeers are complicit in it or not I don't know, but they are certainly benefiting from it financially. From the embarrassing "British Industry" spectacle to sacrificing a dove in the Ukraine, it is all part of a very non Top Gear agenda. This latest storm in a tea cup over racism is also part of that same agenda which has, coincidentally, appeared at a time when nationalism is once again raising its ugly head in the form of UKIP, which is nothing more than the BNP in a new frock.

Unfortunately when something or someone becomes as popular as TG and its presenters have become, then it (or they) become useful as a tool to influence people. It doesn't necessarily mean that those being used in this way are in full agreement or even aware of what's going on... but you'd have to be a bit thick not to notice really.

The best thing for TG and the presenters would be to abandon the BBC and set up shop elsewhere.

UKIP are a right-wing Ron Paul style libertarian party, and the BNP are far-left national socialists, a mirror of the Front National socialist party in France. They literally could not be more different. Your ignorance on politics discredits your post unfortunately and you shouldn't go around calling people thick when you make posts like that.

It seems quite obvious that this entire affair stems from a philosophical mis-match between the Top Gear insiders (mainly Clarkson and Wilman) and the BBC. We have a politically-incorrect show that is openly hostile to cultural marxism, feminism, and all the other fascist causes that the BBC champions and enjoys making fun of these at every opportunity, essentially giving the middle finger to BBC propaganda, a rebellion which is very popular with middle England. The BBC is torn between keeping Top Gear for its popularity, or sticking to their principles and telling them off which is why we have so many mixed signals from them.

I hope Top Gear ditch the BBC, it would mean I'd have no reason to ever watch British Bolshevik Broadcasting ever again and it would make a lot more people reconsider paying the BBC tax. It might mean a big cut in their budget but if anything the show has only deteriorated as the budget has increased and a return to their roots without the BBC cultural marxists watching over them would refresh the show.
 
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