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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To be appalled by Top Gear 02/02/14

205 replies

ineedanexcuse · 02/02/2014 20:34

I am watching with my head in my hands and with a sick feeling. The 'team' are driving around a closed supermarket in small hot hatchbacks . The idea is for them to go round as quickly as possible

The amount of food that is wantonly destroyed is just sickening.There are families who have no food to eat today because of a variety of reasons and these idiots are finding it hilarious to drive over perfectly edible food for fun.

Surely there must be a better way to spend our TV license money than pay these old men and the programme makers who dream up this stuff.

OP posts:

ThatVikRinA22 · 03/02/2014 00:33

....and as he says...."its just a joke. like on top gear."....

caruthers · 03/02/2014 00:39

He's about as scathing as the vicar of dibley.

Edgy he isn't.

ThatVikRinA22 · 03/02/2014 00:44

ive seen him live.
he is rather scathing.
and funny.
i dont think he wants to be "edgy" - he has never courted fame or sold out to appear on 'mock the week'....
are you a top gear fan per chance?

so its ok for jeremy clarkson to take the piss out of anyone he sees as fair game,
and for hammond to stand and gurn at him....
but they arent fair game?

ThatVikRinA22 · 03/02/2014 00:50

and as he says....

"i dont really think that. what i was doing there as everyone here in this room now understands (just in case theres anyone from the mail on sunday watching this....)....is i was using an exaggerated form of the rhetoric and implied values of top gear, to satirise the rhetoric and implied values of top gear.....and it is a shame to have to break character and explain that....but hopefully it will save you a long tedious exchange of emails......"

whats not to love?

GobbySadcase · 03/02/2014 00:51

I did cringe a bit at the 'around the car' bit as I know there are meatheads that will try it. Otherwise I found it puerile but funny.

lastonepicked · 03/02/2014 00:51

Squashed groceries aside, imagine you changed all the hot hatches and Ferraris to different killing machines eg guns and then made a similar BBC show to glorify the loutish, thoughtless, and downright illegal use of said weapons in public places, it would be interesting to see how far after the watershed that show would have to be programmed.

Caitlin17 · 03/02/2014 01:03

lastonepicked your analogy really doesn't work.

I don't watch Top Gear, there are many, many BBC programmes I don't watch but I'm happy for the BBC to make lots of money out of it which will be funding the programmes on BBC 4 which I do watch.

thecatfromjapan · 03/02/2014 01:10

Why's Stewart Lee awful?

Ds showed me that clip on youtube. I feel warm towards it because it was a moment of mother-son bonding.

On the other hand, the very loud one off the car show is a gloating crony of old ham face, isn't he?

lastonepicked · 03/02/2014 01:19

Caitlin17, I agree, it may not be a very elegant analogy, but my beef is with the glorification of aggressive, dangerous road use which oozes out of this programme. I can't look at Clarkson's sneering face and listen to his ranting without thinking about the innocent people who have had their lives ended or ruined by similar arrogant attitudes behind the wheel. I truly believe that the BBC should rethink Top Gear's format and core message, in line with its own mission statement.

Caitlin17 · 03/02/2014 01:23

Stewart Lee is marginally less annoying than Clarkson. I saw Lee live once and found the long drawn out repetitive monologue taking forever to get to the point deeply irritating. His style is lecturing and hectoring. It's not edgy or dangerous as he will for the most part be preaching to the converted. However as he is so patronising and hectoring even although I probably agree with what he is saying he annoys me so much I find myself wanting to take the opposite stance.

I caught one of Richard Hammond's engineering programmes by chance one night and was genuinely surprised at being interested in super tankers of all things.

thecatfromjapan · 03/02/2014 01:24

All you people who don't like Clarkson and co: that's what the 80s were like. all. the. time. And you couldn't switch it off. Sure, there were lots of us saying: "Aaaaagh." But the hegemony was "Top Gear": A kind of license for furtive bullying.

thecatfromjapan · 03/02/2014 01:27

Hammond's science programmes are written and produced by people far, far more intelligent than Hammond. Hammond is the performing dog brought in to lure the audience. He's there purely and simply because more people recognise him than Pudsy.

I'm actually saddened that these programmes are called "his", with some sort of implication that he has been at all involved in the intellectual development.

He really is only an oppositional thumb away from the little rodent he is nicknamed for.

thecatfromjapan · 03/02/2014 01:29

Not that there is anything actually wrong with being very stupid. A beautiful garden has a place for many flowers.

thecatfromjapan · 03/02/2014 01:33

You know, if the producers has brought in Pudsey and Hammond, they might well have knocked Brian Cox off the top spot.

caruthers · 03/02/2014 01:35

Isn't top gear the BBC's most exported and watched program?

thecatfromjapan · 03/02/2014 01:35

A hundred thousand lemmings can't be wrong.

Caitlin17 · 03/02/2014 01:38

thecatfromjapan I'm aware Hammond is merely the presenter. However factual programmes need presenters which engage with the audience. I'm not a fan of Top Gear but on this he caught my attention on a serious subject about which I'd have said I had no interest whatsoever. That is exactly the sort of thing which is the BBC at its best.

thecatfromjapan · 03/02/2014 01:39

The Hammond: "Look at the curves in the hull of the Cutty Sark. It's like a sculpture by Kapoor. But of course, Kapoor's sculptures are computer modelled. This structure predates such cyber-modelling."

Pudsey: "Woof"

The Hamster: [rhetorical] "How did they do it?"

[Cut to scene of Pudsey and the Hammond dancing on deck]

[Pan out]

[Hamster nodding at Pudsey]

[Hammy]: That's right, Pudsey. Trial and error.

caruthers · 03/02/2014 01:47

The politely bored clappers of left wing comedy need to get out more.

A lot more.

ThatVikRinA22 · 03/02/2014 02:20

i think you may have spectacularly missed the point there caruthers and co.....

ComposHat · 03/02/2014 02:23

Top gear is made by cunts for cunts.

Cunts shouldn't be surprise when cunts act all cuntish in the name of 'entertainment'

HelpTheSnailsAreComingToGetMe · 03/02/2014 02:31

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ComposHat · 03/02/2014 02:42

I don't know about Stewart Lee but KD Lang has let himself go.

(Tedious Stewart Lee in-joke)

Kytti · 03/02/2014 03:09

Probably costs less than some of the other stuff they destroy. Really. If you don't like it, don't watch it. Yes, it's wasted, but they make so much money from the programme, they have it covered.

When did you last give money to a foodbank then?

jojoanna · 03/02/2014 06:22

Top gear makes a lot of money for clarkson

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