top gear - white male capitalist and elitist and offence to humanity or just boy and their toys? discuss

[magicfarawaytree]

Personally - am not white and just love it. watched a repeat last night where they turned a people carrier into a convertible and was rolling round the floor in laughter. had to record it for dh. Am devastated for rh family and hopes he makes the fullest recovery possible.

yes, the audience is twattish isn't it?

yes, re weapons, but we don't (yet) have 'Top Tank' as popular entertainment and most boys (of both sexes) don't get a no-interst finance deal to purchase a nice air-conditioned scud-missile launcher which does 50mpg.

But Hunker, when we do, I hope the high standards of sub-titleability will be maintained

Think they must pick the audience to be as twattish as possible on purpose, they are mainly there for the presenters to take the p* out of aren't they?

Love it.

Did anyone see the one where JC stripped out the inside of a car and put all house furniture in it, including lamps and a little fire? Hilarious!

The amphibious vehicle one was brilliant too!

Ds1 loves it!

ere, Blu - have a look at this (if the link will work) and tell me it isn't faintly amusing!

but the audience last week was made up of mumsnetters ......

Ursua - it looks as if it is...can't get the sound to work (but that's me!)...will try later

LOL JT...and your point is...? [grin}

Blu - I understand your point about Top Gear and what it stands for, although I don't agree with it. Thing is, it sound like you have an overall objection with globalism in the name of 'progression' - electric curtains being one of the things you cited. If that's the case then why do you even own a television or a computer? You don't need those things to survive, they're not a necessity to life in the same way as, say, milk and bread are. One man's pleasure is another man's poison and we'd be a very boring race if one size fitted all.

And electric curtains can be linked up to a computer programme and system that will close the curtains on a timer switch when you're not there. Frivolity with a useful application.

Find it unspeakably dull, personally.

Ohhhh

Hope it will work later, Blu - there's a great line in it -

"James, we are grown men playing conkers with caravans"
"That's OK - it's better than working in a bank"

The people carrier race is pretty good too - you'd have to be Margo Leadbetter not to laugh!

haven't seen top gear for years, but i too find it strangely fascinating...

when I am having a bad day driving I say I am driving like a woman. I say it to be ironic as women have lower insurance!

ginmummy - yes, I am a luddite, and indeed, quite boring . I have a car, and hate it, and would like to get rid of it, but am not an eco-warrior or even particularly green.

And of course, all these degrees and thresholds are highly subjective, and each person places theirs at a different level. Personally I wouldn't pay for computer operated curtains and wouldn't find them useful - but do find computers in general useful in my none-cave dwelling life.

It's funny - that new design programme was looking at kitchens last week and they showed an old 'Tomorrow's World' clip about how they saw innovative 'kitchens of the future' - everything was automated and pop-out - and best of all - everything, cutlery, tableware etc, was disposable. The anathema of what we would find 'progressive' now - i.e in the real future they were talking about then.

But my post was in answer to the OP - boys toys and it doesn't excite me.

that's all - and I just thought i would redrss the majority of answers on the thread with my take on it all. Not rukking

I'm not rukking either - just throwing in random argumentative posts because I was too gutless to join in on the smacking thread yesterday!

Even if boys and toys don't excite you how about the male totty on there? Sexist I know but hey...
There's Richard Hammond who's easy on the eye with a boyish charm, James May who's the thinking woman's crumpet and likes caravaning, and the delectable Jeremy Clarkson who's a pedantic argumentative sod who once commisioned a group of university students to come up with a diving suit that enabled you to smoke under water! The Stig is an unknown entity with a persona akin to James Bond meets Batman but he probably looks like Andrew Lloyd Webber really.

Blu - tend to agree about your general points. But still quite enjoy Top Gear. OTT and really silly.

I do think that audience standing round them looks like the biggest bunch of car nerds in the world! If all those people were rounded up and were forcibly prevented from driving anything but little bog-standard Ford Fiestas that have no cachet and don't go over 60 miles an hour with a following wind the world would be a much safer and cleaner place.

its a great programme. they all love what they are talking about, total commitment.

I quite like the fun stuff on Top Gear, the car football and the time they did the winter olympics with cars. But I've felt for a long time that the more serious aspect of it, when they review cars that people might actually buy, glamorises speed. They all say things like "it's uncomfortable, there's no room in the back, safety features and handling are poor, but it's a great car because it does 0-60 in a millisecond and can go at 150 mph" despite the fact that it's illegal to go over 70 and rapid acceleration is very uncomfortable for passengers and very rarely needed.

hate the programme. wish Richard Hammond all the very best for a full recovery tho.

d you know, I cannot tell one car from another and have genuinely no interest in how much cars are worth. So I do tend to dip into TG (reading a book during the ''look how fast this baby can go'' bits). But the other bits are IMO amusing.

While I see the argument that so much time, money, creativity, energy and passion might be better spent on more worthwhile things, could that argument not be more fairly applied to , say, the entire world of advertising? ....

I love Top Gear. Have no interest in cars at all but find the show entertaining and funny.

Hope he pulls through ok. Thoughts with his family.

Blu just read your post. I totally agree with you. You put it so much better than I could.

"could that argument not be more fairly applied to , say, the entire world of advertising?"

Yes it could!

some of my disdain is based on taste - I shrink from anything ostentatious and find the focus of quite a lot of this stuff vulgar. BUT it does sound as if Top Gear manages to take the piss out of itself succesfully, and as many posters have said, watching it is fantasy. Obviously many sane MN-ers enjoy the programme!

Lets not beat about the bush - this thread is in response to moondog's deleted comments on the other thread (which I did see). Whilst having no alliance with her comments about the presenters or perceived audience of Top Gear, I do share her reservations about the stuff featured in these programmes and others of it's ilk.