Utterly purile tonight, real kids stuff, - I laughed my socks off - superb entertainment
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Spot on TVM - I enjoyed it as well.
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No, I usually love the show but for SIARPC which is long in the tooth now though tonight was just tosh.
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Agreed, thoroughly entertaining viewing ;o)
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Fantastic tonight, though it's revealed a few home truths about America.
US car dealer in the "bad part of town" - this rifle is for self defence.
JC "why has it got a telescopic sight?"
Dealer, pointing down street "'cos sometimes the bad guys are faaaar away"
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Utterly purile tonight, real kids stuff, - I laughed my socks off - superb entertainment ------------------------------ TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
Quite, TVM. I detected a distinct Sacha Baron Cohen influence on tonight's program.
I was laughing so much I'll have to watch it next week. JC is a real counter-culture subversive.
I have to admit I raised an eye-brow every time I heard JC suggest that Richard Hammond might be killed.
Laugh and the world laughs with you.
Cry and you cry with a bunch of boring miserablists who can't see the comedy in tragedy and the joy of laughing at adversity.
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one of the best yet.......fully expect Clarkson to get some major jip for the 'cow scene'
SWMBO thought the whole lot was hilarious
as for the 'Man Love' scene in the rural petrol station.........superb
best bit for me, was JC driving along with the 'car shower'
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The garage scene where the owner and the rednecks took offence at the slogans on the cars reminded me of the time at Leigh Delamere services on the M4 where some footballer supporters in a minibus took offence to my mate's Tottenham Hotspur football shirt. A hasty retreat from the restaurant to the car park followed by the 12 people off the minibus. I'm just glad my car didn't decide to run out of electricity that night I can tell you.
Back to TG though, one of the best ever episodes; made even more enjoyable because of no star in a reasonably priced car feature.
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I'm guessing none of you heard the interview with the guy who killed his 5 year old son in a car crash that was on Broadcasting House on Radio 4 this morning. Genuinely tragic in the proper, original sense of inspiring pity and fear. He had an attitude to driving before the crash that chimed with my own and would fit in well here - admitted to driving too fast on occasion, enjoyed driving and got satisfaction from driving well - and then one day it all changed through his own actions. He was articulate, calm and blamed no-one but himself for what happened that day but his feelings towards Top Gear's laddish infatuation with speed was heartbreaking; it was clear the programme is like a knife going through him.
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While I have sympathy for the chap who killed his own son, what has this to do with Top Gear? He obviously wasn't as good a driver as he thought. His fault, no one else's. If Top Gear upsets him, he shouldn't watch it.
Stuff happens, it doesn't mean we should all sit in cotton wool. Just take responsibility for your own actions and never take risks with another's life but by all means risk your own if you wish.
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I've lost count of the number of fatal RTCs I've investigated/attended. Doesn't stop me enjoying the programme immensely.
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> While I have sympathy for the chap who killed his own son, what has this to do with Top Gear?
I know it's early and it's Monday, Nick, but do you really not get it? His point was that his previous attitude to driving was of the Top Gear variety and that that attitude caused him to drive in a manner that ultimately caused the death of his child. If it could influence him, he reasons, it will influence others to treat public roads as playgrounds, with the inevitable consequence of further fatalities among innocent parties.
The cult of Top Gear (and I don't mean that as a swear-filter-bypassing reference to Clarkson, who can actually be quite amusing when he's not self-consciously trying too hard to offend) would be harmless if its viewers saw it as a harmless bit of fun that stayed within the box in the sitting room, but it plainly doesn't, as you can tell from the various threads on this site lamenting poor, aggressive, antisocial and dangerous driving. I'm not arguing that over-testosteroned, under-cerebral types wouldn't behave this way otherwise but I strongly suspect it would happen less if they didn't get their feel-good pat on the back every Sunday night.
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Nick - what has this got to do with Top Gear? Isn't it obvious? He was making the point that he used to enjoy the programme and identified with its outlook on life, but to hear Jeremy Clarkson making comments to Richard Hammond about the dangers of speed in a "nudge, nudge but we know better don't we lads" way to him seems supremely foolish and hubristic.
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Nick - what has this got to do with Top Gear? Isn't it obvious? He was making the point that he used to enjoy the programme and identified with its outlook on life, but to hear Jeremy Clarkson making comments to Richard Hammond about the dangers of speed in a "nudge, nudge but we know better don't we lads" way to him seems supremely foolish and hubristic.
I must say I agree with this though in general I do really enjoy the format of the programme but for SIARPC.
That being said lasts night programme was just dire, it would have been quite appropriate for Louis Theroux to pop up every now and then commenting on the wierd and wonderful.
Problem is that it was not the Miami low life or inbred rednecks that were really weird, Jezzer, Hamster and Slow were wierder that the wierdest weirdo from Weirdchester, Alabama!
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Curiously, I actually saw a bit of last night's TG. Quite good fun, I thought - the three presenters, taken separately, are engaging personalities and they had some peculiar things to talk about. But did anyone else cringe at the idea of the challenge to the presenters to get each other 'arrested or shot' in Alabama? Perhaps the next series will have an episode where they think it's a big laugh to take three black X5s to pub car parks in Moss Side and set up 'Get Your Drugs Here' signs behind them. (Or have they already done that one?)
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i think i'm beginning to get it.......
TG shouldn't be shown to the country....because some fool might take the programme too literally,,,,,,and say...drive down the road with a dead cow on his roof, which might kill someone...
or..... drive with an In Car personal shower, have their eyes full of water and hit someone, killing them
some of you need to lighten up a bit
it was harmelss fun ......... if you like cars & are fed up with political correctness then the programme appeals
for my wife and i to enjoy the same programme is a bonus as well
whilst i feel for the chap who killed his son, his loss has no relevance whatsoever to my t.v. viewing
and furthermore, all the films i have seen over the years involving shootings, murders, etc has not (yet) invoked in me any desire to kill anyone
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TG - funny? Utterly predictable scenarios, so by any defintion of humour, not funny.
The set-up is: 'urbane' Brits are constantly amused by the neanderthal like behaviour of funny & 'dangerous' foreigners - but hey, it's ok, because they're American 'rednecks' . Our witty trio baffle & bamboozle the locals, and by their command of language & mastery of irony leave the locals unable to respond in anything other than grunts, oathes & latent violence.
Two things particularly stick in the mind - the first is the supposed humour in 'redneck' baiting or more accurately
perhaps, laughing at people whose social outlook differs greatly from one's own & deliberately
trying to provoke them . Secondly, when they reach New Orleans they seem to find some unfortunates
(families?) who are willing to accept their 'generous' gifts - cars that it's freely admitted, leave a great deal to be desired
in terms of functioning reliability , viz, bits of the Cadillac loose or falling off, the steering on the Camaro 'made noises',
the pick-up looked 'skewed' chassis-wise etc. Would you encourage people to drive cars in
that condition?
The ultimate irony - that TG , in attempting to show how sublimely witty & smart they it was by 'exposing'
the dangerous & socially deprived Florida with its local redneck insensibilities, imho, adopted the very traits it lampooned.
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wb,
are you not looking at this in too much depth..........why not see it as light hearted humour
the idea was to sell the cars at the end of their journey, but in the end they changed their minds and gave them away to people they thought were poor and had suffered from the effects of Hurrican Katrina...what on earth is wrong with that?
the cars were junk, but the locals didn't have to take them........if you're poor and someone gives you a running car, then you're a bit better off, aren't you?
the 'rednecks' stoning people because they thought they were 'gays', was both funny and disturbing.....
whilst watching that programme, i didn't think too deeply about the social inadequacies, bigotry etc, just had a laugh with three blokes mucking about with cars
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Really, some people take themselves & Top Gear way too seriously!!!
It is entertainment after all, this has been said in this & many other threads on the programme. The three presenters have a real chemistry, some people like this, others find every reason to knock it or find fault. I used to do the same with Eastenders..do you know what, now I simply don't watch it & haven't done for ages - this solves the problem.
By all means have an opinion, this forum would be dull without them. However, don't try & over analyse what is meant to be an entertainment programme pure and simple.
Its not meant as some high brow social commentary or intellectual & cerebrial experiment.
enjoy or turn over!
MM
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>>are you not looking at this in too much depth..........why not see it as light hearted humour
Honestly, I'd loved to have laughed, sorry.
>the idea was to sell the cars at the end of their journey, but in the end they changed their minds and gave them away to people they thought were poor and had >>suffered from the effects of Hurrican Katrina...what on earth is wrong with that?
Because the cars appeared to be near wrecks of uncertain provenance with multiple faults - would you be happy for family or friends to be the beneficiary
of such largesse? The beneficiaires seemed to me to be rather poor & disorientated people still dazed & vulnerable from the situation they were in.
By all means have an opinion, this forum would be dull without them. However, don't try & over analyse what is meant to be an entertainment programme >>pure and simple.
I agree, it was meant to be an entertainment programme, hence my comments about why other people's misfortune,social condtions & supposed
outlook should be fodder for this.
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I agree, it was meant to be an entertainment programme, hence my comments about why other people's misfortune, social condtions & supposed outlook should be fodder for this.
I think you've just described a reality TV show, thank goodness Top Gear is far away from that!
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I didn't find last night's TG funny - apart from JC's in-car shower. It was over-long and predictable. Next time TG does one of it's extended - we bought 3 cars for under $x, and we've got some tests to do' - then I'll just hit the big red button.
One of the reasons I liked TG was that it was a number of fairly short segments.
What did the studio audience do for this show ?
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I bet they just filmed the start and end segments during the recording of another episode
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The whole thing was a piece of self-indulgent rubbish!
Roger. (Costa del Sol, España)
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Agree, sad to say - they're starting to lose me .. there comes a moment when the basic point of a prog starts to get lost, and that's happened (for me). Used to enjoy The Bill until 4-5 yrs ago when I realised it had become just another soap opera - too little "police action". On TG, our 3 talented presenters are now being indulged too much in the never ending quest to "evolve" the prog.
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I loved it, I laughed like a drain.
I know its puerile, and not really about cars, but they seem to have so much fun making it.
If program makers followed Woodbine's philosophy, then I would be force to sell my telly.
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I'm amazed at the people on here who knock TG but still appear to watch it. Why? Some Mary Whitehouse morality trip?
I thought last night's episode was really funny, so did my wife. So do many of my friends. Just turn off if it offends your sophisticated Wilde-like wit.
Watching films doesn't make me want to emulate the lifestyles portrayed, so why will TG make people drive like nutters? I'd be worry about the cost of a clutch or tyres. Mind you, I have been driving round with a dead sheep on my roof today (couldn't find a cow) so maybe there's some truth in what has been said here.
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Woodbines, you might find this article useful:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritan
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It is entertainment . The only part of top gear I don't enjoy is the star in areasonably priced car bit. IMO it is funny & not to be taken too seriously, I watched last night's episode and thoroughly enjoyed it. If you want to moan about something, moan about eastenders or some of the other dreary dross that makes you want to slit your wrists. Get over yourselves people.
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"It is entertainment"
Apparently. My 9-year old likes it, but then that's because he's roughly the same mental age as the presenters.
Unfortunately, the programme plays straight into the hands of the anti-car lobby, who have far too much influence already, IMHO.
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TV's not discussed in our Office (generally) however the only exception has been 24 and Lost, today TG was talked about at some length.
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Good stuff tonights top gear.
Made me and the mrs laugh and she usually finds something else to do when its on.
Some of the comments though on here have made me realise how sad some people are.
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It's quite possible to hold two thoughts in your head at the same time. I can see Top Gear as the cartoon it has become and take it or leave it and I can also feel uneasy about the way it relentlessly presents thrashing cars as cool.
To the people here who imply that the latter means you are a joyless puritan, ask yourself this: would you, if face to face with the former TG fan who had killed his son in a smash, say to him "lighten up mate, it's just a bit of fun"?
Or is that different? If so, how is it different?
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To the people here who imply that the latter means you are a joyless puritan, ask yourself this: would you, if face to face with the former TG fan who had killed his son in a smash, say to him "lighten up mate, it's just a bit of fun"? Or is that different? If so, how is it different?
It depends whether he's bigger than me. In all reality, I'd have sympathy for his loss but quite frankly, it's his own fault. I don't watch Top Gear and use it as a helpful training aid; I watch it because it's fun. This man lost his son because he was driving like an idiot, and is now looking to blame society for his loss.
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Used to enjoy TG, but have found the cartoon sketches over long, predictable and self indulgent. I preferred the pithy comments made by JC when he was testing a car that was not to his taste. I never used to miss an episode, but now if I know it is on, I may tune in....or may not. Sorry
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I have still to watch last night's show but something I was going to add to this discussion much earlier is, do you think Jeremy Clarkson still has a real genuine interest in cars, or are they now a tool of his trade, with his trade being an entertainment show?
What I mean is if a car was being launched and 20 journalists were invited along, would he go and talk cars with them and look at pros and cons etc? Or would he demand that a car was sent to him for personal use and to see if he was able to make entertainment out of the car? I know he sometimes writes about the anti-car brigade, but he also now writes about all sorts of political issues as well.
I just sometimes get the impression that away from the cameras, cars might be the last thing on his mind....
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For me its the best programme on TV at the moment. I love it because its unique. Should it be more about cars?.....not really. Look at "5th Gear"....a dreadful lifeless programme. Top Gear is like nothing else on TV. Its car based entertainment.(not a programme all ablout cars) Would i go back to the days of William Woollard or Chris Goffey (or whatever his name was)?...... lifting the bonnet on a Ford Sierra to show you how easy was to get at the oil filter. Or Angela Rippon telling you about the ease with which you can load the boot on a Talbot Alpine? No, those days are long gone ...the programme has moved on and in my view its far better for it.
My wife and my two lads sit down with me to watch it every week and all of us love it. Its the only time during the week that we all actually sit down together to watch TV; because its the only programme that every single one of us enjoys. And that makes it rather special.
To those who find its not to their taste....just dont watch it..... QED.
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Happytorque says it all for me. The US road trip was of course contrived, but very funny and massively entertaining. All of you that don't like it, don't put yourself through, watch Heartbeat or whatever.
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All of you that don't like it, don't put yourself through, watch Heartbeat or whatever.
That's not the point, I want to watch Stig in a Ferrari, Veyrons at 250mph etc etc.
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To the people here who imply that the latter means you are a joyless puritan, ask yourself this: would you, if face to face with the former TG fan who had killed his son in a smash, say to him "lighten up mate, it's just a bit of fun"? Or is that different? If so, how is it different?
i don't understand your logic........what has an entertainment programme involving cars got to do with some chap killing his 5 year old in a car accident? The two are not at all linked.
If i were to meet this unfortunate man, i would defer to his grief and be as polite & as understanding as humanly possible........but it wouldn't affect my views on driving or my choice of entertainment on the t.v. either...
his grief is not my grief
and i wouldn't link all speed or all apparently casual behaviour in fast cars with one particular incident, which he obviously is
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I too do not quite see the link between the tragic death of the son and TG or any similar programme, even.... Fifth Gear.
What about the driving seen in :
- Movies (e.g. Ronin)
- Rallying
- F1
- The Police Camera Action type progs
- TV Police Dramas
- Life on Mars (I don't class this like TV Police dramas)
- Le Mans
- Video games like Need for Speed
In fact video games more likely than TV entertainment prog to make people think they can drive better than they can.
I am not commenting on the tragedy the father has gone through. I do not know the details. But seeing fast driving anywhere including our roads would not encourage me to do the same. My current car could corner faster than I'll ever try - I probably back off first.
Rob
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Whether or not the American roadtrip was entertaining / dull / controversial, it's had the desired effect. That being getting people discussing it.
I thought it was very entertaining and certainly made a change from having the oh so repetitive and dull star in a car, cool wall, and what's Stig listening to on the stereo whilst doing a hot lap. Many of cars he tests don't even have a stereo in anyway, which makes a mockery of implying he is learning Spanish / cooking lessons, etc anyway.
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'm sure the TG programme makers will be mostly heartened by all they've read here, it's only entertainment after all... a bit of fuuuuun!
Just one thought though, what if that road-trip plot were enacted in the UK, with the same 'sketches' set in areas of ethnic/social/political tension or tragedy with equally inflammatory slogans per se. Then ending in a location with a recent mass tragedy & doling out unreliable old cars because you felt sorry for them? Would it be acceptable to do this in Brixton or Belfast, Strathclyde or Southall?
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Woodbines.
You just don?t get it do you?. JC was making the point (unusually for him, I thought it was quite a serious point), that this natural disaster happened in the richest national in the world yet they don?t appear to have the will or the wherewithal to rebuild the city. Are you seriously suggesting that if an earthquake had hit Brixton or Belfast a year ago, that the UK government (of whatever political complexion happened to be in power) would just abandon the area like this?
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It is an appalling indictment that the most powerful and weaththiest nation cannot or has not, seemingly, made any attempt to rectify those problems that are apparent to all of us.
They can and do spend billions of dollars on space exporation and starting wars throughout the world and yet cannot give the underprivileged people, of their own country, a decent standard of living whether that be housing or a decent 'free' Health Service such as ours.
The USA behaves as a posturing giant that only too easily reveals that below this superficiality, lies such squalor and deprivation for many of its people.
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Woodbines. they don?t appear to have the will or the wherewithal to rebuild the city. Are you seriously suggesting that if an earthquake had hit Brixton or Belfast a year ago, that the UK government (of whatever political complexion happened to be in power) would just abandon the area like this?
It is arguable that because a large part of the city is below sealevel, then it should NOT be rebuilt - not in that location anyway.
Rebuild it somewhere else. It was a disaster waiting to happen.
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A fantastic piece of programming. Hysterically funny for 50 minutes and then thought provoking and sad at the end. Clarkson hit the nail on the head when he wondered how the rest of America can sleep at night knowing that so many of their countrymen are still suffering so long after the disaster. A very valid question, I thought.
Cheers
DP
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Are you seriously suggesting that if an earthquake had hit Brixton or Belfast a year ago, that the UK government (of whatever political complexion happened to be >>in power) would just abandon the area like this?
Perhaps it's not me that not's getting the point here - what I was suggesting was: would TG/JC have driven around 'sensitive' in the UK areas with inflammatory slogans painted on cars , meant to cause offence (whether you believe that offence to be justified or not) then roll up in a disaster area
and donate old bangers to those affected.
As for whether the US government is or isn't taking steps to re-build parts of New Orleans or (sensibly perhaps) re-locate people elsewhere can hardly
be answered in a 2 minute soliloquy to camera after randomly driving around a vast city and is therefore , imho, neither here nor there.
A little research would have shown TG (and you perhaps) that a great deal of re-building has been done, and the main areas of discussion are now
whether to re-build those areas most at risk of more hurricane surges & whether to re-build in other deserted areas where few people have returned to.
There's also the usual & to be expected problems with private insurance (imagine the delays if a whole town here were similarly affected : Carlisle recently?)
& if 'managed retreat' is the best policy. So, not quite as simple and straightforward and culpable a case as was made by JC/TG then
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>> Are you seriously suggesting that if an earthquake had hit Brixton or Belfast a year ago, that the UK government (of whatever political complexion happened to be >>in power) would just abandon the area like this?
Perhaps it's not me that's not getting the point here - what I was suggesting was: would TG/JC have driven around 'sensitive' areas in the UK areas with inflammatory slogans painted on cars , meant to cause offence (whether you believe that offence to be justified or not) then roll up in a disaster area
and donate old bangers to those affected.
As for whether the US government is or isn't taking steps to re-build parts of New Orleans or (sensibly perhaps) re-locate people elsewhere can hardly
be answered in a 2 minute soliloquy to camera after randomly driving around a vast city and is therefore , imho, neither here nor there.
A little research would have shown TG (and you perhaps) that a great deal of re-building has been done, and the main areas of discussion are now
whether to re-build those areas most at risk of more hurricane surges & whether to re-build in other deserted areas where few people have returned to.
There's also the usual & to be expected problems with private insurance payouts (imagine the delays if a whole town here were similarly affected : Carlisle recently?)
& liability. So, not quite as simple and straightforward and culpable a case as was made by JC/TG then.
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but not if you're American. Oops, sorry! I was wondering if the programme was actually including some social comment? I have rarely been to the US but I have worked for a US company and during a takeover bid the guy trying to take 'em over was made out to be a close relation of the devil. Honest. And my wife has distant American relatives, of Polish descent if you go back far enough. They're nice people, slightly odd, worryingly religious/superstitious and apparently hell bent on being Irish. No offence to the Irish but what's wrong with being Polish or even American? Just add what we saw / heard on Sunday night (the mission lawyer(!!) wanting 20k) to what you already know and... they're a funny bunch to put it mildly.
JH
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I think the difficulty with analysing TG is knowing where reality stops, and where clever editing and "unscripted" entertainment begins.
Accept it as entertainment, or turn it off.
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Well, I watched it as it was broadcast for once and was glad I've got Sky+
Was laughing so much at some points that I had to pause it to get my breath back. SWMBO, who doesn't really give two hoots about cars was laughing a lot too.
Sunday night entertainment, no more, no less. And brilliant at that.
Still think the Hamster looks a little under the weather, hope he gets back to being himself soon.
"How do you peel a cow?"
-- He\'s a cheeky wind-up scamster and he\'s on the radio....
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I didn't see the last one but there are hundreds of old ones over and over again on the channels. I notice that my wife always chortles disapprovingly and mutters about how macho they are.
Basically, then, its a girls' programme. When I say that she chortles even more.
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I don't think TG is better then when they have to buy a car on a budget, the Porsche episode was brilliant, the coupes, the exotics, and now the Yanks. The only thrashing I saw was in the safe-ish environs of a racetrack. I liked the way a bunch of guys that drive cars we can only dream of driving managed to find good points in the heaps of junk they were crossing the US in, the sign of a true enthusiast I'd say. The cow scene was priceless.
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Just spoken to a BBC guy - apparantly the Hicksvlle thing last week wasn't staged....
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I thought it was hilarious - in case you missed it and its repeat it´s on YouTube in 10 minute segments.
I´d like to see them go to, say, Belfast, buy a car each for a nominal amount, paint it with nationalist/separatist/Catholic/Protestant slogans (delete according to prejudice), and then drive around, say, the Bogside followed by a film crew. Or maybe Iraq, or Kabul. In fact, I´d pay to watch it.
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