Yet Another Cycling Forum

Off Topic => The Pub => Arts and Entertainment => Topic started by: gordon taylor on 03 November, 2008, 09:11:30 pm

Title: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: gordon taylor on 03 November, 2008, 09:11:30 pm
Clarkson is in the sights of the Daily Mail as part of their "get the BBC " month.

BBC in new standards row as Clarkson jokes that truck drivers 'murder prostitutes'  | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1082712/BBC-new-standards-row-Clarkson-jokes-truck-drivers-murder-prostitutes.html)

I might go and make a complaint because I'm indignant.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Julian on 03 November, 2008, 09:27:23 pm
201 Daily Wail commenters say this was funny but Ross'n'Brand aren't.

I've clearly got my priorities wrong as I find laughing at a girl who had sex with Russell Brand far funnier than the rape and murder of five prostitutes.  Must try harder.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: andygates on 03 November, 2008, 09:47:26 pm
On the other hand, watching Clarkson drive straight into a brick wall nearly made me jizz my shorts with evil delight.

Must... channel... Ghandi... more...
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: rogerzilla on 03 November, 2008, 10:14:07 pm
Clarkson must have been reading "Viz".  The urban legend of truckers murdering prostitutes (and hitch-hikers) has been a staple of theirs almost since inception.  There's often a reference to a rolled-up carpet being used to dispose of the body too.

"Truckers' Tizer", unfortunately, is true  :sick:
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Really Ancien on 04 November, 2008, 02:24:17 am
It's a refreshing change to see the Daily Mail using the  English Collective of Prostitutes as a source. Is this a new acknowledgement of reality on the part of the Daily Mail?

Damon.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Jaded on 04 November, 2008, 09:15:33 am
On the other hand, watching Clarkson drive straight into a brick wall nearly made me jizz my shorts with evil delight.

except...

The show didn't report how he actually felt - I could only hear "God this hurts" or similar, right at the tend of the clip. Then it cut to the silliness in the studio.

Somewhat different from his words here (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1082530/VIDEO-Was-crashing-truck-wall-56mph-REALLY-bright-idea-Mr-Clarkson.html).

Quote
Describing the crash, he said: 'At the moment, teenagers see Bruce Willis driving his car into a helicopter and imagine that you can get out afterwards and still be well enough to punch a baddie in the face.

'This isn't accurate. I emerged from my high speed head-on impact in what can only be described as screaming agony.
'I couldn't walk. I couldn't talk. I couldn't think.
'Everyone should experience this before they are given a licence.'

He added: 'It would let them know that crashes really, really hurt and that it would be a good idea to not have one.'


PS. I watched the programme, so presumably I am allowed to complain?  ::-)
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Regulator on 04 November, 2008, 09:38:02 am
On the other hand, watching Clarkson drive straight into a brick wall nearly made me jizz my shorts with evil delight.

Must... channel... Ghandi... more...


Me too!  I think that a weekly drive into a brick wall should be written into his BBC contract.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: pcolbeck on 04 November, 2008, 09:40:29 am
No - sack whoever OKed it going out. Again this was a pre recorded show not a live one. It would have been easy to cut the comments out but someone didn't. There was an interesting interview the other day with Ruby Wax where the Ross/ Brand thing came up. She said that when she had her chat show she would riff on and on and loads of it would be quite obscene or unfit to broadcast but they just cut it out before transmission even if was funny and that's what a producer / editors job is. She felt comedians left to their own devices always have a tendency to run away with an idea and push it too far and they need someone to censor them and tell them straight that something was either simple not funny or beyond the pale.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Oscar's dad on 04 November, 2008, 09:56:32 am
No - sack whoever OKed it going out. Again this was a pre recorded show not a live one. It would have been easy to cut the comments out but someone didn't. There was an interesting interview the other day with Ruby Wax where the Ross/ Brand thing came up. She said that when she had her chat show she would riff on and on and loads of it would be quite obscene or unfit to broadcast but they just cut it out before transmission even if was funny and that's what a producer / editors job is. She felt comedians left to their own devices always have a tendency to run away with an idea and push it too far and they need someone to censor them and tell them straight that something was either simple not funny or beyond the pale.

Exactly!  Clarkson, Brand and Ross are paid to be controversial.  And millions of us, including me, love watching and listening. 

The broadcasters need to decide whether a performer is safe enough for live broadcast (e.g. Wogan) or has to have a safety net provided by editing a recorded show before transmission. 
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: spindrift on 04 November, 2008, 11:06:52 am
I think it would be ironic if Clarkson's children were killed by a speeding driver exhibiting the selfish recklessness Clarkson advocates.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: geraldc on 04 November, 2008, 11:18:29 am
Surely it would be ironic, if they were killed by someone driving safely and observing all traffic regulations...(probably not the place to discuss definitions of irony)
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: clarion on 04 November, 2008, 11:20:33 am
Clarkson should be sacked.

I don't know much about he latest issue, but if it includes joking about the vicious murder of women on pre-watershed TV that my young son watches, then I'm deeply unhappy.

But he should have been sacked (arrested etc) over the threat to murder cyclists.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Charlotte on 04 November, 2008, 11:29:31 am
Jeremy Clarkson should be put in a sack.

Then he should be kicked about a bit.

Then he should be dumped over the side of a cross channel ferry.  In winter.  With bricks tied to his gonads.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Really Ancien on 04 November, 2008, 11:32:33 am
To paraphrase a Greg Lake hit, 'The Clarkson we get we deserve', I admire his writing, this review of the Ford Mondeo  Jeremy Clarkson Ford Mondeo Titanium X review | Driving - Times Online  (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/jeremy_clarkson/article1971541.ece)  is as good an example of his talents as any. To be able to write well about a subject as dull as that and to inject it with a certain amount of passion is remarkable. The way he carefully places the technical information about the deformable body panels without destroying the flow of the piece is an object lesson. He's never been entirely comfortable in front of the camera and it manifests itself in a lot of fidgeting and a Tourettes like flow of controversy. He is responsible for a lot of the bad behaviour on the roads so I wouldn't miss Top Gear, which I rarely watch as it clashes with circuit-training. I'd like him sacked and then I would like the BBC to commisson a series on the relative decline of British manufacturing from him. His writing and presentational style would suit that better.

Damon.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: spindrift on 04 November, 2008, 11:33:34 am
Response to Richard Littlejohn's remarks about the murdered Ipswich prostitutes:

After all the news coverage the murders in Ipswich has been getting, it’s good to know that one person finally talks some robust sense about the whole matter. Who else but Mr Richard Littlejohn?

Littlejohn: Spare us the 'People's Prostitute' routine...  | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/columnists/columnists.html?in_article_id=423549&in_page_id=1772&in_author_id=322&expand=true#StartComments)

A cracking read and I decided to let him know by writing to him thusly:

Dear Little John,

I read with interest your article in The Daily Mail about those dollymops being offed in Ipswich. At last somebody has the bravery to tell the truth about the matter. Congratulations, sir – your family must be proud of the common sense, compassion and sensitivity that you have brought to the Little John name. Especially when you consider that your surname sounds like a description of a diminutive customer of one of these ‘ladies’.

As you say, being brutally murdered and left on a cold patch of waste ground, stripped of their clothes, their dignity, their hope and the chance to turn their life around is what they agreed to when they first started accepting a pittance to be manhandled by fat sweaty middle-aged men (no offence).

I only wish other businesses would take a similar line with their employees. For instance, think of how profitable the construction industry could be without all that mucking about with hard hats and harnesses. They’d look a lot less like those Village People mob, too (and I think we’re in agreement here how much we dislike ‘those’ lot).

I imagine you wouldn’t complain if your employers got rid of their health and safety department, sold their fire alarm systems for scrap and risked using hazardous computer equipment. Although I don’t think any right-minded person, on reading your column, would want to imagine you screaming in agony with hot shards of jagged monitor glass sticking out of your face. In fact, if your employers did make those savings you could be paid more than your current salary of £700,000+. Which is cracking value, if I may say. I’d rather see you get that money then, say, 45 nurses every year. What do they know about immigration? Apart from the thousands of immigrants whose hard work holds up the NHS, obviously. And okay, just like those Ipswich tarts they’re not going to find a cure for cancer. They’re only going to minister to those suffering from it. But can they write a funny article about poofs and Gipsies? I think not. Anyway, I digress.

Glad to hear you say those women were on the streets through choice. Quite right. Just like homeless people, they had the choice to live a normal, decent, Christian life and instead chose to live a life of harrowing hardship, daily brutality and a hollow lack of hope. Lord knows what got into them (many ‘experts’ suggest a member of their own family at an impressionable age). I once decided to go to Peterborough for a sales conference but I’d hardly make the kind of decisions those women made. It’s almost as if they were driven to it through a combination of a poor education system, lack of opportunity and a woefully under funded social support network. But obviously that’s not the case. They simply decided they’d quite like to live out their short life in squalid despair. Madness.

I’m interested in these massage parlours you mention. You clearly have a far greater knowledge of their whereabouts and what goes on in them than I. Would you have further details? We need not go into the reasons for me asking this.

“Disgusting, street-addled whores” is a smashing bit of writing, by the way. I’m sure their families will get a real kick out of reading that. So much more descriptive than “Daughter” or “Mother” or “Sister” or somesuch. Should your own children (Or are you a confirmed bachelor? None of my business, I suppose. Prying into private lives is more your end of things, really) end up fellating dockers for spare change, I’m sure you’ll come up with something even better.

And bravo on giving Tony Blair a swift boot at the end. I can’t begin to imagine what kind of mind you’d need to use the deaths of five women to have a pop at him, but you’ve clearly got one.

Keep up the work. With people like you in positions of journalistic power, it’s only a matter of time before this country is they way Baroness Thatcher, god rest her immortal soul (Although is she actually dead yet? I’m not sure) would want it to be.

Yours etc.

Customer Service Writes To Richard Littlejohn (http://customerservice.blog.co.uk/2006/12/19/customer_service_writes_to_richard_littl~1456771)

Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Oscar's dad on 04 November, 2008, 11:38:54 am
Come, come now.  If you watch Clarkson and his ilk you should have your shit filter activated and a pot of salt handy from which to take pinches.  

I suspect that JC, like Gordon Ramsey, Simon Cowell, Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand, is in fact a very nice chap.  I love to meet them privately and find out what they are really like.  These guys are deliberately controversial cos it makes good TV and radio which attracts audiences in their millions.

However, I think, as I said earlier, broadcasters should edit before transmission.  And, some shows, including Top Gear, should be moved to after the watershed.

Remember all TVs and radios have "Off" buttons.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: geraldc on 04 November, 2008, 11:48:13 am
I remember Top Gear presented by William Woollard and Noel Edmonds. It was awful.

It basically was an aspirational show for pensioners who wanted to blow their pension on the latest Maestro.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Che on 04 November, 2008, 11:49:35 am
Dear Little John,

That's rather wonderful, SD. Well done.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Oscar's dad on 04 November, 2008, 11:50:18 am
I remember Top Gear presented by William Woollard and Noel Edmonds. It was awful.

It basically was an aspirational show for pensioners who wanted to blow their pension on the latest Maestro.

Me too, it was grim viewing.  Perhaps that's because in those days Top Gear was about cars.  It's not now and it's much more entertaining.  Just think how dull YACF would be if it was just about cycling  ;D
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Jaded on 04 November, 2008, 11:52:28 am
I was reliably informed that, in the flesh, JC is a knobber.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: andygates on 04 November, 2008, 11:57:18 am
Most telly people I've met are.  Except Michaela Strachan, she's lovely.   O:-)
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Jaded on 04 November, 2008, 11:59:37 am
Tom Baker wasn't when I met him. And he does sound like that.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Really Ancien on 04 November, 2008, 12:04:02 pm
Top Gear has been reclassified as entertainment, it used to be factual. It's easy to make the show if you don't have to stick to the facts. Jeremy is a decent journalist who can marshal facts well, I'd rather see him doing that, so sack him and force him to do what he is good at. It'd be a relief for us and I suspect for him. As one of the world's most successful authors he can't be doing it for the money. He is also turning into Bernard Ingham.
(http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:oIcH3mVfG4DYhM:http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00465/jeremy-clarkson_280_465178a.jpg)
Bernard Ingham

(http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:J1WImlwxp01VsM:http://www.sourcewatch.org/images/e/e0/Bernard-ingham.jpg)

Jermy Clarkson.

Damon.

Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Biff on 04 November, 2008, 12:11:15 pm
Jeremy is a decent journalist who can marshal facts well, I'd rather see him doing that, so sack him and force him to do what he is good at. It'd be a relief for us and I suspect for him.
Quite. His enthusiasm in the presentation of the programmes about Brunel and his (Clarkson's) VC winning father-in-law was palpable and gripping.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Pingu on 04 November, 2008, 12:32:59 pm
Jeremy is a decent journalist who can marshal facts well...

You are referring to the Jeremy Clarkson who advocated running down cyclists in a column? Or is it some other Jeremy Clarkson I haven't come across?
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: andyoxon on 04 November, 2008, 12:51:20 pm
I remember Top Gear presented by William Woollard and Noel Edmonds. It was awful.

It basically was an aspirational show for pensioners who wanted to blow their pension on the latest Maestro.

I remember my uncle getting a MG Maestro EFI,  oooooooh...  The only thing was I don't think it lasted very long...   ;)

I think some producers to the 'stars', for what ever reason seem to turn blind to material that really should not make it through editing at all, perhaps they just lose touch with the reality of it all?  Not good. 
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: spindrift on 04 November, 2008, 12:51:34 pm
Jeremy is a decent journalist who can marshal facts well...

The man has blood on his hands. Sun readers advocate vigilante violence, you can read them in the new comments section, and Clarkson encouraged them to use their vehicles as weaspons against cyclists.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: mattc on 04 November, 2008, 01:37:12 pm
Jeremy is a decent journalist who can marshal facts well...

The man has blood on his hands. Sun readers advocate vigilante violence, you can read them in the new comments section, and Clarkson encouraged them to use their vehicles as weaspons against cyclists.
I think I'm with spindrift here - just because he has some talents doesn't excuse his terrible behaviour. The idea of giving him a job that keeps him out of trouble leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

There are plenty of half-decent journos/presenters that could do his job(s) without resorting to vile outpourings.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Regulator on 04 November, 2008, 02:21:39 pm
Top Gear has been reclassified as entertainment, it used to be factual. It's easy to make the show if you don't have to stick to the facts. Jeremy is a decent journalist who can marshal facts well, I'd rather see him doing that, so sack him and force him to do what he is good at. It'd be a relief for us and I suspect for him. As one of the world's most successful authors he can't be doing it for the money. He is also turning into Bernard Ingham.
(http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:oIcH3mVfG4DYhM:http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00465/jeremy-clarkson_280_465178a.jpg)
Bernard Ingham

(http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:J1WImlwxp01VsM:http://www.sourcewatch.org/images/e/e0/Bernard-ingham.jpg)

Jermy Clarkson.

Damon.



I think that's unduly harsh on Bernard Ingham, comparing him to The Top Gear Twunt...  ;)
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Oscar's dad on 04 November, 2008, 02:24:27 pm
Top Gear has been reclassified as entertainment, it used to be factual. It's easy to make the show if you don't have to stick to the facts. Jeremy is a decent journalist who can marshal facts well, I'd rather see him doing that, so sack him and force him to do what he is good at. It'd be a relief for us and I suspect for him. As one of the world's most successful authors he can't be doing it for the money. He is also turning into Bernard Ingham.
(http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:oIcH3mVfG4DYhM:http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00465/jeremy-clarkson_280_465178a.jpg)
Bernard Ingham

(http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:J1WImlwxp01VsM:http://www.sourcewatch.org/images/e/e0/Bernard-ingham.jpg)

Jermy Clarkson.

Damon.



I think that's unduly harsh on Bernard Ingham, comparing him to The Top Gear Twunt...  ;)

I think its equally harsh comparing JC to the Tory Twunt  ;)
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: clarion on 04 November, 2008, 02:27:50 pm
Bah!  They deserve each other.

Both bringing the good name of Yorkshire into disrepute through vile reactionary views.

Did I mention Ted Hughes, Geoffrey Boycott, Harvey Smith etc? ;D
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Oscar's dad on 04 November, 2008, 02:32:54 pm
Bah!  They deserve each other.

Both bringing the good name of Yorkshire into disrepute through vile reactionary views.

Did I mention Ted Hughes, Geoffrey Boycott, Harvey Smith etc? ;D

That's it!  Ban all northerners from the airwaves and the press and then we'll just have to worry about Ross and Brand.  No-one's going to have a clever argument to counter this stroke of genius ...
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: pcolbeck on 04 November, 2008, 02:33:58 pm
Bah!  They deserve each other.

Both bringing the good name of Yorkshire into disrepute through vile reactionary views.

Did I mention Ted Hughes, Geoffrey Boycott, Harvey Smith etc? ;D
'appen tha 'as now lad.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Regulator on 04 November, 2008, 02:34:10 pm
Bah!  They deserve each other.

Both bringing the good name of Yorkshire into disrepute through vile reactionary views.

Did I mention Ted Hughes, Geoffrey Boycott, Harvey Smith etc? ;D


Geoffrey Boycott.  Professional whinging, miserable bastard who's the worst advert for Yorkshire by far.

***Looks for spitting smiley***

I feel like throwing something at the radio each time I hear his whiny voice.  One day, the bugger'll say something nice about somebody else, rather than harking back to the days when he was supposedly a god...  >:(
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: pcolbeck on 04 November, 2008, 02:36:34 pm
Bah!  They deserve each other.

Both bringing the good name of Yorkshire into disrepute through vile reactionary views.

Did I mention Ted Hughes, Geoffrey Boycott, Harvey Smith etc? ;D
'appen tha 'as now lad.

Oh and you missed out Parky.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: gonzo on 04 November, 2008, 03:27:24 pm
Along the lines of my previous post on the other similar thread; if you don't like it then don't watch it. Stereotypes are a large part of comedy. Deal with it.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: clarion on 04 November, 2008, 03:29:31 pm
a) I don't watch Top Gear.

b) I share the roads with a lot of people who do.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: spindrift on 04 November, 2008, 03:31:02 pm
Whatever the comic pretensions of hacks like Parris, Clarkson and Littlejohn, someone will do as they are told, and there will be no way of proving it. All it takes is a little delay on the brake pedal and another cyclist is dead. And that delay can be caused by the hatred spread by the media. In effect, it is the most efficient form of incitement there is. At least with other forms, the means of execution are explicitly criminal and rarely able to be disguised as an accident. This is not the case when the murder weapon is a car. And is much too easy when the target is suitably demonised by the media - when people on bikes have been dehumanised to a problem on wheels.


In the critical second or two before a collision with a cyclist, anyone agreeing wholeheartedly with Clarkson, which he presumably hopes is as many readers as possible, would not first see a human being in danger but just another obnoxious bloody cyclist - and only finally, when it is too late, see the human being. It is not a conscious decision, just an unnecessary, synthetic emotion getting in the way of the normal human response.
This is something which happens all the time - especially to drivers, subject as their personalities are to the distortions of being in control of superhuman power. We call it Road Rage.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 04 November, 2008, 03:40:34 pm
Bah!  They deserve each other.

Both bringing the good name of Yorkshire into disrepute through vile reactionary views.

Did I mention Ted Hughes, Geoffrey Boycott, Harvey Smith etc? ;D
'appen tha 'as now lad.

Oh and you missed out Parky.

And Fred Trueman...
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Really Ancien on 04 November, 2008, 03:41:30 pm
Jeremy is a decent journalist who can marshal facts well...

You are referring to the Jeremy Clarkson who advocated running down cyclists in a column? Or is it some other Jeremy Clarkson I haven't come across?
It's like I said, 'The Clarkson you get you deserve', Sun readers get one who's a mouthy bigot, Sunday Times readers get a mouthy bigot with a more developed writing style. Adolescent Petrolheads get an Adolescent Petrolhead. I'm interested in the history of British Manufacturing. I know Clarkson is too, he's quite capable of writing and presenting a good series on that.
He's become far too powerful for editors to control, he needs his wings clipping and his nose putting to the grindstone.
a) I don't watch Top Gear.

b) I share the roads with a lot of people who do.
That's a good point, I don't know if he leads or reflects what people think. I'd like to see some fieldwork on that. If he's leading it, he's very dangerous. If he reflects attitudes, then we are being warned.
I notice that we have had no comments from lorry drivers, the group I find most considerate.

Damon.


Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: FatBloke on 04 November, 2008, 03:43:44 pm
.......And Daily Telegraph readers get James May, which is infinitely better!
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: gonzo on 04 November, 2008, 04:04:12 pm
a) I don't watch Top Gear.

b) I share the roads with a lot of people who do.

And so you'll have to watch out for an increased incidence of collision with dead prostitutes who've fallen out of easily influenced lorry driver's vehicles?!?

I'm sure that the quote also included a lot of references to looking in mirrors and so surely that's a good thing for these easily influenced people to have been told?
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: donpedro on 04 November, 2008, 04:12:07 pm
Whatever the comic pretensions of hacks like Parris, Clarkson and Littlejohn, someone will do as they are told, and there will be no way of proving it. All it takes is a little delay on the brake pedal and another cyclist is dead. And that delay can be caused by the hatred spread by the media. In effect, it is the most efficient form of incitement there is. At least with other forms, the means of execution are explicitly criminal and rarely able to be disguised as an accident. This is not the case when the murder weapon is a car. And is much too easy when the target is suitably demonised by the media - when people on bikes have been dehumanised to a problem on wheels.


In the critical second or two before a collision with a cyclist, anyone agreeing wholeheartedly with Clarkson, which he presumably hopes is as many readers as possible, would not first see a human being in danger but just another obnoxious bloody cyclist - and only finally, when it is too late, see the human being. It is not a conscious decision, just an unnecessary, synthetic emotion getting in the way of the normal human response.
This is something which happens all the time - especially to drivers, subject as their personalities are to the distortions of being in control of superhuman power. We call it Road Rage.

Very well put!  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Oscar's dad on 04 November, 2008, 04:13:20 pm
Whatever the comic pretensions of hacks like Parris, Clarkson and Littlejohn, someone will do as they are told, and there will be no way of proving it. All it takes is a little delay on the brake pedal and another cyclist is dead. And that delay can be caused by the hatred spread by the media. In effect, it is the most efficient form of incitement there is. At least with other forms, the means of execution are explicitly criminal and rarely able to be disguised as an accident. This is not the case when the murder weapon is a car. And is much too easy when the target is suitably demonised by the media - when people on bikes have been dehumanised to a problem on wheels.


In the critical second or two before a collision with a cyclist, anyone agreeing wholeheartedly with Clarkson, which he presumably hopes is as many readers as possible, would not first see a human being in danger but just another obnoxious bloody cyclist - and only finally, when it is too late, see the human being. It is not a conscious decision, just an unnecessary, synthetic emotion getting in the way of the normal human response.
This is something which happens all the time - especially to drivers, subject as their personalities are to the distortions of being in control of superhuman power. We call it Road Rage.

So what we are saying here is that there are loads of morons out there who can't think for themselves and will do whatever they saw on the telly, heard on the radio or read in The Sun.  This maybe true.

But, people that appear on satirical TV programmes etc are not the conscience of the nation.  They are being satirical in the hope that the audience is intelligent enough to take the satire with a pinch of salt and laugh at the humour offered.  I don't think our TV, radio and press should be dumbed down just because morons might take it seriously.

Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Jaded on 04 November, 2008, 04:19:17 pm
I think there are enough people that watch Top Gear that don't understand that the camera is placed low on the cars body work, or that the drivers are professionals and driving three feet from the bumper in front is quite fine.

It's pretty much the same knobs that think having the fog lights on (as they do in Top Gear) is cool.

Hell - there used to be public information films on telly and people believed them!
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: geraldc on 04 November, 2008, 04:36:51 pm
I reserve the right to behave like an idiot should I so desire.

Top Gear's stunts are filmed on private property.

Top Gear is entertainment, and I do consider Clarkson to be playing a role. I'm probably one of a handful of people here who actually watch and enjoy the show.

I don't consider Clarkson to be a danger to society, the same way I don't think Frank Spencer or Mr Bean are a danger to public health.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: pcolbeck on 04 November, 2008, 04:38:41 pm
+1 I like Clarkson.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: geraldc on 04 November, 2008, 04:50:20 pm
For those who don't watch the show, Clarkson is portrayed as an idiot, James May is portrayed as a slow old man, and Hammond as the short everyman type person.

E.g. When they have the little challenges, Clarkson will do something outrageous involving big engines and speed, James May will do something suitably slow, and Hammond will do something more sensible.

A lot of the laughter is at the presenter's own expense.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: mattc on 04 November, 2008, 05:03:48 pm
But, people that appear on satirical TV programmes etc are not the conscience of the nation.  They are being satirical in the hope that the audience is intelligent enough to take the satire with a pinch of salt and laugh at the humour offered.  I don't think our TV, radio and press should be dumbed down just because morons might take it seriously.
Aha - the light has dawned on my keyboard. Top Gear is Satire! Why didn't I realise this before?!?

It's all so clear now - every week they are saying:
"Cars are shit. And really dangerous to innocent people. You will look stupid driving one. Stop it now. Save that £15K and spend it on train fares, a nice bike, and your favourite charity for RTA victims."

I now assume none of them ever drive except when they're on telly.

Thanks for pointing that out.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: alan on 04 November, 2008, 05:05:18 pm
Yes
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: clarion on 04 November, 2008, 05:06:05 pm
Funny you should say that.  Hammond rides a lot.  May loves his Brommie, and, er, Clarkson has been sighted on a BSO on his estate, and in his local village.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Hot Flatus on 04 November, 2008, 07:56:09 pm
Bah!  They deserve each other.

Both bringing the good name of Yorkshire into disrepute through vile reactionary views.

Did I mention Ted Hughes, Geoffrey Boycott, Harvey Smith etc? ;D

You can always tell a Yorkshireman



..... but you can't tell them much.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Jaded on 04 November, 2008, 08:29:23 pm
Top Gear's stunts are filmed on private property.

I think I mentioned or alluded to this. If I didn't then I meant to. So - they film on private property and hence do not have to stick to speed limits, or turn the fog lights off in broad daylight. So they don't have to worry about vehicles coming the other way.

It never used to be (exclusively) filmed on private property and it would be hard to get to Monte Carlo or Edinburgh on private property.

Top Gear is entertainment

My point is simple.
You think it is entertainment, but some people do not make that connection.

In the same way that death metal isn't actually asking you to go and kill half your year at school.

There might be 1 person out of 67 million. or .01% of 67 million. Or possibly quite a few more. For me, out on my bike on a rural lane, hearing a revved up engine in a car being forced to swoop round bends, Top Gear style, that's one too many people who don't get that it is entertainment.

The point about the truck into wall thing is that he is on record saying that it was bloody awful and everybody should do similar before being given  a licence.
The c**t just didn't say this in the program. So why would that be?
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Chris S on 04 November, 2008, 08:38:53 pm
Funny you should say that.  Hammond rides a lot.  May loves his Brommie, and, er, Clarkson has been sighted on a BSO on his estate, and in his local village.

We'll watch out for him on Saturday. I think the Upper Thames 200 goes near/past his front door.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Regulator on 05 November, 2008, 07:19:29 am
Funny you should say that.  Hammond rides a lot.  May loves his Brommie, and, er, Clarkson has been sighted  parking an oversized gas guzzler on a BSO on his estate, and in his local village.


FTFY...  ;)
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: pdm on 05 November, 2008, 09:00:37 am

The point about the truck into wall thing is that he is on record saying that it was bloody awful and everybody should do similar before being given  a licence.
The c**t just didn't say this in the program. So why would that be?

Actually - he DID say that on the program. - My son was watching it when I walked in just as he hit the wall and stayed to watch a few minutes.   :P
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 05 November, 2008, 10:11:10 am
We'll watch out for him on Saturday. I think the Upper Thames 200 goes near/past his front door.

Somewhere near Chipping Norton certainly, but I'm not sure exactly where.  If you could run David Cameron over on the descent into Chadlington...
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: clarion on 05 November, 2008, 10:14:11 am
Top Gear's stunts are filmed on private property.

I think I mentioned or alluded to this. If I didn't then I meant to. So - they film on private property and hence do not have to stick to speed limits, or turn the fog lights off in broad daylight. So they don't have to worry about vehicles coming the other way.

It never used to be (exclusively) filmed on private property and it would be hard to get to Monte Carlo or Edinburgh on private property.


A lot of what they film is not on private property, and shows the law being broken.  An overtired Clarkson piloting a Veyron at high speed along an Autobahn?  Hilarious*, and, while the speed may be legal, the drooping eyes and inattention weren't.








* ::-)
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: mattc on 05 November, 2008, 11:33:39 am
Top Gear is entertainment, and I do consider Clarkson to be playing a role.
Gerald,
You are far too intelligent to believe that Entertainment cannot be used for serious means. Consider topical news-based comedy (which has been prominent in the mainstream since the 60s). Certain politicians think their careers were killed by Spitting Image.
If Mugabe or our old friend Saddam had sponsored a piece of theatre, would you naively watch it, assuming it was 'just entertainment' with no possible political message?

Do you think Bernard Manning is harmless on the grounds that his main aim is to get a laugh?

Quote
I'm probably one of a handful of people here who actually watch and enjoy the show.
I think your handful may be larger than you think (fnarr fnarr). I've often watched Jezza and laughed  (I also loved James May in the first wine prog he did). Don't assume that those of us who care about the bigger picture are completely devoid of funny bone. Just as Mr Manning tells the odd cracker (e.g. the Argie soldiers gag). I still wouldn't pay him money to 'entertain' me.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 05 November, 2008, 11:41:39 am
Was it just me who thought Clarkson was talking about Peter Sutcliffe, then?
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 05 November, 2008, 12:39:40 pm
Was it just me who thought Clarkson was talking about Peter Sutcliffe, then?

I did too. That's another Yorkshireman for the list.  :-\
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: onb on 05 November, 2008, 02:32:25 pm
Top Gear is entertainment, and I do consider Clarkson to be playing a role.
Gerald,


Do you think Bernard Manning is harmless on the grounds that his main aim is to get a laugh?

Quote

I should think so he died a couple of years ago.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: geraldc on 06 November, 2008, 11:41:50 am
A lot of what they film is not on private property, and shows the law being broken.  An overtired Clarkson piloting a Veyron at high speed along an Autobahn?  Hilarious*, and, while the speed may be legal, the drooping eyes and inattention weren't.

* ::-)

Same could be said of audax.

Top Gear is popular entertainment. I don't see the link between a car show, that a wide cross section of the populous watches and bad road behaviour.

Has bad road behaviour increased in proportion with Top Gear?  There's no equivalent show for motorcyclists, and it was motorcyclists who scared the crap out of me on my last audax, apexing corners, riding on the wrong side of the white lines. Where did they learn that from?

The Max Power/car modding brigade are ridiculed by almost everyone I know, but it seems to be growing in popularity.

Bad road manners is nothing to do with whats on TV, but the personality of the person involved.

The backlash against SUVs is media driven, yet there are still loads of them on the street.

Re: Manning, he seemed the same on and off stage. Clarkson for all his ranting does have a thoughtful side.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: pcolbeck on 06 November, 2008, 12:34:53 pm
Quote
The Max Power/car modding brigade are ridiculed by almost everyone I know, but it seems to be growing in popularity.

Even by Top Gear.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Zipperhead on 06 November, 2008, 04:57:34 pm
Now he features in a game (http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?Truckers_revenge_as_Clarkson_gets_splatted&in_article_id=390429&in_page_id=34)
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: Jakob on 06 November, 2008, 08:13:46 pm
I like Top Gear and I like Clarkson as an entertainer. Sometimes he goes a bit too much Daily Mail, but he's also perfectly capable of taking the piss out of himself.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: LEE on 06 November, 2008, 08:44:38 pm
Top Gear gets more like a sketch show every season.

I think there used to be a few ad-libs but now it's totally scripted and the 3-way competitions between the presenters are hopelessly contrived.

Good light-entertainment but not to be taken seriously, just like Brand and Ross.

Clarkson Island (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=DMuO-8S_0Wg)
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: rogerzilla on 06 November, 2008, 08:58:03 pm
It's Last Of The Summer Wine with cars, innit?
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: mattc on 07 November, 2008, 11:05:09 am
Quote
The Max Power/car modding brigade are ridiculed by almost everyone I know, but it seems to be growing in popularity.

Even by Top Gear.

What they are saying about the MaxPower readers is basically:
I have more money than you - therefore I can purchase an Imprezza Turbo / M3 / Sierra Cosworth* which will look nicer than your car, require less of my time, and go faster.

Could someone please count the number of posts about bad driving by:
a) BMW drivers,
b) Chavs in Saxos.

I bet b) isn't much bigger than a).

*remember Clarkson had one of these until people kept sawing the wing off.
Title: Re: Should Jeremy Clarkson get sacked?
Post by: clarion on 07 November, 2008, 11:29:39 am
Discussing Clarkson's former cars reminds me about the hoo-hah when he ordered a Ford GT, and kept reminding the other presenters of the fact all the way up the waiting list, until he got it.

And it was an expensive pile of crap that didn't even go.

The sheer amount of schadenfreude these events showered across the land perhaps absolves Clarkson from his other idiocies.