The Grand Tour. (Top Gear is dead).

[TMM]

I was wondering how long it'd take Clarkson to do a joke about the whole Brand/Ross/Sachs thing; 11 minutes.

[Anderson]

Great first episode tonight; the dog and child driving the lambo really made me chuckle. I wondered if they would address the possibility of Lewis Hamilton winning the world championship

[TMM]

bbc.co.uk

I won't copy and paste the thing (because I can't be bothered) but people have been complaining about Jeremy Clarkson's joke about lorry drivers killing prostitutes. Ah, one episode in and the complaints start rolling. Top Gear is definately back.

[stokeriño]

The habitual whingers are now under the delusion that they're important after the Ross/Brand furore.

lol, no.

[Colly]

Every time they've mentioned the joke on Radio 1 at work today I've chuckled. The prostitutes union, or whatever its officially known as, want him sacked. I'll have to try to catch the repeat, didn't know it was on on Sunday.

[IAceI]

500 complaints - a long way to go till the 30k that Brand and Ross have racked up.

What irks me most about this is if on another program that I didn't watch or care about there was a joke that "Carlisle is an absolute shit hole and everyone who lives there is a fucking queer and should all die", I wouldn't read that in a newspaper and then jump to my PC and write an angry letter.

I don't care about the program, so I'm not going to bother writing a letter of complaint about something I couldn't care less about. I know Clarkson may have touched a nerve with the 5 Ipswich prostitutes killed around a year ago. But, a lot of the complaints for this and the Brand/Ross thing they seem to scoure the newspapers in search of their latest comment to kick up a furore about.

Sure, if I knew a prostitute who had been killed, I may very well be thinking something different. But at the same time, when I heard it - I did chuckle. My dad is essentially a truck driver, well, drives a flatbed transporting access platforms, but close enough - he found it funny. I'm not saying people don't have a reason to be angry, but.. it just seems - like stokerino said, the whingers think they're important now and have an actual say in things.

[Farmer Reil]

It seems even the BBC are getting pissed off with it now, Ace.

Here's their response to complaints about a joke in a repeated episode of Mock The Week, emphasis mine

:

Mock the Week is a well-established satirical comedy series whose audience has very clear expectations of its bold and sometimes provocative humour. This edition of the programme has been broadcast four times since January 2007 and before the recent press coverage we'd only received a very small number of complaints about it. We're always clear with audiences about the content of programmes and we acknowledge that some of the humour in Mock the Week is not to everyone's taste, particularly when taken out of the context of the programme.

Their response to the Top Gear complaints was... similar

"Top Gear is BBC Two's long-running motoring show and its audience has clear expectations of Jeremy Clarkson's long-established and frequently provocative on-screen persona and exaggerated humour.

These references did not go out without the BBC giving them careful consideration and we did not intend to cause offence.

We took the view that their inclusion was justified as we were taking an urban myth about the world of lorry driving, and then exaggerating it to an absurd level. The comments should be seen within the context of the programme".

Andy Wilman

Executive Producer

Other things the pathetic twats have been complaining about:

- Dixie's dog being trapped in her burning house in an episode of Casualty. For fuck's sake.

- Masood Ahmed breaking his Ramadan fast in Eastenders.

- Gay people doing gay stuff in Eastenders.

- The commentary during the Eurovision Dance Contest.

Save us, EWB. We're becoming a nation of pathetic, whinging bastards.

Edited November 5, 2008 by Farmer Reil

[therockbox]

Becoming? We've been there for ages. I can't imagine how boring and empty your life would have to be for you to take it upon yourself to write to a television broadcaster about being offended by a TV program.

[K]

Every time they've mentioned the joke on Radio 1 at work today I've chuckled. The prostitutes union, or whatever its officially known as, want him sacked. I'll have to try to catch the repeat, didn't know it was on on Sunday.

?!?!??

[King Ellis]

I like how the similiar stories section for this alerted me to the BBC Trust complaining about Jezzer and May drinking during the snow challenge. Those swines, drinking G&T's in the middle of an ice field, miles and miles from anything!

Though, really, I fail to see how that could be seen as glamourous. If anyone in this country models themselves on Clarkson or May then they probably have issues.

[Scott McFly]

http://www.t-enterprise.co.uk/flashgame/pl...=runclarksonrun

Awesome.

[IAceI]

"- The commentary during the Eurovision Dance Contest."

I had a write good moan about that on the night, it was so annoying. Sure I didn't write a letter of complaint, but that actually really did piss me off - if only for the comment, that when Azerbaijan gave Ukraine 12 points, the guy actually said "oh this is ridiculous, they're just giving it to their neighbouring countries!"

Err yeah. Azerbaijan is right next to Ukraine now?

Edited November 7, 2008 by IAceI

[therockbox]

Tonight's episode is another American road trip one, this time they're driving muscle cars.

Annoyingly it's going to be chopped up with studio bits, I wish with the bigger road trip ones they'd just have an hour of that and put all the reviews/guest bits in an episode in the original format.

[Timmoru Suzuki]

And I just found a way to love Clarkson more.....

Nice Stig factoid this week, "Some say he INVENTED November."

[Colly]

Every time they've mentioned the joke on Radio 1 at work today I've chuckled. The prostitutes union, or whatever its officially known as, want him sacked. I'll have to try to catch the repeat, didn't know it was on on Sunday.

?!?!??

Sorry for the delayed response, but BUH!!! I didn't get it either, but apparently there is some legally existing group that represents a load of sex toting criminals. I assume there's a paedo union somewhere too...

[stokeriño]

You realise prostitution is legal, right? It's just things like pimping, soliciting on the street etc. which aren't.

[AJ]

My favourite quote from this week's top gear was Clarkson giving the little Fiat a voice: "Grrr I'm a lamborghini really!"

Also, no bumping into James May during the episode = However, I didn't think it was very likely anyway considering Hammond had just bought himself a brand new Dodge Challenger.

[Timmoru Suzuki]

The test drive at the end was brilliant. I was laughing for ages at the boot being big enough to fit a zebra's head, and the chase around the shopping centre/beach landing skits were funny too.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

I feel sorry for Clarkson. Last week the back problem, this week he sounded like he had tonsalitis. I wish he'd of smacked smug Boris in the face too

[Farmer Reil]

Boris Johnson was the second greatest Top Gear segment ever, as I knew it would be. "Before I needlessly throw away the lorry-driver vote..."

Second greatest, of course, because of the 'serious' Fiesta test. Pure brilliance.

Edited December 8, 2008 by Farmer Reil