Was Top Gear offensive?
12/02/07 12:09 Ethics
Last night I sat unusually transfixed by an episode
of Top Gear, in which the presenters were nearly
beaten up and then someon tried extortion in America.
Was this entertaining? Certainly. But was it racist?
I'm not usually one for political correctness but
there's a case for saying they went too far. The
set-up was simple - they decided that, instead of
hiring a car, they'd buy one and try to sell it on at
the end of their holiday.
Eventually they got some beaten-up old motors, with Jeremy Clarkson at one stage offering a fat car salesman a hamburger. It was done with style and in spite of yourself you couldn't help laughing.
Then they daubed slogans on the side - "Hillary for President", something derogatory about country and western music (derogatory comments about c&w are always justified of course) and a pro-homosexuality comment. Understandably they had some hoots from other motorists in the deep south.
Then they stopped for petrol and the garage owner said she was going to 'get the boys'. A chase ensued with some hints that there was violence involved. Later on they reached New Orleans and found it was still a wreck; they offered to give their cars away and one woman from a mission - we were told, after the cameras were switched off - claimed they'd misrepresented the years of one of the vehicles they were offering for nothing, and tried to take $20K off them to stop her suing.
With this and an artificially-fattened Stig, there was a lot of anti-Americanism in there/ It was certainly entertaining but I was left with a bit of an uncomfortable feeling. I could, I'm sure, make a good documentary about how perverted the British are if I were to film exclusively in licenced sex shops and pick up cards left in phone boxes (if there are any around these days). It might even be a laugh, but you could still be excused for wondering why I was doing it. I could walk into a gay bar with anti-gay slogans on my tee-shirt and provoke a fight for another article ot film if I wanted to. I'm reasonably certain you could achieve the result you wanted if you provided the right provocation.
I'd still query the motivation for doing any of those things and I'd query why they chose to pick a fight on Top Gear as well. It's repeated on Wednesday, 8.00pm, BBC2 - I'd be interested to hear what other people think.
Eventually they got some beaten-up old motors, with Jeremy Clarkson at one stage offering a fat car salesman a hamburger. It was done with style and in spite of yourself you couldn't help laughing.
Then they daubed slogans on the side - "Hillary for President", something derogatory about country and western music (derogatory comments about c&w are always justified of course) and a pro-homosexuality comment. Understandably they had some hoots from other motorists in the deep south.
Then they stopped for petrol and the garage owner said she was going to 'get the boys'. A chase ensued with some hints that there was violence involved. Later on they reached New Orleans and found it was still a wreck; they offered to give their cars away and one woman from a mission - we were told, after the cameras were switched off - claimed they'd misrepresented the years of one of the vehicles they were offering for nothing, and tried to take $20K off them to stop her suing.
With this and an artificially-fattened Stig, there was a lot of anti-Americanism in there/ It was certainly entertaining but I was left with a bit of an uncomfortable feeling. I could, I'm sure, make a good documentary about how perverted the British are if I were to film exclusively in licenced sex shops and pick up cards left in phone boxes (if there are any around these days). It might even be a laugh, but you could still be excused for wondering why I was doing it. I could walk into a gay bar with anti-gay slogans on my tee-shirt and provoke a fight for another article ot film if I wanted to. I'm reasonably certain you could achieve the result you wanted if you provided the right provocation.
I'd still query the motivation for doing any of those things and I'd query why they chose to pick a fight on Top Gear as well. It's repeated on Wednesday, 8.00pm, BBC2 - I'd be interested to hear what other people think.
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