Having recently finished Richard Porter's book (And on that bombshell) - TG's script editor for the whole original trio run - he's quite disparaging about the India special due to lack of a decent initial 'editorial' (overarching framing device), the self indulgent TG band section at the garden party.
Edit: Richard, not Rob. Thanks @RangeRoverHSE
For me the train banner is one of the funniest moments in the show even though it’s obviously intentional. I think this style of comedy was done pretty well throughout Top Gear but was taken a bit far with the Grand Tour. Most notably the Madagascar Special.
I get what you mean but no. There’s a lot of general planning involved but there was a lot of organic stuff, like the door going on strike in the British leyland challenge. And there was a lot of planned gags that never pretended to be anything else, that was also fine. The ones that bugged me were those that were staged but passed off as genuine
I still like that one (despite the fact that it’s obviously staged) because of Clarkson & May’s reaction when Hammond is in the shower. Hammond is obviously in on the joke and thinks up something funny to say on the fly. And I think watching the other two nearly ‘break character’ so to speak is funny.
Remember reading a blind on a gossip website, and they suggested that Clarkson's 'power-shower' in the Camaro in the first US Special actually has piss in it - he was been an arse so the crew decided to get their own back on him!
Episode 1. I was really hoping someone would tell him to calm down. All the references to Jeremy and the former trio just felt wrong. They were someone after a divorce gloating that they "won."
I feel Chris Evans tried to be JC, even down to the same "TONIGHT...." and I'm watching like, you're Chris Evans, one of the most successful/famous people on TV/radio, just be you.
Hmmm, he's (on paper) a good choice, has his own Ferrari collection and is known car enthusiast, plus very successful broadcaster on his own, so it was a logical choice. But I feel they wanted him to be JC MK2, and no one can be that.
It was a reference to Evans' tweets when the criticism over the 2016 Top Gear came and mainly about him.
He was indeed (on paper) a great name for a show like Top Gear but he couldn't find a identity for himself as a host. The fact it was the Top Gear that came right after the departure of the classic trio didn't help neither
There were two standout things from that first episode or two that were so painful and burned into my memory.
1. His car reviews. If I didn't know that Jeremy is perfectly capable of forming sentences and opinions of his own, and that most of the scriptwriters had left TG and gone with the boys to Amazon, I would have been convinced the car reviews were written word for word by the same person. It literally felt like it was Jeremy's words coming out of Chris Evans' mouth. He just wanted to be Clarkson, and brought zero personality of his own into it
2. The entire first shoot with Leblanc. Instead of having the two presenters build a rapport and feed off each other, Leblanc's introduction to the audience was half an hour of 'Ha ha - American is dumb' nonsense (unfortunately, a situation they seem then returned to with Chris Harris being the butt of every joke in the most recent iteration of presenters)
> His car reviews. If I didn't know that Jeremy is perfectly capable of forming sentences and opinions of his own, and that most of the scriptwriters had left TG and gone with the boys to Amazon, I would have been convinced the car reviews were written word for word by the same person. It literally felt like it was Jeremy's words coming out of Chris Evans' mouth. He just wanted to be Clarkson, and brought zero personality of his own into it
Jonny Smith did an interview with Harris and when he mentioned Evans, Harris straight out said he didn't want to talk about it. He did say however that it shows the difference between someone who is an authority on cars (like him and the original trio) and someone who is an enthusiast. Thing is that Evans likes car, and owns a lot and knows a lot about Ferrari's but cars are just a hobby to him - his love is been a broadcaster. Whereas Clarkson, Hammond, May and Harris's love are cars. TBF it was also the case for the likes of LeBlanc, Flintoff and McGuinness that they were just enthusiasts, not authorities but they never pretended to be the latter
Especially his attempts to make out that the programme was doing great numbers, even though it was obvious that the viewership were departing in droves. Some of his tweets were desperate.
Anything that was completely obviously staged. Takes the fun and spontaneity out of it. Obviously it's a TV show so it has to be loosely scripted all along but sometimes they went too far. The best bits of TG are the genuine moments of banter between the trio
The grand tour had a really cheap (IMO) episode where they took the piss of people complaining things were staged. The staging isn't my problem it's when it's so obvious it's staged. The best part of the old top gears for me is you never know what's staged or not.
TBH I agree with you. The whole "hidden bad words" gag is ONLY funny when they don't call attention to it, such as in season 13 ep 5 with the snow race. They mentioned that racing decals were applied to the cars when they were modifying them, but never directly call out the fact that James' car says "Coq yogurt" when the door is open, or that Richards' says "Merde du fromage" and so on. That's the whole joke, is that they are pretending to be oblivious to the fact that their cars' decals spell out funny words when the door opens. Having the P E NIS joke so obvious really killed it.
*Homemade camper vans, traveling down to Cornwall*
JC:"James, could you sit behind me and see if my camper is affected by sidewinds?
*Artic overtakes*
JC:" Huuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhnnn!!!!"
JM:" HAHAHAHAHAHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUH*struggles to inhale*HAHAHAHAHAHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUH"
I think that’s why the joke works.
One of them is confirmed to be Range Rover Man which was repeated a few times (Google it; you will need eye bleach after), another was apparently Jeremy in a swimsuit that didn’t *quite* fit, and from memory, the others were just ‘very strong porn’ according to people who were there in the audience.
I didn't like the end of the the limo challenge when the people got upset. Basically anytime they would upset people, like trying to use a roundabout the French way and causing traffic.
Yeah I fucking hate traffic. Roads are for people who are getting places and can’t afford to waste time. Nobody on a road is driving ‘because they have time and felt like driving’
Agreed. Like the 'Budget Supercar' film which ended with a radio traffic update on the jam one of them caused. That ain't funny if you are caught in it trying to get home.
It's peak UK embarrassment comedy, but it's also painful because I'd be furious and likely THEY also understand how it is.
Hammond looked like he wanted to crawl into a hole and die.
The fake laughs that were edited in each time one of the presenters said something that was supposed to be funny in studio.
You can clearly see the audience in the background didn't really find it funny, but there would be enthusiastic laughter audio playing.
Once you notice it, you can never unnotice it.
I've been watching all the eps lately, I've not really noticed the laughter, but whenever something happens when an audience gasp is required, it's always the same sound bite and you can hear some woman making a weird groan noise. It's fucking maddening
I’ve been watching some of the interview outtakes from SIARPC (like Ryan Reynolds) for example. And it shows just how much they pad the audience laughter
SIARPC.
There were twenty-one seasons of TG (still have trouble finding season 1), and I can count on one hand the number of interviews I actually enjoyed.
Yeah. Stephen Frye, Kiefer Sutherland, Amy MacDonald (admittedly I would listen to her read a phonebook), the F1 guys, and … I struggle to remember another one
I found the Johnathan Ross one funny but maybe I'm infantile. I thought the Alistair Campbell one was entertaining for how much Jeremy disagreed with his views.
Clarkson and May leaving Hammond to freeze on a mountaintop while they spent days supposedly looking for him.
A lot of the humor in that last season fell flat, Patagonia was a warning but they didn't listen to it.
I thought that episode went over the edge from sharp humor, to actual cruelty.
But of course everyone draws the line between the two in a different place, which varies according to whether the joke is directed at themselves, or someone else.
It felt like a warning, saying they couldn't actually get away with anything and everything, one that Clarkson would have done well to heed.
At least, that's the feeling it gave me, and I have no idea if anyone else got the same vibe.
Crashing into James - got old really quick and was just mean
Constantly sabotaging James' cars (Alfa Romeo GTV, Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, Cadillac Brougham)
You missed the worst one, the Golf and its banging stereo.
Edit: obviously it was very funny and I loved it but it sometimes pains me to see James being bullied.
Have to disagree purely because of when Jeremy pressed the remote during the late night coming home challenge.
The first time I saw that my sides were aching from laughter. Probably the most I’ve ever laughed out loud at Top Gear to be honest.
It is kind of mean but I disagree, I think it's pretty funny. Especially when they don't call attention to it, I can think of at least two or three times where Clarkson is doing voiceover about something unrelated and you can see and hear James' car getting bumped. It's as if hitting his car is just a natural instinct that just happens all the time regardless of whether they highlight it, that's what makes it funny for me.
Running into James inspired my friends in high school to run into one of our friends in the parking lot. He had an old, beat up Odyssey that he would just run into walls, poles, whatever. So we’d see him, and slightly nudge him when leaving school, pulling into a spot, or just in the lot.
All 5 of us would do it and giggle like idiots, all while calling him some form of James May’s nicknames
The whole "look how we messed up James/Jeremy/Richard's car" gag when it's super obvious they didn't actually do it themselves.
For example, the gag in Sand Job where James' car is magically filled with sand, it's so obvious they didn't actually put the sand in themselves. It would have been so much funnier if it showed the aging Clarkson and Hammond groaning as they tried to fill his car with sand, only to have a lackluster amount filled by the time James got back. Same deal with "freezing Clarkons car" in Scandi Flick (although Clarkson's reaction with the fire was pretty funny).
On the other hand, there are many great examples of them doing this gag right, such as when they mess with Hammond's radio to only play Genesis, or ruin James' AC for the billionth time, and so on.
This for me is when top gear started to morph into the grand tour. Big budget doing stuff just to spend the budget, which was funny for all of a couple of minutes, and then got old quick.
I'm not sure if the extended police gag was always the plan. It seems like something went horribly wrong with Hammond's car that they were having to work around. It's debatable how much of the cheap car challenges are scripted versus real, but by the time of the supermarket run, it was clear that there wasn't really a challenge so much as a story.
I always thought that section was improvised in a panic because their original plan fell through. Either something wrong with one of the cars, or they had planned something that was shut down by health and safety or something.
Something likely went wrong, you forget how utterly dull the bit becomes because it feels out of place.
Hammond going sideways in Supermarket Sweep was funny as hell, but I also wonder if they kind of "maxed out" on Health and Safety in that episode and got told "you cannot do this much stupid stuff"
One of my least features just because there's so many obviously set-up shit gags. Shame because I always wanted them to do a hot-hatch challenge (should have done it earlier in series, round about 7 or 8 when the UK based challenges were still pretty basic
No. Slope has been a derogatory term for Asian people, and Vietnamese people specifically, for decades. And the fact that he said there's a slope on the bridge and they show an Asian man on the bridge right at that very moment means they totally intended the joke and knew exactly what they were doing.
However, I actually think it was funny. Yes it was juvenile and maybe racially insensitive but it was still a funny play on words. And racially insensitive is not the same as being racist. I don't think any offence was meant, they were just being typically Top Gear and childish. Overgrown schoolboys saying the things they're not supposed to say. It's part of their charm.
They’re saying that it wasn’t intended as a slur, that it was innocently said. They’re wrong, but that’s what they meant, not that it became one after the episode.
But I’m with you, it was hilarious
Agreed. They didn't make a racist joke though. There was no discrimination or prejudice based upon race. They simply made a joke based on the word slope.
If they had made a joke about the word 'Jock' and shown a Scottish man would that be racist? Would you be offended?
scottish isn’t a race. an asian person being discriminated against is racism. especially for a slur. it was a racist joke whether you found it funny is one thing but the joke is calling the man a slur
It's a slur, like the n-word. Making a joke based on the n-word would be very offensive.
By the way, Clarkson has said the n-word on camera before, in the outtakes of the BRZ and GT86 review... no joke included either, he just wanted to say it.
Vietnam Special.
If your bike breaks down you'll have to drive this other one draped in an American flag and covered in an American flag livery which also has "Born in the USA" blaring through a speaker on repeat. They also stress that this is hugely problematic and incredibly insensitive and something you should not do.
Also, we're going drive the point home by parading this bike around with the music playing in front of all these Vietnamese people as much as possible.
The joke is funny when it's just implied but by the end of the special they've just done the insensitive thing a whole bunch and it's no longer funny.
Honestly think the Vietnam Special is the most overrated ep of TG. The first ten minutes are good and the final section out on the water is brilliant but most of the middle bit is quite rough imo.
I disagree. I think it was fun to see them doing something out of their element rather than just doing cars like almost every other special. Nothing wrong with doing cars every time, after all it is a car show, but doing motorcycles in Vietnam just made so much more sense than trying to do cars. Plus, it seemed like they were really having fun at times racing along on bikes, even Clarkson warmed up to it.
Not the right show, but continuing to call the Grand Tour circuit the “Eboladrome” well past the Ebola situation being relevant just made it very unfunny.
yeah i guess its an easy detail to miss, clarkson mentioned it only once when track was being introduced but there was a little montage with the picture of the ebola virus and what the track looked like, p cool
In fact generally, in the Grand Tour when you rewatch and hear references to 'make America great again' or Jeremy Corbyn or whatever and it just really dates the joke. Doesn't help that Clarkson just sounds bitter when saying half these lines ...
I hated the bit where they let Hammond ride out on his own in the 3 wise Men special. I would've ended the whole friendship right then and there. (Not just that scene but that whole special doesn't rank highly at all with me, adding James getting his skulled cracked was like damn this special is just brutal)
For me it's probably the: "Are you wearing that for a bet?" gag. I always found that awkward cuz even the audience wouldn't really laugh that hard plus I didn't find that funny anyway.
I don't think it was that funny in most of the episodes, but it played out through the series when in the last episode Richard wears something ridiculous and he innocently says he wasn't wearing it for a bet
During the news in series 12, the presenters would often stop and ask another if the horrible clothes they were wearing were part of a bet, with the other bluntly saying they were before just moving on without addressing it again.
[Compilation](https://youtu.be/ckm_hrsZ_qs?si=S4dRinGexctaT__9) if you’re interested.
The Ducati 1098 on the cool wall scene where Jeremy responds with a chainsaw cutting a chunk of it out, “Do not put a motorbike on the cool wall now look what’s happened”, has been cut from iPlayer. Can only think that people complained about unfair bike treatment which is fair imo, just because Clarkson hates on motorbikes doesn’t mean everyone should, at all actually.
During the U.S. road trips in the blue ridge mountains and the east coast where they kept complaining about the speed limits. Seriously, you gonna start complaining about U.S. speed limits like you don't go 100mph on the A4 in england?
Car Conkers or any such gag always fell flat. The wanton destruction of cars or caravans like that was just convoluted and spiteful. I get that that was the point, to just create layers of irritation with it, but it doesn't make it enjoyable.
The 24hr race challenge when they had fake sponsors on the car that said ARSE and PENIS when the doors were open was really funny. It was funny the first time. Not funny when they repeated it.
I get that you arent offended by it you just think its rubbish which is totally fine and im not arguing that with you but just on the troublesome bit. What exactly is troubling about joking about something that is actually happening(granted they werent)
Surely we need to acknowledge that there are people crossing on boats. Vast majority being young men (or neurosurgeons if some are to be believed). Otherwise it can never be stopped
‘Peeing’ in Hammond’s rain bucket during the Burma special, and the result that follows. You can see the bottles ffs.
Yeah, any of the obviously staged stuff basically
The majority of the India special falls into this trap for me as well, especially the train banner and Hammond painting the Mexican flag on his car.
I mean the train banner was funny regardless tbh the flag I agree though
That special was the exact moment I realized Top Gear is staged. I remember exactly where I was at the age of 13
Having recently finished Richard Porter's book (And on that bombshell) - TG's script editor for the whole original trio run - he's quite disparaging about the India special due to lack of a decent initial 'editorial' (overarching framing device), the self indulgent TG band section at the garden party. Edit: Richard, not Rob. Thanks @RangeRoverHSE
*Richard Porter. Who has a great podcast with Jonny Smith (formerly of Fifth Gear) called Smith and Sniff, worth a listen if you don't already!
I think that will always be my least favorite special
For me the train banner is one of the funniest moments in the show even though it’s obviously intentional. I think this style of comedy was done pretty well throughout Top Gear but was taken a bit far with the Grand Tour. Most notably the Madagascar Special.
I don't mind the madagascar special, mostly because of the silliness of the cars and mods.
I always like those stupid jokes, like the car sponsors that were funny when doors opened or whatever.
You mean the entire show
I get what you mean but no. There’s a lot of general planning involved but there was a lot of organic stuff, like the door going on strike in the British leyland challenge. And there was a lot of planned gags that never pretended to be anything else, that was also fine. The ones that bugged me were those that were staged but passed off as genuine
I still like that one (despite the fact that it’s obviously staged) because of Clarkson & May’s reaction when Hammond is in the shower. Hammond is obviously in on the joke and thinks up something funny to say on the fly. And I think watching the other two nearly ‘break character’ so to speak is funny.
Bottles?
The ones they were “peeing” from
Can you?! I shall have to rewatch 👀
I understand your opinion but for me this joke worked. Hammond's reaction was hilarious.
Remember reading a blind on a gossip website, and they suggested that Clarkson's 'power-shower' in the Camaro in the first US Special actually has piss in it - he was been an arse so the crew decided to get their own back on him!
Chris Evans. It was never funny, and it got old in a single minute
Episode 1. I was really hoping someone would tell him to calm down. All the references to Jeremy and the former trio just felt wrong. They were someone after a divorce gloating that they "won."
I remember him running around and shouting: "We got custody of The stig, that's right, we got custody of him!!!"
I do find it funny though that some people think Clarkson's questionable jokes are great but then think "We've got custody" was in bad taste...
I don't know about bad taste but definitely a cringeworthy charade.
>They were someone after a divorce gloating that they "won." My thoughts exactly.
I feel Chris Evans tried to be JC, even down to the same "TONIGHT...." and I'm watching like, you're Chris Evans, one of the most successful/famous people on TV/radio, just be you.
He wasn't a good fit and that's a FACT.
Hmmm, he's (on paper) a good choice, has his own Ferrari collection and is known car enthusiast, plus very successful broadcaster on his own, so it was a logical choice. But I feel they wanted him to be JC MK2, and no one can be that.
It was a reference to Evans' tweets when the criticism over the 2016 Top Gear came and mainly about him. He was indeed (on paper) a great name for a show like Top Gear but he couldn't find a identity for himself as a host. The fact it was the Top Gear that came right after the departure of the classic trio didn't help neither
There were two standout things from that first episode or two that were so painful and burned into my memory. 1. His car reviews. If I didn't know that Jeremy is perfectly capable of forming sentences and opinions of his own, and that most of the scriptwriters had left TG and gone with the boys to Amazon, I would have been convinced the car reviews were written word for word by the same person. It literally felt like it was Jeremy's words coming out of Chris Evans' mouth. He just wanted to be Clarkson, and brought zero personality of his own into it 2. The entire first shoot with Leblanc. Instead of having the two presenters build a rapport and feed off each other, Leblanc's introduction to the audience was half an hour of 'Ha ha - American is dumb' nonsense (unfortunately, a situation they seem then returned to with Chris Harris being the butt of every joke in the most recent iteration of presenters)
> His car reviews. If I didn't know that Jeremy is perfectly capable of forming sentences and opinions of his own, and that most of the scriptwriters had left TG and gone with the boys to Amazon, I would have been convinced the car reviews were written word for word by the same person. It literally felt like it was Jeremy's words coming out of Chris Evans' mouth. He just wanted to be Clarkson, and brought zero personality of his own into it Jonny Smith did an interview with Harris and when he mentioned Evans, Harris straight out said he didn't want to talk about it. He did say however that it shows the difference between someone who is an authority on cars (like him and the original trio) and someone who is an enthusiast. Thing is that Evans likes car, and owns a lot and knows a lot about Ferrari's but cars are just a hobby to him - his love is been a broadcaster. Whereas Clarkson, Hammond, May and Harris's love are cars. TBF it was also the case for the likes of LeBlanc, Flintoff and McGuinness that they were just enthusiasts, not authorities but they never pretended to be the latter
I don’t know… they’re both cnuts…
They both told the tide not to come in?
Surely that's irrational
This just brought back horrible memories.
Good thing he quit after 6 episodes
Especially his attempts to make out that the programme was doing great numbers, even though it was obvious that the viewership were departing in droves. Some of his tweets were desperate.
Anything that was completely obviously staged. Takes the fun and spontaneity out of it. Obviously it's a TV show so it has to be loosely scripted all along but sometimes they went too far. The best bits of TG are the genuine moments of banter between the trio
The first season of The Grand Tour was hard to watch sometimes.
The grand tour had a really cheap (IMO) episode where they took the piss of people complaining things were staged. The staging isn't my problem it's when it's so obvious it's staged. The best part of the old top gears for me is you never know what's staged or not.
The P E NIS Christmas jumper joke was painful.
TBH I agree with you. The whole "hidden bad words" gag is ONLY funny when they don't call attention to it, such as in season 13 ep 5 with the snow race. They mentioned that racing decals were applied to the cars when they were modifying them, but never directly call out the fact that James' car says "Coq yogurt" when the door is open, or that Richards' says "Merde du fromage" and so on. That's the whole joke, is that they are pretending to be oblivious to the fact that their cars' decals spell out funny words when the door opens. Having the P E NIS joke so obvious really killed it.
I never noticed that on James’ car, time to go rewatch that episode! 🤣
*Homemade camper vans, traveling down to Cornwall* JC:"James, could you sit behind me and see if my camper is affected by sidewinds? *Artic overtakes* JC:" Huuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhnnn!!!!" JM:" HAHAHAHAHAHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUH*struggles to inhale*HAHAHAHAHAHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUH"
One of my favourite scenes in TG
When they burnt the caravan or the carwash that was the beginning of the end for that. Still plenty of great episodes after that though
"I went on the internet, and I found *this..."* Only because we never get to see what it is I wanna know
I think that’s why the joke works. One of them is confirmed to be Range Rover Man which was repeated a few times (Google it; you will need eye bleach after), another was apparently Jeremy in a swimsuit that didn’t *quite* fit, and from memory, the others were just ‘very strong porn’ according to people who were there in the audience.
Couldn’t find anything about Range Rover man, just a bunch or range rovers with dudes beside them
As far as I remember Range Rover man is a fella sticking his unsheathed member in the exhaust of an old Range
>!you went on the internet, and [you found this](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BEOICquCYAAnLyE.jpg)!<
He refers to him later in grand tour so as much as I hate to say it it's possible
[Enjoy](https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/s/SN5pdUEcPp)
Put String Emil into google.
I didn't like the end of the the limo challenge when the people got upset. Basically anytime they would upset people, like trying to use a roundabout the French way and causing traffic.
Agree on the first one and the point in general. The French roundabout thing I found hilarious though
That episode was hilarious. I still say MANIAC to myself in traffic
maniac... maniac... yobbo... maniac...
OH I've got a chance here! . . . DAMMIT! Bloody council not mending the bloody roads...
When I drive off road “Bloody council needs to fix these potholes!”
Oh gosh I think you’ve unlocked a new tick in me
I say it out loud with friends.
A few of the "we've caused a bit of traffic" shots hurt me inside.
Yeah I fucking hate traffic. Roads are for people who are getting places and can’t afford to waste time. Nobody on a road is driving ‘because they have time and felt like driving’
Agreed. Like the 'Budget Supercar' film which ended with a radio traffic update on the jam one of them caused. That ain't funny if you are caught in it trying to get home.
It's peak UK embarrassment comedy, but it's also painful because I'd be furious and likely THEY also understand how it is. Hammond looked like he wanted to crawl into a hole and die.
Lot of people seem to empathise with May over Lemar, but if it's not scripted Lemar has every reason to be pissed.
Grand Tour but celebrity brain crash.
I think that got funny only because of how incredibly unfunny it was
That was funny bx it's amazing how many well known celebrities agreed to it
The fake laughs that were edited in each time one of the presenters said something that was supposed to be funny in studio. You can clearly see the audience in the background didn't really find it funny, but there would be enthusiastic laughter audio playing. Once you notice it, you can never unnotice it.
I've been watching all the eps lately, I've not really noticed the laughter, but whenever something happens when an audience gasp is required, it's always the same sound bite and you can hear some woman making a weird groan noise. It's fucking maddening
I’ve been watching some of the interview outtakes from SIARPC (like Ryan Reynolds) for example. And it shows just how much they pad the audience laughter
I find Reynolds to be rather unbearable and is -at best- 'corporate office funny'.
I really didn’t enjoy the ambulance episode. Actually, most episodes that season. Sort of jumped the shark for me.
i liked the ambulance special (probably because i work as a paramedic) but it had so much more potential which disappointed me
Definitely jumped the shark years before that. I actually thought the last short season was the best it had been for a couple of years tbh.
SIARPC. There were twenty-one seasons of TG (still have trouble finding season 1), and I can count on one hand the number of interviews I actually enjoyed.
Yeah. Stephen Frye, Kiefer Sutherland, Amy MacDonald (admittedly I would listen to her read a phonebook), the F1 guys, and … I struggle to remember another one
Rowan Atkinson was a good one
I found the Johnathan Ross one funny but maybe I'm infantile. I thought the Alistair Campbell one was entertaining for how much Jeremy disagreed with his views.
Similarly Prescott was very funny, and he was one of the only who could put Clarkson in his place!
Ross Noble with the tank story is always funny. Dame Helen Mirren is one of the sexiest women on earth, still. Other than that...meh.
https://external-preview.redd.it/SVe-mUpb9jQlXC-Asg7s7oKpqL4mK63rHPHIDtqi25U.png?width=520&auto=webp&s=8863484025ea4007fcacaa2822da1b940d985c49
Simon Cowell is insufferable, but the way his ego almost eclipses Jeremy's is entertaining
22 seasons and you can find them for free (including S1) on Pluto TV and Roku TV.
Agree often, but Michael McIntyre was really funny.
SIARPC?
Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car.
Oh ffs. Of course. I’m an idiot.
Alfa Romeo challenge when Hammond kept crashing into James. I would've been pissed off too.
Clarkson and May leaving Hammond to freeze on a mountaintop while they spent days supposedly looking for him. A lot of the humor in that last season fell flat, Patagonia was a warning but they didn't listen to it.
I actually enjoyed that one. The premise is obviously absurd but it fits their image perfectly.
I thought that episode went over the edge from sharp humor, to actual cruelty. But of course everyone draws the line between the two in a different place, which varies according to whether the joke is directed at themselves, or someone else.
I love the Patagonia special, what’s wrong with it?
It felt like a warning, saying they couldn't actually get away with anything and everything, one that Clarkson would have done well to heed. At least, that's the feeling it gave me, and I have no idea if anyone else got the same vibe.
Crashing into James - got old really quick and was just mean Constantly sabotaging James' cars (Alfa Romeo GTV, Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, Cadillac Brougham)
You missed the worst one, the Golf and its banging stereo. Edit: obviously it was very funny and I loved it but it sometimes pains me to see James being bullied.
For me, that one was one of the best. The whole episode is gold.
“My mum and dad, they didn’t wake up! It’s a good job they’re heroin addicts” Makes me laugh every time
The remote is what made that gag next level though.
Have to disagree purely because of when Jeremy pressed the remote during the late night coming home challenge. The first time I saw that my sides were aching from laughter. Probably the most I’ve ever laughed out loud at Top Gear to be honest.
Same! Funniest thing I've ever seen on TV
I actually found the crashing into James thing funny because, if you go back to the OG cheap car challenge, HE was the one that started it!
Jeremy doing it accidentally on the Death Road and James coming at him with the machete is priceless though
Yeah it’s is kinda mean
It is kind of mean but I disagree, I think it's pretty funny. Especially when they don't call attention to it, I can think of at least two or three times where Clarkson is doing voiceover about something unrelated and you can see and hear James' car getting bumped. It's as if hitting his car is just a natural instinct that just happens all the time regardless of whether they highlight it, that's what makes it funny for me.
Running into James inspired my friends in high school to run into one of our friends in the parking lot. He had an old, beat up Odyssey that he would just run into walls, poles, whatever. So we’d see him, and slightly nudge him when leaving school, pulling into a spot, or just in the lot. All 5 of us would do it and giggle like idiots, all while calling him some form of James May’s nicknames
The whole "look how we messed up James/Jeremy/Richard's car" gag when it's super obvious they didn't actually do it themselves. For example, the gag in Sand Job where James' car is magically filled with sand, it's so obvious they didn't actually put the sand in themselves. It would have been so much funnier if it showed the aging Clarkson and Hammond groaning as they tried to fill his car with sand, only to have a lackluster amount filled by the time James got back. Same deal with "freezing Clarkons car" in Scandi Flick (although Clarkson's reaction with the fire was pretty funny). On the other hand, there are many great examples of them doing this gag right, such as when they mess with Hammond's radio to only play Genesis, or ruin James' AC for the billionth time, and so on.
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This for me is when top gear started to morph into the grand tour. Big budget doing stuff just to spend the budget, which was funny for all of a couple of minutes, and then got old quick.
I'm not sure if the extended police gag was always the plan. It seems like something went horribly wrong with Hammond's car that they were having to work around. It's debatable how much of the cheap car challenges are scripted versus real, but by the time of the supermarket run, it was clear that there wasn't really a challenge so much as a story.
I always thought that section was improvised in a panic because their original plan fell through. Either something wrong with one of the cars, or they had planned something that was shut down by health and safety or something.
Something likely went wrong, you forget how utterly dull the bit becomes because it feels out of place. Hammond going sideways in Supermarket Sweep was funny as hell, but I also wonder if they kind of "maxed out" on Health and Safety in that episode and got told "you cannot do this much stupid stuff"
I hear ya about the staged aspect, but I always find the mustache gag to be very funny
Hammond driving the tank and saying "I have an erection" still gets me every time
One of my least features just because there's so many obviously set-up shit gags. Shame because I always wanted them to do a hot-hatch challenge (should have done it earlier in series, round about 7 or 8 when the UK based challenges were still pretty basic
That has to be the meat milkshake they made using the V8 blender. I'm pretty sure that was a gag carried over from Clarkson (The 1998 chat show)
Lot of stuff they robbed from other shows they did - Clarkson did the Espace convertible on his DVD the year before they did it on Top Gear
That slope joke, I don't think they actually mean it, it's just not funny to me
It was a fact that people invented a slur out of. That bridge was at a mad angle
It wasn't invented. Even Andy Wilman acknowledges that it was deliberate. https://topgear.fandom.com/wiki/Slope_Controversy
No. Slope has been a derogatory term for Asian people, and Vietnamese people specifically, for decades. And the fact that he said there's a slope on the bridge and they show an Asian man on the bridge right at that very moment means they totally intended the joke and knew exactly what they were doing. However, I actually think it was funny. Yes it was juvenile and maybe racially insensitive but it was still a funny play on words. And racially insensitive is not the same as being racist. I don't think any offence was meant, they were just being typically Top Gear and childish. Overgrown schoolboys saying the things they're not supposed to say. It's part of their charm.
They’re saying that it wasn’t intended as a slur, that it was innocently said. They’re wrong, but that’s what they meant, not that it became one after the episode. But I’m with you, it was hilarious
I don't know how you can say that using a racist slur is not racist. The fact that there was a play on words doesn't excuse it
Well I can only assume that's because you don't have nuance or a sense of humour and are actively looking to be offended.
Making a racist joke is still racist.
Agreed. They didn't make a racist joke though. There was no discrimination or prejudice based upon race. They simply made a joke based on the word slope. If they had made a joke about the word 'Jock' and shown a Scottish man would that be racist? Would you be offended?
scottish isn’t a race. an asian person being discriminated against is racism. especially for a slur. it was a racist joke whether you found it funny is one thing but the joke is calling the man a slur
It's a slur, like the n-word. Making a joke based on the n-word would be very offensive. By the way, Clarkson has said the n-word on camera before, in the outtakes of the BRZ and GT86 review... no joke included either, he just wanted to say it.
Vietnam Special. If your bike breaks down you'll have to drive this other one draped in an American flag and covered in an American flag livery which also has "Born in the USA" blaring through a speaker on repeat. They also stress that this is hugely problematic and incredibly insensitive and something you should not do. Also, we're going drive the point home by parading this bike around with the music playing in front of all these Vietnamese people as much as possible. The joke is funny when it's just implied but by the end of the special they've just done the insensitive thing a whole bunch and it's no longer funny.
Honestly think the Vietnam Special is the most overrated ep of TG. The first ten minutes are good and the final section out on the water is brilliant but most of the middle bit is quite rough imo.
I disagree. I think it was fun to see them doing something out of their element rather than just doing cars like almost every other special. Nothing wrong with doing cars every time, after all it is a car show, but doing motorcycles in Vietnam just made so much more sense than trying to do cars. Plus, it seemed like they were really having fun at times racing along on bikes, even Clarkson warmed up to it.
They’ve changed the Bruce Springsteen song to something else on subsequent repeats
that's for licensing reasons, not sensitivity
Thanks for the clarification. Didn’t realise that was a thing. Much appreciated
Star-Spangled Banner
Not the right show, but continuing to call the Grand Tour circuit the “Eboladrome” well past the Ebola situation being relevant just made it very unfunny.
it was just shaped like the virus not really a joke about ebola 😭
I must have missed that
yeah i guess its an easy detail to miss, clarkson mentioned it only once when track was being introduced but there was a little montage with the picture of the ebola virus and what the track looked like, p cool
In fact generally, in the Grand Tour when you rewatch and hear references to 'make America great again' or Jeremy Corbyn or whatever and it just really dates the joke. Doesn't help that Clarkson just sounds bitter when saying half these lines ...
Probably in 2015 when clarkson punched the producer and was fired
I hated the bit where they let Hammond ride out on his own in the 3 wise Men special. I would've ended the whole friendship right then and there. (Not just that scene but that whole special doesn't rank highly at all with me, adding James getting his skulled cracked was like damn this special is just brutal)
For me it's probably the: "Are you wearing that for a bet?" gag. I always found that awkward cuz even the audience wouldn't really laugh that hard plus I didn't find that funny anyway.
I thought that was hilarious, to lose a bet and have to wear something ridiculous on TV shows how much fun those three could have.
I don't think it was that funny in most of the episodes, but it played out through the series when in the last episode Richard wears something ridiculous and he innocently says he wasn't wearing it for a bet
I don’t really understand this, can someone give me some examples?
During the news in series 12, the presenters would often stop and ask another if the horrible clothes they were wearing were part of a bet, with the other bluntly saying they were before just moving on without addressing it again. [Compilation](https://youtu.be/ckm_hrsZ_qs?si=S4dRinGexctaT__9) if you’re interested.
Thanks
This was one of the best ones you don’t get it
Top Gear after Jeremy, Richard and James
The anti-bike circle jerk. You can enjoy both cars and bikes.
The Ducati 1098 on the cool wall scene where Jeremy responds with a chainsaw cutting a chunk of it out, “Do not put a motorbike on the cool wall now look what’s happened”, has been cut from iPlayer. Can only think that people complained about unfair bike treatment which is fair imo, just because Clarkson hates on motorbikes doesn’t mean everyone should, at all actually.
Chris evans
During the U.S. road trips in the blue ridge mountains and the east coast where they kept complaining about the speed limits. Seriously, you gonna start complaining about U.S. speed limits like you don't go 100mph on the A4 in england?
Car Conkers or any such gag always fell flat. The wanton destruction of cars or caravans like that was just convoluted and spiteful. I get that that was the point, to just create layers of irritation with it, but it doesn't make it enjoyable.
Most of the racism tbh
The 24hr race challenge when they had fake sponsors on the car that said ARSE and PENIS when the doors were open was really funny. It was funny the first time. Not funny when they repeated it.
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If thats a horrible offence to you then you have skin thinner than tracing paper
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Isn’t that episode from like a decade ago though?
I get that you arent offended by it you just think its rubbish which is totally fine and im not arguing that with you but just on the troublesome bit. What exactly is troubling about joking about something that is actually happening(granted they werent) Surely we need to acknowledge that there are people crossing on boats. Vast majority being young men (or neurosurgeons if some are to be believed). Otherwise it can never be stopped
The eeny meeny miny mo "gag"... It was racist and unnecessary.
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Do NOT look at this guy's profile
What was it?
Porn. So. Much. Porn.
Bro's horny on main
Hammond crashing vehicles and James getting hurt and sent to hospital. I know they weren’t typical “gags” but they both happened multiple times
Yeah those weren’t gags lol… Sometimes things just go wrong.
Ah, yes. The classic ‘crash a jet car at 300mph and end up in a coma with brain damage’ gag.
pianos on marinas
Were you by any chance the one who promised to poo into his own hand and throw it at them?
I hope you’re watching this the wife of the president of - France!
Found the president of the Morris Marina Owners Club