Jeremy Clarkson's "The World According To Clarkson" is one of Penguin's "best books of its kind to be published in recent years"

that's a sick joke.

'i know you got soul' is so much better.

"cool dad"

"ESSAYS"

http://www.20minutos.es/data/img/2006/09/14/509520.jpg

more importantly: will this title make it to the penguin bookbag canon?

i was watching top gear last night and it occured to me that the harder the presenters try to look butch and blokey, the more they come across like upper-middle class, pansy public school boy bum chums.

The book was translated into Polish and appeared in Poland under the title "Świat według Clarksona", becoming the number one bestseller in the country.

^^^Apparently its also the biggest selling Polish language book in the branches of Waterstones that have opened up Polish language sections. End immigration now.

if that is true then i am changing my last name.

Clarkson discussed a wide variety of topics, usually taking a cynical approach. Some topics included:

* The fox that he hunted because it killed his chickens.
* His garden where nothing grew, except mushrooms and a sycamore with rot.
* Aeroplanes (in particular, Concorde and its last flight).
* His family and the reasons for fathers rarely getting custody.
* The perks of the British Isles.
* Modern art.
* Cars, speed cameras, and driving in general.
* Food.
* Christmas.
* His dislike of parties.
* The problems with Europe.
* The music he listened to when he was younger.
* Being middle-aged.
* World records.
* David Beckham.
* The overuse of science and acronyms in daily life.
* His appearance as guest host on Have I Got News for You.

POLL

http://m.assetbar.com/uuad2pBZP.gif

Jeremy's Friday Facts

i was watching top gear last night and it occured to me that the harder the presenters try to look butch and blokey, the more they come across like upper-middle class, pansy public school boy bum chums.

-- max r, Monday, October 8, 2007 2:08 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

oh, max.

...iepaws?

tru tho.

hammond's hair is starting to resemble clarkson's and may's more and more

max r says what we're all thinking. like clarkson.

Best book of it's kind in year?

Is there a category of book called 'written by cunts for cunts'?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_winners_and_shortlisted_authors_of_the_Booker_Prize_for_Fiction

Clarkson is depressing.

Like, everything about him is depressing.

his popularity is depressing.

what's depressing is when you meet someone quite young that likes clarkson: "actually yeah, some of his writings really funny..."

Worse than that is when you get some horrible old reactionary fuck who's hobbyhorse is "political correctness" and their hero is clarkson, and they go on about how the "politically correct politburo" or wtfe are repressing the ordinary people of this country, as evidenced by the plight of clarkson, the succsessful, well-paid broadcaster, writer and "cultural" "commentator".

I don't really see it as an age issue, obv he plays up the whole "lol middle age" thing but a 12-year-old can probably read an average column by him and find something to yuk at

course, but you expect that from old farts. it's sad when you meet people just out of uni talking about how they're gonna vote tory or moaning about PC, it's like nothing ever changes.

bbc liberal bias counterweight

anybody read his review of villalobos' fabric mix in the telegraph?

"actually yeah, some of his writings really funny..."

^^^The part of the thread I agree with.

(well, not "really funny" maybe, but entertaining. And a properly good writer when he wants to be).

: /

Relative to who? I mean I think he's very clever in how he's carved out a niche for himself but it feels pretty moribund standing around handing out praise for that

anybody read his review of villalobos' fabric mix in the telegraph?

I would love to believe this exists. Even more so because we would be able to do an A1ex Macpherson/Jeremy Clarkson compare and contrast.

it's sad when you meet people just out of uni talking about how they're gonna vote tory or moaning about PC, it's like nothing ever changes.

Maybe they're being funny and ironic, like those cunts who post on message boards claiming they'll vote 8NP and using comedy non-PC phrases like "bum chums"?

http://www.arbib.org/clarkpie/images/prevs/clarkson_pie019.jpg

That picture always makes me happy.

the bnp remark was a piss take of the tories "time for a change" and all that, how it's a case of hobson's choice.

"bum chums" denotes poshness more than anything.

I know it was a pisstake, I thought that was obvious from my post.

"bum chums" denotes poshness more than anything.
orly.jpg

"c'mon jeremy, let's take these shiny new automobiles out for a jolly good spin! hurrah!"

Good review in the Observer of his new book yesterday:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2185259,00.html

i don't read his columns, and i don't agree with pretty much anything he says. but, he is quite amusing on top gear, bufoonish, easy to laugh at. i don't love cars, or driving at speed, but I find the programme funny, perhaps despite myself, but more at their childish glee with cars, etc. It's almost beguiling.

george w bush is cool

-- max r, Saturday, September 29, 2007 3:44 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Link

the bush remark was a piss take of the republican's "time for a war" and all that

oic

you don't like bush?

BUM CHUMS?

can we just have one thread where all the bitching about one poster is done by stevie nixed, abbott and tuomas?

-- blueski, Friday, October 5, 2007 6:28 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Link

I hate it when Dom starts inevitable threads.

It's a common euphimism in the UK. It means they 'bum' each other.
That is, have anal sex in the manner of homosexuals.

you don't like bum chums?

I am going to burn every single Penguin book I have in the house now.

dude that is a major fire hazard

Good point, I'll do it in the back yard. Get a couple of "comedy" max r crosses burning while I'm on.

Yeah, it's like Butt Buddies, but if Lord Mayor Topham Hat said it. That's whatfor the all caps and the q-mark: "Sir Topham Hat, why are you being so cheeky?" But I didn't want to say that because no one is hated more than an incorrigible bi-dialect punner. I am okay with buttsecks havers of all gender! :D

hell of xps

it's kind of usually meant as homophobic guyz :/

That's not so good!

Godwin's 2nd Law states that if somebody calls you on it, you were being ironic.

Don't know about that one, either!

Every time I see the three of them taking the piss out of each other it reminds me of an ad for "WKD". Especially last night when Clarkson and Hammond were rearraning the letters on May's car so that it read "Kevin" or something.

* The overuse of science and acronyms in daily life.
* The overuse of science and acronyms in daily life.
* The overuse of science and acronyms in daily life.

Clarkson is an anti-intellectual of the highest order. Whilst he does claim to be a big fan of engineering, he's obviously not a big fan of actually understanding how things work...

Sir Topham Hat, why are you being so cheeky?

I really can't imagine Sir Topham Hat saying "bum chums". Even though he's fictional.

Whilst he does claim to be a big fan of engineering, he's obviously not a big fan of actually understanding how things work...

I seem to remember him being a big fan of Brunel, who was a great visionary, but wasn't the first person you'd call if you wanted something that worked first time. I don't think he ever managed to design anything mechanical that was a success.

And a properly good writer when he wants to be).

-- DavidM, Monday, 8 October 2007 13:59 (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

wait...what?

What is wrong with gangs to-day - can't they do anything right?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7130860.stm

I can hear him in my head narrating the whole thing.
Now we'll of course have to put Hammond and May in the same situation and see who comes up with the best solution.

"Gang". LOL.

"There is no evidence that a crime took place and therefore there will be no police action."

What sort of society is it where the writing and publishing of "The World According To Clarkson" is not considered a crime? A sick one, that's what.

see who comes up with the best solution.

Hammond would crash into them at 300mph in a rocket powered hamster wheel. May would bore them to death with a lecture about Meccano.

JC intimidates a "gang" [UK media parlance]
http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/picard/32/vader/block2.jpg

Oh, I really want to see that pic...

sonned

Jeremy Clarkson for Prime Minister...
http://www.petitiononline.com/JC4PM/petition.html

And here's his manifesto "imagined" by Leo McKinstry...oh the hilarity...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=505788&in_page_id=1770

i agree with half of those

Oh, hang on, there are 2 petitions, here's the one on the Downing Street website, it's got 29 thousand signatures.
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/PMClarkson/

those motherfuckers all need to be clotheslined

http://pulolesu.game-server.cc/move/move-photo/14-1.gif

"THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS, MAN, THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS"

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/images/1906229171/sr=8-1/qid=1199361395/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=266239&s=books&qid=1199361395&sr=8-1

This is the best book of its kind to be published in recent years. Fuck knows what its kind is though.

Can't seem to post fuckin images.

Ian Holloway's Autobiography

You're joking right, Steve?

I like Clarkson, but prefer AA Gill.

i am indeed, Boyler. of course it is more like two thirds gree hee hee.

it worries a bit me how much i enjoy watching Clarkson race May and Hammond around Europe in a Bugatti. but rest assured i will not let my enjoyment of this influence my political position.

I wish we had an old hardman conservative in the US who was one fifth as entertaining as Clarkson.

I really do.

Clarkson's not that conservative, is he?

(I know I will be flamed for this but srsly)

Well, Clarkson >>>> Nick Griffin, but he stands for something even more insidious and prevalent than the BNP: politically-unscrupulous libertarian smug.

he apparently feels no compulsion to act all cryptic about his retrograde opinions, which might make him seem closest to american religious-right demagogues, but he seems more like kind of a libertarian. botw obviously

He hates the Iraq war though. And I get the feeling half his stances are just there for comedy anyway. (xp botw)

1. BOTW
38 up, 4 down

Bitch Out The Window. This term refers to a rarely seen maneuver in which a male participates in anal intercourse with a female whom is not well liked in front of or near a window. At the conclusion of intercourse, he opens the window and pushes his partner out.

For added fun, a bullseye can be placed on the ground outside the window by which you can judge accuracy, or perhaps even play cricket.

I really don't like Ewebee, someone should give her a BOTW.

^^^

He hates the Iraq war though. And I get the feeling half his stances are just there for comedy anyway. (xp botw)

He's not a gung-ho military type. He stands for something beloved of a lot of well-off educated types in the UK: don't get involved with other countries, they're not worth it. Let me own my many cars and my estate and present my TV programme, it's a free nation isn't it?

I gave Ewebee a BOTW, botw.

http://cache.jalopnik.com/cars/assets/resources/2007/08/Top-Gear-Returns.jpg

Clarkson stands BOTWeen Hammond and May.

because of the wangeen

Ewebee 40

red red wang

http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00172/audi385_172715a_172974a.jpg

He hates the Iraq war though. And I get the feeling half his stances are just there for comedy anyway.

Clarkson is a Europhile* who hates America, just like most of the people who profess to hate him.

*well, he loves France and Iceland for a fact. And maybe Italy, Norway and Denmark. Probably not Spain, but it's difficult to tell past his lol stereotype gags.

Dear god, the comments on that daily mail page make yer average youtube comment box look almost sensible:

Our local MP is a wimp.

Add my name to the petition. Jeremy for PM! If not PM, then how about representing Leicester?

LOL

While these policies are written in jest, I don't think the government realises it's only a matter of time before Britons are prepared to embrace a leader such as Jeremy Clarkson as an antidote to the mass immigration and ridiculous political correctness of this era.

hitler.jpg

blah blah blah this labour government blah blah blah crush the spirit out of every englishman blah blah blah political correctness blah blah blah immigration blah blah blah speed cameras blah WTF is wrong with these people? Oh yeah, they're daily mail readers IE MORONS.

"If you don't really believe the right-wing bollocks you write for money then you're alright" is one of my favourite arguments ever.

Where is all this "ridiculous political correctness", anyway?

Pash, you're not even allowed to call them Darkies any more.

I want to know what he says about Modern Art.

He doesn't know much about art.

He doesn't know much about art.

I want to know what he says about Modern Art.

-- o-ess, Saturday, January 5, 2008 2:20 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

really not to hard to guess.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7174760.stm

Is this guy ever out of the fucking papers?

lol whoops

A disappointingly small amount. And it should have been to the campaign against Climate Change. 6/10 for mischief.

£500 is probably not much money to JC.

Well, there goes his political ambitions:

Clarkson, PM (Alternate universe in 2020) "It is with a truly humble heart that I have to apologise for not only losing all the bank details of everyone in the country, but also for posting them on ILE to prove that it does not matter anyway. soz"

A colleague in this office worships Clarkson, i think i may have to kill him before the week is out.

if i end up learning to drive within the next two years it will totally be his fault.

Dom, what the Number One song would be if Clarkson were PM? (No Status Quo please?)

doesn't clarkson like curved air or something?

He's also got love for the Doobie Brothers

Now that's what I'm tokin''bout. (Good kinda weed grown with chemicals.)

He was on desert island discs a few years ago (he came across as surprisingly unassholish) the only thing I remember him choosing was something off "Dark Side of the Moon". It was old-school Q-readerish stuff for the most part, maybe there was an ELP track?

1. 'Your Song'
Performer Billy Paul
Composer Elton John/Bernie Taupin
Publisher DJM Music
CD Title Elton John Songbook
Track 11
Label Connoisseur Collection
Rec No: VSOP CD 192

2. 'Behind Blue Eyes'
Performer The Who
Composer Pete Townshend
Publisher Polydor
CD Title Who's Next
Track 8
Label Polydor
Rec No: 813 651-2

3. 'Night Moves'
Performer Bob Seger
Composer Bob Seger
Publisher Capitol Records
CD Title Bob Seger & Silver Bullet Band Greatest Hits
Track 2
Label Capitol
Rec No: CDEST 2241

4. 'Time'
Performer Pink Floyd
Composer Mason, Waters, Wright, Gilmour
Publisher EMI
CD Title Dark Side of the Moon
Track 3
Label EMI
Rec No: CDEMD 1064

5. 'Get Ready'
Performer Temptations
Composer Robinson
Publisher Motown Records
CD Title Music of the Year 1969
Track 10
Label Spectrum
Rec No: 545 059-2

6. 'Make Me Smile' (Come Up and See Me)
Performer Steve Harley and Cokney Rebel
Composer Steve Harley
Publisher EMI
CD Title Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)
Track 1
Label EMI
Rec No: CD Harley 1

7. 'Heroes'
Performer David Bowie
Composer Bowie/Bowie ENO
Publisher EMI
CD Title Heroes
Track 3
Label EMI
Rec No: CDP 797 7202

8. 'Solsbury Hill'
Performer Peter Gabriel
Composer Peter Gabriel
Publisher Ear Pieces/Hit and Run
CD Title Peter Gabriel 1
Track 2
Label Charisma
Rec No: PGCD1

Record: Time -Pink Floyd
Book: Photograph Album
Luxury: Jet ski

8. 'Solsbury Hill'
Performer Peter Gabriel
Composer Peter Gabriel
Publisher Ear Pieces/Hit and Run
CD Title Peter Gabriel 1
Track 2
Label Charisma
Rec No: PGCD1

lolololololololol

no.6 a solid if unadventurous choice

1. 'Your Song'
Performer Billy Paul
Composer Elton John/Bernie Taupin

2. 'Behind Blue Eyes'
Performer The Who

3. 'Night Moves'
Performer Bob Seger

4. 'Time'
Performer Pink Floyd

5. 'Get Ready'
Performer Temptations

6. 'Make Me Smile' (Come Up and See Me)
Performer Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel

7. 'Heroes'
Performer David Bowie

8. 'Solsbury Hill'
Performer Peter Gabriel

He was very good on Desert Island Discs. His actual desert island discs notwithstanding.

backlash backlash

David Cameron: He doesn't really mean it.

David Cameron: He has good timing

solsbury hill is a great song

Not as good as Cameron's premier choice of Ernie, though, or indeed the single that Peter Gabriel wrote for Charlie Drake.

Jezza was obviously trying to use the song titles to get a secret message across to Sue Lawley, the dirty bitch!

^^^ Youtube videos have been circulated on less compelling evidence than this

Hi,

I'm sorry to inform you that your petition has been rejected.

Your petition was classed as being in the following categories:

* Issues for which an e-petition is not the appropriate
channel

* Intended to be humorous, or has no point about government
policy

If you wish to edit and resubmit your petition, please follow
the following link:
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/dpforpm/CzJ1wTD51RF3D0RtWPAGMJd

You have four weeks in which to do this, after which your
petition will appear in the list of rejected petitions.

Your petition reads:

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to: 'share the
job of Prime Minister with Dom Passantino'

y'know, like when Gerard Houllier came in to share the
Liverpool manager's job with Roy Evans before Evans was royally
removed.

-- the ePetitions team

three weeks ago I wuz booored :/

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41G7C4NXDEL._AA240_.jpg

I woke up out that coma two thousand and one
'Bout the same time Dre dropped "2001"
Three years later the album is done
Aftermath presents "Nigga Witta Attitude, Volume One"
Rap critics politickin, wanna know the outcome
"Ready to Die" "Reasonable Doubt" and "Doggystyle" in one
I feel like 'Pac after the Snoop Dogg trial was done
Dre behind that G series and "All Eyez on Me"
I watched the death of a dynasty, so I told Vibe Magazine
Workin with Dr. Dre was a (dream)
I had visions of makin a classic, then my world turned black
like I was starin out of Stevie Wonders glasses
It's kinda hard to imagine, like Kanye West
comin back from his fatal accident to beatmakin and rappin
But, we the future, Whitney Houston told me that
And it's gon' take more than a bullet in the heart to hold me back

Russian and this 40 ounce, lettin the ink from my pen bleed
Cause Martin Luther King had a (dream)
Aaliyah had a (dream) Left Eye had a (dream)
So I reached out to Kanye and (I brought you all my dreams)
(Cause I love you, I love you, I love you)
(I-highhhhhh love you)

I had dreams, of fuckin, a R&B bitch like Mya
When I saw that ass on the front of that King
Read the article in the magazine, she loved gangsters, loved nasty things
So I'm in the glass house havin nasty dreams
Good girls never give it up
But anything is possible, if 50 fucked Vivica
Hurdled life's obstacles, found my way through the maze
Then joy turned to pain like Frankie Beverly and Maze
Used to dream of bein +Unsigned Hype+, 'til I was crushed by Dave Mays
Almost let my pen fall asleep on the page
Daydreamin yesterday, dozin off backstage
I thought I saw Eazy talkin to Jam Master Jay
So I walked over, heard Jam Master say
"It's a hard knock life, then you pass away"
They say sleep is the cousin of death, so my eyes wide open
Cause a dream is kin to your last breath

(chorus)

The dream of Huey Newton that's what I'm livin through
The dream of Eric Wright, that's what I'm givin you
Who walked through the White House without a business suit
Compton had jheri curl drippin on Ronald Reagan's shoes
Gave Mike Lem my demo, came here to pay my dues
Started off with Whoo Kid, then I start blazin Clue
It was all a dream like Big said it'd be
Don't sleep on me homey, I bring nightmares to reality
Rap phenomenon, defyin the rules of gravity
Studied all the classics, start revisin my strategy
Cause Marshall Mathers made it, Curtis Jackson made it
Head in the clouds, wonderin where the hell Marvin Gaye went
How do I say this - I'm livin for my son
but I can't figure out, why I'm at my temple with this gun
Wake up to a Jesus piece like a catholic nun
The war to be a rap legend, has just begun

(chorus)

This song is dedicated to Yetunde Price
The sister of Venus and Serena Williams
who was slain during a gang shootout in Compton
Sunday, September 14th, 2003 - rest in peace

(I brought you all my dreams)
(Cause I love you, I love you, I love you)
(I-highhhhhh love you)

* Intended to be humorous, or has no point about government
policy

INSERT GORDON BROWN ZING HERE

'He may know motoring laws inside out, but Jeremy Clarkson clearly has trouble sticking to them. The loudmouth Top Gear host was snapped doing 70mph along the middle lane of a busy motorway while chattering away on his mobile phone....When the Mirror confronted the grumpy star about his dangerous stunt, he denied being in the car. But shown the photo, he spluttered: "Er, that isn't a phone." He then slammed the door of his Oxfordshire mansion and bellowed: "Look, I write a column for another newspaper...I'm not allowed to talk you" -

"dangerous stunt" surely a typo?

Yeah, they meant to write "cunning".

I can imagine this couple telling tales in the play ground. Even if it was Jeremy it's no big deal and they should respect his privacy, instead of behaving like children.

- David, France

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=530330&in_page_id=1770&in_page_id=1770&expand=true#StartComments

Smart people can do multiple tasks at the same time. Idiots cannot.

- Doug Gibson, Benvie, Scotland

WELL THAT'S ALRIGHT THEN

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/03_02/ClarksonPhones_468x298.jpg
Not ony is most definitely a phone but I'm shocked that he actually appears to wear those awful jackets irl.

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/03_02/ClarksonPhones_468x298.jpg

Nice car though.

Also isn't that steering wheel on the wrong side. Bloody foreigner!

And he's driving on the right too!

Is that a P5 rover he's driving?

6.3 litre Mercedes.

That's one mf of a merc.

I love the comments trying to attack the photographer for driving and taking photos while at the same time trying to defend Clarkson for being on the phone.

Is it one of these?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_300SEL_6.3

Or one of these!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_600

The second one. He wrote about a lot here: http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/driving/jeremy_clarkson/article3171178.ece

His defence should be "read that column, it clearly can't be my Merc".

wait wait, 70mph?? i drive that on my commute every day, so what. is there something about 'motorway' that i'm missing here?

The whole 'illegal to drive and use a phone' thing. Most broken law in the country?

"For years he has railed against the nanny-state but yesterday it looks as though Jeremy Clarkson was caught flouting the very same draconian motoring laws he so detests."

this makes no sense, there is no irony in nany-state-hater clarkson breaking laws, shurely?

ha ha ha

"so it seems that the cat burglar has been caught by the very person who was trying to catch him"

!!!

exactly steve!

From the Daily Mirror's article:

(http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2008/03/11/jeremy-clarkson-caught-doing-70mph-on-the-m40-while-talking-on-his-mobile-phone-89520-20347501/)

The 6.3l Mercedes 600 was the chosen car of brutal dictator Idi Amin, China's Chairman Mao, Yugoslavia's Tito, Leonid Brezhnev in the USSR and Romania's Nicolae Ceausescu

I wish my phone could take such clear and focussed pictures at 70mph.

Those trees must be doing 70mph as well.

The 6.3l Mercedes 600 was the chosen car of brutal dictator Idi Amin, China's Chairman Mao, Yugoslavia's Tito, Leonid Brezhnev in the USSR and Romania's Nicolae Ceausescu

Clarkson is history's greatest monster!

The background in that photo looks very similar to the scenery found in the car park of a motorway service area!

what a jerk, yes trees and hills only ever exist in motorway service areas.

if it's as sunny as it looks the camera might have had a fast shutter speed setting (do any mobile phones have this ability?), so the trees wouldn't be blurred. also they are quite far away, over on the other side of the road (you can see the central res barrier), this would slow down the parallax scrolling of the trees somewhat.

i doubt it's enough to get him prosecuted though.

To quote Cassetteboy's Jeremy Clarkson's cut-up:

"Adolf Clarkson...created by the Luftwaffe...I've got Hitler's email...I love Robert Kilroy-Silk...and I really like the sound of this guy...Robert Mugabe...Mugabe...also...I love...Jeremy Clarkson."

a propos of not much at all:

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e184/CreepyMike/clarkson2.gif

I went for a corporate dinner at Madame Tussaud's recently, which was weird enough in itself, but the dining room featured a rogue's gallery of Idi Amin, Robert Mugabe, General Qaddafi, Stalin, Saddam Hussein... and Richard Branson. I'm no fan of the bearded one, but I would hardly class him as a figure of world-historical evildoing.

i would. i've SEEN that episode of Friends.

Fair point!

So, hey, had anyone else noticed that Jeremy Clarkson is in the video for #1 chart smash "Mr Blobby" by Mr Blobby?

lol eponymous hero

only 188 complaints so far for Clarkson's "This is a hard job, and I'm not just saying that to win favour with lorry drivers - it's a hard job. Change gear, change gear, change gear, check mirror, murder a prostitute, change gear, change gear, murder." surely it can't just be because he is employed by a tabloid newspaper?

viz done it better.

I went on a lorry driver training course recently. The instructor started showing me the basics.

"You start off like this," he said, "clutch throttle throttle clutch throttle choke throttle."

"Right, got it," I said.

"Good," he said. "Now wrap her in a carpet and dump her in a layby."

^^^exactly the post i was going to make

xp

Still, 0 complaints for top tips on beating up women from Richard Hammond.

OK, it's been raised on the TV now, so expect 1,000 complaints by 14:00 today...

200 complaints on GMTV when I left the house this morning.

Vested interests in destroying the BBC?

Oh no, it's "common decency."

A.K.A. A Good Story.

Saw this reported as "Jeremy Clarkson makes joke about murdering prostitutes" when it's actually a "joke" about lorry drivers, of course

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/article1888710.ece

Lorry drivers cool with jokes about murdering prostitutes shocker.

See? The lorry drivers come out to defend one of their own.

What did you dandy fops do to support our RusseLl?

COLIN ROBERTSON
Deputy TV Editor
ANOTHER day — another edgy comment on the BBC.

But there’s a difference. Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross’ prank on Andrew Sachs was outrageous as he did not deserve it.

Yet Clarkson’s remarks can easily be filed in the drawer marked “joke”.

Some don’t get it. But if stars start avoiding edgy gags to please them, that really would be a joke.

News International newspaper defends News International newspaper columnist, News at Ten...

Nobody is gunna vote Russell Brand as PM, that's why.

so much hypocrisy in all this, i think my head's gonna explode

More than 500 people complain now.

Only another 29,500 to go

how to reconcile desire to see Clarkson suffer with fact that making jokes about lorry drivers killing women is 100% funny

you know, i saw this on monday and was pretty disturbed by it. i mean, clarkson's obv a cunt, but... joking abou a murder seems about a million times more offensive than making a joke about having had consensual sex with someone's granddaughter.

What murder was he joking about?

the murder of the Earth, by man and his carbon-spouting machinations

joking about a murder seems about a million times more offensive than making a joke about having had consensual sex with someone's granddaughter.

you do mean, of course, calling up a specific murder victim's grandad on air to mock him about it?

That's more Radio 2 than Top Gear

This murder(er), I thought.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/38496000/jpg/_38496473_sutcliffe_bbc_238.jpg

Nah, lorry driver as murderer is pretty strongly held in UK folklore, hence the Viz strip "Laurie Driver"

Well you thought wrong (xp)

Wasn't that guy in Suffolk a lorry driver as well?

i was thinking specifically the guy muyrdering prostitutes in Norwich a couple years back? xp yeah that one

He had been a lorry driver, but not at the time of the murders. Listen Dom, he's knows his sick humour.

Listen to Dom

Not wanting to get all Clarkson, and wanting even less to agree with anything Jimmy Carr says, but the latter is absolutely OTM about everything in this country at the moment feeling like going to school and being told off for breathing. I'm fed up with it.

SOMETHING MUST BE DONE

Let's ask David Cameron what he thinks should be done about the evil Clarkson

"That Clarkson nicked ma bike frae ootside Tesco's, the cunt..."

OK, so we know what Bobby Gillespie thinks of him

"Aye but its wreckage looked beautiful and punk rebel against the sunset o' rock an' roll an' that..."

mccustos in the house

"See yon Clarkson, he's a right Tory Nazi right enough but he's goat some nice Allman Brothers rarities..."

The only solution is to ban jokes

"Holl'! Nae way, big yin, if ye ban jokes then Andy Cameron'd huv tae become a fulltime recording artist and the last Primal Scream album sold fuck all as it is! And whit aboot Mr. Abie, whit wid he dae?"

good luck usa!!!

USA is A-OK

Can't believe I changed my name and I'm still banned from I Love Cricket.

LJ = the Captain Bligh of Cricket Boards

can't believe anybody cares about being banned from a cricket board.

Dude I'll take watching cricket over watching Spurs.

just bought yourself a ban from spurs board.

Or "I Love the Championship", to give it its full title.

imma ask to have the use of 'The Church'

No way! Where will people go for their "pretending Ask Chaki never existed" needs then?

i'll have a rolling thread.

bet you wished you weren't banned now.

Look, I know you Poms dumped your undesirables here about 200 years ago. But please don't think you can dump Clarkson on us now.

Kind Regards,
Australia

I would love to believe this exists. Even more so because we would be able to do an A1ex Macpherson/Jeremy Clarkson compare and contrast.

― Matt DC, Monday, October 8, 2007 4:09 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

one is an obnoxious tory-boy with opinions4u and the other is... oh blah-blah you get it.

why the fuck did jeremy clarkson get to write the notes for "selling england by the pound" in the genesis reissue box set? I appreciate that he likes the album but they could have done better than that.

they could?

I have some friends who enjoy the 'motoring' show Clarkson hosts, but I think it's due to the fact that any random comments he makes don't sound serious because they're coming from an elitist british dude hosting a show about cars and he just ends up sounding precocious.

I just think the BBC should offer equal airtime to a show where 3 Marxists review new guns or something.

lol Geir's favourite album of all-time

(Actually, I really like it too)

"Marxist Marksmen"
BBC do that irregular "3 Men In A Boat" programme AKA "Griff Rhys Jones gets a bit tetchy then loses his temper while Rory McBeard hides behind his beard and Darrah O'Brien looks on with his mouth open in disbelief" - does that partially make up for it?

I've said it nuff times, too much "Battle of Epping Twatting Forest" and not enough of that awesome 5/4 lock-groove that get into at the end of "Cinema Show".

xpost lol at committed socialists Griff Rhys Jones Rory Cuntrememberhissurnname and Dara Notfunny.

I actually really grew to like BOEF last time I heard it. Like, really really genuinely enjoyed and integrated with it. But yeah, the 2nd half of Cinema Show is a wonder (especially the drum intro to the organ refrain). Firth Of Fifth is the absolute diamond obvs ffs.

I don't hate it so much as never need to hear it. IMO it does fuck "Selling England" as a serious Genesis's best album contender tho.

I haven't really heard any of the other :-/

*others

Suggest Wind and Wuthering as a) best post-Gabriel album, b) contender for best album full stop, and c) pretty much up-your-alley I think.

Cheers! :)

I just arrived back from the states yesterday afternoon, and the first thing I saw when I turned on the TV (Channel 4 News) was John Snow apologising for Jeremy Clarkson's comments earlier on the show. What was that about, anyone?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7873624.stm

JC called Gordon Brown "a one eyed Scottish idiot"

Ta. Thought maybe it was something to do with the Carol Thatcher thing. I'm still catching up.

A review of the new Honda Insight

Much has been written about the Insight, Honda’s new low-priced hybrid. We’ve been told how much carbon dioxide it produces, how its dashboard encourages frugal driving by glowing green when you’re easy on the throttle and how it is the dawn of all things. The beginning of days.

So far, though, you have not been told what it’s like as a car; as a tool for moving you, your friends and your things from place to place.

So here goes. It’s terrible. Biblically terrible. Possibly the worst new car money can buy. It’s the first car I’ve ever considered crashing into a tree, on purpose, so I didn’t have to drive it any more...

I don't take anything he says about hybrids or any other "green" car seriously.

I don't take anything he says about hybrids or any other "green" car seriously.

He's a comedy strawman.

Then again, if he says a car is that bad, it probably is.

http://www.therockalltimes.co.uk/2005/04/18/jeremy-clarkson.jpg

I'm putting this here so that next time I think he's mildly amusing on top gear I remember that he's a cunt.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/jeremy_clarkson/article6907747.ece

I've decided that it's no good putting Peter Mandelson in a prison. I'm afraid he will have to be tied to the front of a van and driven round the country until he isn't alive any more.

It’s a lovely idea, to get out of this stupid, Fairtrade, Brown-stained, Mandelson- skewed, equal-opportunities, multicultural, carbon-neutral, trendily left, regionally assembled, big-government, trilingual, mosque-drenched, all-the-pigs-are-equal, property-is-theft hellhole and set up shop somewhere else.

Ha, I just read that, and came here to post the exact same thing. Wealthy media commentator playing the victim card sure is an ugly, hateful sight. JC should hop into the nearest time machine and venture back to mussolini's italy! Left wingers get beat to death, mosques not exactly welcome, should be right up his street.

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/img/pix/clarkson250701_300x450.jpg

"I hate his fondness for extremely pale blue jeans"

circle jerk with mussolini and ferrari

How I hate that article, not only for it's content ("Mosque drenched"! the fucker lives in the Cotswolds - I live in Leicester and don't ever feel drenched in Mosques and what the fuck is wrong with equal opportunities and faritrade?) but the fact that it's such an obvious loveletter to his constituents - who have repaid the compliment in the comments that follow - slagging off everything without offering anything constructive in return. And can you imagine if some halfwitted celeb made death threats to Cameron or Johnson?

playing the victim card

Funny you should say that. If you search "Clarkson mosque rant" you get the article turning up in it's entirety on various forums/blogs together with a line which says (in slightly different ways) that the article was pulled - "so much for freedom of speech!". Middle class, middle-aged, white men really do think there's some conspiracy vs. them.

I've decided it's no good hoping Clarkson shuts up. I'm afraid he will have to be knifed repeatedly in the balls then skinned alive slowly and his writhing body bathed in pepper sauce before pulling his digits out of their sockets, breaking his arms and legs and tossing what's left of him into the polar bear enclosure at London Zoo.

Fair comment imo.

stewart lee's current stand-up show is commendably at clarkson's expense.

flipping through the channels earlier this cunt was wearing a keffiyah. Hope it finally kills that as an acceptable garment to wear.

the epic butthurtedness over stig-gate from #teamtopgear has been p funny

Butt-hurt? More like toothache.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/7/28/1280338810302/Jeremy-Clarkson-006.jpg

I don't understand it at all. If this chap was anonymous why does it matter? Don't they just get another one? Or is the biography going to reveal something we didn't know about Clarkson et al? Like they're really nice guys actually.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/sep/07/jeremy-clarkson-stig-sacked
Clarkson said he felt "a bit hurt really". "It was such a shock. It was horrible actually because I liked him and he came round to my house and had drinks and all that time he was writing a book,"

How shameful of a Top Gear dude to write a book cashing in on the success of the show.

Clarkson said that "Top Gear is damaged but not out a total cunt's carnival"

fixed

Gobby Jeremy Clarkson stormed into another race row last night after making fun of drowned Chinese cockle pickers.

And his latest outburst came after the Daily Star Sunday discovered he had posed for a snap with the leader of the racist English Defence League.

No. It isn’t a scandal. It’s just the Daily Star using Clarkson – a perceived enemy of free speech and equality - to brandish its anti-racist credentials that show that it is better than the unenlightened racists. The Daily Star is on the side of the good guys. Clarkson is no racist. He’s an entertainer who uses humour – often crass and rarely more than mildly amusing – to tap into the perceived and real illiberal assaults on free speech. It’s not always racism. It’s niche marketing designed for people who seek it out something to hate and remind themselves how good they are when they find it…

amusing how successfully this guy has trolled the UK

you are amused by odd things

really wish clarkson had an equivalent to http://youtu.be/UuQAEVLljF4

also amusing how the tree-hugging hippy peaceniks he roils are quick to wish harm to happen to a man simply for his relatively b9 viewpoints

nah, he's come out with some unpleasant shit. Stewart Lee's comment is probably right, he has controversial opinions for money, but every now and then he throws something genuinely mean out there. plus, y'know, it's the less the man's shtick itself than the fact that he's an aspirational figure for a lot of wankers

I don't live in UK so I miss a lot of what he does/says, but seems obv that he says stuff just to wind people up. Getting wound up by someone like that is nagl. He's (partly )trying to show that left-thinking people are hypersensitive and humorless, and that just bears evidence to it. (I disagree w/virtually everything he says, but hardly seems worth the energy to despise him...yeah maybe if his wanker disciples were everywhere here)

i can honestly believe he's a personable guy in private, he seems to get on with people who you wouldn't think wd tolerate assholes. like i say the big difference is probly just that he's everywhere over here, plus he works for Murdoch so

and maybe it's cause I'm accustomed to way more heinous right wing nutjobs in the US that I can just laugh off whatever nonsense he says. oh that Mr Clarkson, the loveable scamp etc.

he's not even in the top 5 most evil rightwing pundits over here, i think it's the insidiousness. he certainly is nowhere near a guy like Richard Littlejohn who, after a serial killer murdered several prostitutes, wrote a column about how they were "whores" who'd brought it on themselves, essentially

we have fewer libertarian-y pundits than you guys so that might be part of why Clarkson raises hackles

I call bullshit on the whole "you peacenik hippies have no sense of humour" canard: you would have to be some braindead neanderthal to find Clarkson's brand of obvious button-pushing and tiresome, rote right-wing blether "funny". Praps he's a lovely open-minded dude in "real-life" but all the evidence I've seen suggests a man in pale dad jeans who smells of wank and pipe tobacco who holds boring and small-minded opinions for money, and who fraternises w/Dcam and Rebekah Wade for kicks and who runs his bloated form up the flagpole for moronic indexes of prejudice to march behind. You're really no smarter for "seeing through" his schtick, which stinks badly whether he means it or not.

NV is right there are much worse people out there, but that doesn't mean Clarkson's continued popularity doesn't make me despair on some level.

i think Clarkson comes across buffoonishly cos he's essentially an old school Tory/fogey, there's probably not much than a rizla between most of his opinions and somebody like Ian Hislop's, he just plays "man of the people" better. that doesn't make him not suck, but i don't hate Hislop all the time either.

who are the most personable tories in the firmament?

god knows, i was drawing up a shortlist for a rightwing pundits poll in my head and there was nothing personable about the candidates i came up with

Yr right NV but I guess there's less of the "celebration of philistinism" groove w/hislop (but I could barely watch that season of hignfy where hislop thought it was enough to just throw up his arms and say "gordon brown?!" in an exasperated manner)

xp

My internal thoughts about Cristina Odone are dark and sinister. Soz.

― dociah t. azzahole (Noodle Vague), Monday, 27 September 2010 16:01 (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no idea what Cristina Odone had said that week to prompt that but let's be honest, it cd've been any week.

Kelvin Mackenzie, now he might be the worst human being ever

^^^this

no wait i've just remembered Toby Young exists.

tomorrow i'm gonna do a throwdown on the hardcore dirtbags i think, exclude Clarkson so's not to skew it.

yeah it's not so much clarkson the man that most decent people rage against, it's the fact he's given a voice to every hateful, low-level racist/sexist bants-chatting, arrogant, greed-riddled, anti-discourse LAD out there. if there wasn't a vocal majority calling this guy out then he'd slide into that avuncular 'national treasure' role with ease, and fuck that

weird to be amused by an deepdown unpleasant man rising to a position of influence in a country though, granny? what's next on the lol list? i hear there's an ilx street fight thread with a vid of a woman being hit in the face, fancy that?

*hit in the face by a man

Kind of feel his power has waned, largely because he's not swimming against the political tide any more. It's tough to maintain the pro-car, anti-pc thing when the government is significantly more right wing than you are.

He seems like a relic of the Blair years, though I can imagine his book will still fund a hundred obscure Penguin Classics this year.

yeah stevie i'm so wrong to find someone like you who despises him humorless and hypersensitive

good lord

Clarkson's brand of obvious button-pushing and tiresome, rote right-wing blether

so obv and tiresome yet it still manages to push your buttons, idgi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3ahWLLmLR8

so obv and tiresome yet it still manages to push your buttons, idgi

i dunno if someone punched me in the face i wouldn't brush it off on account of their tired old take on casual violence.

sorry, I didn't know Clarkson has been punching stevie

obvious, tiresome stuff is often the MOST likely thing to push my buttons

It's worth looking at the role Clarkson plays and asking who it actually represents, if anyone.

Saying he represents the motorist or tabloid readers or unilads or people who have barbecues isn't a good answer to this, because all those groups are themselves stereotypes, themselves as fictional as 'Clarkson'.

yeah stevie i'm so wrong to find someone like you who despises him humorless and hypersensitive

yeah i choose not to be insulted by someone who was suckered in by "luna" tbh but keep pretending your sharper than the game yeah?

forgot about oops

He's a prick who loves cars and can talk about them entertainingly and write about them very well -- I grew up around these people (except for the writing part) due to my father's work in the automotive industry, thus I can find him funny and loathsome AND be dismayed by UK Lefties getting their panties in a bunch about such a harmless dude.

http://sharetv.org/images/posters/renaissance_man_1994.jpg

He's a prick who loves cars and can talk about them entertainingly and write about them very well -- I grew up around these people (except for the writing part) due to my father's work in the automotive industry, thus I can find him funny and loathsome AND be dismayed by UK Lefties getting their panties in a bunch about such a harmless dude.

This is true if you emphasise the 'cars' part, but I dunno, doesn't he appear more often and to more people as a newspaper columnist/talking head than as a Top Gear presenter?

... because there are all sort of people who are good at one thing - obviously people in music but also actors, comedians, etc – who you find more or less lovable for that one thing, whilst knowing that you would not vote for them, agree with what they would write if they had a column, or even really want to be in a lift with them or spend any time with them personally.

But they mainly do the one thing they're good at/that you like them for, so yeah, you don't sweat the things you don't or wouldn't like them for. Not that big of an issue.

But with Clarkson, with all these columns and books, surely he's long since branched out from just being an entertaining car guy whose opinion you might value if you were buying a car?

Most of his books are about cars. Why read the other ones?

Dom-worthy off-topic meta ad-hom itt, n'est pas.

no greek pls dmac

have no practical use for car journalism personally but 'got into' PJ O'Rourke age 17 or so, when (iirc) Clarkson was still basically a motoring journo who peppered his columns with the odd right-wing quip, and from reading the former's writing about test drives etc it seemed immediately apparent to me that the latter was the mere inelegant Britisher knockoff. obv this has kind of atrophied in the 15 years hence but that's still p much how I think of Clarkson

all flippancy aside, the comment i made to oops earlier is possibly the shittiest i've made on ilx, and i apologise unreservedly for it. it was uncalled for, and spiteful, and i regretted it almost the moment i made it.

such compassion - would it have been so difficult to say "terrible timing, sorry"?

https://twitter.com/JeremyClarkson/status/448099234290864128/photo/1

@JeremyClarkson
The oxygen masks have deployed. Goodbye everyone. pic.twitter.com/AjqxckFgln

@villaforrent
@JeremyClarkson pretty poor timing! Will give you the benefit of doubt that you didn't know about the recent announcement

‏@JeremyClarkson
@villaforrent Right. And you thought it had been flying around for the last 3 weeks?

all for an all out war between these two

‏@piersmorgan
Utterly shameful > RT @JeremyClarkson The oxygen masks have deployed. Goodbye everyone. pic.twitter.com/IaYEop7UcJ

‏@JeremyClarkson
@piersmorgan If you don't shut up, I shall start to reveal details of your past life that would make you VERY unhappy.

would be happy if they both disappeared off the face of the earth tbh

he is a complete and utter berk

when Piers Morgan is making you look bad, you have a problem

I wonder if this might finish him off

Jeremy Clarkson N-word shame: Top Gear presenter caught on camera using racist rhyme

literally no surprise that he's that type of racist who actually uses the n word

i dream of seeing him destitute and publicly humiliated and this gives me so much hope that i might get to one day see it

Clarkson is torn between a Toyota and a Subaru would be an acceptable end

the sort of ppl who normally bombard the BBC with complaints won't want to be infringing on a man's right to use racial slurs on unaired footage and the sort of ppl who want Clarkson off the air won't want to be seen acting like the former group so I strongly doubt this will blow up enough to come to anything

dude just won't eat the magnetic bird seed

I did not use the n word. Never use it. The Mirror has gone way too far this time.
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al and felix from hot chip overhear the tweet alan yentob dealing with this on a flight back from berlin
https://twitter.com/aldoyletweets
https://twitter.com/_felixmartin

ahaha, nice work boys

Begs forgiveness, did "everything in his power" to avoid using that word he loathes.

http://twitpic.com/e2mc8b

lols at the partridge-ness of this

can somebody start remixing that vid pleasE?

Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson says the BBC has told him he will be sacked if he makes 'one more offensive remark, anywhere, at any time'.

Fingers crossed etc

the bbc are beneath contempt as ever

if this country gave a shit about any of this then they would have let him go after the slope thing even before he fairly clearly enunciated the word nigger, and he can barely enunciate at the best of times through his scarified larynx and blackened serrated little teeth

the plausible deniability of faultlessly insincere and 'knowing' public school bantz and droit de seigneur lets his ilk get away with this shit relentlessly, can remember this sort of playful ethnic dehumanization as a continuous backdrop throughout my formative years

'racism' is understood as the preserve of unhinged provincial ukip councillors and the subliterate plebs on twiter who get prosecuted for it

the thick of it was quite incisive on this sort of distanciation procedure, cf this exchange between the steve hiltonish policy guru and his minister --

We just need a policy flavour, Peter.
So, why don't you start thinking about it?

Fine.
It's just that I have always been consistently way ahead of the party on this.
I have always welcomed immigration, the economic benefits.
It's JB and his Eton clique who are always texting each other about "dune coons" and "nip in the air".
Do you remember him laughing at Frank's party at the one about the Pakistani guy being thrown off the train?

Yeah.
JB has got some very progressive views.
But I think we'll find what he was doing was ironising, Peter.

There are some elements of early TTOI I don't like but that isn't one of them.

I hope Clarkson dies.

The BBC will never let Clarkson go until he outlives his economic usefulness. He's a massive draw internationally and until his behaviour jeopardises that properly, he'll continue to get away with it. Cannot imagine Penguin Random House will drop him either.

that his shit is so lucrative is exactly the reason why firing him might count for something, the right side of history and all that

Maybe this stuff will damage him in the US market? Here he will remain a "legend" despite (or maybe because of) what he says.

"It's inevitable that one day, someone, somewhere will say that I've offended them, and that will be that."

He's a massive draw internationally

Is this really true? Obviously I know Top Gear is the BBC's biggest export but I'm struggling to imagine why anyone outside of Britain and maybe the US or Australia would give a shit about Clarkson, as opposed to just wanting to watch some features about fast cars.

He's kinda big here, bt in a "clogging up opshops w his books" type way

His books are massive all over the world, not just Top Gear.

Clarkson books are popular with People Who Don't Read Books, if you know what I mean. I hadn't ever heard of the term 'slope' before the earlier incident, so the guy's clearly a connoisseur of racist epithets and makes a game of slipping them under the radar.

Yeah that took craft, of a kind

I hadn't ever heard of the term 'slope' before the earlier incident, so the guy's clearly a connoisseur of racist epithets and makes a game of slipping them under the radar.

Going to hazard a guess here that Jeremy Clarkson has seen more Vietnam war films than you have. In fact he's probably seen every one ever made and 'slope' is pretty common in them.

Gonna hazard a guess that I probably know more non-cinema Vietnam vets than Clarkson does, while growing up in a place full of Vietnamese refugees, and not a single person ever - even people who used plenty of other epithets - used the word 'slope' to describe an Asian or Vietnamese person.

Wonder if he's behind this movies4men channel on freeview..

I've never heard it used outside of a film, and to an extent that doesn't matter as it was fairly widely used within cinema and as you point out he's clearly the sort of person who enjoys throwing around racial epithets for lolz. There was another comment about Mexicans that I can't quite remember.

Growing up in London in the 80s I heard the eenie meenie rhyme hundreds of times and never with an N word in it, I'm not sure I heard it in that context until adulthood.

I think I always heard it or was 'taught' it as 'nicker' (maybe I thought it meant thief?) Or 'nickel', neither of which are exactly much better

The insults against Mexicans on Top Gear were horrible. Actually Hammond was worse than Clarkson in that instance. Clarkson tried to pass it off as nbd - he said that "we went to the Mexican embassy and we all laughed about it and drank tequila"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhsMGDuU8tA

We caught tigers by the toe in Minnesota, but we also play 'duck, duck, grey duck' there, so...

James May was/is a loathesome cunt re Mexicans too but seems to get even more of a pass than the others

not really a surprise clarkson used the n word (i cant be bothered to find out the context) and i dont really care to hear about him or from him, but he does represent a certain kind of middle class middle england dad archetype who probably thinks ukip are a force for good (i sort of imagine millions of middle aged men across england who feel clarkson says the things they are not allowed to anymore as england has gone pc-mad etc etc).

despite all that, i dont think he should actually get sacked. its just too easy. although the other option is him issuing a 'heartfelt' apology, so maybe the sack is a good idea. all it would mean though is that he ends up on itv or sky next year instead.

I remember it as either tiger or piggy, but my memory's a bit blurred on which it was. Both probably.

BBC's decision is, I guess, partly motivated by the opprobrium that would be heaped on them by the right-wing press, furious at the treatment of their man on the inside. It's only really the Mirror and the Guardian and maybe the Indy that are showing any kind of censure here. The Mail and the Sun would be thundering if, say, Frankie Boyle had done it.

Marina Hyde was pushing back on the Guardian front, too.

According to customer in the queue at my place of business today Clarkson should get a free pass "because those rappers say it all the time" and "anyway that word is part of our heritage and they are trying to take our heritage away".

Marina Hyde was pushing back on the Guardian front, too.

Very much appreciated Musa Okwonga's response in this: http://www.newstatesman.com/media/2014/05/n-word-jeremy-clarkson-has-finally-urinated-live-rail-racism

those rappers say it all the time is common among the comments to his apology video.

Maybe when black comedians stop using it, and saying, “it’s okay, I can say that word”, and Rap stars stop using it in their songs, maybe it will disappear like the other words that were used in the 70’s and 80’s

marina hyde curiously offtm about this

n-word-jeremy-clarkson-has-finally-urinated-live-rail-racism

the n-word version of eeny-meeny-miney-mo was the only one we used when i was a small kid, i don't think i knew what the n-word meant until i was in my teens. not proud of this, just saying backwater 70s England was pretty unreconstructed

i'm pretty sick of all the nuance shit tbh, if i used racist language at work i'd probably get sacked, if i used it out of work and it made the papers i'd probably get sacked, seems pretty simple to me

You don't bring in millions of ad dollars I guess

thats' it, the BBC know they have an audience made up of men like Clarkson. no matter how much we try to hide from it (in the north! on the internet!), this is real england 2014.

the n-word version of eeny-meeny-miney-mo was the only one we used when i was a small kid, i don't think i knew what the n-word meant until i was in my teens. not proud of this, just saying backwater 70s England was pretty unreconstructed
― nostalgie de couilles (Noodle Vague),

My experience. Not wholly surprisin that west ireland runs a good 15 yrs behind ~even hull~ ffs

so y'all don't believe his explanation for this or you just don't care cause he's a jerk anyway

i grew up in the Midlands tbf darragh which is even more fucked up considering that it was much more racially mixed than Hull back then - tho not particularly the little town i was in

lol his "explanation" uh see what happened there was I was trying to not say nigger but then instead I said nigger by accident and that's why if you listen very carefully you can hear me saying a thing that I said

No I'd say I neither believe nor care about this nonsensical bullshit from a racist, how about you granny?

so open minded you lot are

Sounded very sensible to me. But my judgment here isn't clouded by already hating the guy so...

I don't think there's necessarily harm in portraying an unreconstructed wealthy British man who seems to have forgotten the empire ended on television, but doing so in a way where people might conceivably aspire to his role, or see his "humor" in a positive light, is inexcusable.

I don't hate the guy, Granny, but people are non-awkwardly laughing at him and there's a segment of society who thinks his racist uncle act is admirable.

I mean, who gives a shit if he _accidentally_ said a rhyme or if he meant to say something else. Dude said "nigger" on film and thinks it's ok because he grew up saying nigger

I grew up decades later than the guy and there's shit I _apologize_ if I say because, even if I heard those things, I am genuinely sorry that shit came out of my mouth in 2014

I didn't even realize 'tiger' wasn't the original until I heard an 80+ year old woman say it. She got a pass, pretty much, in my mind - but Clarkson is 13 years younger than my father who'd never think to say the offensive version.

me too.

the n-word version of eeny-meeny-miney-mo was the only one we used when i was a small kid

i've spoken with a few people who have said basically the same thing which is AMAZING to me. i come from one of the most racist places in the western world, i.e. rural east tennessee, and had no idea the n-word was ever part of that rhyme. this, in a place where white people casually said the n-word all the time to each other.

I guess it comes down to the fact that outside of legal matters, you can do something on accident and still be very, very wrong. The entire "it was an accident" doesn't make casual racism less wrong. Makes it worse in some ways, because it's the ingrained shit that's insidious.

yeah - i just keep coming back to the vision of clarkson manfully, heroically straining not to say "nigger" in front of a rolling television camera

But he doesn't think it's ok. He had them not use that take because he doesn't think it's ok. I think it's wrong to wrap up that "segment of society" you speak of with this or anything else he does, though I understand the urge to.

who gives a shit if he _accidentally_ said a rhyme or if he meant to say something else

I do. My dad would repeatedly refer to "colored" people even after being told several times that it was an outdated term. He had just been saying if for so long that it was hard to break the habit. If he had been a public figure and let that slip out, omg RACIST. But I have never heard him say truly racist things or do any racist acts. Things aren't that simple and it helps nothing (other than the judger's ego) to call for someone to lose their job over such things.

"colored" is about 1000000 miles away from the n-word, come on now

Tracer, I think absence has something to do with it. I've heard "he jewed me down on the price" or similar weird slurs more from people who don't even get the implications than anyone else. If you're referring to a person with a slur it's direct, but if you're throwing one into a joke or using some phrase you never thought about it's passive and supposedly no big deal to the Clarksons of the world

Granny, if you're dad was a public figure, would he apologize, or just be sorry someone saw hat footage? Because Clarkson is kind of leaning on the latter.

accidental acts can still be really wrong, and worthy of apology given the context, to repeat a point

the idea the the n-word was at one time okay, and now times have changed, is absurd

xpost - yeah i do think it's true that if the BBC hired more black and asian production staff the clarksons of this world would be spared that difficult decision about whether or not to spout racist epithets when presenting their television shows

it is Tracer, that wasn't my point that they were equal terms. Clarkson grew up where n-word was part of that rhyme, it was engrained in his brain that way. My dad grew up calling black people "colored", it was engrained in his brain. They both let the word slip out even though they knew it should never ever be said any longer because they were habituated to use it (for Clarkson, merely in this particular rhyme). Clarkson may be a horrible racist, and there's enough evidence to say he's too eager to use racist terms in a jokey way, but to call for his resignation for this eeny meeny mo episode seems overblown to me.

But this is just the latest gleeful slur in a long line of gleeful slurs! And I am really sick of white people (because it's never, ever anyone else) asking for another pass for this arsehole who has the n-word engrained in his brain. Most white people don't.

The Mexican stuff is way more egregious to me because it's not merely "a ha, out of context and directed at no one you said this epithet, BUSTED!" but rather actual negative ethnic stereotypes were voiced.

Not sure that in 2014, 'colored' is that much less offensive than the n-word.

uh I don't think this single incident is why people are up in arms

Also, you're comparing a term that was seen as neutral and used positively by black people to a racial epithet. I mean, unless Clarkson was born in the 1800s and that was the word everyone used

it's not about him being _racist_, it's about the acceptance of passive racism as something that's fine to partake in accidentally or casually! who gives a fuck what people accidentally say, as long as they react as human beings who don't devalue other human beings intentionally

i grew up where white people said the n-word all the time - it was just another word people used to describe people - but because i'm not completely brain-dead i have learned that it's probably the single most unacceptable word that i can use. clarkson is a man of the world, he's not some shut-in, he's had plenty of time get right with jesus about that rhyme. that he's chosen not to says everything you need to know about him in this regard imo

It's not like it slipped out by accident. He did two takes where the joke was 'I'm saying a racist epithet but saying it in an unintelligible way' and then one where the word was replaced completely.

idgaf about the dude's thing he says accidentally, and I commend him for airing a different take, but "I am sorry I said that" plays a lot better than the "oh, you caught me!" crap that is a long-standing thing he does

who has the n-word engrained in his brain.

see you went from what I said to this statement, ignoring the crucial "(for Clarkson, merely in this particular rhyme)." bit.
I get that this isn't his 1st "offense"; that's exactly what I said, people have already decided he's a racist asshole prior to this. By itself, I don't see the outrage; place it amongst all the racist and quasi racist stuff he's said and done and ok sure go ahead and hate the guy.

I mean, you can keep pretending this is people angry about a man accidentally saying a racist nursery rhyme unintentionally, Granny, but I don't think anyone else in the thread is saying that's the case

btw your dad is passively racist in 2014 if he says "colored" and doesn't give a fuck if it's wrong or right. but as you said, he knows it's wrong and (probably) corrects himself?

btw I don't have a proverbial horse here and have enjoyed some bits of the guy's television show but I think his unreconstructed old white man pose is harmful

I wouldn't complain if I didn't think he could change, and him not changing and not being reprimanded is pretty much an admission it's ok to do this shit, which is what I have an objection with.

and contributes to the not entirely incorrect impression of the BBC as a place where chauvinistic white men get to behave however they want for years with little to no comeback until after they're dead

"it is crazy that he got away with that stuff, but hey, 2014 was a different time"

agree that "unreconstructed old white man pose is harmful", but also think that calling for sacking of someone for having an "unreconstructed old white man pose" is also harmful.

yeah, won't somebody think of the racists, quality trolling, a+++

yep if you're not out to get him, you're supporting those racists and are just as bad! great way to silence any opposition, paint them as racists too, a++++

ok, let's try to take emotion out of it. how many racial epithets do you think a TV broadcaster should be allowed to use before they are not allowed on TV anymore?

I am 100% for Donald Sterling getting punished and losing his NBA franchise for making despicable outright nasty racist statements during a private conversation. I am against Clarkson losing his job for this, though I guess sure fine him to "send a message".

also think that calling for sacking of someone for having an "unreconstructed old white man pose" is also harmful

oh really? what if we add "unrepentant" to that for the fact he's been called out on this shit for years?

I am 100% for someone using a time travel machine to go back in time and slap the shit out of the NBA officials who did nothing when Donald Sterling was guilty of being racist as fuck with housing practices and his business deals

if you fine him the message is "it's cool to be racist if you're rich"

it's like a swear jar you put pennies in

I don't think it's fair to boil this down to "broadcaster uses racial epithet". Viewing this identically to someone just randomly calling someone or some group the n-word isn't the right thing to do imo.

you are literally the only one attempting to boil it down to that

except I was responding to NV who just had done that?

everyone else in the thread is saying it's typical coming from a guy who uses language and attitudes in a way that upholds institutional racism, and that people in England (which I do not believe is where you are) are negatively affected by having someone acting this way on their /state-funded/ media, and that he's been given a number of opportunities to change his behavior and they're tired of it

I mean, brits, let me know if I am at all in the wrong, here

I assume you're either straight trolling or being obtuse because you want to give this guy a big high-five for his car bantz, in either case, adios.

i think white TV broadcasters joking about "not being allowed" to use the n-word are making a racist point, especially if they have a history of making racist points. i don't think there's a generally accepted rule that it's okay for white people to throw the word around as long as they don't mean to be nasty about it. especially when you're "throwing it around" in two separate takes as part of your job.

that sounds about right, mh

the BBC is held to a higher standard because everyone pays for it, so we all feel like stakeholders in a way. the question of whether or not somebody should be fired from, say, channel 5, doesn't have the same currency or bite

but hey, it happens, guys, am i right? sometimes the n-word just slips out - WHOOPS! now here come the haters

there is no accident, there is no lack of intention to offend, all there is, is a bloke who makes a living from baiting anybody who isn't a white middle class conservative male misjudging the line and finally finding he can't bully his way out of the overdue reprimand

the BBC is held to a higher standard because everyone pays for it, so we all feel like stakeholders in a way.

I see this point. Ok call for him to be removed from BBC.

sometimes the n-word just slips out

when you're 60 yrs old and reciting a nursery rhyme that had the n-word in it. Quit trying to take the context out of what he did just to make it look worse.

yes it's one of the hazards of being a white man, the n-word could just pop out at any time, at the most inconvenient moment. even when you're concentrating super-hard on not saying it

and i can't help but think that anybody who didn't believe this shit wd've quietly dropped it from their act years ago - he could still've played the challenging-opinions-about-cars-and-politics bro without any damage to his image at all

incidentally, like everybody else who grew up using that iteration of the rhyme, i haven't accidentally let it slip out since i grew the fuck up

Quit taking the context out of it (old white dude who has a history of saying racist things, invoking stereotypes) to make him look _better_

there is no accident, there is no lack of intention to offend,

multiple takes, he realized he accidentally mumbled it in one, and asked for a different take to be used, this one with a totally different word used in n-word's place? how is that not "lack of intention to offend"?

when you're 60 yrs old and reciting a nursery rhyme that had the n-word in it

for the umpteenth time, this was being filmed AS A BIT. the ENTIRE JOKE was "ohmygod he's gonna say the n-word what a bad boy". he didn't get recorded by an undercover journo during a game of hide and seek that got heated ffs

he recorded it twice with the n-word mumbled, realised he wdn't get away with it, recorded it a third time with a mumble intended to not sound like the word - altho the point of the joke was the same

ahhhhh Dainger are you saying it's only a problem if clarkson was thinking "i hope this hurts someone's feelings" when filming the bit?

I don't care about making him look better. Just think this particular thing isn't terribly egregious on its own. If you want to tie it into his past, go ahead. Outsider looking in, it seems silly for this to get as much outrage as it has. Public funding of BBC and his past...yes I can see why people who already disliked him would try to snatch upon this as the final straw.

"BBC broadcaster thinks better of using the n-word on his TV show after trying it out a couple of times" - maybe you're right, that doesn't really sound like a bad thing

Granny, have you considered using arguments that a single person on the thread might find convincing, or addressing anyone's actual points?

As an outsider, you are basically saying you have no idea what this guy's pattern of behavior is, but you're willing to defend him all over the place.

like, give us a single point here as to your interest in the matter other than trolling, because you're not having a reasonable conversation

It's not reasonable because you have all made up your minds and anyone who disagrees with you is a racist or racist apologist. Long live ILX "debate".

what I am getting from this is: Granny Dainger is the guy who is willing to defend a pathologically old racist white British man based on a single case, knowing nothing of the guy's history, because old rich white guy really needs it?

Everyone said it was about a pattern of behavior and you cherry-picked NV's post saying this single incident would get him in trouble. NV also said this was based on the context and prior behavior in response.

So what. is. your. point?

you are basically saying you have no idea what this guy's pattern of behavior is,

No, I am aware of most of it, I think. I happen to think this particular incident isn't anything to cause an outrage(as a "last straw", I can see how it's a perfect thing to latch onto). You and everyone else here disagrees. Fine.

No, I disagree with that. I think the last straw probably came years ago.

you are getting the wrong things from this then. But it is the things that allow you to paint me in the most negative light possible, so I'm hardly surprised.

t's not reasonable because you have all made up your minds and anyone who disagrees with you is a racist or racist apologist. Long live ILX "debate".

― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Sunday, May 4, 2014 10:19 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what I am getting from this is: Granny Dainger is the guy who is willing to defend a pathologically old racist white British man based on a single case, knowing nothing of the guy's history, because old rich white guy really needs it?

― a strange man (mh), Sunday, May 4, 2014 10:19 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink.

Love how these posts are backtoback

do you not think it's an outrage because you don't think racist language shd be thought of as racist unless it's in a context directed very explicitly at a person or group? trying to fully understand your argument here

Clarkson's shtick isn't 'i'm a big racist', it's 'i'm a normal bloke who likes a bit of racist / sexist / homophobic bantz, just like you, and i'm going to constantly try to get away with as much as i can, on our collective behalf, to stick it to the PC Nazis'.

In this case, the joke was 'we both know i am deliberately saying the version of the rhyme with the n-word in but i'll get in trouble if i just come out and say it so i am going to mumble or cough at the key point'. It assumes the audience is in on the joke. It's the same with most of his 'racial humour' - unambiguously racist (or at least anti anti-racist) in intent but skirting the boundary with his phrasing so he doesn't get taken off air.

That's fundamentally different from someone in the public eye who uses the word accidentally or absent-mindedly, as Germaine Greer did a couple of years ago.

The only other British broadcaster that I can remember using that word when thought he was off camera pretty much got thrown out of his job within the space of a few days iirc. He was a football commentator of a generation older than clarkson and got the boot despite several black footballers stepping up to defend him (which was based on his previous standing of being pretty much the first football manager in the english football league to field black players). Not sure he's ever worked much since and i think that's definitely the right call even though i confess i really liked the guy beforehand. given that precedent, why that arsehole clarkson is being given the benefit of doubt after mutiple previous incidents sure the heck beats the shit out of me.

Honestly I am puzzled by why Hammond in particular wasn't fired for the Mexican stuff.

I think it's convenient, but really the wrong message, to fire people for saying things in plain language that we've deemed as shibboleths when it's only the tiniest indicator of the monstrously horrible behavior they've participated in, in the past.

Your comment about the NBA owner, Sterling, indicates you agree with this convenience, to me. Because that guy had _legal judgments_ against him for discrimination under the law, but somehow that wasn't enough until he was caught muttering what people suspected he thought.

Hammond wasn't fired for the Mexican stuff because there is no shibboleth in British culture against slurring the Mexican people.

because, like Clarkson, he has been placed on a pedestal of virtual untouchability within the BBC which allows him to continually push the line SV talks about up there

and Granny, I felt that you weren't taking the guy's history into account, either! If this childhood rhyme thing happened in a vacuum it wouldn't be that newsworthy. I don't think anyone here is contesting that, but you kept acting like it had to be looked at in seclusion.

Hammond nearly won a Darwin Award while working for the BBC so they may feel guiltily in his debt.

I can see why people who already disliked

And I don't get why you're trying to make this personal. People don't want racist, colonialist, retrograde attitudes seen as funny or fine for television coming from people seen in a positive light. Making it about Clarkson personally is kind of disingenuous.

Hammond, Clarkson & May's function as the id of the BBC works fine as long as you assume the BBC's audience is entirely made up of people like them, or if the part of the audience that isn't like them is of no concern to the organization. also have to remember there are sections of the BBC that genuinely worry that they don't represent the views of the bigot on the street often enough

agree w/all that (and most of what you've said actually), mh

xxp

This stuff is actively harmful. The attempt to swing the pendulum back to "it's just a bit of fun" wrt regressive, offensive behaviour is played out all across the country every day. Clarkson is the most visible example of the anti-PC / "banter" culture that sees you as the problem if you object to someone else making a racist / sexist / homophobic joke about you if the person making the joke isn't a card-carrying neo-Fascist.

If this childhood rhyme thing happened in a vacuum it wouldn't be that newsworthy. I don't think anyone here is contesting that, but you kept acting like it had to be looked at in seclusion.

If I "kept acting like it had to be looked at in seclusion" it was because I felt that people were making it to be far worse than I thought it was. It's enough of a case to go "look this is relatively minor as far as racist statements or actions go, but it is one in a long line of them from Clarkson, and as a Britain I don't think he should be employed by the BBC any longer. I'm tired of it" that I don't think any one needs to go to things like "yes it's one of the hazards of being a white man, the n-word could just pop out at any time, at the most inconvenient moment. even when you're concentrating super-hard on not saying it" and paint this act in specific as being horribly horribly racist.

People keep saying super hard on.

I think one of the main problems, and not just w/the Clarkson situation, is that in the absence of an obvious, wrapped-up package of a racist statement or action with a bow on top, there's a willingness to sweep smaller infractions under the rug. I mean, maybe someone in the BBC is waiting for Clarkson to do something over the top, but in doing so, there are years of incidents of passive racism or bias that happen.

It's a different situation than the Sterling one in the US, but in that case there are actual, legally-documented lives that the guy has fucked with but the one time he's recorded, complaining about his girlfriend/assistant/whoever hanging around with _affluent_ people of color, he loses his NBA franchise. In absence of a smoking gun (which let's get real, the guy has had smoking guns, just not what people cared about) they've ignored all kinds of passive acts that are many times worse than an offhand racial slur or comment.

So yeah, painting this one act by Clarkson as ridiculously bad is a bit disingenuous, but defending his job or reputation on that basis is not something I'd be willing to do.

"He shouldn't get in trouble for this slip-up" in the grand scheme of things is kind of "the perfect is the enemy of the good" when it comes to possibilities to indict this behavior, long-term.

Clarkson is the most visible example of the anti-PC / "banter" culture

I think overreacting to things like Clarkson did here only fuels these people's notions, unfortunately. How to show that this sort of thing isn't acceptable, this pattern of "soft" racism from someone like Clarkson, while also not giving the anti-PC folks affirmation that "see, they're all just too sensitive and looking for a reason to be offended" is prob next to impossible tho.

It's also worth noting (via thread history) that Clarkson repeatedly sets up was-he-or-wasn't-he situations in order to exploit the divide between what behavior is acceptable in his role as television personality and what behavior isn't. Is Jeremy Clarkson trustworthy when he said that his words slipped out? Given past history, probably norm, but sure, give him the benefit of the doubt and kick the can down the road another half-dozen years.

I think one of the main problems, and not just w/the Clarkson situation, is that in the absence of an obvious, wrapped-up package of a racist statement or action with a bow on top, there's a willingness to sweep smaller infractions under the rug

yes this. but things do not disappear when they get swept under the rug, no? if there's a lot of little things that have been swept under there, you can't ignore the bulge they create. iow little things prob should be "swept under the rug", but they shouldn't be forgotten.

dude baits people who see "politically correct" behavior everywhere as the enemy into supporting him and buying his shit

if he's not fired, it's under the rug.

basically any time he turns the conversation from "he should be fired" to "is this passively racist, or is he being persecuted" he gets us to discuss it a lot and his book sales go up

so fire him, that'll send a message right? to whom? people who already agree that he's a racist who should be fired. he'll undoubtedly quickly get another job at a nonBBC station plus will be a martyr for the antiPC crowd.

It's enough of a case to go "look this is relatively minor as far as racist statements or actions go, but it is one in a long line of them from Clarkson, and as a Britain I don't think he should be employed by the BBC any longer. I'm tired of it" that I don't think any one needs to go to things like "yes it's one of the hazards of being a white man, the n-word could just pop out at any time, at the most inconvenient moment. even when you're concentrating super-hard on not saying it" and paint this act in specific as being horribly horribly racist.

maybe i don't need to, but i am, because it truly does boggle my mind that by his own admission he needs to work quite hard at not saying the n-word on national television. i also sort of can't stop giggling at this image, sweat beads forming on his head, "must... not.... say..... DAMMIT"

by his own admission he needs to work quite hard at not saying the n-word on national television.

....when reciting a nursery rhyme which contained the n-word. again, you've omitted things to paint it how it plays out best for your ends.

not sure how a racist nursery rhyme makes a white dude saying the n-word any less racist, but you've been holding that line for awhile so i doubt i'm going to change your mind now. now excuse me while i go back to plotting how to make things play out best for my "ends"... muahahaha

"boss, boss..! you don't understand, 'faggot' was once a term of endearment in my family, and it's hard for me not to use it at work"

right, reciting the original words to a nursery rhyme is just as racist as saying something like "I don't let my daughter date n**gers". it's exactly this hardline anti-racist stance that has worked out so well in squashing the antiPC folks.

you're not getting this

and I think you're not

see how that works?

no one here is saying reciting the original words to a nursery rhyme is just as racist as saying something like "I don't let my daughter date n**gers" and no one is interested in saying that

but you think they are

then you'd say a nursery rhyme could make a white dude saying the n word less racist?

i think very, very few things could make a white dude saying the n word less racist, certainly not a racist nursery rhyme that most sentient human beings learned alternate words to about a hundred years ago

especially this white dude

Granny did you know that passive racism does a shitload more harm than active racism? If a dude says "I don't hire black people" then there's legal recourse, but if he makes subtle comments all the time and is is a shitbag about his attitudes about people different than him, there's no legal recourse and people are just like "oh, whatever, he can have his opinions"

I mean, that's less of a deal when it's your racist uncle, more of a deal when it's some rich dude with a soapbox who people might want to emulate

one might even think acceptance of passive racism in the public sphere is a symptom of some sort of institutional racism, but idk maybe that is a unicorn that only exists in the minds of some

And I disagree. It's obvious the n-word was on his mind, he admitted that. It's a known fact that when you are thinking about NOT thinking or saying something, you are almost guaranteed to think or say it. Catching him saying it here is proof to me of these facts. However, it is evidence in a pattern he has of being ok with racist beliefs and epithets. It is not convincing or even that good of evidence on its own. A 100% non-racist could've let that word slip if they had just been consciously thinking about how they definitely did not want to say the original rhyme there on camera.

I'm personally not inclined to get 1 guy fired for this as the figurehead of Passive Racism. If people want to call for his resignation, sign petitions to have him removed based on this + his history, go for it.

However, it is evidence in a pattern he has of being ok with racist beliefs and epithets.

we all agree!! whew

Are there lots and lots of people in the UK, who don't know or interact with any black or asian people, for whom the badness of racism is not the hurt you cause to someone, but rather they think of it as a purely abstract rule sent down from above? i.e. who don't get why there's, now, some legal and social pressure on them not to call people niggers and pakis - because it's not obvious to them that, at the root of this pressure, there's a solid human reason?

I don't think Clarkson is one of these people, if they do exist, because he's an extremely successful global media figure.

Thread just feels like a place where we might discuss this aforementioned group. I don't say they defo exist and am not necessarily going to defend them if they do, it does sometimes feel like they do.

GD it's not like he *had* to say the rhyme and struggled to get it out without the n word. He *chose* to use that rhyme and mumble that word. There's no accident here at all.

xp I think there are loads of people that that think racist language is only prohibited because of the offence it could cause to people in earshot rather than recognising the stuff about it perpetuating a harmful and oppressive culture etc.
Reckon Clarkson fits into that group, bears no malice towards minorities or anything but doesn't understand why saying racist stuff is always bad and obviously has no interest in learning

Meanwhile, in other news, the BBC is screening an Australian blackface sitcom on bbc 3

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2013/jonah-takalua.html

My amateur diagnosis of what's going wrong with this type of person, is that they've perceived an element of conformity or group-identifying on the part of ... liberals, or leftists, when they make the decision to avoid racist language. This is what the ... 'Clarkson'-type mean when they make accusations of political correctness: they think it's merely politic, and doesn't come from the heart. A sort of strategic alliance rather than a true friendship.

Okay, maybe, but can they offer an alternative that really comes from the heart? Usually not

This stuff is actively harmful. The attempt to swing the pendulum back to "it's just a bit of fun" wrt regressive, offensive behaviour is played out all across the country every day. Clarkson is the most visible example of the anti-PC / "banter" culture that sees you as the problem if you object to someone else making a racist / sexist / homophobic joke about you if the person making the joke isn't a card-carrying neo-Fascist.

― Yuri Bashment (ShariVari), Sunday, May 4, 2014 6:38 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^ this was so smart/truth-bomby it wouldn't hurt for it to appear in this thread again.

And the thing is that Clarkson is smart enough to know that there's a concerted 'attempt to swing the pendulum back' - which there is

Stewart Lee on Political Correctness

it's sad, the uk will lose its edge, and nothing will be funny or entertaining again

ahem

People keep saying super hard on.

otm

it's not like he *had* to say the rhyme and struggled to get it out without the n word. He *chose* to use that rhyme and mumble that word. There's no accident here at all.

also otm

On the bus home there was a guy who looked like an older Jeremy Clarkson. He had this look on his face like he was tired of people asking him if he looked like Jezzer, his eyes scanning the bus looking for the next likely joker.

http://www.autoblog.com/2014/10/04/top-gear-hosts-run-out-of-argentina-video/

Apparently, Jezza's 928 happens to wear the number plate "H982 FLK," which to the Argentinians is a dig at the country's defeat in the 1982 Falklands War. While we wouldn't put it past the nationalistic Top Gear trio to poke some fun at their country's old foe (let's keep in mind the show's love of World War II jokes), that would be awfully subtle if it were really an honest attempt at mischief. Coincidence or no, retribution for TG's perceived slight was swift.

First, the city where the crew's road trip was set to end, Ushuaia, banned Clarkson. The outrage only grew from there, though, as the TG team was forced to cut its trip short by three days and flee the country after the crew and their cars were pelted by stones thrown by angry Argentinians. According to Yahoo! News, Clarkson was forced to abandon his car.

Jalopnik acquired video of the attempted stoning, and we can see the crew vehicles as well as a red Esprit and what looks like the rear end of a late 1960s Mustang fleeing the scene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maAD96cd_uc#t=60

I wonder how much of this will be included in the xmas special.

Is that combination possible in the british system? It doesn't seem possible in Argentina. Where did they get this car, is what I'm asking.

It's possible in Britain yeah

I think I agree with auto blog that covert racism isn't really something these particular employees of the British Broadcasting Corporation tend to bother with

Someone of the Guardian comments said that the registration had been on a Porsche since 1991 and linked to the registry (I didn't check it). So it looks like it may have actually not been deliberate? Surprising if true since this is sooooo Clarkson.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31824040

He must have thumped somebody.

https://www.change.org/p/bbc-reinstate-jeremy-clarkson

85,000 already

Guido fawkes?

prat.

what a tit

Sincerely hope he dies or ends up on Ch 5.

So, 150,000 have signed this petition to reinstate him, no matter what he has done.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31828184

Sincerely hope he dies or ends up on Ch 5.

Read that as "ends up on a C5" at first and thought that's probably a fate worse than death as far as he's concerned.

So, 150,000 have signed this petition to reinstate him, no matter what he has done.

that sounds about right tbh. his core fans don't give a crap how he behaves, they probably like him more for it.

If they've stuck with him until now it seems unlikely they'd be especially bothered about a "fracas" with a TV producer.

Is it really core fans? Or is it not just a reflection of the usual narrative i.e.

Veronique Favreau LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM about 16 hours ago Liked 939
I pay my TV license to ensure that irreverent people can express themselves. If you become boarding and politically correct, you may disappear BBC.

Martin Jones BLACKPOOL, UNITED KINGDOM about 16 hours ago Liked 790
A minority of over sensitive people should not ruin one of Britons favourite shows.

Ilya Babansky ST.PETERSBURG, RUSSIAN FEDERATION about 16 hours ago Liked 741
BBC, you don't wanna piss off 300 million people.

Charlie Houghton CHELMSFORD, ENG about 16 hours ago Liked 576
Jeremy is a bastion of light in a dark PC world

Yeah, one person's black eye vs 300 million people who like cars.

They actually should get Piers Morgan to do it. Just to really piss Clarkson off.

The BBC will cave on this, I have no doubts. Top Gear is arguably worth nothing without the presenters (even then, probably only Clarkson) and in countries running their own franchises the UK version is more popular than their own citation needed but wiki has the following claim for Australia: the first season averaged around 650,000 viewers an episode. In comparison, viewing figures for the previous three Top Gear UK episodes shown in the same timeslot averaged around 903,000 viewers.

He undoubtedly has the stronger bargaining hand. He and Andy Wilman had originally set up a JV with BBC Enterprises for commercial and foreign exploitation which the BBC bought them out of in 2012, around about the time the three of them signed their last 3 year contracts (meaning this would be the last series contracted for in any case). International exploitation could be well over £100M annually, only Doctor Who made BBC Worldwide more and it looks like in 2014 Top Gear overhauled it. If we accept he was taking a reduced wage previously in relation to return (because he got it through other means) even him holding out for £10M pa looks like reasonable business sense for the Beeb.

His schtick is undoubtedly lolsy UKIP, but there's equally undoubtedly a very profitable market for it.

presumably they're still going to be flogging the cancelled episodes on dvds and to foreign broadcasters, so the beebs aren't really going to be out-of-pocket on this thing at all. sack the twat, the programme's run its course anyway, they're still going to recoup their costs whatever happens