yeah, i watched it too. i couldn't believe that they were chased out of the town by a gang of men flinging rocks at the poor innicent camera crew! (don't they have a sence of humour in that part of america..?) i'm glad that noone was badly hurt, but still.. such a reaction for words painted on a car.

i was just as astonished that someone tried to sue them for accidently getting the date one of the cars was made wrong. and they were giving the cars away, for free! then a carload of gun-waving guys drove up and told them to 'get off their street'.. oo;

but i loved their attempts at air conditioning, and clarkson with that entire dead cow tied onto his car. ^^; poor hamster nearly driving into a crocodile-infested river. hillarious!

For those who missed it: http://www.digg.com/television/Top_Gear_Gets_Attacked_by_Rednecks

Holy crap!

I know BBC is all left as can be at times, I know Clarkson is the most inpoliticially correct man on this planet... but...

HOW DID THEY GET AWAY WITH AIRING THAT?!

Provacateur entertainment at its worst. If they really wanted to get shot so badly, they'd drive through an Iraqi town with an American flag. That'l probably be their next and last show.

Assuming the whole thing wasn't just a bunch of actors.

man love rules

also top gear remains one of the most awesome shows on british tv. this shows why.

down with political correctness!

Damn. I need to get me a TV. I haven't been able to watch Top Gear since I've been at uni. =(

Last weeks episode was truely the greatest one ever.

The cow tied to the top of Calrksons car and sabotaging James's air con was hilarious. Oh, and course the trying to kill each other by riding through the south with their imaginative slogans. It was cool that they donated their cars to the people of New Orleans. Even if they did want to sue Clarkson after it.

gyaah, cyc.. you could've warned us about the large loading time for that page, the 600 comments made my comp freeze up! ^^;

Got to love the American Stig...was that a different guy, or the regular Stig padded up?

that's exactly what me and my freinds were tryin to figure out as well. we couldn't decide.

It would make sense to have someone who knows the track rather than UK Stig.

May be able to watch it again at the official Top Gear site, if you missed it.

Note that I haven't checked myself if it's on there yet...I intend to when I next find the time.

~Wraith

EDIT: Or this one...

~W

Top Gear, along with Doctor Who & Terry Wogan, is the only reason I pay a licence fee. The programme is worth the weight of the presenters, the reasonably priced car and every car they've ever had pass through their hands in gold.

I haven't laughed so much for a very, very long time. Yeah, probably alienating the locals wasn't very smart, but it was very funny. Had the locals retaliated with something along the lines of "We're not here for you to make fun of us, get off our property", it would have been fine and would in fact have shown the team up, instead of the locals. Still, no one ever gets British humour...

This week was also amusing, with Hammond's request not to test the car that can supposedly go faster than the Bugatti Veyron. Also Clarkson's comment about the BBC safer driving course: "Here's one for you, Hammond. If you have a tyre blow-out on the motorway, what instinctive action should you avoid..."

I swear, if I were inclined to believe in miracles, it would have been after I saw the footage of Hammond's crash in the first episode. Yikes!

How we missed him...

DW

Did anyone see last night's episode, where they tried to turn a Robin Reliant into a space shuttle? More great stuff...

blast, i keep missing episodes! ^.x;

The only thing I dislike about Top Gear, is the way our front room is always an utter tip after our weekly Top Gear, Curry and Beer rituals =3

the current robin reliant space shuttle video (full 21minutes on googlevideos)

or below, the youtube of the launch itself (until someone complains and it gets taken down =/)

top gear ftw!

For anyone who's British, the last episode is repeated tonight at 7pm on BBC2. Good if you missed it or just want to see it again.

Oh my god that was simply beautiful. <3

funky, only an hour until the repeat!

..good timing too, it'll take that long to prise the male flatmate from the TV and off prince of persia. >>

Personally, I can't stand the show or any of its presenters.

Please tell me what relevance any of that xenophobic rubbish had to motoring - or what relevance any of the high-powered gas guzzlers, concept cars and general "My genital extension's bigger than yours!" contests they get into have to motoring, either.

The degree of petrol-headed arrogance and stupidity in that show's disturbed me for years. Yes, I'm sorry for Richard Hammond having an accident - but it's a miracle that someone hasn't been killed in any of their silly pointless stunts before now, and I'm just waiting for it to happen again.

What do they honestly expect to happen?

I seem to remember Billie Piper is going to appear on this.

Hum.

Billie was pretty cool on it, actually. Also, her in those glasses is really hawtsome.

Anyway, to Sam, I don't think of Top Gear as having anything but tangental relevence to motoring anymore, that's really what the magazine is for these days. The show itself is now pure entertainment, it's simply, in their own words "Three blokes cocking about in cars."

Theres been arguments about this ever since it started on the road to testosterone driven silly-billyness, many in my front room, but really it's a matter of taste. I perfer it more now than I ever did. Yes Clarkson is an over-opinionated muppet, but it makes it funny. Like it or lump it, it's what it's become I guess. I like it, so I'm happy Nn. Of course, I don't really care for motoring, so that explains my view =P

*seconds*

That's the thing, I can watch Top Gear to go "ooh" at cars I'm never gonna own, never gonna drive and probably never even gonna see on the road. And that's cool.

I can watch the Stig throw a car around a track and, occasionally, have the car bite him. Or the tractor, as it may be - did anyone else nearly snort milk out of their nose when Stig nearly fell out of the tractor on the corner?

See, Fifth Gear on Five tries to be more motoring-related; and is frankly dull as ditchwater if you're not actually into motoring.

I drive a 10 year old VW Polo and spend most of my time tootling up and down the M5 and swearing at traffic lights in Bristol city centre. I'm never going to do anything they do, but it sure is fun to watch

The perennial arguing is always good. And Hammond to Clarkson raised a very valid point - "You were there, outside the car, they had a water cannon. How were they *not* going to turn it on and aim it at you?" (paraphrasing).

Oh, and Crimson, can I come watch it in your front room please? It's always funnier with other folk around laughing themselves stupid at it...

DW

I would be happy to oblige if the series wasn't finished

I know. I may pine away between now and the next series. *Now* what do I do with my Sunday evenings? In fact, until the Doctor returns, the only reason to watch the Beeb is Life on Mars.

Which reminds me, if only I had spare cash cgi.ebay.co.uk/Life-on-Ma...dZViewItem

DW

Only have to wait till March 31st, at least.

DW, you do know that Clarkson's announced that there won't be another series of Top Gear...?

Although it wouldn't surprise me if it was a publicity stunt after all of the bad press the show's had this year.

The end of the show it was announced a new series will be back for the summer o.o, and bad press? it's the best and biggest ratings pulling in a long time for the bbc (excluding sport, EE or christmas specials).

Ummm... As I was saying, there's some confusion about that.

And yes, the show's been getting pilloried in sections of the press for exactly what I was talking about: petrol-headed needless risk-taking and silly stunts like that xenophobic stuff, that have nothing to do with cars and everything to do with cheap and nasty sensationalism.

You didn't read about Clarkson having to make an apology to brain injury sufferers for cracking stereotype jokes at Richard Hammond?

The show was under scrutiny even before Hammond's accident. It definitely is now.

High viewing figures don't necessarily mean good press. On the contrary: controversy is great for ratings, which is probably precisely why Top Gear goes out of its way to cause it, and why I smell a publicity stunt in Clarkson's latest comments.