32 Comments

• Dominic 24th May '08 - 1:30pm

  Yet another example of the BBC’s pro-Tory bias …

• asquith 24th May '08 - 4:02pm

  Clarkson is utter scum. I pity anyone stupid enough to be taken in by him. They haven’t got the rudimentary intelligence to see that he scorns and despises his own fans, and can’t believe he’s found anyone stupid enough to support his reactionary filth.

• Penny 24th May '08 - 7:34pm

  In Top Gear’s defence, there isn’t a series currently on the old tele-box and therefore that was a re-run.

• iainm 25th May '08 - 10:42am

  Good Lord, some people will whine about anything.

• Jennie 25th May '08 - 10:45am

  Asquith, Clarkson is a masterful comedian, and I am a big fan. I would suggest that those who call him “scum” and rail against him are just as guilty of taking him far too seriously as those who think his overblown pronouncements are right.

• Mark Pack 25th May '08 - 11:32am

  I’ve moderated a couple of comments because our policy on abusive language applies as much to comments about Jeremy Clarkson as about anyone else 🙂

• Martin Land 25th May '08 - 11:42am

  I’ve always thought of Clarkson as an idiot petrol head. I don’t think that’s unfair; it’s the image he chooses to project himself.

  Last week though he was filming at Duxford with sidekicks Hammond and May, who all happily signed our petition opposing a new ‘eco-town’ nearby when one of our councillors presented it to them.

  Clarkson went on to make some very intelligent comments to the local press about over-development, the countryside and sustainability.

  Not quite the fool he chooses to appear to be then….

• Jennie 25th May '08 - 11:46am

  Martin, no he’s not. His public image is very carefully crafted to appeal to idiot petrolheads, but there’s very VERY regularly a knowing wink to those who wish to look deeper. I find it very telling that so many people aren’t willing to do so.

• Oranjepan 25th May '08 - 12:24pm

  Let me clarify Mark – somewhere between a 3 star wit and a 4 star wit – is a 3 1/2 star wit.

  He’s not so funny – definitely not funny enough to be considered a comedian. And I’ve never heard him tell a joke with a punchline.

• Geoff Payne 25th May '08 - 12:25pm

  He is leading popular opinion to believe that global warming is nothing to worry about.
  For the sake of getting a few laughs, he is highly irresponsible.

• Psycho 25th May '08 - 3:49pm

  am a big fan of jeremy and i think that he didn’t mean it and he was joking

• asquith 25th May '08 - 3:50pm

  Jennie, that’s the whole point I’m making. Clarkson could be another Stephen Hawking, hiding his light under a bushel extremely well. But the petrolheads who follow him, and then act as if they can do whatever they want and it will have no consequences, are not intelligent enough to see the hidden meaning. And we have to live with the consequences every day.

• Psycho 25th May '08 - 4:43pm

  why u r soo angry now
  he is a real man and his words like a rock

• Penny 25th May '08 - 4:49pm

  Whether you like what he says or not, he at least speaks his mind.
  More importantly, he does a very good job of reflecting quite a lot of people’s views in this increasingly ridiculous nanny-state in which we seem to find ourselves living now.

• asquith 25th May '08 - 5:10pm

  Penny & Psycho,

  Do you have anything to do with the Lib Dems, or are you just stirring? I’ve checked, and neither of you has posted under these names prior to this thread. How fascinating.

• Penny 25th May '08 - 5:12pm

  Asquith – no I don’t and what an interesting way you have to welcome new people!

• asquith 25th May '08 - 5:16pm

  Yes. I prefer Psycho though. REAL MAN! LIKE A ROCK! 🙂

• Penny 25th May '08 - 5:20pm

  My apologies if I have offeneded, I didn’t realise I was stirring merely by expressing my view. But you can’t expect to post your opinions on an open website and not have people with alternative opinions share theirs?

• Oranjepan 25th May '08 - 5:40pm

  It helps a proper appreciation of the comment to be able to place it within the context of preexisting biases.

  No offense taken, no apologies needed.

• asquith 25th May '08 - 5:43pm

  No, you haven’t offended anyone. Naturally, you’re welcome to express your view. And given the nature of your view, I’ll argue against it! 🙂

• Oranjepan 25th May '08 - 6:21pm

  Yes, I must apologise also to Mr Clarkson as I’ve just had it pointed out to me that some confusion could have arisen over whether my earlier description of him meant ‘somewhere between a dimwit and a halfwit’. Well, I guess that would have been entirely in the mind of the audience.

• LiberalHammer 28th May '08 - 8:15am

  I’m a paid up member and fan of TG. It is hardly a documentary, is it? Anyone who takes the ranting on TG seriously – and I’d venture that Clarkson doesn’t – is simply misguided.

  One doesn’t have to agree with Clarkson to find him more intelligent than is often made out and funny with it.

• asquith 28th May '08 - 10:12am

  *sigh*

  Re: your assertion that:

  “Anyone who takes the ranting on TG seriously – and I’d venture that Clarkson doesn’t – is simply misguided.

  One doesn’t have to agree with Clarkson to find him more intelligent than is often made out and funny with it.”

  I agree with the first part, and have some sympathies with the second. But you have got to face up to the fact that millions of people are misguided. Unfortunately, most inhabitants of this country are not intelligent.

  And if Clarkson doesn’t mean what he says, then it’s even more repulsive than it would be if he believed it. Richard Littlecock and Mad Mel Phillips are risible to me, but no one sees me laughing at them.

• Dan 28th May '08 - 10:55am

  Wow – Lib Dems in sense of humour failure alert!!!

  I think people should get a grip. Clarkson is a wag and like the vast majority of people in this country is pro car use.

  By taking him so seriously we come across as humourless eco-barmy luddites, where we really need people like Clarkson on-board if we are going to defeat the surveillance state.

  I have no confidence that an incoming Conservative government is going to do anything to stop the ever increasing control of power and information in an ever smaller number of (incompetent) hands in Whitehall – the power it gives is just too great.

  Clarkson hates this type of society and we should be backing his attacks on an ever increasingly intrusive, bureaucratic and nannying society which attacks privacy, enforces conformity and drives out enterprise.

• LiberalHammer 28th May '08 - 11:53am

  Dan,

  Agree totally. TG is, in part, a comedy programme. I have yet to see anyone claim, seriously, that they think global warming is spurious ‘because Clarkson said so on TG’.

  Asquith,

  Didn’t realise you were such an elitist! Thought it was New Labour sorts who think they know best…

• asquith 28th May '08 - 12:06pm

  Dan,

  Perhaps you can explain, if Clarkson is such a bold and fearless libertarian, why he believed the loss of million’s of people’s personal data to be nothing worth bothering with, & derided those liberals who actually took a principled stance.

  No true liberal would have had such an instinctive reaction. The man cares solely for himself. As for humour, I laugh at things that actually are funny, not middle-aged boys who never grew up.

  http://tinyurl.com/66nkan

  If it’s allies you want, I suggest a civil liberties coalition containing genuine libertarians, and conservatives like David Davis.

• iainm 28th May '08 - 1:01pm

  Hooray for Asquith, long may he continue to defend the idiot majority from itself.

  No harm done though, the sort of people who get upset with Clarkson are exactly those he is laughing at in the first place.

• Psycho 28th May '08 - 8:23pm

  jeremy and his show are the best thing that happen in motor world and no one can beat him

• asquith 29th May '08 - 9:27am

  Psycho, you’re welcome to contribute to threads other than this one, if you have anything to say.

• Psycho 30th May '08 - 10:46am

  thanks but all i care about is to talk about top gear and jeremy,,,,

• richard underhill. 24th Aug '20 - 3:38pm

  Psycho 28th May ’08 – 8:23pm
  Please give respect to Lewis Hamilton, the fastest man in the world.

• richard underhill. 24th Aug '20 - 3:44pm

  LiberalHammer 28th May ’08 – 11:53am
  Top Gear generates large international revenues for the BBC, which is why Jeremy Clarkson’s contract was allowed to expire and he was not dismissed.