Clarksons done it again A SECOND TIME!

[SenseOfTumour]

But I'm back yet again, having read up, to agree with Rooty Evil about Gilbert Gottfried, I saw on TV a stand up guy over here remembering how they dealt with it at a London show.

He came out with a little table with a cloth over it, then solemnly talked about the 9/11 attacks, and how it was hard to be a comic at the moment, then whips off the cloth to reveal a couple of Jenga stacks 'so who wants to break the ice and relax with a quick game of Jenga then?' Gets a laugh, horrible tension broken, gets to move on with his regular act.

I've seen Clarkson on QI also, I don't think I'd like him IRL, and don't agree with him on many many issues, but the fact is he can be very interesting and entertaining.

Just out of curiousity, would I have been better off editing all this into one huge post, or is it better scattered over a few? I just keep coming back with more to say

 

[zirnitra]

looks to me like Labour MPs are just just trying boycott the BBC to get rid of the license fee by sacking the biggest audience drawers first Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross then Jeremy Clarkson, Look out Wogan!

 

[beddo]

For two weeks in a row, he has sparked controversy.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/3418749/Jeremy-Clarkson-sparks-viewer-complaints-in-new-Top-Gear-row.html

Now, do people watch this man just to find a complaint?

This is utter nonsense. People think that because Johnathon Ross was suspended because of the offence caused whereas this is not the case. Broadcasting rules were broken because you are not allowed to harass an individual or make public their private lives irrespective of whether it is true. That's why big brother has all those silent bits.

The fact is that you cannot be punished for your opinion or for voicing that opinion (Unless it's in favour of terrorism that is not supported by the government or if it's racial hatred). IF and only IF it breaches broadcasting guidelines can the studio be held accountable, the person who said it cannot because they are protected by freedom of expression.

 

[beddo]

No way!

Top Gear is one of the only TV shows I watch any more. If anything, he should ramp it up, get taken off the air, and then let's watch how the Beeb's audience figures take a dive. (Top Gear is one of the BBC's most watched programmes, both here and abroad.)

People all over the world watch it for the antics and the humour, and perhaps a little of the nice cars.

I recommend that you go back to watching unoffensive, dumb, middle-class ITV dramas...

ok, one, dont insult me like that. I have no problem watching people say fuck or **** or insulting minorities on air. I have absolutely no problem with Clarkson himself or the way he presents his show.

BUT

he's in hot water as it is, already in trouble for saying something he knew would offend (he knew it, ok? he's not an idiot) and he follows it up by lying to and insulting a police officer. he's been getting away with murder since day one and now people are starting to get a little annoyed at his crap

now, i know he's not malicious and he's not really out to hurt anyone, but launching two stupid attacks back to back in as many weeks is not only hurtful, but also very, VERY stupid.

WOW! I thought we lived in the UK where we have freedom of speech!

How can you say it's not okay to for Jeremy Clarkson to insult people and the police but believe that discriminating and insulting minorities is okay? That's very hypocritical.

 

[TrevorOfCrete]

After Richard Hammond crashed that jetcar at 300mph, wasn't it Frankie Boyle who said -

'You know the Government should have a new anti speeding campaign - just a shot of Richard Hammond in hospital trying to remember what his wife looks like'

looks to me like Labour MPs are just just trying boycott the BBC to get rid of the license fee by sacking the biggest audience drawers first Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross then Jeremy Clarkson, Look out Wogan!

Thats not strictly true, that remark was made on a Mock The Week episode following the production and airing of the Top Gear series after Hammonds Crash.

The Ross/Brand incident is very different from Clarkson, for a start what they did was by UK law illegal. As Parkinson says, Brand is loosly a comedian, though i find it impossable to find any of his 'acts' or 'pranks' funny. Im very glad he no longer works for the BBC, people can laugh at that crap if they want too but not on my licence fee paying ass. The BBC may aswell have Chubby Brown on the staff if they continue to employ Brand. Lets not forget this is a guy who got the sack at MTV for coming to work the day after 9/11 dressed as Osama Bin Laden.

Russel Brand, Jonathon Ross and Terry Wogan are by no means the biggest audience drawers. The BBC's most watched program worldwide is still its various news programs. Top Gear is very clearly one of the BBC flagship program, along with Dr. Who, Spooks and various documentary series such as Coast. I personally find Top Gear brilliant. People are taking what Clarkson says to seriously, if it was said on a comedy panel show no one would blink an eyelid, as they dont demonstarted by SenseOfTumour. He is a joker and needs to be taken as such. If there is a Labour intent here, perhaps they need to re-think there masterplans and take out Neil Oliver instead of removing Brands measly viewer ratings.

I also find it amuzing and confusing how people are palming the Daily Mail readers off as the main source of dicontent with Clarckson. This is the paper which ran a double page spread not too long ago demonstrating the noble policies of Clarkson if he were able to find his way into the Prime Ministers job. This is also the paper which constantly jibbers about political correctness gone mad, and the Euro Nazis. What we have here is a paradox.

If i didnt make my-self clear, The actions of Brand/Ross and Clarckson are incomparable. If you dont like somthing dont watch it, Top Gear is entertainment of that nature, it would be like watching match of the day and complaining about the football. What Brand and Ross did is very different, and the public outrage is very much justified if you have any sense of decency.

 

[ianuam]

Link is dead to the telegraph site. Anywhoo, who cares really, the guy's really amusing. Half the people that complain have only read about it in the tabloids who go around causing trouble in a desperate attempt to raise their flagging sales.

Referring to Brand, the guy's a genius. A mix of 18th century fop and pythonesque humour, sprinkled with a linguaphile.

 

[jim_doki]

So?

He goes around offending Northerners, but am I offended? No. Because I know he doesn't mean it, and - here's the crux of the argument - IT'S FUNNY!

Do you think all truck drivers are offended at his comments? No, they aren't. And they would've found the comments as funny as everyone else.

I can't see how he's being stupid when he hosts the BBC's most popular programme! Even if he gets into hot water with the odd loose comment, his programme is still doing excellent business for the BBC.

Edit - Regarding the policemen: they were being pedantic about visas. They deserved the mockery.

I'm glad you can laugh at yourself, it's a very important skill that a lot more people should have. At the same time some people DONT have that skill and that isn't their fault, and they have the right to be offended. Simply saying "get over it" doesn't seem very fair to me, but then again i did get bullied a lot when i was younger and I heard it a lot.

you have to admit it wasn't the brightest move deciding to air an episode assured to cause controversy when he was already in trouble. Kind of like touching a cactus with a cut hand. at least thats how i see it.

Also, the Police have a job to do. i feel very sorry you feel people who do their jobs well deserve mockery on national TV, and quite frankly it scares me.

WOW! I thought we lived in the UK where we have freedom of speech!

How can you say it's not okay to for Jeremy Clarkson to insult people and the police but believe that discriminating and insulting minorities is okay? That's very hypocritical.

I live in Australia, Free Speech isn't listed anywhere in any of our documentation, it's just assumed we have the right to say what we want. I don't think it's ok that he insults people, but I know he doesn't mean any harm. There are people out there, however, who are not as smart as me and do see what he says as offensive. and like Clarkson has the right to say those things (which in a lot of cases he doesn't) they have the right to tell him he was out of line.

 

[szaleniec1000]

did you know that the actual programme where Ross and brand did the phone call they received two complaints and then the papers reported it and thousands of other jumped on the bandwagon.
wankers.

Were those complaints from Sachs and his Grandaughter?

Probably not the granduaghter, apparently she's a bit of a hoor, and Russell had slept with her.

First she's on about how much it's hurt her family to have Brand announce publicly that he's sh@gged her, then next thing we know she's taken God knows how much from the Scum to tell millions of people exactly how he sh@gged her. I'd say it's unbelievable, but that would imply I had some kind of faith in the gutter press.

I liked Brand's fake apology where he completely skewered the Daily Mail. They need to be reminded long and hard whenever they try taking the moral high ground that the only reason they stopped supporting Hitler (even after the war had begun!) was that the government threatened to shut them down. Official policy is to pretend that the 1930s never happened.

As for Clarkson, I bet 99% of the complaints about him come from outside his core demographic anyway. It's like people who sit their kids down in front of an 18-rated film then complain when they find it's full of sex, violence and swearing. It's not like he's not got any name recognition - if you watch something with Clarkson in it (or read one of his books) you know what to expect.

 

[dnv2]

I personally like Clarkson, it's nice to see someone not afraid to say something. He didn't specifically target anyone and I bet most truck drivers found it funny.

I recommend that you go back to watching unoffensive, dumb, middle-class ITV dramas...

That sums it up well! Little Dorrit anyone?

 

[TrevorOfCrete]

I liked Brand's fake apology where he completely skewered the Daily Mail. They need to be reminded long and hard whenever they try taking the moral high ground that the only reason they stopped supporting Hitler (even after the war had begun!) was that the government threatened to shut them down. Official policy is to pretend that the 1930s never happened.

Because the daily mail havn't changed any of there staff since 1930's. It was a completely stupid argumant. + they changed stance before the start of the conflict between Britain and Germany.

 

[szaleniec1000]

It was only on the subject of Oswald Mosley's BUF that they did a U-turn. They still supported the Nazis in Germany until 1939, and never issued an official apology - ironic considering how keen they are on bullying people who say or do things they disapprove of into making staged apologies that quite self-evidently aren't worth half a penny. In any case, I think he handled the situation with all the seriousness it deserved.

 

[jasoncyrus]

Wow...ANOTHER thread with lots of people complaining about a man far more successful than them who likes to mock society and all the things that need to be mocked.

So he made fun of some prostitutes no ones actually genuinely going to miss, so what?

And dont say it's a tragedy because its not. You wouldn't be doing the pointless anniversary gimmick if they'd slipped on some ice while pimping their diseased genitals out and snapped their own neck, would you?

Just because people get murdered doesnt mean they didn't deserve it or deserve to be remembered.

And just because someone mocks something doesn't mean that doens't deserve it either for being pointless and a waste of memory.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Well, I've certainly not got anything against prostitutes, but damn, that's a harsh post above.

There's a difference between Clarkson making a joke about lorry drivers being serial hooker killers, and coming on here saying prostitutes are valueless and no-one should care if they're butchered, they're still people with friends and family.

Anyways, Guardian reader bit over.I should explain, tho, the Daily Mail to non UK readers.

Essentially its a heavily right wing paper that tried to pin everything from house prices to England losing the football on 'immigrants' who apparently get millions each year from the state to build anthrax bombs to use on our children while we can't even get the money together for a 3rd holiday cottage.

When it's not outright lying to its gawpe- sorry, readers, it's bending the truth to its own ends. Many are the time I've seen just about every paper follow one story, and the mail manages to find a way of putting the word 'muslim' or 'immigrant' on the front cover.

Hell I saw a spoof front page about the Obama win, and it was only the fact that they used a certain racist phrase to hammer it home that makes it unbelievable.


http://www2.b3ta.com/host/creative/49722/1225847832/dailymailfrontpage.jpg

(note, yes its a joke, and I for one think it's ok to say stuff like that in context )

 

[jasoncyrus]

Welll that wasn't my intention, I am mostly blunt to the point of bludgeoning.

To put it simply, people are far too uptight and take things way out of context and act as if he just suggested he was going to rape their mother in the face with an axehandle coated in highly flammable listerine gel.

(elongated but you get the point)

We never used to care if socially unacceptable people got murder, maimed or disappeared in some way shape or form. There was a time when it was perfectly acceptable to spit in the faces of social outcasts and socially frowned upon people.

Personally I think this system would be much better than today. That way when the chav morons would drown in a torrent of other people's malicious bodily fluids.

 

[jim_doki]

Welll that wasn't my intention, I am mostly blunt to the point of bludgeoning.

To put it simply, people are far too uptight and take things way out of context and act as if he just suggested he was going to rape their mother in the face with an axehandle coated in highly flammable listerine gel.

(elongated but you get the point)

We never used to care if socially unacceptable people got murder, maimed or disappeared in some way shape or form. There was a time when it was perfectly acceptable to spit in the faces of social outcasts and socially frowned upon people.

Personally I think this system would be much better than today. That way when the chav morons would drown in a torrent of other people's malicious bodily fluids.

ok, being that thus far I'M the only one saying he should peel back, i think it must be my responsiblity to tell you why I think he's a little out of line and an apology may be in order.

first off, this isn't about the hookers thing. the hookers thing isn't about hookers, its about truckies. Truckies are the ones who were (quite rightfully) offended when clarkson said that their jobs consisted of "change gear, change gear, check mirrors, kill a prostitute, change gear" which in one foul swoop insults their livelyhood and implies they kill hookers. but as i said, thats not the issue here

The issue here is that he insulted a cop who was doing his job one week after he landed in hot water over the hooker thing. All I'm saying is that maybe he should pull back a little, let things cool down before doing something like this. I mean you dont rob a place twice in the same week do you?

 

[sms_117b]

I watched both episodes, when he was doing what was complained about I was laughing my head off, the man is brilliant

 

[jasoncyrus]

Welll that wasn't my intention, I am mostly blunt to the point of bludgeoning.

To put it simply, people are far too uptight and take things way out of context and act as if he just suggested he was going to rape their mother in the face with an axehandle coated in highly flammable listerine gel.

(elongated but you get the point)

We never used to care if socially unacceptable people got murder, maimed or disappeared in some way shape or form. There was a time when it was perfectly acceptable to spit in the faces of social outcasts and socially frowned upon people.

Personally I think this system would be much better than today. That way when the chav morons would drown in a torrent of other people's malicious bodily fluids.

ok, being that thus far I'M the only one saying he should peel back, i think it must be my responsiblity to tell you why I think he's a little out of line and an apology may be in order.

first off, this isn't about the hookers thing. the hookers thing isn't about hookers, its about truckies. Truckies are the ones who were (quite rightfully) offended when clarkson said that their jobs consisted of "change gear, change gear, check mirrors, kill a prostitute, change gear" which in one foul swoop insults their livelyhood and implies they kill hookers. but as i said, thats not the issue here

The issue here is that he insulted a cop who was doing his job one week after he landed in hot water over the hooker thing. All I'm saying is that maybe he should pull back a little, let things cool down before doing something like this. I mean you dont rob a place twice in the same week do you?

You have seen cops in the UK right? And the simply inability they have to turn off cameras while they beat chavs senseless right? American cops arn;t afraid to beat criminals down, quite literally, until they stop moving. Why can't we? because they are too scared to do their jobs and hence are unable to do them.

As for truckies...they have boring lives. they deliver things for a living. Postmen with bigger vehicles who clog the motorways every time fuel prices go up. Protesting fuel costs by wasting lots of fuel...Good Job there dudes, good job. Thats like protesting a war by gunning down your own troops.

He's brash, out spoken and the way most people wish they could be. If more people were like him then no one would complain because we'd be too busy counter insulting each other and laughing about it.

Cops are retarded, end of story. If they knew how to do their jobs properly I wouldn't be bitching about it would i?

 

[mackemsniper]

So?

He goes around offending Northerners, but am I offended? No. Because I know he doesn't mean it, and - here's the crux of the argument - IT'S FUNNY!

Do you think all truck drivers are offended at his comments? No, they aren't. And they would've found the comments as funny as everyone else.

I can't see how he's being stupid when he hosts the BBC's most popular programme! Even if he gets into hot water with the odd loose comment, his programme is still doing excellent business for the BBC.

Edit - Regarding the policemen: they were being pedantic about visas. They deserved the mockery.

I'm glad you can laugh at yourself, it's a very important skill that a lot more people should have. At the same time some people DONT have that skill and that isn't their fault, and they have the right to be offended. Simply saying "get over it" doesn't seem very fair to me, but then again i did get bullied a lot when i was younger and I heard it a lot.

you have to admit it wasn't the brightest move deciding to air an episode assured to cause controversy when he was already in trouble. Kind of like touching a cactus with a cut hand. at least thats how i see it.

Also, the Police have a job to do. i feel very sorry you feel people who do their jobs well deserve mockery on national TV, and quite frankly it scares me.

WOW! I thought we lived in the UK where we have freedom of speech!

How can you say it's not okay to for Jeremy Clarkson to insult people and the police but believe that discriminating and insulting minorities is okay? That's very hypocritical.

I live in Australia, Free Speech isn't listed anywhere in any of our documentation, it's just assumed we have the right to say what we want. I don't think it's ok that he insults people, but I know he doesn't mean any harm. There are people out there, however, who are not as smart as me and do see what he says as offensive. and like Clarkson has the right to say those things (which in a lot of cases he doesn't) they have the right to tell him he was out of line.

Pandering to the social ineptitudes of the masses these days is why the world is 'dumbing down', in my opinion. Because some, not in the least a majority, people cannot laugh at themselves or take a joke doesn't mean than the rest of society must conform to their worldview. It's this femininisation of Western society that allows the awful middle-class rubbish they show on TV these days, like Merlin (the most trite and unoffensive bourgeois crap I've ever seen) and My Family! If people can't take a joke, it's their fault, not ours.

Increasingly it is the maverick broadcasters, like Clarkson and Paxman, who are the last of a breed of people in the media; people who don't pander to advertisers and politicians, people who, respectively, make funny and informative motoring programmes without manufacturer/country bias and berate and hound politicians and business without remorse or comeback.

Modern society needs people like that. The world without them would be like Orwell's 1984 - only perhaps duller. Maybe Clarkson doesn't have the right to say these things (although there's no law against it), but the world sure is a better place for the sensible, rational majority than without it.

/rant

 

[szaleniec1000]

As an aside, I can't imagine any of the truck drivers I'm personally acquainted with (or many truck drivers full stop) even considering starting with the "wah wah offence, oooh my poor delicate feelings!!" routine.