Top Gear racist remark (again)

[Rat]

If I were to hazard a guess I'd say he's a character in the same way Bill O'Reilly is a character: his TV persona is an exaggerated version of himself.

That's about how I would see it. He is a complete dick, but that seems to sell to a certain demographic so he plays up to it.

 

[Jack by the hedge]

Top Gear is a bloke show where the IQ of those fronting is similar to warm cabbage

It's a show where the presenters play the roles of blokes with the IQ of warm cabbage.

Clarkson and Andy Wilman (the producer and coincidentally Clarkson's old school friend) devised the format of what wikipedia says is "the world's most widely watched factual television programme" and have both made a fortune out of the show. They understand the comedy value and publicity value of his being crass and outrageous, but sometimes, as here, they've misjudged it and gone too far even for their audience.

 

[LondonJohn]

It's a show where the presenters play the roles of blokes with the IQ of warm cabbage.

Clarkson and Andy Wilman (the producer and coincidentally Clarkson's old school friend) devised the format of what wikipedia says is "the world's most widely watched factual television programme" and have both made a fortune out of the show. They understand the comedy value and publicity value of his being crass and outrageous, but sometimes, as here, they've misjudged it and gone too far even for their audience.

Abso-bloody-exactly!

I am guessing some may have seen it before, but here's Stewart Lee riffing on Top Gear. Disclaimer: it contains a modicum of offensive language......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7CnMQ4L9Pc

 

[Dr. Keith]

So you are saying Jeremy Clarkson is a character in the same way that Stephen Colbert and Archie Bunker are characters?

Maybe not the exact same way, but yes, similar.

You can't honestly think that the whole show is unscripted. They fill an hour of tape with running commentaries describing the minutiae of car design and engineering while telling a compelling story or trying to make a specific point. It is scripted. And scripts have characters. They are playing characters, maybe more accurately caricatures, based on their public personas.

Do you really think May is incapable of driving with haste or picking out clothing that is not brown? He owns both a Porsche and a Ferrari and has more floral shirts than I have ties. He is playing the part of Captain Slow, Victorian Enthusiast. It is based on his interests and his persona as compared to Clarkson and Hammond, but I think you get a different picture of the man in his own show, Man Lab. The difference may be subtle, but it's there.

I've never seen any other work by Clarkson, but I gather he has found it very profitable to be non-PC, in fact to rail against the very idea of being PC. That is what makes him popular with some people, so that aspect is accentuated. He is the persona of living by stereotypes, from lazy road workers to pompous Prius drivers. Did you not see their take on driving in the South of the US? That was far more prejudicial than the silly "slope" pun. But it was consistent with our own prejudices of the US, so no outrage, I guess.

If you can watch the whole episode and come away with the idea that Jeremy Clarkson has little regard for Asians, then you have ignored an hour of insight to focus on a single word.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

UK. I voted that I'd never heard it, but people have listed films I've seen in which it was used, so I must have done but didn't retain the knowledge. I've not heard an actual British person use it.

Top Gear is a bloke show where the IQ of those fronting is similar to warm cabbage

Jeremy Clarkson is actually an intelligent man, who often hides that intelligence to better suit his public persona.

 

[Lisa Simpson]

The only other thing I've seen Jeremy Clarkson on is QI and it doesn't strike me that he is playing a character in the same way that Stephen Colbert is a character (or even Bill O'Reilly).

 

[tyr_13]

Maybe not the exact same way, but yes, similar.

You can't honestly think that the whole show is unscripted. They fill an hour of tape with running commentaries describing the minutiae of car design and engineering while telling a compelling story or trying to make a specific point. It is scripted. And scripts have characters. They are playing characters, maybe more accurately caricatures, based on their public personas.

Do you really think May is incapable of driving with haste or picking out clothing that is not brown? He owns both a Porsche and a Ferrari and has more floral shirts than I have ties. He is playing the part of Captain Slow, Victorian Enthusiast. It is based on his interests and his persona as compared to Clarkson and Hammond, but I think you get a different picture of the man in his own show, Man Lab. The difference may be subtle, but it's there.

I've never seen any other work by Clarkson, but I gather he has found it very profitable to be non-PC, in fact to rail against the very idea of being PC. That is what makes him popular with some people, so that aspect is accentuated. He is the persona of living by stereotypes, from lazy road workers to pompous Prius drivers. Did you not see their take on driving in the South of the US? That was far more prejudicial than the silly "slope" pun. But it was consistent with our own prejudices of the US, so no outrage, I guess.
If you can watch the whole episode and come away with the idea that Jeremy Clarkson has little regard for Asians, then you have ignored an hour of insight to focus on a single word.

Ever since I saw that special I've been trying to confirm if the stone throwing, getting chased out of town, was scripted or not. It seemed significantly different from their normal set ups in filming that it seemed plausible. Also, that station appears to be Seminole Alabama, where such a happening isn't remotely unlikely. The thing that makes me think it was scripted was them pulling over later and trying to get he paint off with Coke and the shirts off their backs. Of course that could have been a quick ad lib to a real situation.

From all accounts I can find from cast and crew, that actually happened. Why the police never became involved is anyone's guess.

 

[fuelair]

So apparently, Jeremy Clarkson is busy being racist again.

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-27123434





My husband had not ever heard "slope" as a term towards Asian people, but I have. So my question is (and poll to soon follow) have you heard the term "slope" used as a racial epithet towards East Asian people?

Heard it when I was in RVN (US Army) - useful way to identify ********.

 

[elbe]

Ever since I saw that special I've been trying to confirm if the stone throwing, getting chased out of town, was scripted or not. It seemed significantly different from their normal set ups in filming that it seemed plausible. Also, that station appears to be Seminole Alabama, where such a happening isn't remotely unlikely. The thing that makes me think it was scripted was them pulling over later and trying to get he paint off with Coke and the shirts off their backs. Of course that could have been a quick ad lib to a real situation.

From all accounts I can find from cast and crew, that actually happened. Why the police never became involved is anyone's guess.

I always took it as true, the camera crew doesn't usually get involved to that degree.

 

[lobosrul]

The only other thing I've seen Jeremy Clarkson on is QI and it doesn't strike me that he is playing a character in the same way that Stephen Colbert is a character (or even Bill O'Reilly).

I've seen a few episodes of QI (not actually available in any legal manner over here). My take: Clarkson plays up a character for TV, and especially on Top Gear. Otherwise there is no way Stephen Fry would have invited him onto QI so many times. I will admit the episode where they made fun of Mexicans as being lazy etc just about crossed the line.

 

[fuelair]

This is my view. I've heard it, but not for ages. It's clearly racist, but I wouldn't put it in the same category as the "N" word.

I suspect that being around Aussie soldiers returning from VN back in the 60s/70s would lead to knowing it.


As a side note: THE absolute best movie with Vietnam (war years) as it's setting is this one (which is Australian and has the feel of "nam way better than any others I have seen) is http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079652/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_66

A vet who was there any time during the war is sure to back me on that after seeing it!!!!

 

[fuelair]

It covers a soldier's time there from a birthday party just before he leaves to a drink with a friend in the airport on his return. Beats the heck out of Platoon and related (which were more movie than true depiction).

That does not mean they were not interesting films but they were attitude and weirdness movies.

 

[Lisa Simpson]

I've seen a few episodes of QI (not actually available in any legal manner over here).

You can find QI on youtube.

 

[angrysoba]

I've heard it in the movie Hamburger Hill and elsewhere plenty of times.

I think that's where I heard it from too. Although given that the film was Hamburger Hill, it could have been a geographic term.

Admittedly, I don't hang around too many racists but the last time I remember hearing that one in real life was about 1985 from a teenage kid. He had decided that since his father fought in Vietnam, he should hate Asian people.

Of course, he should also love Asian people on that basis too.

I'm from the U.S., I served in Viet-Nam and I heard the term used. Endlessly.

Perhaps the word was popularized there (although not among the people in whose interests American, Australian and other armies were ostensibly fighting) which might explain the relative levels of use.

And you're clearly wrong. The show's exec producer has even admitted that it was intended as a crass and casually-racist double entendre:

In a statement, Mr Wilman said: 'When we used the word "slope" in the recent Top Gear Burma special it was a light-hearted wordplay joke referencing both the build quality of the bridge and the local Asian man who was crossing it.

In other words, "It's just a joke!"

From now on I hope that Mr Wilman gets stricken by a horrible and painful and lengthy terminal disease.*















* it's just a joke!

 

[applecorped]

It was wong to say

 

[Cain]

Wait a second. Top Gear. I thought this show was just about celebrities in crappy cars racing around a closed circuit track. Is there more to it?

 

[shadron]

Slope or slopehead, reference in my mind to the older use of Neanderthal, meaning an uncouth savage. Don't know where I heard it but it was in my youth, in the 50s. It *may* have come from WWII or Korean vets.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I'm from the U.S., I served in Viet-Nam and I heard the term used. Endlessly.

Ditto, ditto, and ditto.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Wait a second. Top Gear. I thought this show was just about celebrities in crappy cars racing around a closed circuit track. Is there more to it?

They also race around the world making fools of themselves. Even in the US.

 

[Cain]

So the makers do profiles of different countries' cars and roads? Is that a regular part of the show?