Steve Coogan on Top Gear's racial stereotyping

[clifford_-]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b0 ... 07_02_2011

wiley explaining the concept of 'ethnic banter' from 35 mins lol

theres a bit of news at the beggining of that about a woman that used to work in the post office and is now in prison. thats my local post office! and i know the woman and her husband well, theyre very nice people. didnt know it was headline news outside of surrey though!!

[wolf89]

The only thing wrong with their comments was that they weren't funny.

there's a lot wrong with what top gear do, mainly to do with the fact that its trash tv which is meant to be representative of the UK round the world. Top Gear is the most watched program we export, and its level of intellect is akin to Fox News. basically, would you rather have people think the typical brit is like Jeremy Clarkson or not?

personally i'd rather not be associated with him, despite the fact i know i he's playing up to his character.

Yeah, I don't want that to be our national image but why are you complaining it's nor intellectual? It's not supposed to be. It's about dicking about with and talking about cars.

Sometimes you want silly crap surely?

[64hz]

its well produced aswell, good cinematography and sound.

[noam]

The only thing wrong with their comments was that they weren't funny.

there's a lot wrong with what top gear do, mainly to do with the fact that its trash tv which is meant to be representative of the UK round the world. Top Gear is the most watched program we export, and its level of intellect is akin to Fox News. basically, would you rather have people think the typical brit is like Jeremy Clarkson or not?

personally i'd rather not be associated with him, despite the fact i know i he's playing up to his character.

Yeah, I don't want that to be our national image but why are you complaining it's nor intellectual? It's not supposed to be. It's about dicking about with and talking about cars.

Sometimes you want silly crap surely?

i didnt complain its not intellectual, as in its not academic.

i mean its fucking dumb

there's good car programme's which aren't fucking dumb. and racist.

i dont watch it anymore cos the entertainment value of watching them do the same thing for 10years and repeating this same 10years worth of programming ceaselessly on certain other stations, just got boring.

so now we've got boring, dumb, crap representing our national culture. great!

[clifford_-]

so now we've got boring, dumb, crap representing our national culture. great!

I think you may be taking the rest of the world for fools there mate, if your worried that clarkson is going to be viewed as a stereotypical british person, then are you not presuming the rest of the world only goes by stereotypes??

[wolf89]

Dumb can be good though (not racism though)

Jackass is dumb as fuck an it was one of my favourite tv shows.

[noam]

so now we've got boring, dumb, crap representing our national culture. great!

I think you may be taking the rest of the world for fools there mate, if your worried that clarkson is going to be viewed as a stereotypical british person, then are you not presuming the rest of the world only goes by stereotypes??

what i said was that Top Gear was representing british culture, what i should have said was its representing british culture simply because its being broadcast around the world more than other british programmes. im not presuming what people in other countries would think necessarily, more the image we're giving out if you can see the difference i mean?

even something like the Office is 10x better because its original, funny, clever, intelligent. same with things like Falty Towers in the 80's and Monty Python in the 70's.

those didnt just devolve into being a foundation for Jeremy Clarkson to spout his 'unique brand of british humour' and i GUARANTEE someone has written that about Clarkson before. aka SHIT CRAIC

[clifford_-]

Falty Towers in the 80's and Monty Python in the 70's.

But wouldnt Fawlty Towers be construed as racist now? Especially with the "Dont mention the war" and Manuel sketches?
I think if somone tryed to put out a programme, as genius as that, in modern times, it wouldnt get a second look for fear of offending germans, spanish, irish (the oreilly builder episode with the gnome) and plenty of other races/religions....

[noam]

thats the original point of Coogan's article, i cba to go through it again tho dude soz!

[clifford_-]

Nah i see coogans point for sure, and im not defending clarkson, im just trying to point out that were not the only nation/group of poeple that stereotype! theres plenty of worse, much more horrible TV that goes out overseas...!

[nicenice]

sigh

[64hz]

thing is though, top gear is pretty much lower common denominator stuff, people all over the world will love the silly challenges and celebrities in cars, not so many will be as keen on the subtleties of the office or peep show for example.
also there is nothing wrong with amusement.

[noam]

Nah i see coogans point for sure, and im not defending clarkson, im just trying to point out that were not the only nation/group of poeple that stereotype! theres plenty of worse, much more horrible TV that goes out overseas...!

it could be worse isn't the same as it should be better

i get what you're saying ofcourse, think about how your opinion of other countries is shaped by the media exported by and attached to them

regardless, this is a side issue, my point is jeremy clarkson, richard hammond and james may are unfunny stnuc and their tv programme has got shit.

and whoever said oversease wouldn't get the office... its broadcast in over 80countries round the world.

[clifford_-]

i get what you're saying ofcourse, think about how your opinion of other countries is shaped by the media exported by and attached to them

This was essentialy my point summed up very nicely.


I dunno bout james may being that bad on the whole, i quite enjoyed his things about science, was it called 'james mays big ideas?'
Taught me a bit about renewable energy that i didnt know, in a fairly easy to digest way.
People can be very easily swayed when their job is on the line...

[Badman Juice]

Falty Towers in the 80's and Monty Python in the 70's.

But wouldnt Fawlty Towers be construed as racist now? Especially with the "Dont mention the war" and Manuel sketches?
I think if somone tryed to put out a programme, as genius as that, in modern times, it wouldnt get a second look for fear of offending germans, spanish, irish (the oreilly builder episode with the gnome) and plenty of other races/religions....

fawlty towers isn't racist lol.

[clifford_-]

Falty Towers in the 80's and Monty Python in the 70's.

But wouldnt Fawlty Towers be construed as racist now? Especially with the "Dont mention the war" and Manuel sketches?
I think if somone tryed to put out a programme, as genius as that, in modern times, it wouldnt get a second look for fear of offending germans, spanish, irish (the oreilly builder episode with the gnome) and plenty of other races/religions....

fawlty towers isn't racist lol.

To some people it might be, we know its very tounge in cheek, but others might not see it that way in this day and age.

[-dubson-]

^ They simply need to lighten up a bit tbh.

[koro inu]

Falty Towers in the 80's and Monty Python in the 70's.

But wouldnt Fawlty Towers be construed as racist now? Especially with the "Dont mention the war" and Manuel sketches?
I think if somone tryed to put out a programme, as genius as that, in modern times, it wouldnt get a second look for fear of offending germans, spanish, irish (the oreilly builder episode with the gnome) and plenty of other races/religions....

fawlty towers isn't racist lol.

To some people it might be, we know its very tounge in cheek, but others might not see it that way in this day and age.

right, there's a difference between factual/documentary based programmes and drama/comedy/acting.

when acting the part of an idiot, say like basil fawlty, alan partridge etc (who, for instance, when talking to a belfast lad said 'i like northern ireland. lots of murals, very creative. lots of men with balaclavas and tommy guns. it must be like living around loads of 'banksys'. except banksys who want to kill people who live near them') you are allowed to say idiotic things, because it's framed with 'look at this idiot' every time they say something. basil fawlty is an idiot and acts as such. that's the comedy element of the entire piece.

that's ok, we like that, it's addressing an issue.

when making a documentary on say, cars, or a 'magazine programme' about say, cars, it's unreasonable to make racist and national slurs on people with no pretext, context, justificatioon or humour. that's just being a casual racist. it wasn't a programme on racial stereotypes, but about cars.

not saying that people can't say what they feel, or have a laugh about questionable stuff - like gerry mcgann now having room for the pool table he's always wanted - for instance, but when you're a public service broadcaster, like top gear presenters, you shouldn't be saying things like that on international tv.

i think that's kind of coogan's point. he's made some very 'edgey' stuff in his time, far more contentious than clarkson's bilge, so i think he has the right.

[Badman Juice]

plus people seem to be confusing nationalities with races in this thread.

even when not acting I don't think there's anything wrong with making jokes about a country or their culture & people as long as they're funny and we can mock ourselves too.