Clarkson

[bunn]

I have to admit, I'd assumed that Jeremy Clarkson had long ago jumped his own personal shark, and had been playing an Ali G -style character based on himself on Top Gear for many years.   I'm rather saddened that recent events suggest that he was actually taking himself seriously.

Although I've not signed it myself*, I am amused by the fact that the petition to bring back Clarkson was set up on change.org.  Judging by the emails I get from change.org, they take themselves rather seriously, and their userbase profile has probably just changed in ways they were really not expecting...

Also, The Stig delivering the petition to the BBC  in a tank (or is it a self-propelled gun as I saw some gun nerd complaining somewhere?) was an inspired piece of theatre that I can only appreciate.

* because, amusing though Clarkson and petition both are, when it comes down to it, if he really thumped someone vastly poorer and less influential than himself, or even threatened to do so, that's pretty abysmal behaviour and I'm not sure an online petition to allow him 'freedom to fracas' is in any way an appropriate response. 

Comments

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I think that point of view would have a lot of merit if the whole show were filmed in advance - but I believe that only the out-of-studio sequences are, and it does seem like it would be very hard to completely restructure the show in less than a week, particularly if the other two presenters were not cooperative (I saw somewhere that they had refused, although I am not sure how authoritative that information is).

I can't see that they had much option but to at least defer. And I am not sure about Top Gear as sole representative of a demographic either. I like Top Gear, but I don't think that really puts me into a pigeonhole!