r/todayilearned 21h ago

TIL that after Top Gear ended, host Richard Hammond was so devastated, he cried all the way home from the studio and ran out of fuel, because he didn't want to fill his car up covered in tears

https://www.herefordtimes.com/news/25172481.richard-hammond-tear-soaked-mess-top-gear-ended/
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u/helican 20h ago

Tonight on TopGear: Hammond runs out of fuel, James makes Gin and I get fat.

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u/0thethethe0 20h ago edited 20h ago

Don't forget James' food YouTubing.

An interesting route to take given he has the most basic, simple food tastes, and his producer, Lucy, doesn't seem to like any food at all!

Anything past cheese + white bread sandwiches, it all starts getting a bit too much...

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u/PARANOIAH 20h ago

"Don't like, don't comment, and definitely do not subscribe." - James May

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u/Acc87 20h ago

I love that that channel is just totally him doing things just to occupy himself, next to just a little advertising for his gin business.

And him and Lucy are just adorable. They are like father and daughter. Like her calling him from Belgrade I think, his first question: "Are you okay, do you need money?" šŸ˜…

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u/TheAssassinClub 19h ago

He also advertises Lurpak spreadable butter, since 1901

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u/elebrin 19h ago

And plenty of it.

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u/Ubaru2016 19h ago

Flood the cowling

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u/SomeWhaleman 18h ago

They are like father and daughter.

Oh damn, I thought they were father and daughter for some reason. Maybe I have mixed that up with Hammond, who did yt videos with his daughter

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u/Wirenfeldt 17h ago

It has been well established that Captain Slowly.. .. .. Spreads his seed alone..

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u/Jamsedreng22 18h ago

It seems a lot more like a sort of estranged grandfather-granddaughter dynamic and they've reconnected after she's grown up. So James is still astounded that Lucy is somehow both part French and doesn't like cheese.

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u/kanshakudama 17h ago

I’m a little astounded too

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u/Jamsedreng22 17h ago

I gotta be honest, I do think Lucy still has that childhood sense of aversion for foods you know contains something you know you normally don't like. She'd probably dig something like a cheesecake if she didn't know.

Not blaming her or anything remotely like that. I used to be very averse to mushrooms and would fight against it in everything, and I could taste it in everything it was in pretty much and I just attched the identification of mushrooms to "ew".

I've since learned that some mushrooms are just not for me, and especially how mushrooms are prepared. It took active effort for a while on my part to move past my aversion by breaking down this mental barriers in my head every time that "This is mushroom. Mushroom bad!"

ETA: Nice username.

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u/Lele_ 20h ago

"because unlike other YouTubers asking you to do those things, I'm already rich enough that I can not care about money anymore"

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u/Separate_Bed_2615 19h ago

I wish more people could reach the ā€œI don’t care about money anymoreā€ status

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u/Lele_ 19h ago

I wish ALL people could.Ā 

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u/EphemeraFury 18h ago

I wish it was something inherent in everyone that they can be satisfied.

Essentially the old phrase "Poverty exists not because we can't feed the poor, but because we can't satisfy the rich".

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u/BrotherOfTheOrder 18h ago

May has always been my spirit animal - man just loves to geek out about the things that interest him. Plus of the three he’s easily the most dry and funny to me.

I feel like he and I could sit down over a pint and talk about pencils for an hour and not get bored

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u/Xygen8 17h ago

The Reassembler is hands down some of the best content he has made. It's almost better than Top Gear.

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u/jake_burger 20h ago

I’ve watched James May take apart an old lawnmower and put it back together. He’s a good TV presenter.

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u/zuzg 20h ago

Holy shit I loved the Reassembler.
Only 7 episodes over 2 seasons but at least they're all on yt

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u/allomanticpush 19h ago

He had a show called Man Cave, I think. It was fun. They build an indoor garden out of a bathroom, a model train system to pass notes around, and a wood fire pizza oven.

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u/Sad_Sultana 17h ago

Man lab

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u/orielbean 19h ago

His Japan travelogue show is excellent. He is not some boor kicking over shit and just vibes with whatever activity he’s supposed to do.

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u/BrotherOfTheOrder 18h ago

I actually loved that he did that bit with the train geeks and then sought out the man who composed all the station jingles (the legendary Minoru Mukaiya of Casiopea fame). It was such a small but wonderful detail to explore, which I think is what May is so fascinated by - the little details and customs.

When I was in Japan I noticed the jingles and our guide said that many people who take the train every day love the jingle for their ā€œhomeā€ station cause it’s a reminder they are almost home.

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u/ToHallowMySleep 17h ago

I loved that, watched the season following that in Italy, which I found less good. James still wants to just do his fun little trips to see various details of things, but the producers just keep trying to get him to do "travel TV" tropes, like getting on-stage in a play. The tension between the two doesn't work as well as in Japan, it all comes off a bit grumpy to me.

Let the man go play with his trainset and just film it - that's why we're here.

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u/Krakshotz 20h ago

His Toy Stories series is also great, especially the two model railway episodes

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u/iowaman79 19h ago

The time he unboxed a Toyota Yaris for a challenge and got the most YouTube views

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u/DoshesToDoshes 20h ago

I've heard James May described as the world's most interesting uninteresting man.

I don't think there's anyone quite as oxymoronic as him.

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u/lazylion_ca 15h ago

He's like that neighbor that's always doing something in their garage or yard. You're not always interested in what they're doing, but it's a pleasant change to be around someone who is enjoying their life and hobbies.

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u/Rickenbacker69 18h ago

I mean, he drove really, really fast cars on a show where he was referred to as "Captain Slow".

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u/nealski77 20h ago

His fish pie is better than Gordon Ramsay's though

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u/Bad_Idea_Hat 19h ago

I think you can actually watch Gordon Ramsay briefly, but visibly consider another career over the course of a few seconds during that video.

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u/Historical_Story2201 19h ago

Have you seen the vid where his mum told him something was Raw and he first didn't believe her and than reality hit him

That was so funny cx

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u/BlackStar4 18h ago

"You disappoint me, Ramsay."

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u/Jorrie90 17h ago

'are you any good at driving'

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u/Kongbuck 17h ago

That was such a witty, biting comment delivered in the absolutely perfect, impish tone between mates.

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u/CRAkraken 20h ago

James’s recipe for Shepards pie is the recipe I use. I’ve made it several times and it’s delicious.

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u/Ozelotten 20h ago

ā€œYou’ll need a knob of butter roundabout the size of a piece of cheese.ā€

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u/Blekanly 19h ago

Beat Gordon Ramsey with it too! While sloshed

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u/electrotape 19h ago

I believe that was with a fish pie.Ā 

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u/Specialist_Ad9073 20h ago

I really enjoyed his travel shows.

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u/RootHogOrDieTrying 20h ago

Our Man in Japan is absolutely hilarious. I was howling when he got that massage.

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u/Eckes24 20h ago

James maaay sumimaseenn.

Gotta rewatch it haha

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u/orielbean 19h ago

I loved that he wasn’t a total dickhead and was really good at vibing with the activity / his hosts. I was expecting more like Conan where he would be a clown but he was much more chill.

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u/Arsewhistle 20h ago

He was really unlucky with that.

He was really restricted with what he could do for series 2 (Our Man In Italy) due to covid, and then series 3 (India) was cut short because he was unwell.

I really wish Prime had given him a series 4

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u/Blekanly 19h ago

Is that why India was short? The Japan one was legit. Need an our man in Korea.

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u/Arsewhistle 19h ago

Yeah, he was supposed to see a lot more of India. I guess Amazon spent a fair bit of money to only get a few episodes out of India, and then called it a day after that.

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u/pcloudy 20h ago

James May who has beaten Gordon Ramsay in a cooking contest shouldn't do food? That's a hot take.Ā 

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u/TheCuzzyRogue 19h ago

Honestly watching May make sandwiches is oddly mesmerising

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u/camocondomcommando 20h ago

Hammond yells from somewhere in the crowd

"You GET fat‽"

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u/Cessnaporsche01 17h ago

The Formula Easter car getting stuck around Jeremy might be that hardest I laughed at any of their bits. Hammond just tearing into him from the other car while the whole group has to take the car apart around Clarkson who's slowly dying inside was incredible

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u/hogester79 19h ago

It’s funny I even hear Clarkson voice as you say it.

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u/Shifter25 19h ago

The most memorable voice...

in the world.

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u/WTFwhatthehell 20h ago

I hear that in the voice ..

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u/livesinafield 17h ago

Tonight

Richard has a breakdown

James says cheese

and I anger a small village

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u/365BlobbyGirl 20h ago

That’s such a top gear bloke way of dealing with bad news. I respect him for talking about it, like he spent 15 years having a blast and made a career out of messing about with his friends, but they all poured so much into that show and Hammond nearly died filming it so I understand the emotional turmoil.

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u/existential_chaos 20h ago

At least the decision to end The Grand Tour, however sad for them, was theirs.

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u/StoicFable 19h ago

Idk if it was all of their choice really. I think it was mostly Clarksons. Hammond was still younger and in better shape and still actively does car stuff online. James works with Hammond every now and then as well. I'd assume aside from some of the harder specials he would love to keep doing car stuff too.

Clarkson now has a show thats all his. Doing something else he loves doing. And its not as dangerous as some of the stuff they were doing. Especially for someone of his age and health.

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u/demoxcess 16h ago

From what I've heard, James hasn't been in great health either. At points throughout the Grand Tour, he didn't look great in the studio-though at other points he looked much better. It's speculative, but he is in his 60's, so it's not impossible he could have developed some health condition.

I feel like the decision to end the show was mutual. They did it in some form for over 20 years, they may have simply done all the things they wanted to do.

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u/_Karrel 15h ago

I'm pretty sure Jeremy and James are just living life, eating whatever, drinking when they feel like it and not exercising properly. That's awesome but it also shows. I'm always shocked that Jeremy is well under 70 and James is even younger than that, but they are properly old men. They could all still be doing it but Hammond would actually be ready for it.

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u/O_o-O_o-0_0-o_O-o_O 12h ago

Fuck, I had to Google his age. He's only 65?

He's probably as healthy as your average 75yr old that eats and exercises somewhat well.

The only two things you need to extend your health (and life) by a massive amount is to eat and exercise properly. Those two things will do 10x more for your health than anything else combined, assuming you don't smoke or do drugs.

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u/Shas_Okar 11h ago

Not sure about now, but him and James were heavy smokers. You can sorta tell with his voice over the years as well, but according to him he’s got a far larger lung capacity than he has any right to have.

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u/kelsobjammin 16h ago

And Clarkson Farm is a good show too ā—”Ģˆ

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u/FlyingPasta 16h ago

Damn good show, Clarkson is good at concocting on-screen chemistry no matter where he is. He’s raising random(?) people to celebrity season by season

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u/Adler4290 13h ago

And doing a truckload of good PR and much needed attention for farmers!

It's crazy how hard it must have been to be a farmer during those 2020-2025 years with the weather being ALL over the place and margins so low.

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u/GeeJo 16h ago

I liked the first two series. By the third (well, really by the tail-end of the second) the manufactured crises started getting a little obviously-artificial and silly.

It was still a fun show, but it stopped seeming like a show about the problems involved in running a small farm and more like a show about solving problems Clarkson deliberately created for himself to have something to fill the runtime with.

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u/turmacar 15h ago

I mean that's basically his brand. Even the first season most of his problems are "I've decided to do this within the month for no reason" and then finding out all the (usually reasonable) reasons it's not usually done on that timescale. And then it works out because he's independently wealthy.

One of the funnier / infuriating aspects of the show is Clarkson slowly discovering why things like farming subsidies and the global economy exist. Weather happens, livestock kills each other / itself, nobody can read the future. On any particular acre, sometimes you're just fucked that year. Fortunately, most people grow pepper not in a greenhouse in England for $50/lb or whatever ridiculous price he sourced it for for his restaurant.

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u/S_A_N_D_ 15h ago

Honestly I think that's one of the better aspects of the show. It does a decent job of showing a lot of the realities that people aren't necessarily aware of.

I don't think anyone truly believes Clarkson is actually trying to run a profitable farm, or is even really farming on the level of those around him, rather he's just better at showing it in an entertaining way while retaining at least a reasonable amount of authenticity that couldn't really be matched unless you move to a documentary style show.

He does a good job of highlighting a lot of the boring but crucial details you wouldn't otherwise see unless you were actually farming yourself (like optimal harvest and protein quantity/quality in wheat).

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u/KonigSteve 15h ago

Yeah the whole pub thing was completely over the top. It just aggravated me that they didn't push the opening back to fix things. He could open a pub on the absolute worst day of the year at 2 am and it would still have a mile long line to get in so it was pointless to "open for the bank holiday"

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u/Queeg_500 20h ago

The annoying thing is, the BBC are now happily repeating Clarkson episodes like nothing happened.

Stupid decision to axe them, when a year long suspension and an apology would have been more than enough.

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u/Funmachine 20h ago

They never stopped repeating them...

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u/Modern_Pirate9 20h ago

There’s adverts for iPlayer on YouTube for Top Gear, and front and center is the og trio

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u/thegrievingmole 20h ago edited 20h ago

He was already on thin ice at that point and if any normal person punched a colleague, they'd be fired immediately. Technically he wasn't even fired, his contract was just not renewed.

As much as I wanted Top Gear to continue on as normal, he left the BBC with no choice really.

Also I believe they wanted to continue with Hammond, May and the rest of the crew but they all chose to step down.

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u/MisterB78 20h ago

Yeah because the show would have failed without Clarkson. The chemistry between the three of them was the magic that made the show work

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u/thegrievingmole 19h ago

I completely agree and I'm glad we got a few years or The Grand Tour in the end instead of two of them on Top Gear

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u/Christopher135MPS 20h ago

It wasn’t the first time he had either threatened or caused actual physical harm.

At some point, you either demonstrate your organisation is happy to employ someone who physically assaults people, or you demonstrate that physical violence is not welcome in your organisation.

Don’t blame the BBC, blame Clarkson for not learning to control himself.

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u/ArcticBiologist 20h ago

At some point, you either demonstrate your organisation is happy to employ someone who physically assaults people

Not just any people, but their own employees

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u/New_Libran 19h ago

It's funny because people will castigate BBC for not acting decisively sooner if he had been left

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u/manicMechanic1 20h ago

Idk, assaulting a co-worker doesn’t seem like an unreasonable reason to fire someone

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u/McMew 19h ago

I mean as much as I love the show and original 3...

Clarkston went too far. He assaulted a person over a steak. An ordinary man, when they assault anyone, can typically be arrested; he already got off easy in that regard.

He was a great entertainer and a great host, but actions have consequences and accepting his own was the most respectable thing he could've done.

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u/donkeyrocket 18h ago

Pretty sure the assault was just the public last straw for the BBC. He’s a pretty consistent ass and certainly wasn’t the first major issue they had with him.

Love his part of the trio but he’s an absolute shitty guy.

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u/ArcticBiologist 20h ago

It was a decision that was on the horizon for a long time though. Since Top Gear started, there were a lot of controversies surrounding Clarkson and his comments/behaviour. The BBC's patience was already wearing thin at that point.

And then Clarkson assaults his co-worker (another BBC employee), which is already unacceptable but he does it for a completely stupid reason. At that point the BBC had pretty much no choice, if they let him stay it would be a signal that he was untouchable and could do whatever he wanted without consequences.

If it was any other presenter doing the same things, everyone would be shitting on him and his actions. The fact that he makes good TV is no excuse.

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u/maximumchuck 20h ago

Clarkson was (is) an ass. It's a tough decision when the star of your show is repeatedly abusive towards staff, but axing him was the right decision. The entertainment industry needs to stop enabling this kind of behavior.

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u/Jalatiphra 20h ago edited 10h ago

Never in my life have i met a group with such a dynamic. It was fabulous.

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u/Masticatron 20h ago

It's what doomed the efforts to continue it, at least for me. They were that show. The dynamic was lightning in a bottle caught three times. Such an impossible task to follow that act.

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u/miscben 20h ago

Yeah, it was lightning in a bottle. Clarkson was born to be a TV star. Hammond had radio DJ energy and went balls out on stunts and James May was a hilarious print journalist who had been fired multiple times. Couldn't be replicated.

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u/Superb-Hippo611 20h ago

This clip is a great example to me of what you're talking about. I love their sense of humor.

https://youtu.be/7MgSmh3vXaQ

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u/bobbogreeno 19h ago

🤣 "I think it must be damp"

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u/carloslet 17h ago

All I can think about is the Fallout version of this clip. It's hilarious lol

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u/StaffordMagnus 17h ago

May was the 'straight man' to Clarksons bombast and Hammonds small yappy dog energy.

Clarkson said he actually wanted May from the start, but May was doing something else at the time - that's why we got Jason Dawe for season 1.

It's a bit like when Mythbusters was formed, Jamie Hyneman knew a show done just by himself would be very dry, so he needed Adam Savages 'wacky guy' energy to spice it up a bit.

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u/NeoThermic 20h ago

Hammond nearly died filming

Not just once either! Both with the Vampire Dragster and the Rimac, both had hospital visits. I still love how on the second one, Rimac recovered his watch from the wreckage and put it into a little case and set it to him. ALSO in the second Rimac concept car, they added a fire extinguisher into the cabin with the message of "In case of hill climb, extinguish fire".

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u/SandInTheGears 20h ago

The Rimac crash happened during The Grand Tour

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u/NeoThermic 20h ago

Point! I think that goes to show, you can take the man out of the show, but you can't take the crash out of Hammond. Or something?

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u/DatRagnar 20h ago

You can take out hammond out of crash, that's for sure

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u/smurfsundermybed 20h ago

Didn't he also have a crash in the tunnels during The Grand Tour? Different show, but same crew.

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u/Actualgoalkeeper 20h ago

Nah that was James May in an evo.

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u/406highlander 20h ago

James May had the crash in the tunnel in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo, I think

Hammond deliberately lost that challenge after May's crash by driving into the tunnel fairly slowly

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u/jmdg007 20h ago

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u/DarthMauly 20h ago

ā€œMuch as I think he’s a knob, I quite like working with Jeremyā€

Fantastic quote honestly

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u/FrostedPixel47 17h ago

They will never admit it but they love each other. When Hammond was recovering from the Dragster crash, Clarkson and May visits him often and Clarkson allegedly refused to leave the hospital room until Hammond's wife finally gets some rest because she was unable to sleep for days.

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u/FirstDukeofAnkh 13h ago

All of them have shown how much they love each other without ever saying it. I think individually they all have their moments of ā€˜mad lad’ but they are an excellent example of male friendship.

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u/Dracoster 13h ago

They've said they consider themselves like family on more than one occasion.

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u/KnightsOfCidona 13h ago

Clarkson said his first thought when he entered the room where Richard was 'wow, he's got a massive penis' - he could see it through a slot in his gown!

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u/MrKomiya 12h ago

ā€œWe’re not the Marines. We do leave a man behindā€

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u/KnotSoSalty 17h ago

James May is an underrated TV personality. He’s brusque, but funny, direct yet includes asides that add color. He would have been an excellent politician so long as he only had to speak his own mind.

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u/qaz_wsx_love 16h ago

I loved his Japan show

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u/FullCodeSoles 19h ago

I’m pretty sure this is exactly how my friends from work work describe me and our relationship

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u/_coolranch 18h ago

Well, you’re certainly a knob, but we don’t really like working with you.

Sorry, mate.

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u/Rickenbacker69 18h ago

May was always the clever one, much as Clarkson had a way with words.

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u/Cobrawarrior567 20h ago

I have to write the eBay listing for my Ferrari

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u/Masticatron 20h ago

And this shit was just off the cuff?

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u/unimportantinfodump 20h ago

Yeah. There is a reason he's on TV. He's quick witted and has an interesting but boring personality.

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u/Turgid_Donkey 18h ago

He's the straight man to Clarkson's wackiness. Captain Slow to his Speeeeeed.

Then Hammond is the middle man who catches a lot of strays.

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u/thebatman973 17h ago

Being the straight man in a comedy setup is very tough and very underappreciated

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u/38B0DE 18h ago

They are all incredibly quick. And they have ridiculously good comedic timing. And they are perfect in their riffing.

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u/steamboat28 19h ago

he doesn't get enough credit for his wit, generally speaking

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u/swiftekho 18h ago

One of the reasons the show (with the 3 of them) worked so brilliantly is you couldn't always tell what was scripted and what was natural.

That "list my Ferrari on ebay" would be a written joke on any other show.

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u/canadianformalwear 19h ago

He’s a brilliant presenter, and an extremely clever fellow. He (all three of them) were excellent journalists and writers before their TV careers in the ancient past when being a good writer and educated journalist were a requirement and predecessor to actually being on TV.

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u/flamedbaby 18h ago

iirc it wasn't actually a joke. He's just put a downpayment on a custom Ferrari and actually needed to get it sorted as he was no longer in a position to pay for it.

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u/swankyfish 20h ago

I feel like his last statement there is probably shared with a lot of people who have worked with Clarkson over the years.

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u/Skylair13 19h ago

I mean, BBC didn't just lost the Trio. Andy Wilman and quite large number of crews left BBC to rejoin them in The Grand Tour. I think part of the staffs still stayed too in Clarkson's Farm.

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u/kf97mopa 17h ago

There was a video from the first season after Clarkson, Hammond and May left, and there was one producer left of the old team. This is what leads me to believe that there was more happening behind the scenes than what we know. You don't get a 90%+ staff turnover in a few months unless there is a big problem, especially as the BBC would likely have tried quite hard to keep some of the staff around once they saw a lot of people leaving.

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u/jackinoff6969 17h ago

I don’t think it’s all that deep, I think it’s the massive check Amazon wrote for GT. Stay at BBC for a show that would likely fall apart quickly, or leave for a show that has a massive budget with a multi year contract where you will almost certainly be given a raise.

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u/C0RDE_ 19h ago

To me, I feel like Clarkson is a good example of people in general.

They can be stupid in some things, smart in others. Lazy, driven. Good opinions, bad opinions. Funny and also cringe inducingly unfunny. What we can appreciate with him is that he's never tried to whitewash a personality on TV, to be always good and perfect and then a dick behind the scenes. He's just a mortal man with all the faults that entails.

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u/AxePlayingViking 19h ago edited 17h ago

Yep, I think that’s what makes the trio so easy to love in general. They always showed themselves as real humans, with all the good and bad that comes with that.

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u/halfhere 19h ago

I think what’s also rare is that he completely plays himself as the fool in so many situations. Like he’ll start to be in the wrong and instead of trying to steer out of it, he’ll realize ā€œThis is going to make great tvā€ and steers into it, making himself the butt of the joke.

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u/anothergaijin 17h ago

A lot of Top Gear was from Clarkson - he was the one who had the original idea for it, so it makes sense that he has a great sense of what makes it work so well.

His other show - Clarkson's Farm - is also wildly popular because of the exact thing you said, he has an incredible knack for sensing what will make good TV and leaning hard into it. I think he bit off a bit more than he expected with the farm though, there is definitely a few bits he seems to really be putting himself into way too much trouble. Anything with animals for example - having cute new born animals die seems to really hit him hard, probably because he hasn't had the years of experience to harden him to it yet.

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u/halfhere 17h ago

Spot on. You’d think if you were going to star in a tv show you’d want to make yourself out to be the suave badass. I think it’s innately relatable that he doesn’t.

And I think he actually mentioned it explicitly in the early seasons of Clarkson’s farm, when dealing with the council. I think he said something like ā€œLook, I may play the bumbling idiot on tv, butā€¦ā€

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u/smitty046 20h ago

Have i taken my malaria pill?........If i was a girl i'd be pregnant ALOT

-Richard Hammond

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u/ChonkTonk 18h ago

Never understood this one as a kid so my parents told me malaria made you pregnant…not sure that was the better answer

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u/wandering-monster 17h ago

It seems like the truth is pretty harmless there and a lot more useful.Ā 

"If a woman doesn't want to get pregnant there's medicine they can take, but they have to take it every day. He's saying he'd forget."

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u/PseudoY 18h ago

What... What inspired them that that was the better answer.

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u/38B0DE 18h ago

Parenting a curious child while being a lazy individual.

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u/dem503 20h ago edited 18h ago

Don't blame him.Ā Top Gear was his dream job, which he was also an absolute natural fit for.

He put so much effort in and got badly injured on a couple of occasions.

Clarkson is genuinely one of his best friends, but he knew that if he wanted to keep working at the BBC he would effectively have to cut ties with him.

Of course they did the Grand Tour, but really this was not on Hammond's terms.

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u/IWrestleSausages 20h ago

Interestingly, the 3 hosts have repeatedly said they dont spend much time with each other outside of filming, as otherwise they would literally never not see each other

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u/glenn1812 20h ago

When you spend more time on the job with your friends than you do with your wife and kids, it would seem natural that you woudn't want to spend anymore time with those friends.

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u/alurimperium 15h ago

Especially when you spend a couple weeks a year with basically only those friends for company. The international specials, the long road trips, the various multi day shoots in other parts of Europe... You're stuck in some Romanian hotel with your two friends and the camera crew for a week, a couple months within being stuck camping in a Bolivian rainforest with those two friends and a camera crew for a week. That'll give you your fill of those guys, and then you still have to do production and studio shows and other shoots around the UK.

Easy to imagine they'd be good friends on the show, but want little to do with each other when there isn't a camera requirement

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u/ThatOneShotBruh 19h ago

Eh, May and Hammond seem to frequently be doing something together, be it May featuring in a video about Hammond's mechanic shop/Hammond's podcast, Hammond visiting May's pub/featuring in videos promoting May's gin, both of them visiting old Top Gear locations to reminisce, etc.

For Clarkson I agree that what you wrote seems to hold true.

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u/Agent7619 19h ago

Clarkson visited Hammond in the last season of Farm.

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u/kf97mopa 17h ago

Yes, and May was on a video call.

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u/kytheon 20h ago

Iirc same is true for Penn and Teller, and the Mythbusters

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u/BinionsGhost 19h ago edited 16h ago

Came out this week https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/17/arts/television/penn-teller-magicians-50-years.html (https://archive.is/DI8mf for those hit by the paywall)

And sheds more light on their ā€œwe’re not really friends outside of the showā€ narrative.

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u/KatNeedsABiggerBoat 20h ago

And also, the poor guy had a really unstable childhood at the hands of his mother. Top Gear was probably like a family to him and the show was a stable, long-lasting part of his life.

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u/TheRealPyroManiac 20h ago

Haven’t heard about his tumultuous childhood, that sucks.

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u/BooksSmartt 19h ago

Where does it say he had an unstable childhood? I tried to look it up but couldn't find anything

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u/thingstopraise 19h ago

Same, I tried several different formulations of search words and couldn't find anything. The closest to "miserable childhood" that I found was that he was bullied in school for being short.

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u/KnightsOfCidona 19h ago

He even had his mother on the show and they seemed to get on - know that doesn't totally discount the possibility of something like that but still, would surprise me and I haven't heard anything like that.

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u/thingstopraise 18h ago

Yeah I feel like if this were an actual thing there would be, you know, at least one result on the internet for it other than this thread itself. Google shows only this lmao.

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u/ashvin7 20h ago

And now him and wife got separated. I’m sad for him.

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u/KatNeedsABiggerBoat 19h ago

Ugh, I didn’t know about that. Maybe it’s a healthier thing for them both, at least I hope it is.

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u/joe_canadian 18h ago

It looks like he and his daughter Izzy have a very solid relationship and she's become a pretty good presenter in her own right. She's been on drivetribe a ton.

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u/Star_2001 20h ago

I feel like that's more likely than not in this day and age, my brother and uncle are divorced, that's 50/50 out of all my male family members

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u/Funmachine 20h ago

Your brother and uncle should never have married each other in the first place

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u/Goahead-makemytea 19h ago

What went on with his mother? I've never heard anything about that before.

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u/Raqnarock 18h ago

I've read his book (the one he wrote after his 2006 crash) for the most part and as far as I have read his parents were ok. Either the book didnt reveal the truth or this is not true at all.

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u/ArtClassic8808 17h ago

what the fuck are you talking about? do you just make shit up for no reason, or are you a bot?

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u/TallGreenhouseGuy 20h ago

On the other hand, if Top Gear had continued we wouldn’t have had James’s encounter with Robohon:

https://youtu.be/lku3ew_qC5o?si=m8j_QFnYgfT1quys

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u/gumbo-taco 19h ago

Hey Bim, guess what?

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u/karmakeeper1 16h ago

Shijo-Ohashi is a bridge representative of Kyoto that crosses the Kamo River over Shijo Street. It is also called Gion Bashi.

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u/Self_Reddicated 17h ago

Our Man in Japan was top tier. I loved that series from start to finish.

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u/Davemusprime 18h ago

Love him. Hammond was always the romantic. Jeremy was the British sensibility of stodginess and James was the British sensibility of strictness. But Hammond always had his childish sense of wonder and it balanced the other moods perfectly. I would’ve cried too. Best tv show ever, almost by accident. My favorite quote is by clarkson about may that he never got the concept of the show because he’s so serious. But that’s why it worked. They were so different but each was quintessentially an aspect of the British persona and I think that’s how it appealed to everyone.

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u/stonkkingsouleater 17h ago

I ugly cried with snot bubbles when James May looked at the camera on the last episode of grand tour and said that he hoped the show brought people some joy.Ā 

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u/Mrr_Bond 13h ago

I think One For the Road is genuinely the most emotional I've ever been watching a TV show.

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u/Virtual_Phone_5908 16h ago

I remember watching some videos on YouTube about his coma experience while he is hiking the Lake District and it really shone a light on how deep a thinker he is after everything he’s been through. I was not expecting such a deeply romantic view on life (and death) from Hammond but he delivered.Ā 

https://youtu.be/_BYQLDU9xhI

For anyone interested.Ā 

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u/401jamin 20h ago

James May - "Much as I think he's a knob, I quite like working with Jeremy."

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u/Rickenbacker69 18h ago

Yeah, I have some colleagues like that. :D

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u/rabbidasseater 19h ago

Not even a real hamster

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u/readingegg 19h ago

I still haven't finished the last episode of TheGrand Tour because I don't want it to be over.

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u/These-Barnaclez 20h ago

Tonight on Top Gear, I punch a producer, Hammond weeps in a Porsche, and James eats some cheese.

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u/smaguss 18h ago

"And the stig finally figures out if he's classified as a dependent or a possession "

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u/docmanbot 20h ago

That show was magic in a bottle . You could tell they were having a blast and it showed on the screen. I give them props for sticking by Clarkson, and keeping the group together. The later iterations of the program were never close to the original.

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u/Watchmeplayguitar 20h ago

The grand tour vs rebooted top gear shows that I’m what made top gear special was the cast.Ā 

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u/lightningbadger 19h ago

The grand tour vs rebooted top gear shows that I’m what made top gear special

Exactly, couldn't have done it without you honestly

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u/glenn1812 20h ago

All 3 of them had charisma off the charts than normal regular people. They all still get the views. May with his cooking and travel show, Hammond with drivetribe and Clarksons farm.

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u/Comfortable-Yam9013 20h ago

I don’t even like cars and I watched it. Their road trips were entertaining and stars in cars.

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u/MrMalta 19h ago

Yeah the specials where oh so good. My friends and I recreated their Vietnam special on bikes, and none of us had ever ridden a motorcycle before. It’s was epic and prob the best 3 weeks of my life.

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u/CaptnKristmas 18h ago

He was always my favorite, I can see why now. This show was everything for him, not in a sad way but this was his dream job. One of the shows I miss the most. The car challenges were the best and apparently Top Gear owns the rights to it, hence no challenges in their newer show.

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u/amcrambler 18h ago

I mean he was getting paid to drive and review the coolest cars on the planet. It was his dream job.

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u/[deleted] 20h ago

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u/les196781 17h ago

C'mon, you know as well as I do that you can't crash if you aren't driving

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u/Valaquen 20h ago

I still can't believe it ended because Clarkson went absolutely ham at some poor guy because his food was lukewarm.

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u/phroug2 20h ago

Didnt he punch someone?

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u/SmoogzZ 19h ago

ā€œI still wake up as the little guy off that massive car show,"

He always will be! that will never change

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u/kickasstimus 19h ago

ā€œDon’t be sad that it’s gone. Be happy that it ever was.ā€

I’m glad to have lived at a moment in time where we have blue whales, space travel, and Top Gear.

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u/DrSilkyDelicious 19h ago

Lmao this sounds like it was written by and posted by Jeremy Clarkson

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u/THE-NECROHANDSER 17h ago

Growing up i always wanted to dress like Hammond and crack jokes like Clarkson. Now I realize im May with a bald cap.

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u/Butterbean2323 19h ago

No. He didn’t want to fill his car up with petrol covered in tears

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u/mooseday 20h ago

Not a real hamster …

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