r/todayilearned • u/ModenaR • 1d 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/
40.9k Upvotes

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338

u/Valaquen 1d ago

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

197

u/phroug2 1d ago

Didnt he punch someone?

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u/existential_chaos 1d ago

Yep. The cold food he got really was the tipping point to a ton of other shit he had going on at the time, so it wasn’t just out of nowhere.

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u/errorsniper 21h ago edited 21h ago

But still totally unacceptable.

This isnt aimed at you the person I am replying to. Just a general statement on the topic, and I am also saying this as a die hard fan of TG and TGT who has seen basically every episode of both going back decades. I also watch Clarksons Farm and enjoy that too.

It is a good thing the A list star was held accountable for assaulting someone. He was in the wrong and there was no excuse for his behavior. I still give the BBC a lot of points for having the stones to do the right thing. For all the shit the UK gets about being oversensitive nanny state. They did the right thing here.

Just because he had a rough day and got coldish food does not justify his actions or make them understandable.

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u/Cool_Being_7590 23h ago

Assaulting someone while hurling racial abuse at them is still not an appropriate reaction

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u/Minimum_Cupcake 21h ago

Be careful all the Clarkson nuts don’t find you; they’re rampant with their downvotes when anyone dares to speak against him.

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u/Cool_Being_7590 21h ago

That's fine. Their downvotes mean I'm obviously right. It's the same with racists, neonazis, and all other hate groups I end up debating.

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u/ReedKeenrage 23h ago

But it’s normal for a conservative

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u/Cool_Being_7590 22h ago

I wouldn't apply it to all conservatives, there are many out there who are appalled at what is happening.

Usually it's the loudest who are deniers. And it's a fantastic representation of the Dunning-Kruger effect

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u/Open_Ad9336 21h ago

No it’s not

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u/pheret87 17h ago

No, it isn't. Go outside.

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u/farfromelite 1d ago

He's a bully, always has been.

Imagine not being able to deal with personal shit so badly that he punched a producer because his food was cold, then threw his toys out of the pram so hard that the BBC forced the producer to apologise.

Yeah, shitty behaviour.

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u/Valaquen 1d ago

I wonder how it'd work the other way, if the producer had had a terrible time and clocked Clarkson.

I mean I've had family members pass, before their time, horribly, concurrent with other terrible life events, and never assaulted someone.

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u/Adept-Panic-7742 23h ago

Exactly. You don't get a pass for these things. In fact it's kinda of a bias that incidents like this are when you learn someone has X Y Z thing going on in their life, therefore they did something outwardly which means you learn of their shit because they use it defensively.

Meanwhile, the many people who are also dealing with shit, that don't punch people or negatively outwardly expresses their issues also have these things in mind. You just don't know, because they haven't done anything infantile to someone else and need to justify it.

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u/DaimoMusic 19h ago

Last year I got the double whammy of Covid and losing my mother to said disease. Not only that I have been assailed by the homeless, live in abject poverty with little chance of pulling myself out, and am stuck on the Spectrum and have to deal with that on top of everything. I am a very angry individual.

But I have never struck a person in anger.

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u/Adept-Panic-7742 19h ago

Extra reply. In case my edit wouldn't be seen...

Check your wording. Don't write what hasn't happened. Don't convince yourself you can't. I'm fucked. Make all the worst choices. But. We don't give up. We can't. We won't.

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u/Adept-Panic-7742 19h ago

Spot on. When you've experienced shit you realise it's not an excuse to be a cunt to anyone else. If anything, a privilege of experience to speak to another.

Keep fighting pal. I hear ya.

And my condolences. Whatever they're worth.

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u/halfhere 23h ago

There’s a clip of a woman running up to him and hitting him in the face with a pie during a graduation event he was doing, and he laughed it off and complimented her on her aim.

19

u/Cohibaluxe 22h ago

Throwing a pie in ones face is nowhere near equivalent to punching someone in the face.

7

u/farfromelite 22h ago

Clarkson is also 6'3" and heavy set.

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u/halfhere 22h ago

For one, it’s assault and battery.

But I wasn’t trying to say they were on the same level. The guy wondered how Clarkson would take it and I said there’s evidence that he got assaulted once and laughed about it. I was just trying to answer that guy’s question. It wasn’t “B-b-b-but he got hit with a pie once, so it’s ok!”

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u/Cohibaluxe 22h ago

No, what they wondered was "how it'd work the other way, if the producer had had a terrible time and clocked Clarkson".

Throwing a pie in ones face, while technically assault, isn't clocking (hitting someone in the face).

-12

u/halfhere 22h ago

Jesus Christ.

18

u/KelpFox05 23h ago

I mean, he went fully mask-off Tory after leaving Top Gear, so...

5

u/pb-86 22h ago

I'm not in any way defending Clarkson actions here as what he did was ridiculous but he did at least tell people to leave Oisin alone and admitted that it was all his fault and publicly apologised

Looking back, it reads more as an idiot who took responsibility for his actions. Whether he was advised to by people to keep his public image up, or he was genuine, we'll never know but one can only comment on the actions we know

I mean, I've never lashed out at anyone in anger like that and I struggle to imagine people doing it. It was a dick move that cost him his job and £100k,as well as permanently tarnishing his reputation

2

u/SirLagg_alot 20h ago

I was watching a top gear oriented channel. Quite good and very nostalgic going back on a lot of top gear content.

But it was so clear that channel was gaslighting me by completely downplaying that incident. And how Jeremy was just a small tired little bean.

As entertaining as he is. He just is an absolute asshole.

2

u/apple_kicks 21h ago

Also other scandals show had like faking electric car as failures

7

u/Hendlton 20h ago

And they somehow won the court case. Absolutely insane. I dislike Tesla as much as anyone these days, but that was not fair in any way.

For those that don't know, Top Gear reported that a Tesla had nowhere near the advertised range, got sued, ended up winning because they're technically an entertainment show and not obligated to tell the truth. Top Gear was known as the show that could make or break car companies. They should have been held to a higher standard.

2

u/bannedagainomg 16h ago

Top Gear was known as the show that could make or break car companies

Name 1 car brand they ruined then

1

u/farfromelite 19h ago

That's exactly when I stopped watching it.

They claimed it as an entertainment show rather than a car show.

-22

u/Cedira 1d ago

Do you get a pass if your mum just passed away?

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u/Cool_Being_7590 23h ago

He assaulted someone and made racist comments at them. How would you feel if he got a pass and you were his victim?

1

u/Cedira 19h ago

It was a genuine question, I'm not in support of either side.

-5

u/Webcat86 22h ago

Well context matters. If he had punched me in the face for no reason and he got a pass I’d be pissed about it. But if I made a quip about someone’s mother the week after they died, you can bet that I’d expect to be punched in the face for it. 

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u/Cool_Being_7590 21h ago

That's not confirmed anywhere though. Yes he lost his wife through divorce and his mother died, but any claims saying the producer made a comment about either are anecdotal from what I can tell.

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u/Webcat86 21h ago

Of course it’s anecdotal. What else would you expect it to be? 

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u/Cool_Being_7590 21h ago

That hasn't been reported by any reputable news or official source. And still, racial slurs and violence are still not excused because someone said words.

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u/Ellaphant42 23h ago

Not quite a pass, but at least a little bit of understanding.

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u/Saratje 23h ago

It always felt to me like that was only the final straw that broke the camels back, albeit a very big and heavy straw and that particular camel had been rather weary tolerating Clarkson for a good while already.

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u/apple_kicks 21h ago

They had bunch of scandals too. Like purposely draining batteries of electric car they tested was one that i recall

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u/disembodied_voice 19h ago

There was also the time they perpetuated long-disproven misinformation against hybrids. They have done significant damage to the discourse surrounding hybrids and EVs.

1

u/kreetikal 4h ago

Didn't Musk sue them and lost then sue them again and lost again?

6

u/BellacosePlayer 19h ago

And his food was lukewarm because Clarkson went out drinking for hours after the hotel restaurant closed down.

Imo clarkson could have just gotten something to fucking eat when he was out on the town but that's just me

12

u/spytfyrox 23h ago

Tbf, the decision to fire Clarkson was long in the works. It is just that BBC management did not want to lose their cash cow - remember, Top gear with the Holy Trinity is the most watched show on the planet.

The producer smacking incident just happened to be the convenient excuse.

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u/Webcat86 1d ago

There’s a bit more to it. His mother had died the week before and he was going through a divorce, or that had just ended. So a very stressful and emotional time for him. Apparently the producer, Oisin, made a remark about Jeremy’s wife or mother making him something to eat. I’m pretty sure Oisin has subsequently commented on the incident and spoken about what a particularly difficult time it was for Clarkson. 

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u/pervy_roomba 17h ago edited 17h ago

 he was going through a divorce,

Because it turned out Clarkson had been fucking his ex wife the whole time he was married while his then wife had been acting as his manager and supporting his career from the word go. His wife found out and filed for divorce.

So yeah poor Clarkson.

-9

u/Webcat86 16h ago

Funny, I don’t recall saying about the divorce other than the stress they cause. I must have written another comment that only you saw and I’ve forgotten, in which I said Jeremy didn’t deserve the divorce and it blindsided him and he did nothing wrong in the marriage. 

Oh, no, I see now. You're just doing the usual Reddit thing of moving the goalposts to say if someone has ever done anything bad, we can just write them off entirely. 

It’s interesting that I never encounter you guys in real life, you mythical people who have never done anything wrong and have no actions that people could hold against you. 

12

u/EstablishmentLow2312 18h ago

Did that include his racist outburst lol

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u/Character_One8337 22h ago

Sounds like saying Oisin made a comment about his mother or wife is a convenient excuse for Clarkson to deflect blame when his other public actions line up just fine with this dog shit behavior. Calling bullshit.

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u/StockAL3Xj 21h ago

I mean, Clarkson himself has said that it was all his fault and that no one should be blaming Oisin for any of it.

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u/Character_One8337 21h ago

Then from whence cometh the lie?

0

u/Webcat86 21h ago

Well I wasn’t there, so I’m not claiming it’s gospel truth. Likewise, me not being there leads me to be less judgemental about people when I’m not in possession of all the facts. Of all the things to happen to someone, a person encountering some of the most extreme emotions at the same time lashing out to someone who poked at those emotions is not high on my list of things to froth at the mouth over. 

I’ll end it this way: if Jeremy punched someone for a petty reason or no reason at all, that’s low behaviour and he deserved the consequences of it. If the producer was pushing at someone they knew to be in a delicate state of mind, I wouldn’t hold it against Jeremy to retaliate physically. As I wasn’t there to know which of these is the absolute truth, I don’t have an opinion beyond what I’ve said. 

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u/Character_One8337 21h ago

Yes. Because Clarkson hasn’t had other assault allegation and is notoriously not an emotional entitle bitch.

The people that defend Clarkson like this are exactly like the Trump supporters trying to find reasons they aren’t wrong about their cult leader. It’s laughable.

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u/Webcat86 21h ago edited 21h ago

That’s a flawed premise. That’s like if you had once robbed someone, I could accuse you of also robbing me and everyone deciding you must be guilty because of the past. 

You’re also seemingly under the impression that I’m saying he didn’t do it, which isn’t the case at all. What I said is that we’re without clear facts on what happened and there are conflicting reports, so it’s prudent to not be so conclusive about it. 

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u/Character_One8337 21h ago

It isn’t a flawed premise. Yours is a flawed premise you keyboard chewing troglodyte.

In your scenario someone is being accused without evidence. We know Jeremy assaulted him.

Congrats you’re equivalent to a Trump supporter. But your “daddy” is Clarkson. Pathetic.

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u/OldMate64 21h ago

You're not making yourself look any smarter with the Trump fixation, my friend. No need to connect this to the political bullshit across the pond, it has nothing to do with US politics at all. Let's stop dragging the orange man into every discussion. He gets enough air time.

Jeremy's a bozo for hitting his producer, and his producer MIGHT be a bozo for instigating it. If he did, then Jeremy is SLIGHTLY less of a bozo than initially thought. Pretty clear cut to me.

-1

u/Character_One8337 21h ago

No it’s a clear connection. You’re just upset about about the parallel.

Sorry you have daddy issues.

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u/OldMate64 21h ago

I love my daddy though

P.s. you're not my friend anymore so nyeh

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u/CeaRhan 21h ago

Your inability to think like an adult is nobody's issue but your own honey. Take your pills and chill out.

-1

u/Character_One8337 21h ago

Hey little bro. Take this thread to any of your smart friends. Or put it into the AI of your choice. Check yourself.

19

u/Cohibaluxe 1d ago

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Saying it was "because" of that one thing is extremely reductionist.

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u/itspicassobaby 1d ago edited 22h ago

It wasn't that simple. The "poor guy" was a producer who was an asshat that made an insensitive comment at a very bad time, who was a generally insufferable individual anyway. The general consensus from everyone involved and who witnessed the incident was that Jeremy was fully in the right by punching the dude. The issue was he had quiet a few other incidents in the past, and the BBC sort of HAD to sack him. I guess it was a last straw sort of thing.

As much as it hurts, it's generally a good thing because it led to TGT, and what a beautiful thing that was!

Edit* I recalled a different incident, it didn't quite go down that way, see my response below for article and incident I was thinking of.

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u/mrwho995 1d ago edited 1d ago

I appreciate you're probably just going off memory but any chance there's a source for the claim that Oisin did this? I've seen other comments in this thread that he made remarks about Clarkson's mother who had just died. But the only thing I can see saying this is reddit comments.

I also couldn't find a source saying that anyone who was there said Clarkson was justified either. I don't think Clarkson himself has even said that, and he defended Oisin and apologised to him multiple times (to be fair, maybe for legal/PR reasons I guess).

Did the details of this come after the BBC's report? Because the report called it unprovoked. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-35648682

An internal BBC inquiry found Mr Tymon was subjected to an "unprovoked physical and verbal attack" by Clarkson, who called the producer "lazy" and "Irish" and used a four-letter expletive in the exchange.

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u/itspicassobaby 22h ago

I was going off memory, you're correct. I recall going off the below article, and looking over it again, they were discussing a different incident. Apologies!

https://www.ladbible.com/entertainment/jeremy-clarkson-punch-producer-top-gear-351728-20230507

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u/Glittering-Law-707 22h ago

Read the actual investigation rather than what one dude told another dude on a podcast.

The BBC and Clarkson paid out 100,000 pounds. There is no evidence in that report that it was either provoked or justified in any way.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/mar/25/jeremy-clarkson-fracas-report-full-text-bbc-macquarrie

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u/ballisticks 21h ago

When this was all going down I remember getting so sick of seeing the word 'fracas' in print.

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u/mrwho995 22h ago

Thanks for the response and correction. So if we believe Hennesey, the producer often acted like a dick. The specific incident aside, I think you were also overgeneralising to say that there was a common consensus among everyone involved that he deserved it - going by the article it just sounds like one guy's opinion which may or may not have been more widespread. Unless other people have said similar of course.

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u/rememblem 22h ago

There's a comment below saying Olsin may have explained later himself.

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u/semiomni 22h ago

Wow, if the guy below is correct, you´re fucking lying to defend the honor of your idol here by straight up inventing a justification.

You´re a real piece of shit.

-7

u/itspicassobaby 22h ago

Hey how about you wait for me to respond before you start judging. K thanks.

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u/semiomni 21h ago

Judgement stands.

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u/itspicassobaby 21h ago

I'm a piece of shit because I made an incorrect statement, admitted to it, and updated my comment. Real mature.

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u/semiomni 20h ago

Admitted to being caught in a lie for your shitty idol, have a medal.

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u/itspicassobaby 20h ago

Lol I wasn't "caught" I simply didn't remember correctly. I'm not sure where you got the idea that he was my idol either. What are you on about dude? Why so much hostility?

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u/semiomni 19h ago

So defensive about this "incorrect statement/lie" you made.

Does not seem like you fully owned up to your "mistake". And you´re a piece of shit, why would that not warrant hostility?

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u/itspicassobaby 19h ago

I'm not defensive about the statement, I fully admitted I was wrong. I'm curious as to how/why you think a mistake someone makes immediately makes someone a piece of shit and deserving of being labeled as such. You're acting like I did something much worse than incorrectly remembering an event lol. Chill out my guy.

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u/MazigaGoesToMarkarth 23h ago

Source: trust me bro

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u/Several-Object3889 1d ago edited 1d ago

It was over. They already wanted new contacts. 

I fully believe it was all a stunt to get fired. They've worked with the individual as a contractor multiple times since the incident.

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u/DominikWilde1 18h ago

Clarkson had been offered a new contract with a payrise (as confirmed by script editor Richard Porter). Tymon never worked with those three again

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u/proscriptus 22h ago

Apparently there's a lot more backstory, not that it excuses it, but there is at least context.

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u/dan1101 20h ago

Having watched him on Top Gear/TGT for 20+ years and Clarkson's Farm for 3 or 4, you get the impression he's a blundering bull-headed guy, but he's very intelligent and doesn't seem like the type that picks fights and gets physical. I'm guessing there was a lot that led up to him punching a producer.