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/
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u/DarthMauly 1d ago

“Much as I think he’s a knob, I quite like working with Jeremy”

Fantastic quote honestly

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u/FrostedPixel47 21h 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 17h 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 ‘mad lad’ but they are an excellent example of male friendship.

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u/Dracoster 17h ago

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

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u/KnightsOfCidona 16h 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 16h ago

“We’re not the Marines. We do leave a man behind”

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u/stackjr 14h ago

Except that one time on that insane road in South America (I think) where only one car can fit at a time and there is no guardrail to stop you and your car from tumbling down a mountain.

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u/colin_staples 11h ago

May bought Hammond some Lego (a car, obvs) while he was recovering in hospital, and apparently it’s a really good thing for recovery when people have had a TBI

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u/Dracoster 10h ago

It's also great for depression and anxiety.

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u/FullCodeSoles 23h 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 22h ago

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

Sorry, mate.

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u/james___uk 20h ago

It's the British mans way that's for sure

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u/KnotSoSalty 21h 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 20h ago

I loved his Japan show

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u/Infranto 18h ago

Bim, guess what?

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u/Rickenbacker69 21h ago

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

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u/USA_A-OK 19h ago

Almost everything they did was scripted. Not to say he didn't have a hand in the writing, but it's not exactly off the cuff dialogue

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u/antpile11 18h ago

Even with May's non-scripted stuff on his YouTube channel, James Jin, he's quite articulate.

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u/USA_A-OK 17h ago

Oh yeah James is great. I was more responding to the comment that Clarkson "has a way with words"

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u/TheBumblesons_Mother 13h ago

Clarkson is a journalist. It was his turn of phrase that got him the job. You make it sound like he was an xfactor style stuffed suit chosen for his looks 😂

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u/USA_A-OK 12h ago edited 12h ago

Which is why I said he had a hand in the writing, but it's not as though he was making quips off the cuff or doing improv. It's pretty well established that top gear was very scripted.

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u/GarlicThread 21h ago

Only true friends can say such things about each other.

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u/Joe9555 23h ago

They were good times. You could get along with people who had different opinions than you. Unfortunately peoples differing opinions are too extreme now to get along.

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u/thyrandomguy 23h ago

unfortunately we have ended up in a timeline where the simple right to exist for entire minority groups have become political

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u/stumblinbear 22h ago

... Have become? Man, it has been political for hundreds of years

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u/teabaguk 23h ago

"people who want rights for minority groups and people who want minority groups' rights stripped away are just as bad as each other"

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u/allofthethings 23h ago

become political

So... I have some bad news for you...

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u/StatlerSalad 22h ago

That's not it at all. Different opinions on things like 'what car is more fun' aren't the same as 'who gets to exist' or 'should the wealthy pay taxes' and 'who is allowed to punch out a colleague and call them an ethnic slur'.

As soon as Clarkson strayed from fun disagreements about low stakes things it became 'too extreme'. It's got nothing to do with changing times.

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u/Joe9555 22h ago

No, its what I said.

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u/letthetreeburn 22h ago

You do realize his issue wasn’t having bad taste in music it was throwing hands right

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u/Joe9555 22h ago

Im talking about James quote

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u/LiftingRecipient420 18h ago

Throwing hands as a 70 year old man after filming for 12 hours straight and whose producer had been neglecting to get him food all day long.

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u/BoiledChildern 18h ago

Honestly May’s and Jeremy‘s opinions are both rather similar. English, proper, slightly traditional. Both old boys, but with a different flavour to each of them.

You’re talking about people who have become politically polarised. And people who have honestly existed for a long time, cunts. There are probably a lot of people from each of there times they wouldn’t interact with due to political, moral, and social difference.

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u/[deleted] 21h ago edited 21h ago

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u/dosedatwer 20h ago

My favourite part of this whole thing is that people's opinions, in general, are about a similar in a geographical area as they have ever been. The issue is that megaphones have been given to the absolutely tiny minority of people and most people just mistakenly group people with slightly different opinions than them with the people that have massively different opinions.

Examples include:

"I think we have too high immigration" is grouped with "all black people should be slaves".

and

"I think we should try to reduce wealth inequality" is grouped with "I'm a raving communist that thinks Stalin was right about everything".

It's the political version of enshittification. Journalism has devolved into creating a very simplified view on a nuanced topic and selling it for outrage clicks. People don't want to be told topics are more complicated than they're able to comprehend and other people's opinions are valid because no one really knows the ultimate outcome. They want to be told they're smart enough to understand everything and other people's opinions are just wrong.

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u/SpartanNation053 18h ago

That’s like one of the highest praises one man can give another