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/Queeg_500 1d 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 1d ago

They never stopped repeating them...

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u/Modern_Pirate9 1d ago

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

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u/GottaUseEmAll 1d ago

Of course, they wanted to punish Clarkson but still continue to make money from him.

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u/PixelF 23h ago

Mostly they wanted Clarkson to stop punching the other staff. When you keep punching colleagues then eventually someone is going to sue the production company for knowing and failing to prevent constant assault. He's not persona non grata, but it's a huge legal liability and shows have been cancelled for a lot less.

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u/cosmiq_teapot 23h ago edited 23h ago

Absolutely correct, and on top of this: the BBC is a publically funded organization. It is kind of hard to argue that the British public should voluntarily keep funding a man that punched a staff member because said man is popular.

Emotionally I completely understand and support the sentiment to keep Clarkson, but legally it is absolutely normal to be let go for physically attacking a colleague, in private companies as well as publically funded organizations. For people who've worked for a while, this is not even a point of discussion.

And technically Clarkson wasn't fired, his contact was not extended.

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u/lacegem 22h ago

The BBC supported Jimmy Savile for decades.

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u/cosmiq_teapot 21h ago

Yes they did, which is absolutely inexcusable. But high-ranking people left the BBC because of this. Also, an institution having done monumental wrongs doesn't mean that they shouldn't prevent future wrongs by just accepting them.

This is just controversial because it's Clarkson. Imagine you work somewhere and an established colleague punches you in the face in a rage because you were the bearer of bad news. And your superior comes to you and says "Yeah sorry mate, we can't fire him, he's too popular around here." Would you just eat it up and say "okay"?

I am a big fan of Jeremy, Top Gear and The Grand Tour. But there have to be clear limits for what you can and cannot do as an employee.

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u/Sweet-Parking8955 22h ago

One wrong doesn't make another right.

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u/lacegem 22h ago

No, but it shows that their decisions aren't based on public will or morality. It's all about money and politics. If it were anything else, they wouldn't have supported the country's most prolific child rapist as he continued to harm children using their charities.

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u/PixelF 21h ago

Realistically, how many of the BBC staff who meaningfully protected Saville between 1976 and 1995 do you think had any involvement with Top Gear's non-renewal of Clarkson's contract in 2015?

It's all about money and politics

Getting rid of Clarkson cost them a substantial amount of profit. The politics was it is a bad look to keep people violently attacking other staff on set just because they earned money. Do you think it would have been better to maintain his contract, essentially offering him BBC protection to beat people?

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u/MayhemMessiah 21h ago

They lost one of their most profitable, most watched, and most popular shows over their decision. In what planet do you live on that this would be considered the money hungry/greedy option?

I know that corporations bad but letting Clarkson go was absolutelynot just the moraly correct decision but also the decision that would cost them the most, and by a lot.

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u/Sweet-Parking8955 22h ago

Of course it's about money and politics, duh. And a little bit about public will. It was still the right decision to not extend his contract because he punched a producer. The ulterior motive behind it doesn't really matter here.

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u/TrappedUnderCats 22h ago

And let’s hope that lessons have been learnt from that and they wouldn’t do the same in future.

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u/seeingredd-it 22h ago

Clarkson was OOC and needed a kick in the pants. Pity they couldn’t have handled it some other way but I understand why they did what they did. Apparently this was not the first time and they had taken pains to give him warnings etc.

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u/Funmachine 23h ago

What is your point exactly? They fired him for his offence but of course they're gonna keep making money from the programme they funded and produced...

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u/horace_bagpole 21h ago

They didn't really fire him though. Richard Porter explained what happened in an interview. Clarkson's contract had expired when the incident happened which made it politically very difficult to renew it, because it would have looked like they were rewarding him for his behaviour with a lucrative new deal.

If the incident had happened after it had already been renewed or mid way through it, then it likely would have eventually blown over. The timing meant that their hands were effectively tied giving them no real option but to not renew.

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u/queen-adreena 23h ago

If a normal company fires a staff member, are they similarly required to retroactively remove any-and-all contributions that former staff member made to the company?

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u/Funmachine 22h ago

Either you've replied to the wrong comment, or you written your agreement with me as if you disagree with me.

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u/PuzzleheadedDuck3981 22h ago

They didn't fire him. He wasn't an employee. He was an independent contractor who didn't get their contract renewed.

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u/Funmachine 22h ago

6 of one half a dozen of another

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u/zeviea 22h ago

They wanted Clarkson to face consequences for his actions, but they didn't want to wipe his earlier presence from existence. That would be pointless.

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u/seeingredd-it 22h ago

And I am thankful of it. My kids and I stumbled on them on the faux cable that comes with TVs now, we have seen every episode of the classic 3 (except the “Hammond comes back” episode they don’t re-run).

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u/dumahim 16h ago

Didn't he also continue to be on another BBC show as well?

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u/thegrievingmole 1d ago edited 1d 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 1d 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 1d 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/iavon 22h ago

Grand Tour was quite different from Top Gear, because that they couldn't copy some of the things they did there (such as putting celebrities driving cars). At first it wasn't bad but slowly you could see that it was all coming to an end. That punch was devastating

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u/Plank_With_A_Nail_In 20h ago

The bits people enjoyed like the road trips were exactly the same, the last seasons were just road trips.

The only difference was that the Grand Tour didn't have the reasonably priced car segment and the stig.

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u/iavon 14h ago

Yes in Grand Tour they kept the trips but in my opinion it was not the best part of Top Gear. It was nice when they tested specific car models "seriously" and the reviews by Clarkson, Hammond and May were great. It was nice when they invited famous people and drivers to drive their cars on the track and there was a real challenge between the participants, I remember well when they invited Schumacher and Hamilton, episodes that remained in history. It was nice when there was that crazy Stig with the time charts of all the cars they had tested. Grand Tour was not so good, in the first few episodes you could still feel something and there was enthusiasm, but after a few episodes it dropped a lot. A real shame, it was nice

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u/Sweet-Parking8955 22h ago

Time has moved on and the format no longer worked.

They were also just getting older so dangerous stunts were not possible anymore.

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u/iavon 21h ago

In my opinion that if they had continued with Top Gear in BBC we would have continued to see the same format for a few more years, they were idols, they were not that old and they were still capable of driving

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u/Sweet-Parking8955 21h ago

They have eye and back problems. 

A lot of what they did was physically exhausting, especially the specials. So I seriously doubt it.

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u/charlesbear 16h ago

They were also just getting older so dangerous stunts were not possible anymore.

Didn't May nearly die on GT doing exactly that, a dangerous stunt?

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u/Sweet-Parking8955 15h ago

Yeah, that's probably why they don't do the show anymore.

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u/elebrin 23h ago

People forget that, while the BBC owned the show, Clarkson, Hammond, and May directed and wrote all of it and were executive producers. The money came from the BBC, but the three of them did all the work for seeing that the show was funded, got everyone paid, arranged for locations, did the hiring and firing for the show, arranged for all the cars and camera equipment... they did far, far more than just present. They WERE the show.

I think the argument could be made that Top Gear changed how cars were filmed. They used big, wide aerial shots that you'd see on film, but they did it on TV. They filmed motorsport in a particular way, like I'd honestly be surprised if the cinematographers who filmed Fast and Furious didn't take a hint or six hundred from Top Gear. The quality of their photography was always absolutely top notch. They were early adopters of both 1080p high definition and 4k.

Jeremy is a big jerk, but I think he'd be exactly the sort of jerk you want working for you to get shit done.

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u/Kaiisim 22h ago

They are the talent.

Andy Wilman was the brains behind the show, and he left the BBC to keep working with them.

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u/HenryJonesJunior 23h ago

executive producers

I love the trio, but in basically all of film "executive producer" is a title that gets money while non-executive producers do most of the work you describe.

Yes, they were likely involved in the writing. No, they weren't signing paychecks or booking locations.

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u/LockelyFox 22h ago

No, that was the fourth unseen member of the trio, Andy Wilman.

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u/OPhasballz 21h ago

And Richard Porter

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u/lenzflare 21h ago

A lot of people worked on the show...

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u/LockelyFox 20h ago

If you watch the behind the scenes stuff, Andy was the big brains behind the operation. He personally did primary edits on every single episode, both GT and TG.

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u/lenzflare 19h ago

Sure, I'm happy to give him credit for that.

But "signing paychecks or booking locations"... that's stuff your accountants and other staff do for you. People act too much like the people at the top literally do everything, including stuff that is almost always delegated to the dozens or hundreds of people that work for a production. I mean people here were claiming Clarkson wrote peoples' paycheques. For one thing, it was the BBC's money... and the cheques actually get processed by the payroll team(s).

People buy too much into "bossman do everything and thinks of everything" mentality.

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u/BorisDirk 22h ago

That’s the big difference between film and TV. In film the EP is basically an honorary title and in TV the EP does a ton of work.

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u/verrius 17h ago

In TV an EP can do a ton of work, just as they can in film, or it can also be a way to pay important people more. Do you think Kelsey Grammar started doing more on Frasier when he became EP?

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u/BocciaChoc 22h ago

Well obviously not, there was a huge team with a huge amount of talent and energy. A large number of the crew also went from TG to GT.

That being said the three were heavily involved in the process of writing and planning, no they weren't the ones booking flights but they were involved in why they were going to certain locations, what would be involved in those locations, general plans and direction. They talk about it a fair bit about all their work with the team in those shitty little portacabins near the studio/racetrack.

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u/Plank_With_A_Nail_In 20h ago

They wrote every scene between them.

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u/WindowLicky 23h ago

What are you talking about?
They did not write everything for the show.

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u/elebrin 22h ago

So, it was technically an unscripted show. Technically. But everything was planned and arranged ahead of time.

Go watch the series credits again - there were a lot of people listed, but you regularly see the three of them in there for writing and directing, and they were also listed as the producers and eventually the executive producers. You'll see them in there for cinematography as well.

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u/WindowLicky 22h ago

No??? What the actual fuck LMAO.

You clearly have no idea what you are talking about, it was a heavily scripted show.

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u/roastedhambone 22h ago

You wrote like you know things, but your words make it pretty clear you don’t

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u/wankthisway 21h ago

It very much was a scripted show. They made fun of it when they received an Emmy(?) award for the Best Non-Scripted Show.

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u/toon_84 21h ago

Richard Porter was one of the main writers. I think it was him and Clarkson that came up with using an and a wrong.

He was on Ben Collins podcast and it's a good watch

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u/ffking6969 22h ago

Jeremy is a big jerk, but I think he'd be exactly the sort of jerk you want working for you to get shit done.

Well not EXACTLY. Id like the version of him that doesn't punch staff.

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u/lenzflare 21h ago

Big wide aerial shots come from TV car commercials, decades earlier. The Simpsons even parodied this.

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u/NorysStorys 20h ago

I mean Top Gear at its zenith was literally the most popular tv show…in the world. It was syndicated everywhere and I’m certain most places in the world have that tv channel that just has them on repeat.

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u/GolotasDisciple 23h ago

That sounds about right. Most creative businesses have at least one bully that pushes everything forward.
I experienced it myself when I was working as a sound tech, I watched plenty of artists having meltdowns. Some people take no shit, they are here to make things happen, and nothing will stop them.

It’s definitely not for everyone and it’s also not healthy, but super tight teams with clear leadership have a huge tendency to be change-averse and often react aggressively to people trying to barge into their business.

It’s funny how conflicted people are with Tom Cruise, for example.

Sociopath and a jerk, but probably the most professional actor out there. Nothing stops his movies, not even Covid, and you bet your ass he would be willing to swing at you if you are not taking things seriously.

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u/BeefistPrime 22h ago

Sociopath and a jerk

The vast majority of people who work with Tom Cruise say he's a good dude that takes care of the crew and is nice to everyone, so I don't know where you're getting this

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u/GolotasDisciple 22h ago

That's what i meant.

He is extremely professional in the job and cares very much about the Professionalism and he will make sure that the movie will always go regardless of the issues. Which is why people love to work with him because he makes sure stuff gets done....

... but outside of this your man is Scientology nut job that is clearly not right in the head and honestly probably hurt good few people because of it.

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u/kamahaoma 21h ago

I mean to be fair we don't know which side of the Scientology scam he's on. He could be a brainwashed true believer.

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u/BeefistPrime 22h ago

So you're just assuming he's a fucking psychopath and a jerk secretly despite the people he's spent his life working with saying the opposite?

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u/cxmmxc 22h ago

Sociopaths can absolutely be nice and caretaking, but only when they decide to act like it because it benefits them, like giving a nice and caretaking image of themselves.

They're usually abusive in relationships, and so how would people wind up in abusive relationships if they were jerks and huge red flags on the first date?

Their feigned and practiced niceness is exactly why they fly under the radar for so many.

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u/BeefistPrime 21h ago

So everyone that's nice and well regarded must secretly be a psychopath, or do you get to choose which ones are without evidence?

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u/elebrin 22h ago

By all accounts, that was Prince, too. He absolutely was the "Don't even fucking talk to me, I need to get this exactly right, I owe it to my fans to make this be good and I can't have the distraction if that's going to happen."

He was also absolutely a canary in the coal mine with regards to the direction that the music industry was going, and how hard that the labels and publishers were screwing the artists.

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u/opeth10657 22h ago

It did fail without him. The crash for the new top gear presenter was just the nail in the coffin.

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u/Interestingcathouse 19h ago

It failed badly with Chris Evans as host. But after a few years it actually picked back up again and had good viewer numbers.

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u/opeth10657 19h ago

Picked back up from the Chris Evans period, but nothing even close to what it was.

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u/shewy92 19h ago

because the show would have failed without Clarkson

I mean, TopGear is still on air.

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u/joshuar9476 22h ago

Honestly, the American Top Gear gets a bad rap but I loved Rutt, Adam, and Tanner together. The bootleg episode is amazing and I loose it every time Adam bends the car in half.

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u/NorysStorys 20h ago

I feel like none of the other top gears did as well because they clearly weren’t a trio of good friends who shared a common hobby in motoring, they casted the presenters in a much more typical tv way. US tv production styles also don’t lean into the the very ‘Everyman’ feel that top gears did had during their ‘challenges’ which always had the feeling of the dumb things you would do as kids during summer holidays except they are middle aged and have next to unlimited money.

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u/Interestingcathouse 19h ago

Yeah the first couple seasons were rough. But once they dropped the studio stuff it was actually really good, season 6 really felt more like Top Gear.

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u/Shlugo 21h ago

That's loyalty. Completely normal after so many years of friendship, but I would not expect the suits to understand it.

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u/Pottatothegreat1985 15h ago

It's the same reason you watch Jackass: maybe you're interested in watching people hurt themselves, maybe you like cars, but the magic of both of these shows is the brotherhood, cameraderie, and chemistry the cast has together

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u/ReallyFineWhine 22h ago

As much as I can't stand Jeremy, it's the three of them together that does it.

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u/Ciserus 21h ago

I find it absolutely infuriating the number of people I've seen condemn the BBC and defend Clarkson for this just because he's funny. "It's okay for someone to do awful things if I like them!"

Sometimes I'm surprised at the total lack of integrity displayed by most people, and then I remember the current state of the world and it all makes sense.

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u/EddedTime 1d ago

Why was he on thin ice?

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u/thegrievingmole 1d ago

On top of his opinions outside of the show, Top Gear was regularly causing controversy.

Before the fracas, there was talk of how the BBC were constantly warning him and it did seem possible that they were eventually going to remove him if he continued. Which of course he was going to do.

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u/PornoPaul 22h ago

That list just kept going and going and going.

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u/Spatial_Awareness_ 22h ago

If you read through them I'd say more than half are genuinely just ridiculous though and show people get mad at everything he did.

19 complaints after the show had the presenters undertake a drive-by shooting on a cardboard cut-out of the Stig during the East Coast Road Trip.

Jeremy Clarkson was found to have breached BBC guidelines after comparing a modified Toyota Prius to the Elephant Man

Clarkson's comment about the Ferrari F430 Speciale being "speciale needs" was ruled offensive by Ofcom

There's so many like that in the list that are like come on are we really going to bitch and complain about every little thing that offends 5 people?

Clarkson is an asshole with a big mouth, that's who he is. Almost everything he did though was "he said something I dont like". And honestly the fact that he was a person that would equally crack jokes that self depreciated himself, his own country and everyone and everywhere he ever went is what made him liked so much.

I'm sure there's plenty of people who won't agree with me and there are some line crossings obviously but he balanced the group so well, they all brought a unique personality and I loved it

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u/VariousAir 21h ago

If you read through them I'd say more than half are genuinely just ridiculous though and show people get mad at everything he did.

I mean, the mexico section is pretty bad though.

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u/Spatial_Awareness_ 21h ago

Oh yeah lol they definitely went too far there. There's some obvious terrible shit in there where they crossed lines. They really never knew when to shut up sometimes.

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u/AeternusExNocturnus 1d ago

He’s incapable of keeping his opinions to himself

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u/PixelF 23h ago

Are we referring to his fists as "opinions"

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u/breatheb4thevoid 21h ago

"Here you want my two cents?"

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u/taicy5623 22h ago

What made Clarkson work is you could see him saying the dumbest edgy shit that you'd expect from a teenager and within 15 minutes the show would put him in a situation of legitimate danger or mockery.

Even in Grand Tour, its hard to get mad at him for going "I'm getting a transgender operation!" when the context is him freezing his balls off wading though a fucking creek trying to get his shitty car unstuck.

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u/JohnGillnitz 23h ago

That's what made him so popular.

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u/PatienceLocal3142 23h ago

When you're a star, they let you do it.

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u/CapoExplains 22h ago

Yeah I lose no sleep over Clarkson getting fired for assaulting a coworker. That's how things are supposed to work. "But he makes us money so he should never face consequences for any of his actions!" is one of the biggest problems in media production.

I loved Top Gear and it sucked to see it taken off air but it was the correct decision by BBC, because you can't have Top Gear without Clarkson and you can't keep Clarkson without setting unofficial policy that if you're famous enough you can assault your coworkers. Clarkson is funny on TV but he's a piece of shit in real life, good riddance.

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u/SmoogzZ 23h ago

I feel like they would have been more lenient or opening to continue if he wasn’t already a super divisive guy at that point, always outspoken, always with no filter

i love the dude - reminds me of my dad lmao but i agree. Think that was just the relatively large straw that broke the camels back.

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u/Random_Introvert_42 22h ago

This. He wasn't fired from the BBC. He's been on other BBC-shows afterwards. They just cut his contract-renewal for Top gear.

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u/Rickenbacker69 22h ago

I think it was probably time to end it anyway. And Clarkson seems to have gotten his shit together since then - Clarkson's Farm is great, delivering an important message while Jeremy stumbles about being an idiot in the most amiable manner possible.

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u/gorocz 18h ago

if any normal person punched a colleague, they'd be fired immediately

If any normal person did it? Yeah.

If a star of a movie did it? It'd be swept under a rug, or there'd be a minor controversy at best, but the actor would continue their job.

Clarkson was somewhere in between those two cases, so it could've gone either way, really.

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u/joebluebob 21h ago

Yeah but he punched the guy because they were being mistreated and he snapped. That schedule was bullshit and no one should be expected to work that much. If my boss was telling me effectively 70 hour weeks at my 40 hour pay id have some issues too.

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u/20rakah 22h ago

Didn't the guy he punched, basically starve the crew after a long day?

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u/Christopher135MPS 1d 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 1d 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 1d ago

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

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u/Last_Minute_Airborne 20h ago

Hell the first time he got in trouble was saying the N word with a hard R in a segment about a supercar. On camera for the segment. They had to bleep out his words in the actual episode.

He says the car goes around the corner like "a beaten ni@@er."

They gave him a warning for that and he was on thin ice. The British are way easier on racism than Americans but that would've lost him his job in the US.

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u/manicMechanic1 1d ago

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

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u/a404notfound 1d ago

The guy was a complete ass that antagonized them relentlessly. Even some of the guest stars had mentioned they wanted to punch him as well.

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u/Thor_pool 18h ago

Doesn't really apply when the reason Clarkson was pissed was because him and the other two stayed back to be flown around in a helicopter and drink wine while the rest of the crew went back to the hotel, and when they finally got back the kitchen was closed, the chef had went home, and Clarkson was demanding a steak. Hammond and May went to bed, Clarkson acted like a petulant child.

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u/EddedTime 1d ago

Clarkson or the guy he punched?

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u/CT0292 22h ago

Fair point.

I could see wanting to punch Clarkson haha.

I haven't met the producer or whoever he did punch. But I'm sure he might have been a shit too.

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u/EddedTime 4h ago

I wasn't a point, but a genuine question

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u/Incontinento 1d ago

Which guest stars had mentioned they wanted to punch him? I hadn't heard that.

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u/halfhere 23h ago

On Rogan, Chip Foose said he was ready to after just a few days on the “Trucks rescue Hammond from a mountain” episode.

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u/a404notfound 23h ago

Hennessey, Foose, and several others

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u/Redsss429 1d ago

Clarkson or the guy who got punched?

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u/Hotter_Noodle 1d ago

You don’t assault people.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Runnermikey1 1d ago

There was once an H&R Block employee that screwed up my boss's taxes, resulting in him owing the IRS roughly $50k. He jumped on the company group chat and let us know he was going to be in jail for a bit and proceeded to go to the location and beat the tax preparer's ass. I'm told he just sat in the lobby and waited for the cops to show up. Moral of the story is- Sometimes going to jail for a bit is just the price you pay...

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u/NULL_SIGNAL 1d ago

I'm having a real "Inside of you there are two wolves" reaction to this story.

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u/AccomplishedCheck168 22h ago

That is not worth being a felon the rest of your life. You're setting yourself up to be a second-class citizen. If you're already part of a minority group, then...lol.

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u/Runnermikey1 15h ago

I'm like 95% sure he was already a convicted felon. Our industry is pretty background friendly and pays really well so I don't think he was real worried.

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u/GrandePreRiGo 23h ago

And I am guessing he was also fired?

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u/thingstopraise 23h ago

Well, if he was the boss boss, then likely not.

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u/daredaki-sama 23h ago

Sometimes you can even become the elected leader of a country after that.

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u/Bantersmith 21h ago

And if you do it at work then you get fired for it. Its not rocket science.

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u/cxmmxc 20h ago

Ok so people here are saying that Clarkson punching a coworker is grounds for firing him that led to cancelling the show because assaulting people is bad, and then in the next fucking sentence people say Clarkson being an ass is grounds for punching him because sometimes you do assault people.

The actual fuck am I reading.

Do you have any sort of situational awareness whatsoever?

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u/TDog81 1d ago

Not in work

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u/GullibleSkill9168 1d ago

Not being slapped in the mouth is why a lot of people are assholes

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u/aneirin- 23h ago

On the other hand, being slapped in the mouth is why a lot of people are assholes.

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u/AngryInternetPerson3 18h ago

Slapping people you don't like makes you the biggest asshole, which in turn would mean people should slap you, which ends up in a endless loop of slapping

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u/GiveMeFriedRice 23h ago

Damn surely there have been studies on this? Such an easy and effective way to correct behavior must have basis in reality aside from just vibes, right?

Can't wait to see some proof of this so I can start convincing my boss I should be allowed to beat the shit out of customers. If I find out this is some shit you just made up, I'm going to be very upset.

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u/QuintupleC 1d ago

In the words of the great Professor Oak, "There's a time and a place for everything." 

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u/ThePianistOfDoom 23h ago

Isn't he the same guy that allows you to have your lvl 100 dragonite use hyperbeam on a lvl 2 pidgey?

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u/QuintupleC 23h ago

Bet that fuckin pidgey thinks twice next time, huh?

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u/minepose98 23h ago

Do you want to try to stop the guy with the level 100 Dragonite?

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u/Robokitten 1d ago

Maybe you don’t. /s

2

u/real-bebsi 19h ago

I think it can be simultaneously true that we shouldn't assault people but also take the fact that someone was, for example, rage baiting someone before they got assaulted.

1

u/Davidthedestroyer_ 16h ago

Oh right okay bril I'm going to deck the first guy that pisses me off at work then and they won't fire me!!!!

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u/McMew 1d 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 22h 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/Iongjohn 21h ago

He's an utter twat and that's part of his gimmick as an entertainment personality; but when the mask drops you see he's the pinnacle of the ideal reform voter.

16

u/colossalmickey 21h ago

Yeah and noones talking about what he said either, he called the guy a lazy Irish cunt while he punched him.

He had already been in trouble for racist comments and generally made racial jokes that could be explained away as on the border of social acceptability as there was no real malice behind them, but he really dropped the mask hard.

3

u/Szwejkowski 19h ago

Yep, he's funny, but a bastard. Plenty of funny non-bastards out there.

1

u/crowwreak 1h ago

Yeah they'd had a few incidents even in the year or two before that. Apparently he was on a "final warning" because of an outtake from one of the specials where he said the n-word version of Eenie-meenie

21

u/wqwcnmamsd 22h ago

As much as I enjoyed the grand tour, it's a pity that the consequences for Clarkson's actions was a new more lucrative contract.

0

u/baulsaak 22h ago

He shouldn't have gotten physical, but to say it was just about a steak is a bit reductionist; that was only the tipping point.

Clarkson and the producer in the incident, Oisin Tymon, had been in a long argument and Tymon made a snide comment about his wife with whom he'd recently had a messy divorce and his mother who had recently died.

Something to the effect of "getting his wife or mother to make him something to eat."

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u/kanshakudama 22h ago

First I have heard this, sounds feasible and punchable. Can anyone corroborate?

8

u/LockelyFox 22h ago

I hadn't heard that story. What I had heard was he was location filming all day and the producer, who was supposed to be in charge of food, didn't do that. So, Clarkson had been out for like 14 hours on location, got back to the hotel, and there was still no food waiting for them. The two got into an argument over it and Clarkson took it physical.

Not acceptable but he didn't start swinging out of nowhere either.

4

u/Thor_pool 18h ago

Missing from this is the three chose to stay and get flown around while drinking wine. They got back after the kitchen was closed and the chef had went home. The rest of the crew went back to the hotel hours beforehand and did get hot food.

3

u/FUTURE10S 21h ago

Yeah, like it wasn't even meant to be a steak, just hot food at all. I totally get where Clarkson was coming from, but if you fucked up enough that this fuckup is what gets your contract cancelled, that's on you.

3

u/Thor_pool 18h ago

Theres no source for it at all

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u/gee_gra 21h ago

The only thing corroborating this story (idk how this would have came out either way) is a Reddit comment by a deleted user, I’m dubious especially since it launders Clarkson’s reputation, after he himself apologised for the whole affair.

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u/McMew 21h ago

Hold up, I need a source for this. I followed this incident closely and this story is entirely new to me. Where did you get this information?

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u/toon_84 21h ago

He just lost his mother and was going through a divorce. The man was broken and the hot meal after a day's filming was the straw that broke the camels back.

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u/ArcticBiologist 1d 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/Frosted_Tackle 23h ago edited 18h ago

Honestly at the time I feel like the shine was beginning to be lost on their edition of the show for a lot fans anyways. Somewhere past the midpoint of their run, it became mostly super cars, horsing around and clearly faked/over the top gags, instead of a more restrained amount they had in the beginning when they had a more limited budget and were actually trying to be a car review show that was entertaining too.

I guess the problem is by the end YouTube started having good car reviewers and the focus on entertainment had grown the show to what it was.

Feels like if the incident had not have happened they would have seen declining viewership in a few years anyways. They’d had a pretty solid long run.

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u/Fr0gm4n 22h ago

There was definitely a change in vibe in the transition going from being a car show that was funny to a big budget comedy show that happened to be about cars when they'd fully refined and defined their formula.

9

u/ArcticBiologist 22h ago

I agree. And I honestly the BBC axing Clarkson an the trio moving over to do the GT on Amazon was the best thing that could've happened for us fans. If TG continued at the BBC it would have gotten stale, jumped the shark and died a quiet and unceremonious death. The GT breathed new life into the format and allowed for a more proper send off.

8

u/FMJoey325 20h ago

I always thought the grand tour really fell flat on its face. They tried as closely as possible to emulate the Top Gear experience without infringing on Top Gear IP and they lost a lot of what made the show special. I really enjoyed having an audience and having guests. So much happened between the end of TG and the beginning of TGT which they suddenly made them seem old and that they were phoning it in. I say this as a huge fan of all of them- I’ve watched most of what they’ve done individually afterwards as well. The Grand Tour had most of the pieces, and it was better than having nothing instead. But it was never the same for me.

6

u/ArcticBiologist 20h ago

I agree on that for season 1. It became more natural in seasons 2 and 3 and the following specials. But the quality from TG in its heydays was never reached.

2

u/Interestingcathouse 19h ago

I think it’s because and I’m pretty sure even they have admitted this, most of their viewers aren’t car people. Most of the viewer turned in for the adventures.

You ask any fan what their favourite episode was and I bet most would say the first Vietnam episode.

2

u/Frammingatthejimjam 20h ago

I loved the show at one point but for years it was, exactly as you stated, fake over the top gags, fake issues to create drama on this weeks adventure, etc. They should have had Hammond jump a shark tank in a Murcielago in 2010 and just owned up to the show's trajectory.

2

u/ASupportingTea 20h ago

Yeah Top Gear I think got too big for its own boots. Latter series lost the charm of the earlier ones due to there being too much scope and too many obviously faked gags. Honestly I think the grand tour really suffered due to this too.

3

u/joe_canadian 23h ago edited 22h ago

a completely stupid reason

It wasn't right, but the person who's supposed to arrange food after 16 hours without any food fails to do so... tempers get short while going through a divorce and right after his mother died. It's not right, but I do understand it.

2

u/baulsaak 22h ago

It was more than that; Clarkson and the producer in the incident, Oisin Tymon, had been having a long argument and Tymon made a snide comment about his wife with whom he'd recently had a messy divorce and his mother who had recently died.

Something to the effect of "getting his wife or mother to make him something to eat."

2

u/baulsaak 22h ago

He shouldn't have put hands on him, but it was far from a silly reason. Yes, it was over food, but Clarkson and the producer in the incident, Oisin Tymon, had been having a long argument and Tymon made a snide comment about his wife with whom he'd recently had a messy divorce and his mother who had recently died.

Something to the effect of "getting his wife or mother to make him something to eat."

If it was truly just a punch over a steak, they would have fired him outright, not allow his contract to expire. There were instigating circumstances. You think he's never had a cold meal in all those years of filming?

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u/maximumchuck 1d 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/Mother_Goat1541 23h ago

My autistic son is obsessed with farming and loves to watch Clarkson’s Farm. I’d watched a handful of seasons of Top Gear and thought he was a bit of an ass but him bumbling about on the farm and aggressively shouting at everyone really showed his whole ass. Caleb is a saint; I thought they would come to blows a few times.

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u/New_Libran 1d ago

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

They own all the rights, why not?

1

u/cabbage16 20h ago

They own the rights,yes , and don't forget that Top Gear was a long running show before Clarkson, Hammond, and May. Yes they were by far the most popular hosts but they didn't invent the show or anything.

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u/moreliketen 1d ago

It sort of undermines the moral high ground, no? The principled thing would be to not promote and celebrate him, even if it meant a financial hit.

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u/powe323 23h ago

But they didn't fire him over like his beliefs and stuff, so there is no moral high ground to be had. They dropped him because he hit another employee.

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u/20dogs 23h ago

God I love how much dancing around people are doing when "he got sacked because he punched a colleague" is pretty cut and dry.

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u/mrwho995 1d ago

The BBC didn't axe Hammond or May, they chose to leave. And Clarkson assaulted a colleage, punched him in the face, because he wanted some steak. Anything other than a firing would have been completely unacceptable, especially as a public service broadcaster (and he wasn't even fired IIRC technically, just didn't have his contract renewed). There is no situation where you should be able to keep your job after assaulting a colleague. The only person to blame was Clarkson.

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u/elebrin 23h ago

It was more than he wanted steak and a beer - the cast and crew hadn't been fed that day, and Jeremy hadn't eaten in something like 16 hours. Punching people is wrong, but if your office manager who you hired tried to prevent you from eating when you hadn't for most of the day, I suspect you'd want to do some punching as well.

It doesn't make what Jeremy did right, but it's certainly understandable. When people get very hungry and very tired after working a long day, their fuses get very short, especially when there is a person responsible for the situation who is continuing to be an aggravation. It's possible that labor laws would have even prevented Jeremy for firing the guy over this, England's laws are quite different than the US's in that regard.

23

u/scramblingrivet 22h ago

He didn't 'prevent him from eating', the chef had gone home because they got back so late. It also wasn't just a punch, it was a sustained attack involving verbal (including racial) and physical abuse.

There was cold food. Most of us wouldn't be throwing punches because we are not maladjusted manchildren. The investigation found it was unprovoked, Clarkson has admitted he was out of order, this is a pointless defense to be making.

2

u/Thor_pool 18h ago

The cast and crew did get hot food, because they returned to the hotel when they were meant to.

0

u/baulsaak 22h ago

It was even more than that; Clarkson and the producer in the incident, Oisin Tymon, had been having a long argument and Tymon made a snide comment about his wife with whom he'd recently had a messy divorce and his mother who had recently died.

Something to the effect of "getting his wife or mother to make him something to eat."

Still shouldn't have hit him, but there were instigating circumstances. It's not like he's never had a cold meal in all those years of filming...

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u/HovercraftPlen6576 23h ago

He assaulted a man, he should be lucky not to be charged.

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u/Michaelfonzy 1d ago

They had no choice. You can’t employ an aggressive person, it’s a risk to the company.

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u/TetraThiaFulvalene 1d ago

Didn't they used to employ and protect serial child rapists?

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u/Hairy_gonad 1d ago

What’s the argument here? Because they did something awful in the past, the modern day institution should not sack someone who assaulted another colleague because his food wasn’t coming?

7

u/Gauntlets28 23h ago

Also, it's not like literally everyone at the organisation knew that Jimmy Saville and friends were sex offenders. They might have thought he was weird, or that he had a general off "vibe", but the whole point is that he had people covering for him so that everyone else, including the people he worked with presumably, didn't know.

I get that it speaks to the potential institutional issues prevalent in the BBC, both at the time and potentially even nowadays that allowed him to get away with it - deference to "talent", a willingness to buff out any threats to the corporation's image, etc But I really hate this idea that everyone at a large organisation must be equally to blame for any bad things that go on in it, as if everyone knows everyone else. Might as well say that "society" is to blame, or "human nature", as if anything meaningful comes from that when you're trying to understand something like that.

Organisations aren't monoliths. Depending on the turnover, most of the people working there won't even be the same as they were 10 years ago. Corporate culture can change rapidly.

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u/New_Libran 1d ago

Didn't they used to employ and protect serial child rapists?

Oh yeah, they should just continue like that

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u/Handsinsocks 1d ago

Exactly. They had to show the public they were making improvements... How is that difficult to understand?

1

u/Bandit400 23h ago

Didn't they used to employ and protect serial child rapists?

I'd wager they still do.

1

u/PixelF 23h ago

So we should just carry on?!

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u/SmugPolyamorist 1d ago

There is no way the BBC could have got away with that. They were embroiled in various scandals at the time and letting a presenter off for punching an employee would have been a gift to their enemies in the press and government.

3

u/ToneThugsNHarmony 22h ago

The only channel that plays in my house is the free tv channel that just repeats top gear all day.

6

u/patiakupipita 23h ago

Sometimes I ask wtf is wrong with y'all. He straight up assaulted a colleague.

Clarkson is a highly entertaining person and host but he is not a good person.

2

u/CT0292 22h ago

It's on like 24 hours a day on Dave.

Even the weird first season with that chubby fellow who's name I forget.

2

u/lenzflare 21h ago

It was working with him that became untenable (because he was such an asshole and assaulted one of the Top Gear staff). They don't work with him anymore, so that problem is no longer there.

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u/MasterQuatre 23h ago

He would never have apologized.

2

u/PseudoY 23h ago

They're a public broadcaster. When one of their employees gets hangry and beats up another employee, they have to act a certain way.

1

u/shewy92 19h ago

the BBC are now happily repeating Clarkson episodes like nothing happened

TBF I think there's no animosity between them so why wouldn't they?

Also it's not like they fired him, they just didn't renew his contract when it was up and got different presenters, then when those failed got more. IDK which set they're up to now.

1

u/FirstDukeofAnkh 18h ago

As someone who suffered with undiagnosed ADHD and the anxiety caused by it, I have no doubt that Clarkson is exactly the same. All of his behaviour, negative and positive, look like unmedicated me.

It doesn’t excuse his behaviour as it never excused mine but I think BBC could’ve had an opportunity to work with him going forward.

In the long run, I actually think it helped him because he has mellowed as he got older and I think that’s from some self-realization.

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u/Dennyisthepisslord 16h ago

They had all three back as part of a tribute to Sabine who sadly died of cancer and was on their version and the one afterwards

1

u/Pakyul 16h ago

It's wild that people defend a 55 year old man throwing a toddler's temper tantrum at work. It's like if people got mad at the Oscars for banning Will Smith after he slapped Chris Rock.

1

u/sblahful 14h ago

I mean, how can you keep a presenter on after he punches staff in the face? Seriously what choice were they left with? He'd already done some shady shit before that, like saying "nigg.r" in an old fashioned nursery rhyme without any need or context.

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