Top Gear Makes A Joke of Graham Hill's Death
Top Gear’s ironic contention that their mystery test driver is actually Graham Hill cocks a snook (don’t ask) at the MSM, who’ve gone nuts over recent revelations of “The Stig’s” true identity. I’m a huge fan of HIll’s life and times. His death was a tragedy for his family, his fans and motor racing. Call me a curmudgeonly carmudgeon (“Get off my internet!”), but I don’t find this Top Gear communique even slightly humorous: “The identity of the hit TV show’s famous wheelman will come as a shock to the dozens of petrolheads worldwide who had speculated that the man in the white suit was GP World Champion Damon Hill. ‘To find out that it’s actually his dad will come as a shock,’ said a man yesterday… In an alleged plot believed to have cost the licence payer millions of pounds, BBC bosses apparently helped Graham Hill fake his own death in a plane crash… So they approached Graham Hill, whose professional driving career was over at that point, and asked him to crash a plane and then hide in a bush until he got the call from the Top Gear team 20 odd years later.” The whole thing is a storm in a teacup, obviously, but this just isn’t my cup of tea.
More by Robert Farago
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Dutchchris : this show that you think Top Gear should be....I wouldn't watch it.
I soo agree with what you are saying, Robert! The quality of that show is reaching new lows, in reverse proportion to yhe size of Clarkson's ego! I stopped actively watching that crap years ago, but I stumble across it from time to time, and get my confirmation that life is too short to listen to the rants of those losers!
It's British humour. It's unusual. The fact that it wasn't laced with toilet humour makes it somewhat less amusing across the ditch. For those who find the above comment offensive, just look at the highest grossing American movie comedies over the past decade. It's not funny to the domestic audience without a dozen fart jokes.
As Johnny Carson once said after being booed for an Abraham Lincoln joke, "too soon?" Top Gear has incredible production values and is highly entertaining. Who gives a rat's ass about their moral position? I'll go read Hannah Arendt if I want critical social discourse.