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wow these guys are such whiners. Top Gear makes fun of everyone...and it's not like they hinted at something that would never happen Other manufacturers are m

by vaksel 16y ago

wow these guys are such whiners. Top Gear makes fun of everyone...and it's not like they hinted at something that would never happen Other manufacturers are mature enough to understand that TG is a comedy show about cars, and their stunts are covered by satire. And of course Top Gear will retaliate...they always do in cases like this.

kristofferR 16y ago
It's one thing to make fun of it in a humourous way, it's another thing to write a script (and follow through with it) claiming it broke down, overheated and ran out of gas before they had even driven the car. "But in the real world, it doesn't seem to work" was already decided before the cars were even delivered. It's cool to make fun of flaws, it's not cool for something percieved as a review show to decide something is flawed and write the script about how flawed it is before they have even tested it.
- fossuser 16y ago
  Especially considering the amount of viewers and sway Top Gear has and how young Tesla was as a company at the time, that press could have destroyed them and there was no truth to it.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
eftpotrm 16y ago
Yes, but.... The show's main presenter has been well known as having politically conservative views for many, many years. If you watch, the vast bulk of his output is joking in that general direction when it's joking. Frankly, if I were Tesla, I wouldn't have let my car appear; it smacked of a set-up against the green bogeyman who was trying to stop their fun. There seems to be a growing tendency at the moment in the UK at least for people with politically conservative views to express these loudly, prominently and repeatedly in a more forceful tone than they could otherwise use, with an I'm only having a bit of fun, it's just a joke, can't you just grow up and take it? tacked on to the end, trying to belittle those who might take offence at their assertions. If these people want to express their views from such a platform (by which I mean a prominent one, the fact of this being on the BBC isn't an issue for me), they should have the nerve to stand behind it.
- philjackson 16y ago
  "they should have the nerve to stand behind it" So summarise, are you saying Jeremy Clarkson doesn't stand behind his political statements? That's simply not true, have you never seen his columns in the Times? Clarkson gets a terribly hard time for his views and he doesn't waver a bit, whether you agree with him or not, you have to give him some credit.
  - eftpotrm 16y ago
    I agree, I've seen his columns and he's firmly standing behind his ill-informed bigotry. A pity, because if you see some of his writing as a younger man 25 years ago he was interesting, funny and observant while still demonstrably holding the same political views; now far more he's a frustrated bigot railing against the modern world. Watch Top Gear though (which I do and largely enjoy), and there's a relatively regular stream of reactionary material with a 'boys will be boys' tongue in cheek. The problem is, it's consistently in the same direction and at the same targets; it's using a cover of comedy and his TV persona to make attacks he couldn't otherwise make in such a platform. Jeremy Clarkson the newspaper columnist stands behind his positions, I agree; Jeremy Clarkson the TV character often tries to make much the same attacks while laughing them off as 'just a bit of fun'. That isn't intellectually honest.
    - philjackson 16y ago
      "Jeremy Clarkson the TV character often tries to make much the same attacks while laughing them off as 'just a bit of fun'. That isn't intellectually honest." Are you talking about the more extreme rubbish like "all lorry drivers are prostitute murderers"? His genuine political opinions like the ones he has on bendy buses, speed cameras, the M4 bus lane etc. strike me as genuine and not veiled in the 'boys will be boys' disguise you talk of. I should probably bail from this conversation lest people mistake me as a JC supporter, I just think you're being a little unfair.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
antihero 16y ago
People still use it as basis for forming their opinions. If they staged the Tesla going into the garage, then it undermines every bit of work engineers have done to make sure that would ever happen, and undermines the hard work engineers have done to get electric cars into the mainstream.

by vaksel 16y ago

kristofferR 16y ago

It's one thing to make fun of it in a humourous way, it's another thing to write a script (and follow through with it) claiming it broke down, overheated and ran out of gas before they had even driven the car. "But in the real world, it doesn't seem to work" was already decided before the cars were even delivered. It's cool to make fun of flaws, it's not cool for something percieved as a review show to decide something is flawed and write the script about how flawed it is before they have even tested it.

fossuser 16y ago
Especially considering the amount of viewers and sway Top Gear has and how young Tesla was as a company at the time, that press could have destroyed them and there was no truth to it.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]

eftpotrm 16y ago

Yes, but.... The show's main presenter has been well known as having politically conservative views for many, many years. If you watch, the vast bulk of his output is joking in that general direction when it's joking. Frankly, if I were Tesla, I wouldn't have let my car appear; it smacked of a set-up against the green bogeyman who was trying to stop their fun. There seems to be a growing tendency at the moment in the UK at least for people with politically conservative views to express these loudly, prominently and repeatedly in a more forceful tone than they could otherwise use, with an I'm only having a bit of fun, it's just a joke, can't you just grow up and take it? tacked on to the end, trying to belittle those who might take offence at their assertions. If these people want to express their views from such a platform (by which I mean a prominent one, the fact of this being on the BBC isn't an issue for me), they should have the nerve to stand behind it.

philjackson 16y ago
"they should have the nerve to stand behind it" So summarise, are you saying Jeremy Clarkson doesn't stand behind his political statements? That's simply not true, have you never seen his columns in the Times? Clarkson gets a terribly hard time for his views and he doesn't waver a bit, whether you agree with him or not, you have to give him some credit.
- eftpotrm 16y ago
  I agree, I've seen his columns and he's firmly standing behind his ill-informed bigotry. A pity, because if you see some of his writing as a younger man 25 years ago he was interesting, funny and observant while still demonstrably holding the same political views; now far more he's a frustrated bigot railing against the modern world. Watch Top Gear though (which I do and largely enjoy), and there's a relatively regular stream of reactionary material with a 'boys will be boys' tongue in cheek. The problem is, it's consistently in the same direction and at the same targets; it's using a cover of comedy and his TV persona to make attacks he couldn't otherwise make in such a platform. Jeremy Clarkson the newspaper columnist stands behind his positions, I agree; Jeremy Clarkson the TV character often tries to make much the same attacks while laughing them off as 'just a bit of fun'. That isn't intellectually honest.
  - philjackson 16y ago
    "Jeremy Clarkson the TV character often tries to make much the same attacks while laughing them off as 'just a bit of fun'. That isn't intellectually honest." Are you talking about the more extreme rubbish like "all lorry drivers are prostitute murderers"? His genuine political opinions like the ones he has on bendy buses, speed cameras, the M4 bus lane etc. strike me as genuine and not veiled in the 'boys will be boys' disguise you talk of. I should probably bail from this conversation lest people mistake me as a JC supporter, I just think you're being a little unfair.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

antihero 16y ago

People still use it as basis for forming their opinions. If they staged the Tesla going into the garage, then it undermines every bit of work engineers have done to make sure that would ever happen, and undermines the hard work engineers have done to get electric cars into the mainstream.