Richard Hammond's return causes offence!

[NineTails]

Richard's blog from the Top Gear site last Sunday:

Well, that's it - I'm finally back to work.

To be honest, it felt like I'd never really left the Top Gear studio, even though it's been months since me and the guys last wandered in and arsed about.

Now that we've spoken about it on the programme and shown the footage, maybe this crash business will start to fade into the distance.

The doctors had been nervous about me seeing it for the first time on video. I figured that if it couldn't kill me when I was in it for real, how could it hurt watching it on the telly?

Some people wondered if we should really be showing it on Top Gear. And I understood their concerns; it's a sensitive issue, not least for me. But I think it would be irresponsible of us not to show it.

We can't pretend it didn't happen - that we can hoon about all over Europe in supercars and punt jet-propelled dragsters up runways at 300mph without things going wrong.

That's how it is in the world; things go wrong. And if I've learned one thing, it's that they can go wrong at the worst possible moment.

I figure that if just one individual scorching round the back roads in their hot hatch remembers seeing me upside down at 230mph and thinks that yes, if things can go that badly wrong in Top Gear's TV fantasy world then they could in the real world, and they lift off because there might just be a tractor coming round that blind corner at the worst possible moment, then it's all been worth it.

We can all learn a lesson, my kids have still got their dad and the show can go on.

See you out there.

And from Mr. Clarkson:

On Sunday morning, I wrote, in a national newspaper, the following prediction about how Top Gear would be reviewed...

You just know that the hippies and the communists won't turn over or tune out.

They'll be watching with their beards peeled, ready to fire off an angry email should we even look like we're going to mention gays, speed, Muslims, gypsies, polar bears, global bloody warming, breasts, disabled people, immigrants, or how jolly nice it is to be middle class.

And sure enough, the following morning the Scottish Green Party launched an official complaint saying we were wrong to sign off by saying 'Speed Kills' since we obviously didn't mean it.

What I want to know is this: why were they watching? What possible entertainment did a Scottish environmentalist think he was going to get from a show called Top Gear? They must have known they would find something to complain about. And they have.

But frankly my dear...

[caffeinejunkie]

Y'know, I think Clarky is an utter twit, but I have to agree with him there! Why watch something you know is going to offend you?

[Carina]

I was just saying how *I* would react, having been in that exact situation. However, my situation was a bit different, since it involved my own children, both under the age of five at the time.

I guess I'm also trying to point out that the recipient of the comments is the one to judge what is insensitive and what is not...not the group for disabled people...not people on a message board about *every* similar situation...but the person involved and those closest to him. I do think you all know that, but I wanted to make the point, anyway.

For those people who know me, really know me (which has now become my favorite saying *snarf*), they can do what the hell they want in their personal lives and no judgement comes from me. But, they also know that I might react differently to the same situation.

[Abstract Unknown Girl]

reeneebob said:

There are a group who are out to bash every thing that Top Gear does......so they could build a childrens hospital and there would be people to say "It could be bigger".

Exactly, all these complaints (and the STUPID thing about Jeremy calling a car 'a bit gay' and getting in trouble for that...I mean come on!!), it all seems to me to be general TG haters' way of airing their dislike for the show and the presenters, rather than them actually caring that much about whatever they're complaining about. Remote controls are amazing inventions; they actually allow you to change channels without even leaving the comfort of your chair if a programme isn't to your taste. I suggest some of these whingers try it some time.

[Carina]

reeneebob said:

There are a group who are out to bash every thing that Top Gear does......

Really? I'm surprised that Jackass doesn't have one of those, too...or maybe they do and I just don't know about it.

[NineTails]

Just thought that I'd post up another Hamster clip, this time from 'Brainiac'.



"We do these experiments so you don't have to!".