This is pure comedy. What did Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May expect when they drove through Alabama in the deep south of the United States, with the intention of antagonising the local populace? They’d welcome the stars of a car show from the UK with open arms? Watch the video, it’s hilarious, and scary! (via Matt Thomas)
Youtube unsurprisingly took down the clip but you can still watch it on craveonline thanks to kiwibiker for the link.
PS. James May writes about the episode on the The Top Gear blog. Thanks again to Matt for the link.
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Second best Top Gear episode ever!
I don’t think they’ll ever beat the episode where they tried and failed to kill a Toyota HiLux pickup truck.
That was a brilliant episode, I even blogged about it, way back in 2003. Can it be that long ago?
I haven’t seen the episode above yet, but Sky+ has it recorded so as soon as I catch up with Stargate SG1, Stargate Atlantis, Lost, 24, and Battlestar Galactica I may get around to watching it. Phew.
Brilliant! Laugh out loud funny. Best episode I’ve seen yet.
That’s nuts!!!! hilarious!
I remember when Top Gear was about cars.
I agree. Sunday’s TopGear show was very funny.
However, it felt a little odd when Jeremy Clarkson was saying ‘You’re going to die/get killed etc’ to Richard Hammond given what subsequently happened to him a few weeks later.
You’d think the people down here would be receptive to fellow car enthusiasts, but once they found out your cars have “boots” and “bonnets” the love was over.
I think the segment was filmed before the Hamster prang, actually: when the get to New Orleans, they talk about it being “1 year after Katrina” i.e. Aug/Sept. I’m honestly wondering just how genuine it was, it looked a bit staged to me.
TopGear have make “Top Gear Awards 2006″ for the supercar, in this catagory have win one italian car: Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano
What???
No way was that staged. I do think that the cameras were intentionally cut – i.e. edited out. But I reckon the rest was real.
The redneck scene was fake and staged. The truck the rednecks arrived in was parked to the left of the gas station when the british people arrived. Re-watch it and keep an eye on it.
Raymond – could be, could be, but it’s hard to tell. There were two pickups at the side of the garage, but one moved out as the “boys” arrived. Not sure, but it’s great TV
How fkn stupid are some of you people?
Not only was this particular “sketch” set up, the whole fkn thing is.
Every supposedly spontaneous quip in the studio between the trio of w@nkers has clearly been pre-rehearsed.
LOL @ morons like Confiteor. In his mind, I bet he’s pretty sure he’s smart, you know, having exposed what’s staged and what isn’t in popular entertainment.
i always find myself woundering wether or not some shows are scripted. i find myself wanting to beleive that a trio of good comedians understand the art of humor enough to take the humor into a truly random senario. i just want tobeleive it real.
yeah loads of the dialogue is scripted (by them though), they’ll have a rehersal and there’ll be loads of editing out the lesser bits and retakes. As for the garage scene ‘this is a hick town’…that was real and again edited. If you really think those guys would stage such a thing then you don’t know them at all. Richard hammond did nearly died for the program in that crash. The toyota pick-up did survive a massive drop into the rubble of a high-rise building. You can keep watching it over and over trying to discredit it, but it’s there – sorry confiteor.
It’s easy to be fooled by jeremy clarksons dry commentary, but they had no idea people would really be that violent. Shocking stuff from the greatest country in the world. Moral cowards.
Best Episode ever.
Are you people retarded?! Completly staged. Its sad to live in a world where 99,9% of the people are dumber than Bush…
And so what if it was real? If you modified things to suit a particular culture you could do the same in EVERY part of the World…but it would be risky and not very camera-friendly thats why the faking.
And in their home England? Even Polish girls are attacked in schools for being too pretty, England is the “Redneck” capital of the World.
“Even Polish girls are attacked in schools for being too pretty”
What the hell are you on about. Have you ever been here?
What… just… I dont get that totally random comment you just made. You could’ve made up something a little more believable.
I know someone who is good friends with one of the researchers on Top Gear. I know for a fact that most of these things are not set up, they often have small scripted parts but most of it is as you see it.
Yes they do put themselves in a lot of danger a lot of the time and thats good. Britain and America are becoming too PC and overprotective. Its nice to see three lads encouraging everyone else to stop being sheep and start having some fun again.
Just saw this show again on BBC Three. It really shows America at its worst: From the hugely fat Miami car dealers, to the ‘irony deficient’ Alabama rednecks, to the wreck of New Orleans a whole year after Katrina, yep that sure was not the Holiday Program. Very, very funny though and very cutting.
I love Top Gear. Easily my favorite show. But, I also accept that most of it is set up/scripted. That’s how they maintain such high level of quality.
I thought the American roadtrip episode was a bit much. They played to their audience a bit too heavily with every tired cliche they could fit in. Anyone else notice that James May’s heart didn’t seem to be in that one?
I decided to research and prove the redneck thing was staged. I live in north Mississippi near Memphis and on a business trip to Destin FL, I went right past their route. On the way back through Alabama I found the gas station in question and spoke with the owner. He was suspicious at first but after finding out I was a fan and not looking to quote him he admitted he was contacted weeks before the filming.
I contacted the BBC and the TG office next. The calls weren’t cheap, but I just had to ask them directly. When they found out I was looking to authenticate that episode they tried to fob me off with some free t-shirts and then refused to comment.
Sorry guys. I know you really really want to believe it’s all spontaneous, (and some of you still will) but on a top rated prime time show- nothing is left to chance.
For a more realistic example of an American road trip, watch Oz Clark and James May’s California Wine Adventure.
What about all the races? Are they fake too? Like the bullet train and stuff. And what about all the challenges they are given…are they fake aswell?
The actual race is real but the scenes where you see bikers riding over cars ect they are faked. youtube some of them ie top gear parkour and you can see how they stage thm
culture shock…..
lol great episode! thanks for posting.
Honestly I couldn’t care less if it’s staged or not, it’s still funny and looking into is just ruining the fun for yourself. what is the point? it’s undeniable that a lot of americans are like that, hicks, rednecks, idiots that constantly blab about america being the greatest country on earth. the fact that you guys have to constantly tell yourselves that is enough to prove that it’s not true. i’m scottish, i love my country but we’re rubbish and we know it, and we’re proud of it, who gives a crap?
anyway, top gear is fantastic, that ep was one of the best and, staged or not, i’ll still love it as long as episodes with the quality of the lorry one keep on rolling out!
That episode was funny as!!!
sucks lol
There is a reason it matter whether it is staged or not. Because sometime in the future the reality will fade and people will assume that it was real. A similar thing happened when Disney made a movie about nature that included staged scenes of lemmings jumping to their death into the ocean. The reality was the lemmings were trying to escape from the bulldozer that was about to squash them so they would jump into a vat of acid to escape being crushed. Yet to this day there are millions of people that believe lemmings are stupid enough to follow each other over a cliff to die. I’m sure parts of the episode are already tainting peoples perceptions as someone retells the story and leaves out the bit that it was staged until you end up with people thinking that you would be stoned for saying nascar sucks in Alabama.
I work as a camera man for the BBC and was there! I have googled this because we have recently been going through the shows archives to look at my 6 years on the team – where i’ve been to places like Vietnam. Alabama was not staged. Do you think someone who displayed violence, homophobia, xenophobia and ignorance would admit throwing stones? this is the same country where in a city destroyed by a hurricane/storm someone had put graffiti stating that riots rule… Also where charity sue those trying to help. Believe me the stains in my pants an the fact we used coke to wash writing off (4 2ltr bottles) when we could’ve “staged” so much more, proves it real. If you think it was a set up then fine – you are only being as ignorant as those who threw stones.
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