:P

[dreamer_easy]

On a quest for Top Gear bloopers, I watched some stuff cut out of the News earlier this year. There are lots of silly lols, as you might expect, and then this really nasty little bit where they slag off a woman for being ugly.

Obviously, the "news" on TG is entertainment, not actual information, as Googling any of their little outrages about the government or environment will quickly demonstrate. But that brief descent into boorishness disappointed me so much that I couldn't help looking up the lady in question, thereby discovering that (a) she probably does know what "novel batteries" means, being a former Director of Advanced Engineering at Rolls-Royce, former chief executive of the Institute of Physics, and so on, (b) her appearance is perfectly normal and in fact she probably looks like your mum and (c) she's around the same age as Clarkson.

They're lucky that bit wasn't broadcast, really: how large a part of TG's audience is made up of perfectly normal-looking women of a certain age? Pissing them off could dent the boys' chances of being voted "weird crush of the year" again. Although I'm sure the ladies would have enjoyed as much as I did what appears to be a helpful offer by Richard to ejaculate into Jeremy's mouth.

(If you're interested, search the PDF of the King Review's Recommendations for Action for the phrase "novel batteries". If you're only slightly interested: cutting CO2 requires r&d to find technological solutions, such as new kinds of batteries.)

ETA: I'm not sure if the TG Australia site provides subtitles / transcripts. If you need one of the bit in question, leave a comment and I'll type it up. ETA: There's a transcript of the relevant bit in the comments.

Comments

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Well, as you know, I dislike the "mother in law" stereotype we get with Rose, Martha, and Donna's mums. However, neither Jackie nor Francine are sexless, and while Jackie is often played for laughs, Francine and Sylvia aren't. And none of those mothers are soulless - Sarah Jane certainly isn't! Moreover, "woman of a certain age" is not synonymous with "mother" - Yvonne Hartmann, Harriet Jones, Blon Slitheen, Captain Magambo, heck, Sky Silvestry and the Hostess. I honestly wouldn't expect to see such a variety of female characters my age and up in any other show.