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.
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They say…
Americans don’t get British humour.
In this case, and in our defence, I say there isn’t any.
There are many allusions to The Stig being some sort of robotic being, so it’s not beyond possibility that the BBC used Hill’s body to create some sort of robo-Frankenstein…
WHAT HATH SCIENCE WROUGHT!?!?!
They’re not making a joke of Graham Hill’s Death, they’re making a joke about the Sun’s ruthless kind of “journalism”.
Do you really think the petrolheads at top gear don’t respect Graham Hill?
It may be tasteless, but so is The Sun.
I agree with Dirlotron. The statute of limitations that prevents one from making light of someone’s death is shorter than the actual mourning period. Hill’s ghost can safely be made humorous by now surely.
–chuck
I thought The Stig was Martin Brundle?
@ Dirlotron
Spot on!
Graham Hill, by all accounts, had a sense of humor. He was before my time, but I’m pretty sure he would have found this amusing.
The Stig is also Barack Obama.
http://transmission.blogs.topgear.com/2009/01/21/thats-mr-president-stig-to-you-sir/
He died in 1975, surely the period of mourning is over?
RF,
What up?
First no booth babes, now no Brit humor?
My only though as I read this yesterday was that I hope they consulted Damon (Hill’s son) before they did this.
But no matter, Hill would have loved it. He crashed his plane and died. For some time prior to the crash, though, his colleagues, the pundits and Hill himself referred to his flying as “Hilarious Airways.”
Its a fair guess you didn’t like Monty Python or Fawlty Towers either. To each his own.
I don’t find it amusing to make fun of the dead. I’m with Robert. Personally the whole thing seems obscene. Regardless of whether he was a great driver or an anonymous spouse and parent, it’s not right.
I thought it was funny.
I’m with you on this one, RF.
This is yet another flagpole planted in a ditch at the bottom of Civility Mountain for the sake of “humor.”
And I love Monty Python, thanks.
I find this outrageous, but let me be honest: on the day Lewis Hamilton dies (probably on the toilet, since he’s not the bravest of F1 pilots) I’ll at least crack a smile.
We’re in “Cool Britannia” now, where people sit in cubicles and make ironic jokes while their former colonies eat their lunch and soak up their manufacturing base.
I took no offense either. UK humor is more dry / wit than American. And I agree with the others that they are not making fun of GH’s accident just dispelling the Stig rumors.
And what about John the Baptist’s impersonation of Graham Hill from “Historical Impersonations” on Monty Python?
Love British humour. Love automobiles.
After 10+ episodes, still don’t understand the allure of “Top Gear”.
hiding in a bush for 20 years…. very funny
I think I understand why RF has become rather critical of Top Gear. The three stooges of Topgear have an international platform to shout out the truth about cars, but instead they have turned their show in a moronic parade of staged races and bar talk about irrelevant cars. They could have the car industry by the balls if they dished up the dirt about real cars and the industry but they can’t be bothered.
Instead Clarkson has turned into some sort of mouthpiece of GM ever since he stated in one show out of the blue that Vauxhall is the only brand that makes no ugly cars any more since the introduction of the Insignia. And of course his infamous staging of the Tesla failure to proof that hydrogen is the future is exactly the story Gm and just about every other car manufacturer wants you to believe, because they know that betting on hydrogen will allow them to continue building the same old for decades more until all the problems are fixed. What a sell out!
…… what, too soon?
Stig is Elvis.
Duh.
Bunter
“Some say he knows exactly 2 facts about ducks……….and they’re both wrong”
Graham Hill
TTAC needs to relax. Elvis was a big deal and we make fun of him. And who takes Top Gear seriously? Who’d want them to be serious?
I cant get the joke?
Why would the pick Graham Hill?
Most likely because he was the last of the ‘gentlemen’ drivers in F-1
The British bash everything…
As well they should,living in a country that has gone from world power to an almost third world power!
My son is named for him,and I am proud for that.
as to the British press….
We are only a few years away…if that
@Dutchchris,
First theory of the Public Arts: Low culture drives out high. Ergo, the popularity among the great unwashed of professional wrestling, Jerry Springer and Oprah.
Top Gear has followed this de-evolution to a T.
Stage 1. Great show with keen insights and intelligent Brit-wit.
Stage 2. Self-absorbed and opining.
Stage 3. Spin-off series (AUS and USA) that are a caricature of the original.
They are just milking it for all it’s worth (who’d blame them). And now that the GT-R episodes have aired in the States, it isn’t worth much…save the “Who Stig is” bit. Done, now, too.
Well, there you go.
One man’s snarky joke is another man’s poor taste.
I would suggest, Robert, that you may now better understand why those of us — including my friends, colleagues, relatives, etc. — have issues with your position(s) on the American automobile industry.
The Stig thing is proof enough that Top Gear is gorgeous, over-stuffed idiocy.
Unless…. It’s all true!!
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.