Top Gear in the South: What you didn't see

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/features/article6858884.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1

its sad to know people like these narrow-minded rednecks exsist...

In the ignorant rednecks defense-going into any area to try to mock the local people is probably always a bad idea.

I saw that episode, the Presenters have more nuts than me.

Wouldnt they (the rednecks) need to sign releases before bbc can put them on TV?

KJ

MrJoshua wrote: In the ignorant rednecks defense-going into any area to try to mock the local people is probably always a bad idea.

One of the things I like most about America is that you have a protected right to mock the locals.

Ironic that the Top Gear crew mock the intolerance of Americans when this:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1218651/Thugs-attack-men-dresses--turn-cage-fighters.html

shows the same issue exists in their own back yard.

Yep. I know two black guys who were attacked and verbally abused by a neo-nazi in London. The neo-nazi didn't realize he was outnumbered when he grabbed one of them by the neck. He was left strewn over a bus stop with various bodily fluids leaking out

Tim Baxter wrote:

MrJoshua wrote: In the ignorant rednecks defense-going into any area to try to mock the local people is probably always a bad idea.

One of the things I like most about America is that you have a protected right to mock the locals.

While you legally have the right, common sense would dictate you don't do things that put your life at risk. I wouldn't go into gang areas wearing the wrong colors, go into gated neighborhoods with "Death to the Rich" painted on my car, etc. What really happened here is the Top Gear guys got the response they wanted, they just weren't prepared for the level of organization. Instead of getting to point and laugh as toothless people called them names, they were scared into removing the taunting material and run out of town. The fact that it happens doesn't make it right, but the fact that it shouldn't happen doesn't make it surprising.

MrJoshua wrote: I wouldn't ... go into gated neighborhoods with "Death to the Rich" painted on my car, etc.

Oh, I would TOTALLY do that.

Then again, you're talking to the kind of idiot who once drove from Florida to Indiana and back down to Louisiana with "Born To Boogie" written across the back of a '74 Karmann Ghia.

And yeah, I did get hassled, but only once: got stopped in Eros, Louisiana, where they were sure I was part of the Florida to Eros X-T-C smuggling trade.

Yeah, the gated thing is kindof weak-but I bet you would spend a fair amount of time explaining yourself to local law enforcement while they ran a thorough background check. No violence, but you could be seriously inconvenienced.

Born to Boogie! Now we know what to tattoo on your forehead if you pass out first this weekend.

Tim Baxter wrote:

MrJoshua wrote: I wouldn't ... go into gated neighborhoods with "Death to the Rich" painted on my car, etc.

Oh, I would TOTALLY do that.

A bunch of black security vans would encircle you pretty quickly...that is, assuming you got in by jumping the wall, otherwise it would never work.

Tim Baxter wrote:

MrJoshua wrote: I wouldn't ... go into gated neighborhoods with "Death to the Rich" painted on my car, etc.

Then again, you're talking to the kind of idiot who once drove from Florida to Indiana and back down to Louisiana with "Born To Boogie" written across the back of a '74 Karmann Ghia.

"Born to Boogie"?

I kneel before you, in absolute awe of your rebel-ness.

It wasn't so much rebel-ness as drunken tomfoolery I didn't have time to remove before the road trip. I'm lucky it was only "born to boogie". It could have been much worse.

As a side note, navy-issue grease pens will permanently stain white paint.

I saw this episdoe like last year. very amusing but I was kinda sad that they ripped on americans so much when I've spent time in the UK and can't say much better.

I suspect that you would be chased out of Alabama for saying the words "rubbish" and "petrol station" with a British accent.

funny thing is... bagdad the town they stopped in to mod the cars... is south part of my town (milton, FL) right outside pensacola... i still love that epp :)

side note... it's 30 miles from bagdad to AL... so they must have stopped off in west pensacola... or been a little off on their times....

The south can be scary...

My sister in law is from the a little town in Southern WV, her mother thinks my entire family is going to hell because we aren't Christian. Can't recount the number of times they've tried to "convert" my brother and I who are both atheists. Some old lady asked my sister in law whether my nephew was really hers.

Enroute to the Dixie tour this year I drove through some desolate parts of GA. Beautiful area, but I was scared. What Top Gear did was ballsy, and funny as hell. But, I personally don't like going into a lions den and playing chicken. What they did would be similar to going over to a British pub during an Ashes tour in England wearing a t-shirt that said "Poms suck, Aussies rule." There wouldn't be any feigned threats, you'd literally be lynched.

Woody wrote: I suspect that you would be chased out of Alabama for saying the words "rubbish" and "petrol station" with a British accent.

It would at least get you the blank stare and a "huh, wut u say?"

Southerners: the only safe stereotype left in the world.

JeepinMatt wrote: Southerners: the only safe stereotype left in the world.

well said good man

And Walmart people!

how about southern walmart people?

True story: Girl I know, was working in a theatre down in Atlanta as a lighting directorand her assistant was black. They were getting stuff out of her pickup with an older lady grabed her by the arm and told her to "keep her color"

If only that older lady knew my friend was a lesbian

Some of the ignorance and narrow-mindedness I am reading here is pretty astounding too...