Top Gear Saved, Then Ruined Automotive Journalism

"Blake Noble" (blake-noble)
03/20/2015 at 19:30 • Filed to: Unpopular Opinions, Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson, Automotive Journalismism

As Jeremy Clarkson's future hangs in the balance, so does the fate of Top Gear. But even as the show treads upon shaky ground, automotive journalism continues to follow in its footsteps. In the past, automotive journalism needed Top Gear's influence. But much like its revered host, the show is now doing more harm than good.

During the first few years after its 2002 reboot, Top Gear's impact was quite positive. At long last, automotive enthusiasts had a proper, well-sorted television series that wasn't concerned with documenting some half-assed restoration. It also packed a much bigger punch than consumer advice-driven shows, like Motorweek in the US .

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"Simultaneously, as Top Gear's popularity grew, so did its influence on automotive journalism. The result was uncouth banality."

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But more importantly, Top Gear glued casual viewers to their couches, dishing out a fresh hour of action-packed entertainment featuring Nolan-esque cinematography, and hosted by an irreverent trio of rogues. Audiences had never seen a show quite like it. And perhaps it even made them think of their own cars as something more than a rolling metal meat bucket only good for polluting the environment and getting them to work. No other car-related show had that potential before.

The show had the right recipe for success, and its popularity spread like wildfire. By 2006, its global viewership eclipsed the entire US population by roughly 50 million people. Simultaneously, as Top Gear's popularity grew, so did its influence on automotive journalism. The result was uncouth banality.

Everyone, from competing television shows and aspiring YouTube reviewers, started copying Top Gear's trademark cinematography and presentation. Magazines underwent expensive redesigns with glossy pages, glitzy graphics and detail-oriented, high-def photography in a bid to cop some of the show's feel. These changes were arguably welcome.

But then the show started to make an impact on the actual writing and reporting. While an irreverent tone has always been a staple of automotive journalism, many journalists puffed out their chests and desperately tried to ape Jeremy Clarkson's macho, politically-incorrect obtuse style. And it's been intolerable.

The following excerpts have all been pulled from various sources, including a Jeremy Clarkson-penned review from The Sunday Times and a review segment from Top Gear . In the interest of neutrality, links to each excerpt will not be given here. Try to decide which is Clarkson and which is someone emulating:

But what if you were tied down and forced to drive one of these cars like a North Korean political prisoner?

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It's right that it's as orange as an air hostess.

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...unless the only precious cargo you transport is named Fendi or Birkin, we wouldn't expect much use out of the tiny back seats.

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Unfortunately this doesn't work any more, because today BMW is filling its cars with sex scenes as well.

It's hard to tell unless there's an answer key lying around. So here's the answer: the second and final excerpts were from Clarkson.

Somehow, someway, meathead humor clearly permeates throughout the world of automotive writing. That's just been demonstrated. And sadly, it makes automotive journalists and the enthusiasts they so often represent look like a bunch of nut-brained apes hanging around in Darwin's waiting room, praying for thumbs.

It begs the question: why and how exactly does Top Gear pull in so many casual viewers? If it's because of Jeremy Clarkson's controversial humor like so many claim, then casual viewers must enjoy laughing at him , not with him. And, by proxy, are those viewers laughing at car enthusiasts as well?

Afterthoughts: Beyond The Fourth Wall

To wrap things up, I'm going to break the fourth wall I've been writing behind this entire column. I'm going to end with this statement: I by no means think Jeremy Clarkson and Top Gear should ride off into the sunset for good. I don't hate Jeremy Clarkson, and I admittedly went through my own nasty phase where I thought I could wear his nicotine-stained Levi's around. I get the appeal. But we have to have priotitize and reward originality and innovation. This is the perfect time for automotive journalism to take a step back and rethink the impression Clarkson and Top Gear have made on it.

DISCUSSION (19)

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > Blake Noble
03/20/2015 at 19:40

I'd say that you can't think of Top Gear as automotive journalism, and as such automotive magazines/shows should not do what Top Gear does/did.

I DO love Top Gear, but I'd love it if they did what they do in a show about growing carrots as well (Bit of a stretch there, but you get what I mean).

Top Gear pulls in a crowd because they have a chemistry, not because it's a show about cars. The guys are actually quite funny, and they bounce jokes back and forth like few other comedians do (yup, I said it).

Should Top Gear be a huge influence on automotive journalism? I'd say no.. The guys love cars, can't deny that, but Top Gear is about having fun and not really about cars, it just happens to involve cars.

Steve in Manhattan > Blake Noble
03/20/2015 at 20:11

I think Top Gear succeeds for the following reasons: 1) the scripted bits are excellent; 2) the clearly unscripted bits are very funny, mostly due to Clarson and May (taking nothing away from Hammond); 3) even when the premise isn't that interesting (India Special; Africa Special; Vietnam Special) the presenters mere presence saves it; 4) the BBC spends the money to make the show what it is. No expense is spared.

I got both Clarkson quotes.

Finally, as has been pointed out again and again - people who don't give a shit about cars enjoy the show - it's that good. People who don't give a shit about restorations love This Old House ; people who could care less about the crap in your attic (me!) love Antiques Road Show , especially the British version. The concept is what makes a show.

Which is why Pan Am didn't work.

Conan > Blake Noble
03/20/2015 at 20:19

The very fact that I have a large number of students, in the heart of rural Virginia, who know more about cars (and literally the world) because of Top Gear means it should have a place in automotive journalism until the guys choose to retire and beyond. I suspect Jalopnik, Oppo, and indeed your own posts are more read because of their impact.

If other people perhaps do a poor job of automotive journalism because of the show it's up to us, not the four guys at the heart of Top Gear, to change. I think the writers of this site do an excellent job showing it isn't the limit of us.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Blake Noble
03/20/2015 at 20:36

It's a brilliant opportunity for Top Gear to reinvent itself again. Perhaps have the show co-hosted by Hammond and May, and bring on a new guy that they both pick on (Tanner Foust comes immediately to mind...).

Clarkson is a cockend — their word — and I hope that Top Gear proves to be bigger than he.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh
03/20/2015 at 20:39

I'd say automotive journalism is a bit of an oxymoron. At the end of the day, even if it's from the passenger seat or the back seat, that's where automotive journalism takes place.

At the end of a segment, I don't remember any of the quips, I remember what the exhaust sounded like.

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
03/20/2015 at 20:44

On any other show I remember the engine noise or how the exhaust sounds like, not so much if we're talking about Top Gear, when it comes to Top Gear I actually pay more attention to the blokes. And I've been a car guy since I was born I guess.

But I understand what you mean.

Blake Noble > Conan
03/20/2015 at 21:24

If other people perhaps do a poor job of automotive journalism because of the show it's up to us, not the four guys at the heart of Top Gear, to change.

Agreed.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh
03/20/2015 at 21:28

That's a good illustration of how folks' perspectives can be different. You know what's funny with me is that I can never remember Jame's May's name. Let's see: Clarkson, Hammond and who?

I do love the show, though.

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
03/20/2015 at 21:30

Indeed. I do love the other shows May's done though, so you won't find me forgetting his name :P

Snooder87 > Blake Noble
03/20/2015 at 21:35

If it's because of Jeremy Clarkson's controversial humor like so many claim, then casual viewers must enjoy laughing at him , not with him.

No, we're laughing with him. See, "meathead humor" is popular. People like jokes about sex and stereotypes. It's relatable. And it gives the impression that you aren't taking things too seriously.

See, if you write a column about the latest bmw, most enthusiasts would go on about F30 this and e46 that. To the average person that's just a bunch of gobbledygook. But if you slip in a few jokes to explain how the handling has gotten looser like your wife after a few years of marriage, then they'll get it. Even if they don't quite understand the technical bits about handling, they'll get the joke and it makes them feel welcome. Without it they feel like you are deliberately trying to make them look stupid.

Without the lowbrow humor, you don't have mass appeal. You just have a bunch of elitist jerks stroking themselves to obscure terminology.

Blake Noble > Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh
03/20/2015 at 21:37

I'd say that you can't think of Top Gear as automotive journalism, and as such automotive magazines/shows should not do what Top Gear does/did.

See, here's the thing. Even if you think Top Gear is "just entertainment," you can't deny it's very much rooted in automotive journalism

The review, interview and challenge segments all use storytelling elements seen in every form of journalism under the sun. Each host has an extensive journalism background, including Clarkson.

The original Top Gear wasn't really much unlike Motorweek or Motor Trend television (if you remember that) outside of Clarkson's segments.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > Blake Noble
03/20/2015 at 21:38

The comment about orange air hostesses is from his review of the 2005 Focus ST, Series 7, Episode 3. They also drive to that bridge in France in supercars.

That episode is about where Top Gear peaked. They have had many moments of brilliance since then, so it's not a vertical downward graph, but that episode and the ones after are about as good as they get.

Episode 4 was when they bought the second-hand Italian supercars and everything breaks. Episode 5 is when they race the Veyron across Europe against James in his Cessna.

Those three episodes are about the best they have ever made.

lucky's pepper > Blake Noble
03/20/2015 at 21:40

If you think automotive writing that appeals to the teenage boy in all of us started with Top Gear's reincarnation you must have never read Car & Driver when it was great. They were doing this back in the 80's when I started reading and did it brilliantly well. Unfortunately the magazine has long since gone to shit.

The real difference I see, what old C&D had in common with modern Top Gear but everyone else seems to lack, is that they do it effortlessly and with an unforced sense of humor.

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > Blake Noble
03/20/2015 at 21:50

I remember the Original Top Gear, never seen Motorweek, but Motor Trend does ring a bell.

I don't and won't deny that the current Top Gear started as an automotive show, and actually still promotes itself AS such, but we can't expect that the bloke next door knows the difference between this and that can we? That's what I meant with what I said about other shows magazines should not follow suit.

The average bloke don't really care (sad as it is), so it's more or less up to everyone else to make proper automotive journalism happen right?

But what about Roadkill then? It's all a bit of a mess right?

I'd say anything that makes people that don't really care about cars watch shows about cars is a good thing. It just might make them think.

In the end I do think we agree actually, we just don't agree on how to meet goals.

McChiken116 - Patrick H. > Blake Noble
03/21/2015 at 02:39

"Ruined" is a very harsh word. Apart from older, more irreverent, journalists, trying to find a last gasp of popularity, no one I know try's to emulate Clarkson. Evo, motor trend, drive, Jalopnik. No one. Top Gear awakened my love of cars, more than loving F1, or motorweek or anything ever could have.

bee1000 > Blake Noble
03/22/2015 at 16:39

When I first discovered Top Gear, I couldn't get enough it: the photography was beautiful, the hosts were funny, the photography was beautiful. It didn't take long to tire of them doing the same jokes over and over, though, and as they tried to top their absurd stunts with stunts that were even more absurd (and obviously scripted), I just gave up on it. I'm in a small minority, I'm sure, but Clarkson always was the least enjoyable part of the show.

I love the magazine, however. Beautiful photography, well written articles that aren't just spec sheets rewritten in paragraph form, beautiful photography — and it's really easy to skip right past Clarkson's dumb column.

As for Clarkson and Top Gear's effect on others:

The most recent issue of Road & Track tried to emulate TG's photography and article approaches and did a very good job of it.

I could do without ever seeing the word bespoke or the phrase bit of kit in any car magazine ever again.

Toyotathong! > Blake Noble
04/02/2015 at 22:44

The result was uncouth banality.

Nailed it.

KURKOS__DR > Blake Noble
04/03/2015 at 06:35

Jeremy Clarkson is an admittedly clever individual who pretends to be a cranky old white man.

The motoring journalists that are imitating him are cranky old white men.

Clarkson is british humour at it's finest, while "the others" are just trying to hard.

KURKOS__DR > Blake Noble
04/03/2015 at 06:36

Jeremy Clarkson is an admittedly clever individual who pretends to be a cranky old white man.

The motoring journalists that are imitating him are cranky old white men.

Clarkson is british humour at it's finest, while "the others" are just trying to hard.