Top Gear/Tropes A-M: Difference between revisions

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* [[Abhorrent Admirer]]: Richard Hammond gets a fan letter, ostensibly from a mentally-disturbed prisoner about to be released on parole....named Stuart.

{{quote|'''May''': It's better than that. Stuart, come on in!

** Richard Hammond's "Donkey" from the Bolivia special, a Toyota Land Cruiser which had things go wrong with such regularity you could set your watch by it.

 

{{quote|'''May''': [''while Clarkson is looking at a board of tools''] That's the precision tool board. The hammer lives elsewhere.}}

* [[Ambiguously Gay]]: All three presenters frequently try to paint the others as this.

** The India Special reveals that, if trapped in a que too long, Hammond begins to swear compulsively.

{{quote|"I have this thing where, if I'm stuck in a $*#@(ing que to long, I, #%43, wait, I just did it there, didn't I? #&^@. I need to ^#(@&ing get out of here."}}

** In the "affordable small cars" challenge, each presenter had to load a large dog into his choice of car and do a lap -- though points would be lost if the dog looked sad afterwards. (The credits included the fake disclaimer: "Some animals were harmed in the making of this programme.")

* [[Annoying Laugh]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbO_SqNPZBk&feature=related James May].

** Supercars: easy to break, easy to do stupid things and get yourself killed [[Catch Phrase|to]] [[Department of Redundancy Department|death]] in, unsafe in various other ways ("but ''what'' a ''way'' to go!"), hard to see out of, hard to park, short and wide, and not just expensive sticker-wise: they guzzle fuel, burn through lots of tyres, incur boggling maintenance bills, and depreciate in resale value right off of a cliff, especially if you don't max out the options list when you buy them new ''and'' pick a popular {{color|red| color}}.<br /><br />To make things worse, when supercars catch on fire, because of the materials they're made of, they actually burn ''more intensely'' than normal cars. Catching fire and burning to the ground is definitely awesome and impractical, but ''horrifying'' if it's yours or you appreciate cars. And yet: "Well, we're not in it, we're not moving in it, but [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoUiJuOhbk0 I'm still enjoying it]."

** The V8 Blender. Created a concoctions that James May dubbed "The Bloody Awful". Though [[Alien Lunch|given the ingredients]]...

* [[Backed by the Pentagon|Backed By The Ministry Of Defence]]: ''Top Gear'' frequently has appearances from members of the British Army, Royal Marines or Royal Air Force, taking part in all sorts of hijinks under the guise of car tests. This includes a tank/an attack helicopter/snipers from the Irish Guards hunting down Jeremy Clarkson as he drives a car or SUV, and more recently Clarkson reviewing the new Ford Fiesta in part by using it in a Royal Marine beach assault and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5rRY2ICT4k playing a motorised version of British Bulldog with various armoured vehicles and a Mitsubishi], Richard Hammond racing a British Army parachutist or RAF pilot flying a Eurofighter Typhoon (Hammond's first shot at driving the Bugatti Veyron), and a BAE Sea Harrier doing a Power Lap.<br /><br />In 2009, the MoD revealed that since 2004, the Armed Forces were involved in filming for the equivalent of 141 days and civilian officials spent 48 days working on items for the programme. Although there was a bit of snarkery over this, the MoD insists that it was an excellent way to boost support for the Army. Clarkson notably supports the troops, and he is a patron of [http://helpforheroes.co.uk Help For Heroes]

* [[Badass Adorable]]: The Stig, ever since the declassification of pictures and video of their breeding program. Suddenly the world's most badass drivers have become a cross between Chickens and Lambs.

{{quote|'''Clarkson''': All he's done, all morning -- he files. He takes stuff out, and then puts it back and files it where it's supposed to be.}}

** As Season 12 amply demonstrates, [[Laser-Guided Karma|rule of thumb]] dictates that Clarkson has his fair share too. See the ''Vietnam Special''.

* [[Camera Abuse]]: Often. Cameras, high-speed vehicles, and rough roads/seas are a bad combination.

** In the "police cars" challenge, Clarkson smeared petroleum jelly on the lens of a camera to get a dramatic 'soft focus' (read as "hopelessly blurry") effect for his power lap.

{{quote|'''May''': The fact is if I was only three inches tall, but the same person, the cat ''would'' kill me.}}

* [[Caustic Critic]]: Probably all the presenters at times, but especially Clarkson.

** May also uses one in the North Pole Special, while balancing on a bridge of ice. Clarkson tells him to stop before he cuts his arm off.

* [[Character Development]]: All three. Over the course of 12 seasons, Clarkson has become sharper on some issues and mellower on others; Hammond has become slightly less reckless; and May has become bolder and freer (and faster!).

** A rare end-of-episode cliffhanger was in the opener of series 16, when the baby in Bethlehem offered gold, <s>frankincense</s> shampoo and <s>myrrh</s> a portable game console wore a white motorcyclist helmet and suit.

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: James May often when he makes side comments during the talk parts such as when they do the news, like when they are talking about the effect of no cows and he says 'no eggs' (since milkmen bring the eggs.)

* [[The Cuckoolander Was Right]]: In the convertible people carrier challenge, both Clarkson and Hammond mock May for claiming that monkeys are the most dangerous animal they could possibly face in a safari park, worse than lions. After experiencing the park in their car with its home-made roof, they agree with him.

* [[Cluster F-Bomb]]: Richard Hammond

* [[Couldn't Find a Pen]]: Jeremy declared that the Dodge Viper was a car "so sophisticated, it could write its own name." He then proceeded to write the word "Viper" on the test track, using skidmarks.

* [[Country Matters]]: In Series 15, Clarkson looked for anagrams in his co-presenters' numberplates. He found "Liar" in Hammond's L48I RAR and "Gosh" in May's (GS99 HOS), but didn't bother to point out the one in his own CTU 131N.

** Played for laughs, with the presenters always getting computer terminology wrong ("if you own an internet, why not visit us at Top Gear Dot Internet Dot Website Slash BBC London W12") and some celebrities' names, like mixing Puff Daddy / P Diddy's names to produce "P Diddly".

** May is usually good for references to 'GameStation', 'Facetube' and 'YouBook' as a subversive means of [[Product Placement]]. He also deliberately mangles some brand names, like Clarkson's "ippod" {{[[[IProduct]] iPod}}]and the "gock-ikle" [Gocycle] electric bike.'

** When the hosts of Top Gear Australia challenged the boys in Britain, Clarkson read the letter addressed to "You pommie bas-"

** During their motoring holiday with the Stig, the flipchart Clarkson was writing on fell over just as he was about to finish writing that the M3 is shi-

* [[Damn You, Muscle Memory!]]: When the presenters or a guest operates a vehicle with an unfamiliar layout.

** A good example was the Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle, which stymied Hammond at first because the brake was where he expected the gear lever to be.

* [[Dueling Shows]]: With ''Fifth Gear'', which is much less popular than ''Top Gear'' (and is based on the original, more straightforward-review format) but is often name-dropped because its presenters include several of Clarkson's old colleagues and rivals from the original ''Top Gear''. Disasters such as the Cool Wall burning down are often ascribed to Fifth Gear's nefarious schemes.

* [[Dynamic Entry]]: In episode 1 of series 17 Hammond takes a shortcut through Johannesburg in the Marauder by driving it through a wall.

* [[Eagle Land]]: The show and presenters, especially Clarkson, are infamous in some circles for hating on Americans and American cars -- see [[Deep South]] above. Clarkson ''especially'' views Americans strictly through Flavor # 2 glasses, which has provoked [[Dude, Not Funny|negative responses]] from viewers, and not just Americans. [[Subverted Trope|At the same time]], all three of the presenters have favorably reviewed American cars. Two of Jeremy's favorite cars are the Dodge Viper and the Ford GT. May likes Cadillacs for their style and comfort; famously, one Cadillac that failed to impress him with bells and whistles won him over ''completely'' with superior handling. And Hammond owns a Ford Mustang and a Dodge Charger and will like just about any traditional American muscle car (he chose the new Dodge Challenger during the American Supercar Challenge precisely because of this).

** Even with all the America bashing, the show is a huge hit in the US. In fact, it could be argued that it's among the reasons it's popular. A very cringe-worthy moment was when the Jaguar designer said they wouldn't be able to make them as sleek anymore if Americans got their way, because so many Americans couldn't be bothered to wear seat-belts that the US government wanted the roofs higher to protect unbelted drivers.

{{quote|'''May''': You disappoint me, Ramsay.}}

** And once he and Mika Hakkinen bonded over a cup of "hot reindeer blood". (Or possibly just coffee...)

* [[Face Palm]]:

** All the presenters have done this [http://i40.tinypic.com/1y5pgz.png to each other] [http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3031/3021482587_2e41afca9a.jpg at some point].

** Subverted with Jodie Kidd: no-one really expected anything out of her other than some eye candy, but she actually ''topped'' the "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car" rankings when she appeared on the show, and held that title until the following season.

** The early series had even more egregious examples, like [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJemsVMhEhs#t=7m6s Jeremy Clarkson's explanation of the Porsche 911 range].

* [[Fast-Forward Gag]]: James May explaining to the other two how to figure out if the Morris Mini they've chosen can actually go over a ski jump successfully.

* [[Fish Out of Water]]: The Stig whenever he's not behind the wheel of something.

'''Hammond''': Don't like crab.

'''May''': Razor clams.

** In the end he eats a bowl of rice... krispies.

** Hammond also revealed that he doesn't eat ''fish'' in the Nissan GT-R vs Bullet Train race in Japan, and it was likewise lampshaded by Clarkson when the camera cut to him.

** The Stig: so phlegmatic he never speaks, startles or betrays emotion.

* [[Free Wheel]]: Several times, for example when Clarkson's tries to use his [[Spiked Wheels]] in the "alternative police car" challenge.

* [[Friendship Moment]]: Rare, but they happen.

** On a frightening mountain pass at night with no headlights and nothing visible except the back of Hammond's Toyota:

* [[Friend to All Children]]: Hammond.

* [[Fruit Cart]]: Close -- a flower cart, as part of an obstacle course in the car-for-a-17-year-old challenge. The presenters lost points for ''not'' hitting it.

** Clarkson once got himself into trouble (again) after wearing a t-shirt with "the worst word in the world" on it to a rehearsal, forgetting he had it on, and then taking promotional photos with some rather important representatives of a Japanese games manufacturer.

** During the 15.07 American Roadtrip, Jeremy and Richard appear on camera wearing t-shirts with [[Every Car Is a Pinto|a picture of a Ferrari 458 Italia engulfed in flames]] - the same model that James is driving. Richard is also carrying a matching coffee cup.

{{quote|'''[[wikipedia:ADAC|ADAC]] Technician''' [''while putting one of their "cheap cars" through a test'']: Scheiße! (Literally "Shit!")<br />

'''Subtitle''': [[Gosh Darn It to Heck|Oh bother.]] }}

* [[Gargle Blaster]]: The V8 Smoothie (aka the "Bloody Awful").

* [[Gearhead Show]]: aka Petrolhead show in the UK.

* [[Geeky Turn On]]:

{{quote|'''Clarkson''': That Audi woman you had, she was amazing!

'''May''': Yeah, I, uh, found her strangely attractive.

** May ends up recieving a [[Stealth Hi Bye]] karate-kick from the Chinese "Attack" Stig in Series 18.

{{quote|'''Clarkson''': Ha! In the plums!}}

* [[Hachimaki]]: Clarkson wears one near the end of the Japanese segment where he, driving the Nissan GTR, races Hammond and May, who are riding the bullet train.

* [[Hammerspace]]: Clarkson pulls a hammer out of nowhere in Season Twelve to test the construction of a Lada. If one looks closely at that sequence, one can figure out how Clarkson did it. But on first viewing, it's awesome.

** Also:

{{quote|'''Clarkson''' : Will you two grow up!}}

* [[I Always Wanted to Say That]]

{{quote|[''The lads' Renault Avantime has caught fire, forcing them to abandon their tuning efforts'']

'''Clarkson''': [''over Hammond's shoulder''] "Back to the studio!" }}

* [[I Call It Vera]]: Richard Hammond named his 1963 Opel Kadett "Oliver" during the Botswana Special.

* [[Idiot Ball]]: Each presenter has held it at least once, ''including the Stig''. The presenters even have an award for the biggest cock-up of the year: the coveted Golden Cock award.

** Perhaps the best example is when Jeremy Clarkson put the lit bowl of a Porsche-branded pipe in his mouth (joking that it was a rear-engined model and thus the "hot bit goes at the back.") Unsurprisingly, he burned his tongue.

** The stick in the mud is usually James May, though in the Vietnam Special it was Clarkson. This opened up a world of comedic possibilities.

* [[I Know Mortal Kombat]]: In [http://www.bbcamerica.com/shows/topgear/video.jsp?bclid=31560299001&bctid=30097946001 one episode], Jeremy Clarkson drove a racing car (a Honda NSX) around a track (Laguna Seca) he had done thousands of times in ''[[Gran Turismo]] 4'' on the PlayStation and found it considerably more difficult in real life. Partly because he couldn't take the same risks when failure would mean time in hospital instead of restarting.

* [[Incendiary Exponent]]: Clarkson's a big fan of this trope. In one of the 2010 specials, he described plans for an Olympic opening ceremony in which ''everything'' was on fire--including the spectators.<br /><br />More often than not, Clarkson accidentally sets ''himself'' on fire.

** In episode five of series 16, Clarkson is in charge of a flamethrower mounted on the back of their "Snowbine harvester"

* [[Ironic Nickname]]: May, right before smashing his previous top speed of 253mph in the upgraded Bugatti Veyron Super Sport:

{{quote|'''James''': Anyway, big-fast-Shelby-American-car-thingy...your gauntlet has now been picked up by the one they call "Der Langsamer"- The Slow One. [''leans forward''] ''[[Insistent Terminology|Captain]]'' Slow to you.}}

* [[Isn't It Ironic?]]: Possible aversion in the use of Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" to enhance the Americanness of the replacement bike in the Vietnam Special.

* [[I Take Offense to That Last One]]: After James May has [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjKHQSOzfQw reviewed a Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe] and commented that he thinks it suits him because it's stylish and contemporary.

** He also has a particular problem with [[Separated by a Common Language|the American pronunciation]] of aluminum (Neither the British or English version matches the Latin root).

* [[It's Going Down]]: Caravan? Morris Marina? Don't get emotionally attached: it's doomed.

* [[Jerkass]]: Mostly Clarkson, but all three presenters have their moments from time to time. A favorite trick is for two of them to [[With Friends Like These...|sabotage the efforts of the third]] during challenges.

* [[Jesus Was Way Cool]]: On at least two separate occasions, Jesus has appeared in the studio audience. Clarkson has said he hopes one day he'll be the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car.

* [[Kayfabe]]: It's unknown how many of the stunts are scripted or 'enhanced' -- the caravan lighting on fire in the above-mentioned caravan holiday certainly was -- but [[Lampshade Hanging|they call attention to the existence of the script]] themselves sometimes, including the disagreements. May has said that they never fabricate the results of their races or challenges, but they do shoot additional scenes to help tell the story.

** One example: the "Blind Man" lap (see [[Handicapped Badass]], above). When the blind viewer did his actual timed lap, he was guided by The Stig in the passenger seat. For the taped version shown on the air, the blind man drove around the test track with Jeremy Clarkson in the passenger seat, and the tape was edited to make it seem that it was Clarkson riding shotgun during the timed lap.

** And another example: in the Vietnam special they presented Jeremy Clarkson as inexperienced and relatively incompetent at riding a motorbike, even though in an earlier series (1995's ''Jeremy Clarkson's Motorworld'') Clarkson had quite competently ridden motorbikes -- ''in Vietnam''!

** Tesla Motors weren't amused when the show pretended that the electric Roadster had run out of charge when it hadn't. The figures quoted for the car's range were correct, but the car wasn't dead when Clarkson pushed it into a garage.

* [[Kids Prefer Boxes]]: Richard Hammond revealed that whenever he got a new appliance with a box, he couldn't get rid of the box because he wanted to play with it.

* [[Killed Off for Real]]: The original Stig.

* [[Kinda Busy Here]]: Averted. No matter what Clarkson's driving or how fast he's going, he always seems to have time to take a call from one of the other two.

* [[Kryptonite Factor]]: James May can't focus on the task at hand when things (especially his tools) are out of order. Naturally, the other two take advantage of this whenever it [[Rule of Funny|might be funny]].

* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: The presenters are aware of and often reference the fact that the average viewer at home could never get a car like the hundred-grand supercars they often review.

* [[The Lancer]]: Hammond to Clarkson, especially in earlier seasons. May and Clarkson are more of an [[Odd Couple]].

* [[Laser-Guided Karma]]: Hammond and May are always just as helpful to Clarkson as he is to them.

{{quote|'''Hammond''': [''after Clarkson's [[The Alleged Car|secondhand Porsche 928]] has dropped out of sight''] Probably should go back and look for him, that'd be the caring thing to do, but... he wouldn't do it for me!}}

* [[Leitmotif]]:

** After the Toyota Hilux destruct-test challenge, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZvhbkvZ-oY "La Resa Dei Conti"] from ''[[For a Few Dollars More]]'' (which had been used extensively in the sequence and was previously a [[Recurring Riff]]) came to be associated with the Toyota alone.

** Also, on the Botswana special, the eerie strains of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6BQKFs3-VM "The Man With The Harmonica"] from ''[[Once Upon a Time in the West]]'' operated as a sort of musical metaphor for failure. (It came up quite a bit when Clarkson's disaster-prone Lancia appeared on screen, or during ominous shots of the Beetle following them).

{{quote|'''May''': "It's no wonder Michael Schumacher retired, he's ''slower'' than ''me''!"}}

** He still does tend to drive significantly slower in normal (not racing or high speed testing) circumstances and they usually end up waiting for him in group situations, so the nickname still fits, even if it has become the result of habit instead of an ability flaw in more recent seasons (and his poor sense of direction doesn't help his arrival times).

* [[Lost in Transmission]]: In the introductory segment of the Honda Civic Type R review, Clarkson shows off how the boot of the old R could hold an excellent set of speakers. Cut to inside the car, where the chugging baseline drowns out his dialogue, until ...

{{quote|'''Clarkson:''' ...ten pints of Stella and a dollop of chlamydia.}}

* [[Made of Explodium]]: Homemade convertable top + automatic car wash = oops.

{{quote|[''The three take their convertible people carrier through a car wash'']

{{quote|'''Hammond''' [''narrating'']: Now, for our younger viewers, we should explain why the Top Gear office thinks the three of us lost our marbles. See, some B.L. cars were quite badly built ... but most weren't built at all.}}

* [[My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels]]: May attempting to ask directions in Romania with a phrasebook which has been purposefully mistranslated, leaving him saying things like "Let's buy a glass door with full double glazing" and "These boxes are not the same size" to the puzzled locals. Also, while not a mistranslation, the only German phrase May knows sounds like an example -- it means "''Naturally'' Hans is wet; he is standing under a waterfall."

 

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[[Category:Split Trope Lists]]