Well at least you have a choice to change that. People who are gay/bi/trans can't.
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Richard 'Hamster' Hammond of The Grand Tour thinks ice cream is for homosexuals
- Thread starter LabouredSubterfuge
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Well at least you have a choice to change that. People who are gay/bi/trans can't.
Nope I didn't say that at all, seems like you just make up stuff to suit your argument.
LGBT+ have been treated like scum for years and still are now, religious people hate us and many don't think we should even be alive. Some even think we have a mental illness or the devil has got us because we aren't hetro. Some even try to "fix us". In many countries people are hunted down and killed for being LGBT+.
People that are overweight have no way been treated as badly , many people that are over weight can actually do something about it (yes some have medical conditions etc). But being LGBT+ is not a health condition or something that we have a choice over. We LGBT+ are born how we are and get treated like shit for it. To compare being over weight to how the LGBT+ community has been treated is crazy.
Ravensmash
Member
He's getting paid a lot of money to make jokes on a TV show. The mass appeal of Top Gear/Grand Tour is its ability to make people laugh. It's him and two other middle aged men playing characters. That's the reality of it - rightly or wrongly.
I am definitely leaning towards the whole purpose of the joke, being the utter absurdity of it (its fucking ice cream!).
It absolutely wasn't smart or witty, but part of me wonders whether this has got so much traction in the press because of who they are, and not what specifically was said (e.g. they're up to their old tricks...!).
That being said, I do hope that we get something a bit more thought out in future, because the show itself is great.
StrangeRoboMemory
Member
I've always found all of these dudes completely obnoxious, unfunny, and annoyingly self-satisfied. Never surprised when they say something awful.
Button
Banned
Yeah, I'm Finnish myself. That ad has no significant meaning in Finnish ice cream / gay culture that would in a million years "justify" that joke.
Zen_Arcade
Banned
Thank God I prefer frozen yogurt.
Closet homophobe, admit it.
Richard Hammond isn't, has never been and never will be funny.
This is a man desperate to be considered as funny as his two co-hosts trying desperately to get approval. Here's 'being a celebrity 101' rule no.1 don't make jokes about sexuality. Easy to follow. I don't believe the joke was extremely offensive, just unfunny and inappropriate and it's nothing less than I'd expect from Brummie Napoleon.
Moron.
This is a man desperate to be considered as funny as his two co-hosts trying desperately to get approval. Here's 'being a celebrity 101' rule no.1 don't make jokes about sexuality. Easy to follow. I don't believe the joke was extremely offensive, just unfunny and inappropriate and it's nothing less than I'd expect from Brummie Napoleon.
Moron.
Miles Quaritch
Member
Comparing the prejudice people face for being gay to being overweight.
What the fuck...
What the fuck...
Vulcano's assistant
Banned
in't the dynamic that one of them has to say something that is obviously wrong so the the other two can pile on him? They do that for everything.
Ollie Pooch
In a perfect world, we'd all be homersexual
Yeah, he hosts one of those "Wipeout" style shows and he's just so awkward and unlikable.
Yup, and it's a long-standing Top Gear tradition. There's always something absurdly, unambiguously (just like this) nonsensical one says like automatic gearboxes will kill your family or something and then the other two rip on how terrible that sentiment is.
I didn't even know it was referencing a Finnish TV advert until now either, I should have known given how there's usually quite a bit of a nuance/referencing going on when they usually do this, often with respect to British happenings, and as an international viewer you'd always know when it was a local reference too because you wouldn't get it but the audience would be in stitches, like this past episode of TGT.
Honestly, I'm surprised this has caused so much of a stir but I think now I understand outrage culture and how fast it can produce hate not dissimilar to that it claims to protest a bit more than I did a few days ago.
Maybe they should avoid throwing oppressed minorities under the bus for the benefit of a joke that isn't even funny next time.
Yup. Ever since Hammond joined the TG cast I've hoped he'd leave at some point.
Which is dumb because without all the bullshit it's a good show.
Goose_Se7en
Banned
And there it is folks.
Gentleman Jack
Member
The bloody hell it was. They were not referencing an obscure finnish tv commercial from six years ago. Hammond is saying he doesn't want to suck on a magnum while driving his car because it's gay. The hell is going on here with people ready to believe anything but the notion that a guy who made jokes about lazy mexicans is currently making jokes about gay panic.
starchild excalibur
Member
It's hard for me to believe that the joke was in reference to the commercial posted earlier, when none of the bit even includes Hammond or the other guys referencing that brand or that commercial. And given that the show is being watched globally, it seems - at best - absolutely idiotic to reference such a generally unknown commercial. But *shrug* maybe I'm wrong.
Either way, the joke was bad and like others have pointed out, the crux of it is with Hammond framing homosexuality in a pejorative way. It'd be like someone saying "Yeah, I don't like eating chips. Well, you know... black people like to eat chips. And that's just not for me."
Either way, the joke was bad and like others have pointed out, the crux of it is with Hammond framing homosexuality in a pejorative way. It'd be like someone saying "Yeah, I don't like eating chips. Well, you know... black people like to eat chips. And that's just not for me."
The Albatross
Member
Well then I guess that's it. Time to switch sides.
Who is panicking? Or are you just referring to peple on both "sides" of the argument here polishing their own confirmation biases?
I don't know enough about Finnish culture to know how obscure that was (which people seem to be fairly certain it is for some reason? With only a sample of only 2 or so Finnish posters chiming in period?), let alone how it wound up on Wilman's desk and onto the show to condemn him as a homophobe or exonerate him, and I have my skepticism about the merit of every 2c in this thread as well.
But I love playing devil's advocate, and what I do know a little bit about as a long-time fan of the show is that said joke in question is pretty much identical in format to every other instance of this form of satire they usually do. He's playing the fool, and it's not always him (most often May). When I watched the episode for the first time a few days ago I thought it was pretty clear that the homophobe character Richard was was the butt of the joke because... well that's the whole premise of it all? I mean, the gag(s are) is scripted such that one old idiots presents a completely outrageous and nonsensical opinion -and I think at this point it's good to take stock that in this case it's implying that ice cream is phallic- then the other two temporarily subvert being idiotic old men and take on more contrary, more modern or normative perspectives and berate the fool on how stupid, old, out of touch men he is (which is almost verbatim how they describe the show during press because that's their humorous tone, "three old idiots fall over a lot").
Whether it comes from a place of malice or not, I don't know. And yes, again as a long time fan of the show, I'm well aware of the countless explicit and implicit xenophobic directions their humour takes (mostly towards Germans and Americans; also we are talking about a show where the lead was fired in part for using racial slurs). But with respect to homophobia specifically (which is.. not racism), there are conclusions being made from assumptions here, and laying it all out on the table I think there's a decent case for both sides but I'm more comfortable claiming ignorance here than making a bunch of assumptions and claiming omniscience. Also, this scenario in eerily reminiscent of how the whole Argentina fiasco blew up disproportionately.
Old man yelling at cloud part of my post:
But more importantly, this thread is a hallmark example of why arguing on the Internet leads to pretty much nothing but polarization and misery. Zero margin for context, zero tolerance for information that does not self-fulfill, zero admission of ignorance in favour of certainty, zero nuance. I already regret posting in here because by playing Devil's Advocate on some (IMO) poor assumptions alone people will take a leap of logic and assume I'm defending homophobia or something.
Even after Top Gear exploded globally, they would still use local in-jokes. In almost every episode actually, because the introductions of The Stig were usually references to local news. Also, when interviewed during the press tour for The Grand Tour, they were pretty frequently asked if they would change their content or jokes to appeal internationally, they said they wouldn't because even when Top Gear went international it didn't really make a difference.
But yeah, like I mentioned above that comes with it's own set of prejudices/biases.
It is, but there is no need to make the joke at anyones expense but the hosts.
Solideliquid
Member
Opened this thread just as I was sitting down with a mug of kirklands super creamy vanilla ice cream. Finished all three scoops and ... nope still don't feel the need for penis, other than my own. You know what I mean. Now I'm out of ice cream.
Spirit of Jazz
Banned
Fuck off with this defence of blatantly homophobic straight guys. "Look, there's this one guy who say homophobic shit but the other two straight guys put him in his place so that's okay!" which isn't even what happened. Fuck, as a bunch of privileged white shits who've made dubious comments in regards to people in the past they shouldn't even mention minorities. Nobody should be attempting to justify this shit in 2016.
Gentleman Jack
Member
"gay panic" in this case refers to the foundation of Hammond's jibe regarding not wanting to eat a frozen confection. "I'm straight and adult and male, no way can I eat something straight and long!"
I get the joke, I really do, Hammond sets himself up to say something stupid and the others react to hit. Yuk yuk. I just want people to start being a little more honest with themselves, Hammond and Clarkson have a considerable history of punching down with their humor, and the essense of Hammond's bit in this is 'boy who wants to act like those homosexuals am I right guys?' is tone deaf and crappy and can't be brushed aside with 'well that globe trotting 47 year old multimillionaire gobshite couldn't have possibly known any better, I mean sure he's sometimes said some awful bigoted shit in the past but nah he wouldn't cross that line with gays c'mon.'
It's fine if you want to give him unlimited latitude but throwing up paper thin shit like 'oh it's a finnish ice cream commercial duh guys can't you take a joke.' is bullshit and barely rises to the standard of devil's advocate. Devil's advocate doesn't mean 'but what if it was this incredibly unlikely thing someone randomly threw into the discussion?'
Amazing isn't it
FF Seraphim
Member
Amazing isn't the word I would use... I felt my mind wince in pain from reading his comments...
I honestly hope he wasn't being serious.
Get out of here. You don't get too decide what people are and are not allowed say, full stop.
dead monkey uk
Member
It's only homosexual if you put sprinkles on top.
BossDarkseid
Member
Ofc, but you can equally disapprove if someone makes a joke where the punchline is something someone has no control over (ie ment health, being gay etc).
Of course you can disapprove, no issue with that at all.
-Plasma Reus-
Service guarantees member status
They've always been disgusting human beings. Solidified when they followed Clarkson to his Amazon deal.
Saint of Killers
Member
It could have been so much worse. I mean, I could have written Awful Thing for the sake of an increased viewership / wages. Imagine how horrible a person I'd be then!
The Last Wizard
Member
That ice cream joke in the trump thread makes sense now.
No one should be surprised, crazy how this guy still gets so much support.
No one should be surprised, crazy how this guy still gets so much support.
admiraltaftbar
Member
Well Jeremy Clarkson got fired for punching his producer in the face and then people angrily claimed the firing was ridiculous. I like TG/GT for the most part but I'll never understand the cult like following around the show and the people who believe the show and hosts can do no wrong.
John Kowalski
Banned
What the hell no one ever told me sex was this easy
I still think the worst thing about this is the fact that they made a joke about a straight man not being able to do something that he consders gay (whether as a made up character or what he actually thinks as a real person, doesn't really matter), because "gay things" are viewed as somehow bad/unwanted, not that it was something absurd like not eating ice cream specifically. That still paints a dumb picture of there being things in this world that are too gay for Real Straight Men to do because that would make them seem gay and that is bad, which is a way of thought that causes real issues in the real world and isn't just some "man-babies in an echo chamber being outraged over nothing" SJW problem.
Not that it's really important, but he wasn't actually fired. They just didn't renew his contract. The intro to the first episode of The Grand Tour makes light of this when it's pointed out that Clarkson is technically the only one of the three that's never been fired.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
This episode was filmed in Finland.
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