I have to admit, I'd assumed that Jeremy Clarkson had long ago jumped his own personal shark, and had been playing an Ali G -style character based on himself on Top Gear for many years. I'm rather saddened that recent events suggest that he was actually taking himself seriously.
Although I've not signed it myself*, I am amused by the fact that the petition to bring back Clarkson was set up on change.org. Judging by the emails I get from change.org, they take themselves rather seriously, and their userbase profile has probably just changed in ways they were really not expecting...
Also, The Stig delivering the petition to the BBC in atank (or is it a self-propelled gun as I saw some gun nerd complaining somewhere?) was an inspired piece of theatre that I can only appreciate.
* because, amusing though Clarkson and petition both are, when it comes down to it, if he really thumped someone vastly poorer and less influential than himself, or even threatened to do so, that's pretty abysmal behaviour and I'm not sure an online petition to allow him 'freedom to fracas' is in any way an appropriate response.
Although I've not signed it myself*, I am amused by the fact that the petition to bring back Clarkson was set up on change.org. Judging by the emails I get from change.org, they take themselves rather seriously, and their userbase profile has probably just changed in ways they were really not expecting...
Also, The Stig delivering the petition to the BBC in a
* because, amusing though Clarkson and petition both are, when it comes down to it, if he really thumped someone vastly poorer and less influential than himself, or even threatened to do so, that's pretty abysmal behaviour and I'm not sure an online petition to allow him 'freedom to fracas' is in any way an appropriate response.
Comments
Without the counterweight of Top Gear, it will be harder for the BBC to fend off accusations of only appealing to certain sections of society.
I can't see that they had much option but to at least defer. And I am not sure about Top Gear as sole representative of a demographic either. I like Top Gear, but I don't think that really puts me into a pigeonhole!
To some extent, I feel that a certain percentage of *everyone* is arsehole. :-D
I am mildly bemused by the excitement, a lot of which appears to have nothing to do with the alleged offence which, as far as one can tell on relatively little information, the BBC appears to be handling appropriately. A friend was telling me (with dubious reliability, I should add) that Clarkson has been looking for a way to get out of Top Gear without enraging the fans for years, and actually reported himself to the BBC for the assault in the belief that it would give him and out that made him look like the victim. That seems somewhat Machievellian to me, and certainly a rather convoluted plan. But it doesn't sound completely unlikely that he might be tired of Top Gear and looking for an excuse to jump ship.
And there have been a series of escalating confrontations - not just with the BBC, but also, people sort of expect him to be confrontational, and so they have started reading confrontation in to things he does, even if he doesn't do them, if that makes sense. So recently he was run out of Argentina by stone-throwing crowds who seem to have read something into the numberplate on his car that was not intended, for example.
So, there is this feeling of heightening tension around him, and mobs love tension and drama...?
It's difficult to imagine the show continuing with its current formula without him, I think it would need quite a bit of reengineering.
If the Machievellian theory is correct, then my 'constructed personality' theory must be right too, because that definitely doesn't sound like the kind of thing a TV Clarkson would engineer.
However, I think the situation is complicated by the fact that Top Gear is very much a Clarkson vehicle, so there is a questionmark over whether the show would survive without him. So it's *not* really like sacking another abusive employee.
If the show folds, presumably the entire team are out of a job, and I can see that even if the guy who was (allegedly) assaulted did everything right, and Clarkson did everything wrong he might prefer an apology and a job to revenge and no job.
I assume the enquiry will consider that, or at least I hope it will!