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[[caption-width:344:Top Gear logo and The Top Gear Three: Richard "Hamster" Hammond, Jeremy "Jezza" Clarkson, and James "Captain Slow" May]]

-->"I'd have all my clothes in brushed aluminium on matte black if I could."
-->-- '''Richard Hammond'''

-->"Diesel, it says three things about you: one is, you're tighter than two coats of paint, the second one is that you care so much about the environment that you want to leave a little protective sooty film over it, and the third one is, you're probably French."
-->-- '''James May'''

-->"You listen to this chap, he wants to bitch-slap his ho. Why not? Good luck to you, fella."
-->-- '''Jeremy Clarkson''' listens to Radio One in a [[CoolCar Jaguar]].

''TopGear'' is an award winning (BAFTA/Emmy) [[TheBBC BBC]] [[MagazineShow magazine series]] about automobiles and motoring. It started in 1977 as a fairly conventional auto show, but after being revamped in 2002 (following a one-year cancellation in 2001-2) it took a turn to become more overtly humorous. The show is very popular, with an audience estimated at about 8 million per week on the BBC and around 350 million worldwide.

The main presenters are
*'''Jeremy Clarkson''': The [[TheCaptain leader]] of the central trio: the oldest (49), tallest, and most obstreperous. Tends to be very vocal in his dislikes and [[SmugSnake self-confident]] to the point of arrogance. Also physically the most fragile. Given his choice of cars (and most everything else, really) he prefers [[TimTaylorTechnology sheer raw power]] (preferably with the noise to go with), then control, and then speed.
*'''Richard Hammond''': The [[TheLancer second in command]]: the youngest (39), shortest, and second-most obstreperous -- also the closest thing the show offers to EstrogenBrigadeBait. Described by the others as the toughest physically but the most fragile emotionally. Tends to be chatty and moody. Given his choice, he wants a fast, powerful car, but the love of his life is a 1963 Opel Kadett with under 50 hp. Known affectionately as "Hamster" for his size, chattiness and willingness to engage in risky stunts.
*'''James May''': TheQuietOne (relatively speaking) somewhere between Clarkson and Hammond in age (46) and height: a picture-perfect StraightMan with an understated sense of humor and a gift for [[DeadpanSnarker deadpan delivery]]. Likes physics, classical music, alcohol, light aircraft and interesting facts. Far more careful than the other two, and obsessive (to the point of possibly suffering from OCD) about details, down to the proper arrangement of his tools. May is implicitly acknowledged to be the most technically savvy of the three. As he prefers control and good handling over power and speed -- and absolutely refuses to run on camera -- the other two have dubbed him "Captain Slow".
*'''The Stig''': The show's "[[BadassDriver tame racing driver]]," who is never seen without his racing coveralls, gloves, and (face-concealing) helmet. Some say he naturally faces magnetic north, and that all of his legs are hydraulic... all we know is, he's called The Stig.

In September 2006, Hammond suffered a near-fatal brain injury after crashing at [=288.3mph/464.0km/h=] during a test of a jet-powered car, but [[IGotBetter he Got Better]].

The show's appeal, which extends far beyond driving enthusiasts or even car-owners, is the interplay of the three presenters and what May referred to in an interview as "self-indulgent cocking-about." In addition to doing more conventional car test drives and reviews, it has undertaken a number of segments which feature unique premises:

* '''Races:''' Not just car vs. car, but such contests as
** Car (Bugatti Veyron) vs. fighter jet (RAF Eurofighter Typhoon). Hammond drove the Veyron in this challenge, making him the last of the three to try it [[spoiler:and the only one to lose his challenge.]] The car did one mile, there and back, horizontally. The plane did its mile ''vertically''.
** Car (Ferrari 612 Scaglietti) vs. commercial airliner/public transport to Verbier, Switzerland. [[spoiler:In one of the most ludicrously unlikely (and hysterical) moments of the series, May and Hammond arrived in Verbier and were yards from the finish when Clarkson drove past them on the town's high street.]]
** Car (Bugatti Veyron) driven by Clarkson vs. private plane (Cessna 182) flown by May, with Hammond riding shotgun.
** Car (Aston Martin DB 9) vs. train
** Car (Ford [=SportKa=]) vs. racing pigeons.
** Car (Mazda [=MX5=]) vs. racing greyhound. [[spoiler:Despite Hammond's insistence that he was using the ancient Japanese art of Beatidogu, the greyhound won.]]
** Car vs. [[LeParkour traceurs]]. [[spoiler:Captain Slow was soundly defeated -- by the time he arrived, the freerunners had managed to climb almost to the top of the building.]]
** Car vs. rock climbers. [[spoiler:On the way up, the climbers beat Clarkson by a couple of minutes. On the way down...the climbers used a parachute.]]
** Car (Fiat Nuova Panda) vs. marathon runner (A.C. Muir): Clarkson raced the marathon runner across London during rush hour...[[spoiler:and lost.]]
** Car vs. bike vs. boat vs. public transportation: May (car), Hammond (bike), Clarkson (boat), and The Stig (public transportation) see who can cross London the fastest during morning rush hour. [[spoiler: The car came last, prompting Clarkson to tell May that he ruined ''Top Gear''.]]
** Car (Nissan GTR driven by Clarkson) vs. Japanese bullet train (ridden by Hammond and May) [[spoiler:May and Hammond were soundly beating Clarkson until Hammond missed a train and Clarkson managed to avoid heavy traffic in Tokyo. They were neck-and-neck until the final stretch, which was essentially a footrace from different sides of an island to a statue at the top. Clarkson won by a few minutes.]]
** 1949-era "Race to the North" (Jaguar [=XK120=] vs. Vincent Black Shadow motorbike vs. 60163 ''Tornado'' steam train). [[spoiler: The car won, with May driving; the train with Clarkson was a close second. The bike stopped after a fuel tank error and wasn't able to finish. The race was hard on two of the presenters, with Hammond winding up cramped and uncomfortable and Clarkson collapsing to the floor and remaining there until May revived him with beer.]]
** Car vs. the postal service: Hammond and May (taking turns driving) tried to see if they could beat a letter posted in the Scilly Isles to its destination address in the Orkneys. [[spoiler: They lost]]
** Motorhome races
** People carrier races
** Bus races (double decker vs. single decker, vs. a shuttle bus, vs. ''two'' "bendy buses''); all in the name of finding the best bus for London city streets. Of course a huge part of the fun was wondering when the driver of the double decker was going to roll his bus over. [[spoiler:The single-decker won.]]
* '''Challenges:''' ''Top Gear'' challenges usually involve absurd conditions (e.g., each presenter buys a used car in Miami, Florida for US$1000, then drives it from Miami to New Orleans, Louisiana, completing several tasks assigned by the producers along the way -- like finding, cooking, and eating some roadkill for their evening meal). On several occasions, these challenges result in noteworthy accomplishments: the ''Top Gear'' presenters were the first persons to traverse Botswana's Makgadikgadi Pan (salt flat) via automobile (during their 10th season African special), and Clarkson and May became the first persons to reach the north magnetic pole by car (while drunk, or at least drinking, no less, because on the ice they were technically in international waters and thus exempt from drunk-driving laws -- or, to be precise, they ''thought'' they were).
** May was the first person to go to the north pole who didn't want to be there.
* '''The Power Lap:''' Most weeks one of the presenters (usually Clarkson or Hammond) does a more-or-less conventional track test and review of the week's featured car. After that review, he turns the car over to the show's "tame racing driver", The Stig, for a Power Lap. The Stig takes the car as fast as he can around the ''Top Gear'' test track, and at the end of the segment the presenter reveals The Stig's lap time and posts it on a board.
** A standard feature of the Power Lap is the introduction of The Stig, which [[RunningGag follows a specific pattern]]. The presenter starts by saying that it's time to turn the featured car over to the show's tame racing driver, and then adds a humorous description of The Stig (sample; the description changes every week): "Some say that he thought Star Wars was a documentary, and that he recently pulled out of ''I'm A Celebrity'' because he is scared of trees... and Australia... and Koo Stark... and [[AntAndDec Ant... and Dec]]. All we know is, he's called the Stig." These are frequently RippedFromTheHeadlines, and the most popular are scathing attacks on minor celebrities of the week ("And, long before anyone else, he realised [[BigBrother Jade Goody]] was a racist pig-faced waste of blood and organs").
** The fastest ever Power Lap was done by a BAE Sea Harrier, in 31.2 seconds. It went a bit wide on some of the corners, but the pilot claimed that he could have kept it in bounds, and still set the lap record.
** The fastest Power Lap by an automobile was 58.2 seconds, by the 2004 Renault Formula 1 car. Given that the best of the world's supercars manage in the 1:18 range, that's stinking fast.
***Those power laps doesnt count though, because to qualify to get your time posted on the board the car must be street legal. (defined by the ability of going through a speed bump)
**** Cars that used slick tyres are also disqualified, sadly disqualifying the 1:10 time the Ferrari FXX [[spoiler: driven by Michael Schumacher]] set.
* '''Star in a Reasonably Priced Car:''' Most weeks the show features a (usually British) celebrity guest. Prior to filming the show, the guest receives some coaching from The Stig, and then takes the reasonably priced car out for a fast lap around the ''Top Gear'' Test Track, which is taped. During the show itself, Jeremy Clarkson interviews the guest, and at the end of the interview the taped lap is shown in the studio (and onscreen for the viewer). At the end of the taped lap, Clarkson announces the star's lap time, and posts it on a leaderboard. For the first several seasons the reasonably priced car was the Suzuki Liana; in recent seasons the Liana has been replaced by the Chevrolet Lacetti (however, when the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car is a Formula 1 driver the Liana is brought out of retirement for the segment; also F1 drivers' times are listed on a separate leaderboard, because of their exceptional driving skills compared to the garden-variety celebrities who are usually featured in this segment). The current fastest time, 1:45.8, in the Lacetti belongs to Jay Kay, singer for the acid jazz group Jamiroquai and the slowest belongs to comedian Jimmy Carr (who, ironically, had the second fastest time in the Liana). Any time better than one-fifty is to be proud of, and postings under 1:46 ''will'' elicit gasps from the audience.
** Christopher Eccleston, BilliePiper and DavidTennant have all [[DoctorWho taken part in this]]. Tennant complained, jokingly, that Piper was spared a time penalty for cutting a corner because she'd [[FanService worn a see-through top]] to the show recording.
** For a time they invited two guests per show, 'to get some rivalry going', but they have since gone back to one per episode.
* '''"Stunts"''' (for lack of a better term): The ''Top Gear'' crew have been very creative in finding entertaining things to do with (and to) cars:
** Drive 'til you get bored: to test the comfort and enjoyability of the Jaguar XJ, Clarkson devised a test to see how far he could drive it before he got bored with it (he ran out of country).
** 24 hours in a small car: Hammond and May spent a day in a Smart Forfour to evaluate the company's claim that the car's interior was as comfortable as a lounge.
** Helicopter gunship and tank evasion: Clarkson drove a Lotus Exige in an evasion pattern trying to prevent a WAH-64D Apache attack helicopter from getting a missile lock on the car. A couple seasons later, he performed the same stunt, substituting a Challenger 2 tank and its gun for the helicopter, and a Range Rover Sport for the Exige.
*** In another variant on this stunt, Clarkson compared the Mercedes [=SLK55=] AMG to the Porsche Boxster S by driving both cars through a British Army urban combat training facility while attempting to evade expert snipers from the Irish Guards, firing at him using special laser targeting systems designed for "live fire" combat simulations.
** Clarkson also set out to discover if a mid range Ford Fiesta could be used by the [[BadAssNormal Royal Marines]] in an amphibious assault. The result: [[spoiler:amazingly, yes]]. See it [[http://videos.streetfire.net/video/Top-Gear-Ford-Fiesta_204097.htm here]]
**** Just before that he drove the same Fiesta through a shopping mall while being "chased" by a Corvette. While reviewing various aspects of the car.
**** "I just broke the speed limit...INDOORS!"
**** Fun fact: This set of tests were after someone wrote in complaining that they didn't do the good old fashioned standard tests like they used to in the old format days. Apparently the old standard road tests include things like marine assaults and car chases. This is why reading 'The World According to Clarkson' is a surreal experience.
** Conversion of motor vehicles into amphibious vehicles: On two separate occasions, Clarkson, Hammond, and May were challenged to buy used vehicles, convert them to be amphibious, and then drive them across a body of water (a freshwater lake in the first episode; the English Channel from Dover to Calais in the second). And on both occasions, Hammond's conversion sank.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqEa3OJIG0s Escaping a submerged vehicle]]: With several trained divers as backup, Hammond was dropped into a deep pool in a car to see if it really is impossible to open the doors and windows while said car is sinking. This was left in the world's least nerve-wracking cliffhanger.
--->'''Hammond''': And we'll find out later if I die.
*** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-hADcZ49fE When the segment resumed]], [[spoiler: Hammond was eventually able to open the door and swim out. However, it took so long for the pressure to equalize that he ran out of air and had to get oxygen from a diver with him in the car. When they dropped the car into the pool a second time, he opened the door as soon as the car hit the water and escaped unaided.]]
** "Extreme" test driving: Six foot, five inch tall Jeremy Clarkson once test drove a 1961 [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peel_P50 Peel P50]] -- a tiny, one person car -- by driving it ''into'' and around the BBC television studios, including into an ersatz "''Top Gear'' production meeting."
** Converting subcompacts into stretch limos: and then driving several celebrities to an awards show in their conversions.
** Car football (soccer): Using a giant inflatable ball, two teams of professional drivers (captained by Hammond and May) played [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flKzjuDhFDs a football match using Toyota Aygos]]. Several seasons later, the winning team of Aygos defended their title against a team composed of Volkswagen Foxes. [[spoiler:The VW Foxes won, not least because it was the same team of Aygos and most of them were damaged.]]
*** And in a variation on that theme, one of the events in the ''Top Gear Winter Olympics'' special was a game of car ice hockey, between two teams of Suzuki Swifts. As before, one team was captained by James May, the other by Richard Hammond, and the match was "refereed" by Jeremy Clarkson.
** Destruct testing a Toyota Hilux pickup by, in order, driving it down stone steps, scraping it along walls, driving it into a tree, tying it to a jetty and leaving it to be submerged by the rising tide, driving it through a shed, dropping a caravan on it, hitting it with a wrecking ball, setting it on fire, and finally placing it on top of a 240 foot block of flats and demolishing the flats. No spare parts and no tools other than what would be in a normal car toolkit were used. [[spoiler:[[MadeOfIron It still started.]]]]
*** It now occupies a place of honour in the main studio.
*** Shortly after [[http://video.yahoo.com/watch/100875/505090 the show]] aired, Toyota released a new version of the Hilux called the 'Invincible', and Clarkson had one modified by Arctic Trucks for the Polar Special.
** Going on a caravan holiday. As both Clarkson and Hammond hate caravans and it ended up burning down (after crashing several times and getting lost) this was BetterThanItSounds.
** Playing "car [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conkers conkers]]" using two cars (or caravans) held aloft by electromagnetic cranes. This is sometimes the fate of a car that the presenters really don't like, as was the case in the episode where Clarkson tries driving an early-model FSO Polonez.
** Converting a Reliant Robin three-wheel car into a space shuttle (with the help of a team of Rocket Engineers, of course). The challenge was, that if they got it high enough and could then land it (via remote control), the European Union would grant them funds to build a full sized one to go to space. It got to the required height [[spoiler:but couldn't release itself from the main fuel tank, and crashed down in a ball of fire]].
** Customizing a Soviet-built Lada into a sports sedan. Granted, this required enlisting a team of technicians from Group Lotus, a fortnight, and about £100,000.
* '''The Cool Wall:''' From time to time, Clarkson and Hammond rate the coolness of various cars by placing photographs of them on a large board labeled (in decreasing degree of coolness) "Sub Zero", "Cool", "Uncool", "Seriously Uncool". The decision had nothing to do with the quality of the car; the two criteria of how cool a car is were 1) how much the presenters believed that actress Kristin Scott Thomas would be impressed by that car, subject to the rule that 2) any car owned by one of the presenters would automatically be ruled "uncool" on that grounds alone. Interestingly enough, when Kristin Scott Thomas actually appeared on the show, it turned out that she liked the cars Clarkson and Hammond had called "Uncool", and was less than thrilled with the ones they had decided were "Cool". Since then, Clarkson and Hammond have substituted their appraisal of the reaction of BBC news anchor Fiona Bruce for Scott Thomas's as their decision rule.
**Don't forget the [=DB9=] Fridge, complete with dry-ice smoke, created when the Aston Martin [=DB9=] was deemed too cool for the "Sub Zero" rating. Exactly why a ''fridge'' is considered sub-Sub Zero [[FridgeLogic has never]] [[IncrediblyLamePun been]] [[FridgeLogic addressed]] -- at the very least, it should be a [=DB9=] ''Freezer''.
**Hammond once attempted to put a superbike on the wall in the "Cool" section, prompting Clarkson to remove it and the wall around it with a [[ChainsawGood CHAINSAW]].
***Clarkson loves to tamper with Hammond's Cool Wall decisions. Once Hammond was so adamant on a decision of his that Clarkson had to place it high up where Hammond couldn't reach.
**** When Clarkson slipped two discs in his back, Hammond got revenge by placing his choices very low, where Clarkson couldn't reach.
**** Hammond also used a scissor-lift to place a card a long way out of reach during a dispute. Clarkson responded by hitting the [[BigRedButton Emergency Stop switch]], preventing him from getting down again. Hammond was stuck up there for the rest of the episode.
*** At one time, while Clarkson was on the waiting list to purchase a Ford GT, he moved all Fords on the Cool Wall to the top of the "super cool" section. Hammond quickly moved them back where they belonged.
* '''Overseas Specials:''' Now becoming traditional to have one every series, an entire episode dedicated to the trio making their way across a country in cheap cars they bought there, while performing challenges. Often includes an encounter with The Stig's [[NurseJenny local cousin]]. So far locations have included the American South, Botswana and Vietnam.

The Australian version, obviously named ''Top Gear Australia''... is actually not that bad, though YourMileageMayVary. The hosts for the first season, Warren Brown, Charlie Cox (now being replaced by James Morrison for the second season) and Steve Pizzati bring their own brand of entertainment to the normal ''Top Gear'' format... The first episode alone had Warren using a small car as Great White Shark bait. And let's not get started on the other crazy things they've done.

A US version, planned by {{NBC}} and to be co-developed by BBC America spent ages in DevelopmentHell (mostly due to BBC America's reluctance to take part in an American version of a show that is already watched by millions in its original form in that country). Jeremy Clarkson, speaking in Australia at an event connected with the launch of ''Top Gear Australia'', confirmed that ''Top Gear USA'' [[http://www.autoblog.com/2009/02/06/clarkson-top-gear-usa-canned-viewers-just-dont-get-it/ has been canceled]], stating that when samples of the prospective show were shown to US focus groups, the focus group members "... just don't understand a single word we're on about. They just don't get it really." This is ironic, since the original British version -- as mentioned above -- enjoys a good deal of popularity in America and is BBC America's second highest rated show after ''{{Torchwood}}'', even though episodes on BBC America are EditedForSyndication.

Has an official, legal and above-board {{YouTube}} [[http://www.youtube.com/topgear channel]] - see also "{{YouTube}}", below.

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This show provides examples of:
* AcceptableTargets: Too many to list, but they're particularly fond of slamming [[AcceptablePoliticalTargets Labour politicians]], [[AcceptableLifestyleTargets environmentalists]], [[MoralGuardians the politically correct]], [[{{Eagleland}} America]], [[GayParee France]], [[{{Oktoberfest}} Germany]], [[NorseByNorsewest Switzerland]], TheMidlands and anybody working for the Health and Safety Executive.
** Also AcceptableEthnicTargets (in the broader sense): the constant joking about the height of both Richard Hammond (shorter than average) and Jeremy Clarkson (taller than average).
--->'''Clarkson''' [''during the "man with van" challenge, while the presenters were loading cargo'']: Richard really did have a size problem, [[AndZoidberg and his van was pretty small too]].
* TheAllegedCar: Every now and again.
** One example is the FSO Polonez, a Polish-built Fiat 125 derivative which so offended Clarkson that he decreed it be used to play conkers with the aid of an electromagnetic crane. And just about every car in the segment answering the question "Did the Communists ever produce a good car?" [[spoiler: Answer: "No"]].
** During challenges of the "buy-a-cheap-car-and-endure-a-series-of-tests" variety, one of the presenters will usually discover he has bought the Alleged Car. Perhaps the best example: Clarkson's Maserati from the "Italian Supercars for Less than a Second-Hand Mondeo" challenge. Its engine completely disintegrated while under power.
** In a variant, sometimes the producers provide an Alleged Car as the emergency backup vehicle. Said car (on one occasion it was a bike) is always mechanically reliable, yet all three presenters hate it for one reason or another and would rather be dead than drive it.
* AndTheWinnerIs: A [[spoiler:Volkswagen Beetle]] in the Botswana episode, much to Hammond's dismay.
* AndThisIsFor: During the American South challenge, the presenters were told to paint offensive slogans on the other's cars, with points awarded if the person driving said car was arrested or killed. They took on the job with a surprising lack of reluctance
-->'''Hammond''': [''painting Clarkson's car''] Revenge for all those height gags. Every time he's called me "Hamster."
-->'''Clarkson''': [''painting May's car''] This is for every time you've been late and lost.
-->'''May''': [''defending his work to a genuinely dismayed Hammond and Clarkson''] All the times you drove into the back of my Cadillac.
* {{Angrish}}: Get Hammond flustered or angry enough and he ''will'' lose the ability to speak coherently.
* AngstWhatAngst: The presenters allegedly have a pact (mentioned in the context of Hammond's accident but apparently still in force) that, should any of them die, the remaining hosts would appear at the beginning of the next episode, make a mournful comment, pause for a moment of silence, and then say, "Anyway," and cheerily continue with the show.
* AnswerCut
-->'''Hammond''': Do you think [Jeremy's] enjoying his first biking experience?
-->[''cut to'']
-->'''Clarkson''': [''riding his scooter, alone, on a dark street''] I AM THE MOST MISERABLE HUMAN BEING ALIVE!
* {{Anticlimax}}: A regular occurrence, but often happens when the audience least expects it. An example would be when they drove an F1 car indoors, and it managed... 90mph. They still broke the indoor speed record.
** The biggest one of these was in Season Eleven, where, after years of hype, the Bugatti Veyron finally did a power lap... and finished fourth on the overall board before being immediately bumped down to fifth by a new Zonda. As Clarkson noted, they actually did end on a bombshell for once.
** Arguably, any time a car does a lap on the track, gets placed on the board, then is immediately taken down for violating one of the rules (too low, slick tires, what have you).
* AnyoneCanDie: Due to the nature of the show, the presenters might be seriously hurt or even killed while filming. That being said, every effort is made to minimize the risk.
* AsideGlance: Hammond and May excel at these, usually as nonverbal commentary on whatever Jeremy Clarkson is doing.
* ASimplePlan: Usually subverted -- it always seems the team can devise an easy solution to the seemingly impossible task they are given, but with each of the three hosts vying to get his idea in first it never is. A source of several [[RunningGag running gags]].
* ATeamFiring: Clarkson trying (and failing miserably) to hit biathlon shooting targets with an [[MoreDakka MP5A5 machine pistol]] during the Winter Olympics special.
-->'''May''': The great thing about Jeremy's shooting is that you are perfectly safe just as long as you stand right in front of the target.
* ATeamMontage: Used occasionally when the week's challenge has the presenters working together (or separately) to modify their rides. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in the Vietnam Special: in the final segment, during a montage of the boys modifying their cycles into watercraft (so they can make it to the finish at the bar in Ha Long Bay) James May even hums the theme to ''TheATeam'' while he's working.
* [[BackedByThePentagon 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 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.
* BadassArmFold: Some say his elbows don't bend...
* BadassDriver: ...and that he goes around at night killing other racing drivers to take their skill...
** Oh, don't even ''[[UnfunnyAneurysmMoment joke]]'' about that!
* BerserkButton: Hammond's allegedly whitened teeth (after much teasing from the other two).
* BetterThanItSounds: The very show itself is made of this trope: Three middle-aged men arse about with cars and a whole bunch of the BBC's money. You wouldn't think much of this premise just reading it, but the results are brilliant.
** Also many of the stunts and challenges are the embodiment of this trope. The Caravan Holiday. The amphibious car conversions. A Star In A Reasonably Priced Car. The list is potentially endless...
** Get this: ''Top Gear'' actually managed to rent an ''entire'' shopping mall just to test the Ford Fiesta against a Chevrolet Corvette once. The result: [[RuleOfCool Quite possibly the coolest modern car chase scene in your life]] (or at least since a similar scene was filmed for the movie ''TheBluesBrothers'').
* BewareTheNiceOnes: On the rare occasions May gets fed up with his co-presenters, what he does to them is usually much crueler than what they've been doing to him
* BeyondTheImpossible: What unbelievably hard task can the producers set the three presenters this week?
* BilingualBonus: In a recent challenge segment, Clarkson, Hammond, and May were competing against the hosts of German car show ''D Motor'', who often spoke in their native language. Let's just say that the translations from German were often incomplete (or left out entirely) for decency reasons.
* BittersweetEnding: Several of the races
** Clarkson (Bugatti Veyron) vs. May and Hammond (private plane/Eurostar rail system) race to London: Clarkson won but claimed the victory was "hollow" because he would have to live the rest of his life knowing what the Veyron was like to drive but never owning one.
** Hammond (Ferrari Daytona) vs. May (carbon-fiber superboat) race to Saint-Tropez. May arrived first, but Hammond claimed moral victory on the basis of the Ferrari's style (which May conceded). Hammond was nevertheless disappointed that the French Riviera had lost much of its glitter
--->'''Hammond''': [''sitting in a traffic jam''] Oh, now this isn't right. Holiday homes for sale... Burgers... Traffic. [''sadly''] The car's still brilliant, but the world has changed...
** The 'review' of the new Aston Martin, which ended the 13th season.
* BlatantLies: One very good example, in the lorry driving challenge Richard Hammond's cargo (a small car) had fallen out of the trailer during the alpine course. Afterwards, when Jeremy Clarkson showed up:
-->'''Jeremy Clarkson:''' This is totally ... so anyway, how was your car?
-->[''Pause, as May and Hammond exchange glances'']
-->'''James May:''' Car's...
-->'''Richard Hammond''' (interrupting May): ''Stolen!'' That's what it is, I've just thought of it now: stolen. The damnedest thing.
** Also in the British Leyland challenge, one of the tests required the presenters to drive their cars to the top of a steep hill, put the handbrake on and get out of the car. Clarkson's car couldn't even get to the top of the hill, but generated so much smoke while he was trying to get to the top that he claimed he'd completed the test, it just happened that no-one saw him do it because of all the smoke. Naturally, everyone believed him.
*** That entire challenge was full of Blatant Lies about the quality of British Leyland's vehicles which, despite the presenters' claims to the contrary, are regarded by just about the entire world as [[SoBadItsHorrible So Bad They Were Horrific]]. Although it did end up being somewhat justified at the end when it turned out that the Austin Princess was actually a pretty decent (if not especially fast) car.
** ''TopGear'' throws out lies like this on a regular basis, especially if a presenter thinks it'll make his car (or cars in general) sound better. When in the Car vs. Boat vs. Bike vs. Public Transport challenge the car (driven by James May) came in dead last, all three presenters banded together to claim that the footage had been edited, going so far as to claim that the Thames didn't exist and Jeremy Clarkson had been killed when his boat exploded (as stated by Clarkson himself).
* BlindIdiotTranslation: While Clarkson and May are attempting to operate one of the earliest production cars, with instructions "translated" from the original French
-->'''Clarkson''': [''reading''] "For making the carriage walking at the first speed, take back the drag of the wheel backward crowbar of the right and take completely and progressively back the crowbar of ''embrayage'' to you..."
* BoringInvincibleHero: Jeremy [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this trope when he interviewed [[spoiler: Michael Schumacher]]:
-->'''Jeremy:''' Are you finding it boring when one person just ''endlessly'' wins?
* BottleEpisode: (rare non-fiction example) ''Top Gear'' occasionally has an episode where the presenters tell us they've "spent all the money" and can't afford their normal mix of insane stunts and expensive cars.
** In one instance they claimed they couldn't afford their theme tune, so May had to fill in on a Casio keyboard.
* BriefAccentImitation: German, Russian, and American English have had their share of ''gefingerpoken''
* BritishBrevity: At ''most'', a series will have eleven episodes. Top Gear makes up for that by having two series a year.
* BritishTeeth: Inversion: the continual comedic accusation leveled at (and denied by) Richard Hammond that he has had his teeth whitened.
* BrokenAesop: At the end of the episode recapping Richard Hammond's unfortunate debacle with the jet-powered car at 288 mph.
-->'''Clarkson:''' The thing is, though, we have learned an important lesson today, thanks to Richard -- do please remember: ''speed kills.''
-->[''Cut to Hammond, looking incredulous and '''very much alive'''''.]
* ButtMonkey: Hammond is usually the one to get drowned or struck by lightning for the stunts, while in the Car vs. Something Else challenges Hammond is always the one to cycle across London or try to reach the North Pole with a dogsled, while May or Clarkson drive.
** Amusingly, and much to the chagrin of the other two, Hammond often wins anyway.
*** Hammond's also the youngest and in the best shape, so he's the one that has to do physical stunts by default.
** James (AKA "Captain Slow"), on the other hand, is frequently mocked for being slow, dull, old-fashioned, and [[NeatFreak obsessively tidy]].
--->'''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, [[LaserGuidedKarma rule of thumb]] dictates that Clarkson has his fair share too. See the ''Vietnam Special'' for proof. [[spoiler: Scooters are an indignity that our [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold lovable]] LargeHam just can't bear.]]. Clarkson's height (6'4'') and bad back also cause him problems.
*** [[spoiler: Lovable?]]
*** If you can't find love in your heart for the brilliance that is Clarkson, you have no soul.
* CameraAbuse: 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: hopelessly blurry) effect for his power lap.
* CandidCameraPrank: The "paint offensive slogans on your cars and rile the locals" scene in the American South special is one of these which went wrong.
* TheCaptain: Clarkson. His leadership is so obvious and unquestioned that the German hosts of ''D Motor'' called him "Top Gear Boss" for most of their crossover episode.
* CarFu: The live show.
** Also, the motorhome and bus races, where the 'no contact' rule somehow slips everyone's mind before the end of the first lap.
* CargoShip: The show is pretty much the embodiment of this trope. Clarkson has had [[LoveMartyr an abusive relationship]] with his Ford GT, fell in love with the Bugatti Veyron and claimed he wanted to elope with a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera. Hammond has fallen in love with Oliver the Opel Kadett and a Pagani Zonda. Both Clarkson and Hammond wanted to have some 'alone time' with a picture of an Alfa Brera.
** Taken to extremes by Hammond, who now ''co-hosts'' another show, BlastLab, with Oliver.
* CarryingACake: James May's cargo in the "Lorries" challenge was a giant wedding cake, which met a predictable fate. Clarkson and Hammond (pile of straw + electric heater; unsecured car, respectively) fared worse, however.
* CasualDangerDialog: Clarkson, fleeing through a shopping mall while "baddies" pursue him in a Corvette, divides his time between reviewing aspects of the Ford Fiesta he is driving and commenting on the shortcomings of the 'Vette.
* CatchPhrase: Numerous.
-->'''Jeremy Clarkson''': "...and on that bombshell, goodnight!"; "How hard can it be?"; "Still. Could be worse.."; "I went on the Internet... and I found ''this''."
-->'''Richard Hammond''': [while introducing a stunt] "...I think you can see where this is going." "Don't like that."
-->'''James May''': "Oh... cock."
-->'''Any of the presenters''': "Nobody in the whole of human history has ever said that before"; "A series of challenges"; [''[[PhraseCatcher Introducing the Stig]]''] "Some say... And that... All we know is, he's called The Stig".
** The tie-in ''Big Book of Top Gear'' has a [[DrinkingGame bingo sheet]] with all of the above, as well as "[[NoSenseOfDirection Where's James got to]]?" and "[[HilarityEnsues That's not gone well]]."
* CausticCritic: Probably all the presenters at times, but especially Clarkson.
* CharacterDevelopment: 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.
* CharacterFilibuster: This trope was designed for May. He often goes on rants so long-winded or into such meticulous detail about physics, they've actually [[LampshadeHanging shaded it]] by fading out between scenes, coming back later to find that he is ''still'' talking.
* CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys: A favorite expression used by Clarkson when discussing the French. May be modified to fit the occasion: e.g. during the Val Thorens ice race the other drivers were "cheese-eating sideways monkeys."
* [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Gun]]: The remote to James's sound system in the "perfect car for a seventeen year old" challenge.
** Also, the horn on Clarkson's 1963 Grosser Mercedes in the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVDKztQ-n1U classic luxury limousines challenge]].
* CliffHanger: Each episode has one or two main films; the longer ones are often interrupted at a tense moment and resumed towards the end of the show. (Since the presenter in the film is usually right there in the studio while the film is being screened, [[ForegoneConclusion not much tension can build]], so this is sometimes played for humor).
* ClusterFBomb: When the trio are stuck in road construction in Italy (without air conditioning) on a quest to find 'driving heaven', Richard gets a little annoyed...
-->'''Hammond''': We come all the way here in these cars and you [''[[SoundEffectBleep bleep]]''] it up because you're a [''bleep''] feeble-minded [''bleep'']. Utter utter [''bleep'']! [''Bleeeep''] useless!
* ComeForTheXStayForTheY: Tune in because of one's interest in cars; continue tuning in because the show is hilarious (how many Americans have discovered the show).
** Or come for the Stig, stay... for ''Clarkson''.
*** Or come for the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car, stay for Clarkson.
*** Actually it's more like come for the tropes, stay for [insert presenter's name here]
* ComedicSociopathy: In spades. WikiMagic will supply examples.
* ComicTrio: This shuffles around quite a bit, although Jeremy's usually the schemer, with Richard and James trading off on the stupid/going along with it and the helpless.
* CompanionCube: Oliver, Hammond's 1963 Opel Kadett.
** Hammond loves his dear old motor so much that [[spoiler: during the 12th season episode ''Lorries'' he forfeited one of the challenges because if he failed, he would have backed into (and probably over) Oliver with a semi-articulated truck.]]
*** Oliver is now a [[PromotionToOpeningTitles regular cast member]] on [[BlastLab Hammond's new children's show]].
* CompletelyMissingThePoint: After teasing from both Hammond and May over Clarkson's interview with Will Young, where they imply that [[HoYay Clarkson's in love]], Jeremy asks "are you suggesting Will Young is gay?".
* ConsolationWorldRecord: On more than one occasion. Hammond may or may not have set an official British record for land speed before his accident (the run before the crash was 314 mph, breaking the previous record of 300.3), but the dangerous accident at 288 mph may well have set a record (unofficially) for fastest land ''crash''. (After learning the speed record requires making two runs in opposite directions and then averaging the speed, Clarkson joked Hammond would need to go out and crash again).
** They also inadvertently set the world indoor speed record with an F1 car. And almost set it with a Chevrolet Lacetti...
* ContinuityNod: Occasionally in dialogue; more often these happen when a vehicle from a previous adventure appears in a subsequent episode. The ultimate Continuity Nod is the mangled Toyota Hilux permanently on display in the studio, which looks like a tragic wreck to anyone unfamiliar with the series.
* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: The emergency backup vehicles, which are invariably 1) something hateful to all three presenters, 2) completely inappropriate for the setting, or 3) both.
-->'''May''' [''During the Vietnam Special'']: If [Hammond] turns up on Bruce Springsteen, I'll feel quite sorry for him, but I'll still laugh.
* CoolBoat: Several
* CoolCar: Numerous vehicles, with the most notable being the Bugatti Veyron, with nearly 1000bhp [[spoiler: although as of the 12th season, it has not managed to topple the Gumpert's first place Power Lap time.]] Then there's the Cool Wall of course, where supercars are usually rated 'Uncool' -- for the [[CompensatingForSomething obvious reason]]. The Koenigsegg is the exception because even The Stig crashed it, and anything that tricky must be cool.
* CoolPlane: The Eurofighter Typhoon
** Clarkson also had an English Electric Lightning fighter in his garden for a while.
** The WAH-64 Longbow Apache they used to chase a Lotus Exige around the test track
** When challenging their German counterparts, the lads turned up in... Supermarine Spitfires. The coolest of the cool planes.
** The Boeing 747 permanently parked at the test track has its own movie career, it played the part of the prototype airliner in CasinoRoyale
* CoolTrain: The steam-powered BR Class A1 60163 ''Tornado'' in the London-Edinburgh race. Doubly cool on the grounds that its fire was stoked by Clarkson.
* CoolVersusAwesome: Bugatti Veyron v. RAF Eurofighter Typhoon... and that's only one example.
* CoughSnarkCough: In the Botswana special, when Clarkson's Lancia Beta Coupe has broken down. Again.
-->'''May''': [''cough''] Beetle!
* CouldSayItBut: In Season 6, Clarkson did this as a way of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gt1wzQZFh8 sneakily previewing]] a car (an Aston Martin V8 Vantage) he wasn't technically allowed to announce yet. May and Hammond played along with a chorus of "I would have really like to hear that" and "Oh, I wish you could have told us that."
* [[CouldntFindAPen 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.
* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer: 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") and some celebrities' names, like mixing Puff Daddy / P Diddy's names to produce "P Diddly".
**And again with references to '[=GameStation=]', 'Facetube' and '[=YouBook=]'.
* [[{{ptitletklv2vf4}} Crack! Oh, My Back!]]: Clarkson injured his neck quite badly in a Nissan GT-R in Season 11, and a second time when driving through a brick wall in the Lorries challenge in Season 12.
* CrazyAwesome: The rare occasions where Clarkson's TimTaylorTechnology-based plans actually work, such as the Toybota/Nissank car-boat conversions.
** James May could have summed up a summary on Finnish drivers as this and it would have worked.
** Clarkson built a V8 powered blender. Then he used it to make a smoothie out of beef (with bones still in it), Bovril, chilis, Tabasco, and a ''brick''.
*** Which [[ExtremeOmnivore James May]] then ''drank''.
* CreditsGag: One of the show's favorite tropes, pretty much always rolled out for the specials:
** The Botswana special episode had all the names in the credits as Archbishop Desmond (person's surname).
** The earlier America special featured names such as "Cletus Clarkson", "Ellie-May May" and "Bubba T. Stig"
** The Polar Special had all the names read "Sir Ranulph (surname)".
** The Winter Olympics special had all the names read "Bjorn (surname)", except for Hammond, May and The Stig, who took the names "Benny Hammond", "Agnetha May", and "Anni-Frid Stig" respectively.
** The Vietnam special had them all listed as Francis Ford (surname).
** After an episode which featured a challenge to test reasonably-priced hatchbacks by taking them for a lap of the test track ''with a large dog in the car'' -- with disqualification resulting if the dog looked sad at the end of the lap -- the credits ended with the undisclaimer: "Some animals were harmed in the making of this programme".
* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: Where do we ''start''?
** [[spoiler: Michael Schumacher]] coming onto Top Gear's a good start.
** Jay Leno's guest appearance. That is all.
** Toyota Hilux. That is all.
** Crossing the channel in a [[strike:Toyboata]] Nissank; especially as things had gone so badly beforehand, and they almost rolled it getting ashore.
* CrowningMomentOfFunny: So many [[Funny/TopGear it has its own page]]
* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: Hammond's return to the show after his accident.
** The Hilux rolling into the studio. What?
** The goal of the American roadtrip was to buy a cheap car, drive it from point A to point B, and resell it. Point B happened to be New Orleans, still devastated by Hurricane Katrina twelve months after the initial disaster. What do you ''[[CaptainObvious think]]'' the guys did with their cars? [[spoiler:(Well, James May tried to, but nobody wanted his car even as a gift. It wasn't even the one stinking of bloated dead cow.)]]
* CurseCutShort: while Clarkson was reviewing a new Ford Fiesta in an attempt to do a "proper" road test, the segments kept ending when he tried to say that an aspect of the car was sh-
** Likewise, when James and Jeremy were doing challenges in their own classic luxury cars, Richard's introduction ended just as he was about to call them twa-
* DamnYouMuscleMemory: When the presenters or a guest operates a vehicle with an unfamiliar layout. A recent example was the Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle, which stymied Hammond at first because the brake was where he expected the gear lever to be.
* DeadpanSnarker: James May
* DeepSouth: Which they drove through with slogans on their cars like "country and western is rubbish", "NASCAR sucks", "Hillary for President" and "MAN-LOVE RULES OK", with [[TorchesAndPitchforks predictable consequences]].
** Apparently "Hillary for President" and even "manlove rules OK" would have probably elicited nothing more extreme than horns and rude comments, but ''[[BerserkButton you don't slag C&W or NASCAR]]''.
* DefconFive: Clarkson, like so many others, got the Defcon levels wrong when he said that stepping up his Bugatti Veyron (the world's fastest-ever production car) to no-spoiler fast mode took him from Defcon 3 to 4.
** In another episode, he announced that it was time to go to 'Defcon Stig'.
* DeliciousDistraction: In the "Polar Special," May succeeded in distracting Clarkson with several gourmet food items and a bottle of Chablis from some secret stash.
* DescriptionCut: Tends to follow statements like "''X'' and I were doing our best to help ''Y''" [''cut to shot of Y working furiously while the other two ignore him''].
** Done very amusingly in the segment featuring the race across London during the middle of rush hour. Not quite the same, as it's not referring to a specific person, but entertaining anyway
--->'''Jeremy Clarkson''' [''in a boat on the Thames, leisurely cruising'']: This has to be the most stress free and relaxing Monday morning rush-hour commute since the dawn of time.
--->[''Cut to the helmet camera of...'']
--->'''Richard Hammond''' [''on a pedal bike, dodging traffic, lots of noise'']: Oh no, not another set of sodding lights... Ah, bloody hell!
* {{Determinator}}: The Jaguar [=XJ6=] that went from Basel to Blackpool on ''one tank of diesel'' despite Jeremy doing everything he could to waste fuel. Did we mention Basel is in ''Switzerland''?
** Also the Audi A8 that drove from London to Edinburgh and ''back again'' on a single tank. At one point Clarkson noted that the Germans had actually "made a car that runs on ''air''".
** And the modified BMW used in the Britcar 24-hour race. With less than an hour to go, Clarkson (who was driving) claimed the car ''wanted'' to finish and he was just "willing it on"
** The Hilux.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Usually played for humor. Usually.
** In the Polar Special (in which the three presenters attempted to reach the magnetic north pole, two in a truck and one with a musher and dogsled), this was played dead straight when the three of them started feeling the effects of the cold, exhaustion, and isolation. They began threatening each other with physical harm for tiny infractions, and Clarkson destroyed May's can of "victory Spam" with a shotgun for no apparent reason.
* DistractedByTheSexy: Used for comedic effect in one episode, where the cameraman is DistractedByTheSexy, and the camera drifts over to film some beach volleyball players instead of James May and the Honda FCX Clarity he is reviewing.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The presenters' "examples" of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdffwp-RU5A car-logo Christmas gifts]] quickly degenerates into, well...
--> '''Clarkson:''' [''holds up a stuffed rooster with an Audi logo attached''] This cock-\\
'''Hammond:''' Has it got four rings on it?\\
'''Clarkson:''' Yes it has!
* DoubleEntendre: Quite often. Sometimes leads into DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything.
-->[''while doing the brakes in a Caterham 7 kit-car challenge'']
-->'''Clarkson''': The nipple is off.. the tube is in the hole... I will be needing some pump
-->'''May''': You should feel it go stiff now
-->'''Clarkson''': Pump, man, pump. Braking happening?
-->'''Hammond''': Oh yeah, that's much better... yeah, that's hard.
* DownerEnding: The (epic) Aston Martin Vantage V12 feature at the end of series 13 convinced more than a couple of people that it would be the last episode of the show, or at least of Clarkson's tenure on it. (Neither is true.)
** Also a DramaBombFinale. WordOfGod says they were seriously considering doing the ''{{Blackadder}}'' thing and ending without even rolling the credits.
* DrivingStick: Several of the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car guests have had to go around the track in an automatic because they can't work out what a clutch pedal is for. You wonder why they'd go on a show about driving really. The occasional American or German has gotten [[DamnYouMuscleMemory lost in the gear pattern]] (which is the same on RHD as LHD, but "backwards" as far as muscle memory is concerned...)
** One word: ratings. Probably due to some ExecutiveMeddling.
** Hey, that list of automatic users includes Christopher Eccleston!
* {{Eagleland}}: The show and presenters, especially Clarkson, are infamous in some circles for hating on Americans and American cars -- see DeepSouth above. Clarkson ''especially'' views Americans strictly through Flavor #2 glasses, which has provoked [[DudeNotFunny negative responses]] from viewers, and not just Americans. [[SubvertedTrope 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. And Hammond owns 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).
** Clarkson's most {{Anvilicious}} moment of Yank-hating actually came in one of his other BBC programmes, ''Speed''. After listening to Chuck Yeager claiming that [[DidNotDoTheResearch the USAF invented the moving horizontal stabilizer]] (or 'Stabilator', actually first seen on a British aircraft), [[BerserkButton he cracks]] and decides to parade around Washington DC with a megaphone and a large sign with a list of British inventions shouting "[[InsaneTrollLogic We Invented Everything!]]". When he's "arrested" and put in a cruiser he tells the cops "You're going to put me in a car? That's a ''German'' invention, got nothing to do with you".
** 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.
** In the Vietnam special, the punishment for having your motorbike break down was to have to use a bike painted in the colours of the US flag, playing "Born in the USA". [[TheVietnamWar Remember what happened over 30 years ago]].
---> '''Clarkson''': Children, if you are watching this at home... and you don't know why this is inappropriate... ask your parents.
** While they claimed in the US Supercar Challenge that they got in trouble with the US State Department because of their road-kill stunt, I've always thought that it was their condemnation of the US response to Hurricane Katrina that really got them into trouble.
*** And [[{{SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped}} more power to the Top Gear lads for pointing that out]].
* EatTheEvidence: Richard Hammond has eaten things to keep Jeremy Clarkson from getting his hands on them, including a cardboard picture of a car (intended for the Cool Wall) and a piece of paper with the points for that week's challenge (which would prove Clarkson won). His nickname of "Hamster" is quite appropriate.
* EatThat: On the American South special, the presenters were told that dinner would be whatever they could find on the side of the road. Clarkson somehow found and retrieved an entire dead cow. May promptly announced he had become a vegetarian.
* EditedForSyndication: Rather clumsily, to make room for ad breaks on Dave -- ironic, as sitcoms and panel games are generally unedited, taking up an awkward 40-minute place in the schedules. Dave's parent company often also comes under criticism for [=EFSing=] documentaries on their other channels.
** Also edited for ad breaks on BBC America.
** Dave also occasionally makes additional edits, such as beeping out swears that weren't beeped in the original BBC version. The most [[TVTropesWikiDrinkingGame egregious]] example being during the £25,000 classic car challenge, when James's "Cock!" upon seeing Jeremy's time in the slalom is bleeped.
* EnsembleDarkhorse: The Stig. Some say he became so popular that they swapped his black coveralls to white ones to make him stand out more.
** And some say he was the original drummer for the Who before suffering athlete's hand and going into the far more glamorous world of ''Top Gear''. All we know is: he's called The Stig.
** The original "Black Stig" was replaced because it became publicly known that he was really former F1 racing driver Perry [=McCarthy=]. It is part of The Stig's contract that if his true identity is ever revealed, he will "die" and be replaced.
*** Given numerous stories in the British press (that will not be repeated here as it's like telling a child that Santa doesn't exist), expect a grisly fate for White Stig at the start of the new series.
**** The grisly fate turns out to be [[spoiler: the revelation that he is Michael Schumacher! Yes, THAT Michael Schumacher!...possibly. They cracked a joke about it when Schumacher temporarily planned to return to F1 to replace the injured Felipe Massa.]]
* EpicFail: The presenters are seldom satisfied with ordinary, garden-variety failure, especially with [[TimTaylorTechnology Clarkson]] around.
** May actually has the best track record of the three main presenters when it comes to the challenges, but when he loses, he loses ''BIG''. For instance, in the race across London he came last by over half an hour, coming behind even The Stig who was using London's notoriously congested and delay-prone public transport services, and in the white van test Clarkson and Hammond got scores of 21 and 10.5 respectively, whereas May got -3,999,993.
* EstrogenBrigade: ''Top Gear'' has a remarkably solid female fanbase for a show oriented around manly pursuits. The trap is probably [[EstrogenBrigadeBait baited with hamster]], but Clarkson, May, and even The Stig have their devotees.
** This is made fun of on the show frequently: all three have been featured in this context in magazines and suchforth, but only Hammond tends to appear on lists of "hottest male celebrities" (once in a gay magazine, technically making him testosterone bait as well). That said, all three main presenters have won the dubious title of ''Heat'' magazine's "Number One Weird Crush" in consecutive years, and there is a campaign for The Stig to win it in 2009.
* EveryCarIsAPinto: Replace the word "car" with the word "caravan" and you're close. The team will not rest until every caravan on Earth is destroyed violently.
-->'''Clarkson:''' [''Series 4, episode 4''] You know, that's the nineteenth caravan we've destroyed on this program in twelve months!
* EveryEpisodeEnding: Most episodes end with Jeremy Clarkson saying "...and on that bombshell..." or variants thereof with few exceptions. Such as when Clarkson was caught and devoured by a pack of hunting dogs...
* [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs Everything's Better With Dinosaurs]]: During Clarkson's review of the BMW Z4 and Nissan 370Z in series 13, the test track was inhabited by dinosaurs for no apparent reason. It's pretty awesome anyway.
*[[EverythingsCuterWithKittens Everything's Cuter With Kittens]]: One episode has Clarkson discussing the finer points of twin turbocharged engines, but before he launches into his explanation, he remarks that some people in the audience tend to find such explanations boring, "so here's some soft little kittens for you to look at." The screen splits halfway between Clarkson and a mound of cuddly little kittens.
* ExecutiveMeddling: One of Clarkson's pet peeves, often lampshaded with snarly references to Health & Safety.
* ExtremeOmnivore: James May nonchalantly drinks Jeremy's "V8 Smoothie", which is composed of raw beef (with bones), Bovril, tabasco sauce, chilis, and "for added bite", a brick, blended in a blender powered by a Corvette's V8 engine. Naturally, the nonchalance abruptly ends when the full effect of the taste hits. Of course, HilarityEnsues.
-->'''May''': I've got the name for it: the Bloody Awful.
**In another show, James ate bull penis and rotten shark...and outlasted Gordon Ramsay, who reached for the sick bucket after eating the shark.
**And once he and Mika Hakkinen bonded over a cup of "hot reindeer blood". (Or possibly just coffee...)
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Subverted, averted and played straight -- amazingly, sometimes within the same episode.
* FanNickname: "Jezza" for Jeremy Clarkson; "Hamster" for Richard Hammond, because he's shorter than average and likes to try risky things; and "Captain Slow" for James May, due to his leisurely driving style and absolute refusal to run on camera. The three presenters together are sometimes called the Top Gear Three, or [=TG3=] for short.
** Also "White Stig," distinguished from the former "Black Stig" by the white color of his racing suit.
* {{Fanservice}}: You know [[MostCommonSuperpower Madison Welch]] wasn't invited to be on the show because of her extensive knowledge of cars...
** 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 Price Car" when she appeared on the show, and held that title until the following season.
* FanDisservice: In the driving heaven episode, the combination of lots of sun and lack of air conditioning causes James May to drive naked by the end of the episode. But (pardon the pun) [[YourMileageMayVary your mileage may vary]].
* {{Flanderization}}: Even producer Andy Wilman [[http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2009/nov/12/top-gear-bbc-jeremy-clarkson has acknowledged]] that the presenters have been narrowed down to one or two basic personality traits. ("Jeremy is walk through a door rather than open it, Richard's massively accident prone and cheeky chappie, and James is a pedantic nerd.")
* ForeignQueasine: Hammond was mysteriously "not hungry" for most of the Vietnam special
-->'''May''': [''looking at the menu''] Um, well I think this thing here is a sort of squid thing with some... weird paste.
-->'''Hammond''': [''unhappily''] Don't like squid.
-->'''May''': Okay, well you can have crab, with...
-->'''Hammond''': Don't like crab.
-->'''May''': Razor clams.
-->'''Hammond''': Don't like clams.
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Almost: there's only three of them
** Jeremy Clarkson - choleric
** Richard Hammond - sanguine
** James May - phlegmatic
* FriendshipMoment: Rare, but they happen.
* FruitCart: 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.
* FunnyAneurysmMoment: Absolutely anything that Richard Hammond says in episodes of ''Top Gear'' relating to "flying through the Pearly Gates backwards in a fireball" (or similar) that was recorded before his miraculously non-fatal high-speed crash.
-->'''Hammond''': I love that vision of just blasting through the gates, backwards, in a flaming Swedish supercar! "Yes! I'm here! Where are the women?"
** Hammond described the 10,000hp afterburner on the Vampire as "possibly the biggest accident you've ever seen in your life." ''Before'' he drove it.
** Similarly, there is a clip of Jeremy Clarkson saying that "no series would be complete without an earnest attempt to kill Richard Hammond" which the BBC had to remove from its website some time after the crash.
** Reruns of the episode where Hammond managed to roll his van during the police chase challenge have omitted Clarkson's "Well, we've just killed Richard Hammond. If you'd like a job presenting ''Top Gear'', please write to the BBC..." gag.
*** ...although [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo8TYapTOsA the Youtube clip]] doesn't.
*** Given AngstWhatAngst, I daresay the trio weren't behind that decision. Damn ExecutiveMeddling.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: In the tractors challenge, Hammond attempts to herd sheep with the "assistance" of Top Gear Dog, while Clarkson and May have a conversation in the foreground
** At one point in the "car for a 17-year-old" challenge, The Stig can be seen putting his head into a photocopier.
** Such is their skill that they can even invoke this trope on [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X8VHTyvuUo another BBC show]].
* FunnyMoney: In the Vietnam special, each of the trio were given [[BriefcaseFullOfMoney 15 million dong]] to buy transportation. Though they were initially delighted to have "inches of money," this turned out to equal just over US$1,000, which was not enough to buy a car, so they had to make do with motorbikes.
* GargleBlaster: The V8 Smoothie (aka the "Bloody Awful").
* GearheadShow: aka Petrolhead show in the UK.
* {{Gesundheit}}:
--> '''James''': What would you say if I said, [[TheUnpronounceable Perodua Kelisa]]?\\
'''Richard''': Ooh, bless you!
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBOPwHgpkFk the introduction]] to the review of the Lamborghini Reventon (the 'v' in "reventon" is pronounced almost like a 'b'), Clarkson mocks Hammond by repeating his words, substituting 'b' for 'v' until the Hamster nearly bites him. Clarkson concludes, "But with this, you would [[IfYouKnowWhatIMean get a lot of 'badge']]." After a confused blink Hammond gets it -- the expression on his face has to be seen to be believed.
** Helps, of course, that "a lot of badge" is a frequently used expression in car circles (in terms of marque snobbery).
** When taking part in an ice race in France and noting that all the other cars are far more powerful, Clarkson told Olivier Panis, an F1 driver, that it was like "bringing longbows to a bow-and-arrow fight". With Panis out of the way, Clarkson comments:
--->I mentioned [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Agincourt Agincourt]] once, but [[FawltyTowers I think I got away with it.]]
** A recurring gag is fake sponsorship names on racing cars the Top Gear team drive. You think they'd arrange it so that opening the door wouldn't turn "Larsen's Biscuits" into "L'''ARSE'''N'S '''BISCUITS'''". You'd be wrong...
*** On the other side, it had '''PENIS'''TON OILS.
*** In the Ice Racing Episode, all three got in on the act, with [[spoiler:A'''MERDE'''A '''DU FROMAGE''' on Hammond's car, C'EST'''LES BIEN''' C'''HAT!''' and SO'''PHART'''EL ''INDUSTRIE'' on Clarkson's car, and RESTAUR'''ANT''' PE'''TIT''' EN'''TREE''' and '''COQ''' JOLI '''yaourt''' auxfruits on May's car.]]
** This troper is still trying to work out how Panis got away with describing a car as a "shitbox".
*** He's French. The French are rude.
* GilliganCut: Jeremy in the Vietnam special: "Still, at least I'd been assured it wouldn't rain."
* GoodWithNumbers: James May.
-->'''May''': [''at the end of the British Leyland challenge''] We got 20p for every yard you covered -- you did 1,500 yards, so...
-->'''Hammond''': Uh..
-->'''Clarkson''': That's, um...
-->'''May''': It's £300, you half-wit.
** During the news segment in Series 12, Episode 06, May claimed to have calculated the total number of engine revs that his 25 year old Porsche had sustained in its lifetime[[hottip:*:8.4 x 10^8 at the time of the filming]], which prompted this reaction:
---> '''Hammond''': Wow! So you must actually have done everything there is to do in the whole ''world'', to get to the bottom of the list of everything a human being ''can'' do. What's it like on the top of Everest? Is it good?
---> '''May''': It's alright.
---> '''Clarkson''': Richard, I went to a dinner party the other day, and I sat next to a girl who said she couldn't believe that James May was still single.
---> '''Hammond''': There's your answer... ''Theerrreee's'' your answer!
* GreenEggsAndHam: On the various specials, two presenters are usually quite thrilled about the upcoming challenge while a third is glum. The third presenter usually cheers up before the end, while one of the enthusiastic pair finds the adventure isn't what he expected it to be.
** 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.
* GroinAttack: Clarkson to May with a paintball gun during the limousine challenge.
-->'''May''': The rules said hits on the car, not hits on the [[UnusualEuphemism wedding vegetables]].
** James returned the favor in Season 13, when he accidentally hit Clarkson in the "plums"
** And Hammond accidentally headbutted May in the "gentleman's region" during the Vietnam challenge.
* GrowingTheBeard: When James May joined the show in the second series. The previous presenter had only been there to talk about second hand car deals with Hammond and Clarkson during the news segment. The producers belatedly realized that that's what ''Top Gear Magazine'' is for.
** And the current format was itself a [[GrowingTheBeard beard-growing]] after a sharp decline in the popularity of the original format of the show, which seemed to ''entirely'' feature car reviews. Giving it quirkiness and cranking up Clarkson's ascerbic observations paid off for the relaunch.
* {{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.
* HandicappedBadass: Sound guy Kiff [=McManus=] managed to hold his own while steering Jeremy's double-decker car during the ''Top Gear vs. D Motor'' competition despite his artificial arm coming off during one of the last laps.
** He once had a fight with a shark! He lost, which explains why he's missing an arm.
** One fan wrote in to say he could have done a much better lap than TV presenter Richard Whiteley. Normally, these letters are just thrown away, but since the writer was ''totally blind'' they took him up on it, with Clarkson guiding him from the passenger seat. He completed the lap, in a quicker time, and a lap time marked 'Blind Man' went on the board above Whiteley's.
* HatesBeingTouched: May, apparently
* HeavySleeper: Hammond claims to be one of these in real life. James May once [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1bT_UMXIfc dozed off on-camera]] after a particularly gruelling day-long race
* HerCodeNameWasMarySue: While riding the Vincent Black Shadow in the Season 13 "Race to the North," Hammond did most of his narration in the style of a radio drama about a motorcycle hero named "The Black Shadow."
* HeterosexualLifePartners
* HeWhoMustNotBeHeard, and TheVoiceless: The Stig (also TheFaceless with his helmet), and Top Gear Stuntman.
* [[HeyThatsMyLine Hey, That's My Line!]]: "Back to the studio"
* HilariousOuttakes: As if you needed another reason to buy the [=DVDs=]....
* HilarityEnsues: The predictable result of just about every task which the producers give to the presenters in any given episode.
-->'''Clarkson''': How hard can it be?
-->'''Hammond''': [[GenreSavvy Don't say that!]]
-->Or: '''Hammond''': [[YouJustHadToSayIt Oh God!]]
* HolidayInCambodia: Notably averted: in the Vietnam special they acknowledged it would be a disservice to history not to refer to The Vietnam War and its legacy, but at the same time they presented the country as so much more than "that place where a war happened".
* HorribleCampingTrip: Most notably, the caravan holiday segment, which started with an accident and a carsick dog and only went downhill from there. Eventually [[spoiler:the trio's caravan was totally destroyed in a grease fire started when Clarkson tried his hand at cooking]].
* HotBlooded: Richard Hammond
-->'''Clarkson''': [''watching Hammond do a fast lap on an unfamiliar track''] It's ''TheFastAndTheFurious'', this.. the very furious, I should imagine, knowing Hammond.
-->'''Hammond''': ''Oh, for God's sake! Where's the bloody apex?!''
* HoYay: Predictably, there's slash fiction about the presenters (they pile the subtext on like logs). Less predictably, Jeremy Clarkson is apparently in love with Will Young.
** Even Hammond and May picked up on Clarkson's crush on Will Young.
** Clarkson also has a framed photo of him on "his" desk.
** "The Stig was ''very'' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_VifqgdanQ happy, knowing that I now had to kiss his helmet]]." (one of Clarkson's other car shows, admmittedly, but it still counts. Check the last minute or so.)
* IAlwaysWantedToSayThat
-->[''The lads' Renault Avantime has caught fire, forcing them to abandon their tuning efforts'']
-->'''Clarkson''': This is something I've wanted to do-- I've worked in television twenty years, never had the chance yet, okay, [''pause for breath'']
-->'''May''': "Back to the studio."
-->'''Clarkson''': Hey, that's my line! That's what I wanted to say! [''May starts running and Clarkson gives chase''] May! May, you bastard!
-->'''Hammond''': [''to the camera''] Yeah. What I thought I'd do is put the fire out, and then say--
-->'''Clarkson''': [''over his shoulder''] "Back to the studio!"
* ICallItVera: Richard Hammond named his 1963 Opel Kadett "Oliver" during the Botswana Special.
* IdiotBall: Each presenter has held it at least once. 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.
* IdiotSavant: The Stig. Assuming he's actually human, of course.
* IGotBetter: Lampshaded in the 'car for a 17-year-old' challenge, after Hammond rear-ended a car and Clarkson pronounced him dead.
-->'''Hammond:''' Don't worry kids. [[LampshadeHanging I got better.]]
* IKnowMortalKombat: 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 ''GranTurismo 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.
* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Clearly, Clarkson was the valedictorian. (See the Winter Olympics special)
* IncomingHam: Do you even have to be told it's Jeremy?
-->'''Clarkson''': [''from across the studio''] That is DISGUSTING!
-->'''Hammond''': Oh, dear! I fear Jeremy may be heading this way with an opinion!
* INeedAFreakingDrink: The finish line for the race-type challenges is almost always a bar, where the winners rejoice and the losers console themselves.
* IrishTravellers: May scolded Clarkson for using a hammer during the Caterham kit-car challenge, saying that it was "the tool of a pikey," which goes a bit beyond UnfortunateImplications. For shame.
** See also the lorry challenge, where Clarkson uses the term too:
--->'''Clarkson''': I think he's going to be quite cross with us..!
--->[''Jeremy and James are pushing Hammond's Opel Kadett to the hill start challenge area'']
--->'''Clarkson/May''' [''together, quietly imitating a despair-stricken Hammond'']: Nooo..!! [''laughing'']
--->'''Clarkson''': Have you seen what he's done to the number plate?
--->[''James leans back and peers at the'' "OLI [=V3R=]" ''number plate'']
--->'''May:''' Oh, for God's sake..!
--->'''Clarkson:''' Personal plates. He is such a pikey!
** Hammond got one as well in Season 13, though he [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar pointed to a pie and a key]] rather than say the offending word.
** Shortly afterward:
---> '''James''': You're such a steak and kidney door opener.
* IronicEchoCut: An occasional voiceover gag.
-->'''Clarkson''': [''narrating''] This is the Stevens-Duryea, which has eight clutches... and what kind of dullard would think that ''that'' was brilliant?
-->'''May''': [''looking into the engine compartment, fascinated''] That's brilliant!
* IrrevocableMessage: According to May's [[http://www.topgear.com/uk/photos/panamera-james-may humorous recap]] of events, the Porsche Panamera mail chase in Season 13 was one of these.
* [[IsntItIronic 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.
* ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne: After James May has [[http://crazymotion.net/top-gear-rolls-royce-phantom-drophead/wtjKHQSOzfQwjAy.html reviewed a Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe]] and commented that he thinks it suits him because it's stylish and contemporary.
-->'''Clarkson''': Every time I see you, those are the words that pop into my head: stylish and contemporary.
-->'''May''': [[InsultBackfire Thank you]].
-->'''Clarkson''': ..after other words like for instance: beige. Stannah Stairlift. The War. Homosexual.
-->'''May''': I object to the beige.
** In the recent series, Jeremy rattles off a list of people someone claims ''Top Gear'' has offended and takes umbrage at the idea they'd offend the last one: smokers.
--->'''Clarkson''': ''The Daily Star'', in an editorial, has said that we've upset the Scouts and the Catholic Church and they say that we can add those august organisations to other people we've offended including lorry drivers, Scots, Malaysians, Germans, blind people, anti-hunt protestors and smokers. I'm sorry... this sort of gutter-press claptrap gets just so far up my nose! How dare they?! How dare they suggest that we... would be rude to smokers?
* [[{{Ptitlem3hbxctg}} 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 [[WithFriendsLikeThese sabotage the efforts of the third]] during challenges
* JonasQuinn: Whoever is playing the White Stig, replacing Perry [=McCarthy=]. James May as well; he replaced [[ThePeteBest Jason Dawe]].
* {{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 [[LampshadeHanging 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 HandicappedBadass, 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''!
* KilledOffForReal: The original Stig.
* KindaBusyHere: 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
* KryptoniteFactor: 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 [[RuleOfFunny might be funny]]
*LampshadeHanging: 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.
* TheLancer: Hammond to Clarkson, especially in earlier seasons. May and Clarkson are more of an OddCouple.
* LargeHam: Clarkson.
** And he's proud of it too - when shown [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMuO-8S_0Wg a parody]] of himself, he actually gave the guest (comedian Harry Enfield, Star In A Reasonably Priced Car for two episodes and the man who performed it) tips on how to better it by pausing as long as possible before delivering the scene-closing line.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Hammond and May are always just as helpful to Clarkson as he is to them.
* {{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 RecurringRiff) 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 ''OnceUponATimeInTheWest'' operated as a sort of musical metaphor for failure. (It came up quite a bit when Clarkson's disaster-prone Lancia appeared on screen).
* LeParkour: In one of the challenges James May, in a car, races two traceurs. [[spoiler:And gets beaten like a red-headed stepchild]].
* [[LetsGetDangerous Let's Get Dangerous]]: In Season 7, Captain Slow (Ferrari F430) easily outran Hammond (Pagani Zonda) and Clarkson (Ford GT) on a winding mountain road in France, earning their mildly astonished respect. He explained afterwards that while he can indeed drive fast, he usually prefers not to.
*LockAndLoadMontage: Parodied in the "race across Japan" challenge when Hammond and May, preparing for a final charge, assemble their weapons with many a click and snap -- but it's a pair of folding bicycles. For extra spoof points, they both look faintly ridiculous riding them.
* LostInTransmission: 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 ...
-->'''Clarkson:''' ...ten pints of Stella and a dollop of chlamydia.
* MadeOfExplodium: Homemade convertable top + automatic car wash = oops.
**"We managed to set fire to something that's basically made of water!"
** "What? It ''can't'' be on fire." '''' "It's on fire."
* MadeOfIron: The Toyota Hilux straddles the line between this and {{Determinator}}, natch. Post-crash Hammond might be both.
* ManlyTears: Jeremy Clarkson, of all people, after successfully completing the Britcar 24-hour endurance race
* ManChild, Quantity: Three.
* ManOnFire: In the ''Top Ground Gear Force'' charity special. During the ''Ground Force''-style fast-forwarding bit a blazing man runs into shot and is put out with a fire blanket. [[RuleOfFunny It is never really explained]].
* TheMeanBrit: Clarkson
* MemeticBadass: The Stig. If half of his intro is true, he "sees" in binary, is half robot, hunts wolves, and once punched a horse to the ground.
**Well in that case [[RedCliff Sun Shang Xiang]] is The Stig.
**Or [[BlazingSaddles Mongo]]
* MemeticMutation: The Stig again. You can buy "I Am the Stig" t-shirts, and also "I Am Not The Stig" t-shirts.
* MoodWhiplash: In the Polar Special, a scene with the presenters trying (and hilariously failing) to ski is immediately followed by a scene in which they meet Sir Ranulph Fiennes and see images of his badly frostbitten hand. The Polar Special itself is also much darker and more serious in tone than the regular show.
* MrFixit: Steve, the director of the "''Top Gear'' Technology Centre," who became something of an AscendedExtra after the Britcar 24-Hour Race.
* MultiTrackDrifting: Various racing segments, often stunts done for the sheer [[RuleOfFunny hilarity]]. Racing double-decker cars with the top steering and the bottom accelerating and braking (the ''TopGear'' vs. ''D Motor'' challenges), racing [=MPV=]s (people carriers), racing camper vans ([=RV=]s) and racing buses (including "bendy buses" and double deckers!). And they were all awesome.
* MyCarHatesMe: When the Alabamans started throwing rocks and they had to make a quick getaway, James May's car needed to be jump-started.
* NameThatTune: Happens "accidentally" in the San Francisco to Bonneville Salt Flats episode: the Allman Brothers Band song "Jessica" (the ''Top Gear'' main theme song) comes on the radio while they're filming a 'factual' review of American muscle cars in America.
-->'''May:''' I wasn't expecting to hear ''that''.
* TheNapoleon: At 5'7", Hammond is nearly a foot shorter than Clarkson and is probably the most pugnacious and thrill seeking of the three.
* NeatFreak: James May
-->'''May''': The only thing I keep in my car is a little paintbrush for cleaning dust out of the switches.
-->'''Hammond''': You're scaring me, mate...
-->'''May''': And I always like to have the air vents lined up so they're really completely symmetrical.
* NeverLiveItDown: Hammond will ''never'' let Clarkson get over his rather enthusiastic interview with Will Young.
** It's not as if Hammond will live down his accident, either. Despite promising to never mention it again, it does crop up from time to time. Hammond even does it to himself, saying at one point in their news item, "can I please not be the one to try it?" when talking about some absurdly powerful car that was just being released at the time.
* NitroBoost:
-->'''Clarkson:''' Why don't we use nitrous?
-->'''Hammond:''' Do you remember what happened to [[ContinuityNod the first Stig]]?
-->'''Clarkson:''' He fell off an aircraft carrier.
-->'''Hammond:''' Be''cause''?
-->'''Clarkson:''' ..yeah, we used nitrous.
* NoodleImplements: Played straight in that the combination of items needed to solve a challenge can be quite... diverse; averted in that we see what the presenters make with them; subverted to all hell when the Frankenvehicle succeeds
* NoSenseOfDirection: James May. He [[http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/2674954/Top-Gear-stars-interview-each-other-for-The-Sun.html recently claimed]] that he has an electrical imbalance in his brain which causes him to visualize Britain upside-down.
* NotAScratchOnIt: The presenters did a two week feature to see how durable the Toyota Hilux pickup truck is. In the first week, Clarkson drove it down a staircase, rammed it into a tree, dropped it from a crane, drove it into the ocean and left it there overnight, set it on fire, dropped a caravan on it, swung a wrecking ball at it, and drove it through a modular building. The next week, May set it atop a tower of flats several hundred feet high... which was scheduled for demolition. It went down with the building and had to be pulled off the debris pile. And it ''still'' started.
** The cast realised the magnitude of the achievement and now display the disfigured Hilux prominently in their studio, on a tilted podium.
** Toyota subsequently released a model called '''The Invincible'''. Clarkson and May used two which had been specially modified for Arctic use (one for themselves and one for the camera and support crew) in the Polar Special.
* NothingCanStopUsNow: "How hard can it be?" HilarityEnsues.
** Lampshaded by Hammond on returning from his crash: "Oh, how I've missed the pang of dread I feel whenever you mention the words 'How hard can it be'!"
* NotSoAboveItAll: James May, at times.
* [[NotThisOneThatOne Not This One, That One]]: The tow car for the caravan holiday is a shiny! sexy! Lotus E-.... er, no, it's a Kia.
* NurseJenny: The Stig's international cousins.
* TheObiWan: Sir Jackie Stewart and [[FormulaOne Mika Hakkinen]] have both given James May lessons on how to drive properly.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: All we know is... he's called The Stig.
** Allegedly, because...some say his first name really is "The"
* {{Overdrive}}: The Britcar 24-hour endurance race.
* PaperThinDisguise: On a couple occasions the presenters have tried to pass off The Stig as James May. No one finds this convincing.
-->'''May''': Some say: he has a stripey shirt, just like mine...
* PercussiveMaintenance: Jeremy Clarkson's general attitude to car maintenance. ("Hammer.")
* ThePeteBest: Jason ''who''?
** For the American audience, what first Stig?
* PhraseCatcher: The Stig. See "CatchPhrase".
* PimpedOutCar: A frequent feature, taken to such extremes as the convertible limo, the ninja truck and the Toybota/Nissank amphibious vehicles.
** Hilariously reversed in a special segment called "Quaint My Ride," in which Clarkson had an old Merc equipped with stone floors, comfy armchairs, a chandelier, a tea service and a ''functional fireplace.''
* {{Pixellation}}: When presenters or guests let loose with a profanity, their mouths will be pixellated (along with the audio being bleeped, of course), no doubt to prevent lipreaders from taking offense. Happens a ''lot'' during the "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" segment, as the celebrity drivers often get a bit excited doing their fast lap around the ''Top Gear'' test track.
** And the survival instructor in the Arctic episode, an ex-special forces guy, is described as "a man with a pixelated face".
** Also, the Porsche-branded pipes were pixellated in re-runs, as the segment was filmed following a ban on smoking indoors. This elicited complaints.
* ThePointsMeanNothing: The scores are having less and less influence over which presenter "wins" a challenge.
* PornStash: In the "start on a hill without rolling backwards and smashing your most treasured possession" challenge of the lorry driving episode, the prize to the winner was "a year's supply of gentlemen's literature". We could clearly see it was a collection of top-shelf magazines.
* PowerTrio:
** James May: The SmartGuy and often teasingly referred to as "Captain Slow", because he does most things slowly and carefully, has a penchant for spending as much (or more) time ordering his toolbox as he does working with his tools (quite possibly a sufferer from obsessive-compulsive disorder), and often scolds the other hosts for being careless. Has a tendency towards GoshDangItToHeck and UnusualEuphemism. Also, he plays piano. Definitely the superego.
** Jeremy Clarkson: A loud, brash SmugSnake. He's rude, likes explosions and luxury cars, is a devoted believer in TimTaylorTechnology, is exceedingly vocal in his dislikes, and let's not get into his politics. Almost certainly the id.
** Richard Hammond: A risk-taking adrenaline junkie prone to {{Cluster F Bomb}}s... also most likely the id. But he's somewhat nicer than Clarkson and less pushy, and he seems to have a better rapport with the other two than they have with each other, so he may narrowly qualify as the ego.
* PowerWalk: Sort of. If the three presenters are driving three cars, there will inevitably be at least one wide shot of the three in a flying-wedge formation.
* {{Precap}}: In two senses. In the first episode of each new series, the presenters show previews of all the stuff that is to come that was already filmed for that season. The best stuff is saved for the actual episodes that they appear in. Additionally, nearly every episode has an introductory voiceover telling the viewer about the main features of the week's episode.
-->'''Clarkson''' (series 8, episode 2): Tonight, I ruin the tranquility of the Yorkshire dales ... Richard ruins Iceland ... and we all ruin a local radio station.
* PrecisionFStrike: James May
-->[''on the "Top Ground Gear Force" special, after Clarkson has destroyed May's shed. Again'']
-->'''May''': What time is this program on? Is it 10 o'clock?
-->'''Clarkson''': Yeah.
-->'''May''': Is it 10 o'clock on [=BBC2=]?
-->'''Clarkson''': Yes.
-->'''May''': Are we beyond the {{watershed}}?
-->'''Clarkson''': Yes.
-->'''May''': You're a [[CurseCutShort fu--]]
-->[''hard cut to'']
-->'''Hammond''': Guys!
* [[AuthorAppeal Presenter Appeal]]: A surprising number of the vehicles that come up for review are boyhood Dream Cars or contemporary vehicles that have captured the interest of one of the presenters.
* ProductPlacement: Both [[{{Parody}} parodied]] and [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]]. But the presenters aren't shy about pointing out the ones that don't make the grade, as evidenced by the Cool Wall.
** It's TheBBC, they're not supposed to advertise...
* PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad: The show in general and Clarkson in particular are the direct antithesis of this trope, and frequent complaints are heard from the PC branch of the MoralGuardians. There's a belief among fans that there are actually people who watch ''TopGear'' for the sole purpose of finding something to take offence at.
* RatingsStunt: The episode which aired footage of the 300mph crash which temporarily brain-damaged Richard Hammond was timed to compete with the finale of ''BigBrother'' on Channel 4.
* RealSongThemeTune: "Jessica", by the Allman Brothers Band
* RedBaron: "All we know is, he's called The Stig."
* TheRedStapler: Inversion; for a show which spends most of its time talking about unaffordable supercars, ''Top Gear'' has a reputation as being able to destroy an everyday car's sales with a single negative word. Manufacturers will occasionally refuse to provide a car for the show to review, fearing they'll hate it, but this tends to rile the presenters more, and they'll often name and shame such cars before going on to review them "covertly" anyway.
** One notable case is the Opel Vectra (Vauxhall in the UK). Vectra was trashed roundly by Clarkson and Opel actually blamed him for their poor sales. BTW, for American car fans, the Vectra's American mutation is the Saturn Aura.
** The presenters spent an entire series mocking the forthcoming Dacia Sandero before it had even been finished. By the start of the next series, Renault had canceled the UK release (of course, this was probably for "unrelated reasons".)
** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in the American Muscle Cars special (San Francisco to the Bonneville Salt Flats); Richard Hammond noted that Chrysler refused to loan him a Dodge Challenger on the grounds that ''Top Gear'' always criticizes their cars. Hammond got around this by going to a local dealership and buying one.
** On the other hand, when the team demonstrated the durability of the Toyota Hilux pickup truck, Toyota released a new model, named in honor of the achievement, called The Invincible.
*** In fact, there's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVqQw1OCMXg a television commercial]] in the U.S. for the American version of the Hilux, the Toyota Tacoma, which features footage from that episode. They don't mention that it's ''Top Gear'', only that the stunt was done by "some automotive experts in Europe" (grossly underestimating ''Top Gear'''s American fanbase and its ability to recognize the scene).
* RefugeInAudacity: The presenters (particularly Clarkson) live and breathe this trope.
** During a contest with the hosts of ''D Motor'', a similar German motoring show, Clarkson commented the BBC had asked them not to mention [[WorldWarTwo the war]]. Clarkson, Hammond, and May then turned up in Twin-Seat Spitfires, the theme tune to ''633 Squadron'' was played twice, they held an "Axis v. Allies" drag race contest (during which Clarkson cracked a joke about Italy changing sides) and had one contest where the winner was the first to complete a lap, then ''place a towel on a sunbed'' to claim ownership. That's just some of the gags...
** Like Clarkson describing a BMW with such features as "a sat-nav (GPS) that only goes to Poland" and "ein fanbelt that will last a thousand years"?
** Some of the cheating in the challenges certainly qualifies.
** From the first episode of Series 12:
--->'''Clarkson''': This is a hard job and I'm not just saying that to win favour with lorry drivers. Change gear, change gear, change gear, check mirror, murder a prostitute, change gear, change gear, murder. That's a lot of effort in a day.
** Clarkson's Volkswagen Scirocco ad, which ended with the caption [[spoiler:"Berlin to Warsaw in one tank"]].
* RelaxOVision: Not censorship, but rather an anti-boredom motive.
-->'''Clarkson:''' Now I'm going to talk about all the German technical stuff but for those not interested in all that, on the left-hand half of the screen we'll be showing kittens!
** Played straight in the Bonneville Salt Flats special. Claiming they have visas to visit America to film a factual review but not to do an entertainment program, Clarkson censors several scenes because they're getting dangerously entertaining.
* RibbonCuttingCeremony: In one segment, Jeremy Clarkson is asked to open a municipal swimming pool. Clarkson decides that the only way to do so in style is by doing so with a Rolls-Royce. Emphasis on "''with''". HilarityEnsues. [[spoiler:In addition, Clarkson demonstrates that a Rolls should not be used as a flotation device.]]
* RingRingCRUNCH: An annoying talking device meant to remind diesel drivers to put the correct fuel in their vehicles. Clarkson kills it with a hammer.
* RousingSpeech: Subverted. Clarkson attempts several of these during the 24-hour road-repair challenge and succeeds only in irritating the crew. May eventually takes his megaphone away and throws it under a steamroller.
* RuleOfCool: The basis behind many of the projects and challenges. Why race a Bugatti Veyron against an RAF Eurofighter Typhoon? Why attempt to turn a Reliant Robin into a space shuttle? Why do any of the things they do? Because they're cool, dammit!
* RuleOfFunny: The basis behind the rest of the projects and challenges. Why turn a truck into an amphibious vehicle? Why launch a car on a rocket only to see it hit the ground and then explode? Why make James May try to drive fast? (Or why let him get lost -- actually lost -- on a race track?) Because it's funny, durn it!
* RummageSaleReject: James May has a collection of incredibly loud shirts. He especially favors a purple-and-pink striped number. One of them, a white shirt with a blue flower pattern, even has its own fanbase.
* RunningGag: The stylized introduction of The Stig; the frequent characterization of presenter James May as "Captain Slow" or similar, because of his generally unaggressive and leisurely driving style; Jeremy Clarkson asking "How hard can it be?" when the challenge segment gives him and his fellow presenters a task that is ''much'' harder than he thinks; accusations of Hammond having his teeth whitened; "I went on the Internet... and I found ''this''" (we don't see what "this" is, but according to the audience it's [[TheInternetIsForPorn exactly what you'd expect]]) and comedy updates on the progress of the Dacia Sandero.
** One season's gag seems to be "Are you wearing that for a bet?" or similar, referring to [[RummageSaleReject a piece of odd clothing]] being worn by one of the presenters.
** There are also single episode running gags, such as "We've bought you ''a present!''" (invariably a large bulky item difficult to carry on a motorbike) from the recent Vietnam special.
** If a Morris Marina is seen on screen, you can bet harm will come to it before too long.
** Ditto if you see a caravan.
* SandInMyEyes: James May after taking the Bugatti Veyron to its top speed of 253 mph.
-->"I'm pretty confident that is as fast as I'm ever gonna go in a car. Incredible. That is-- It's made my eyes water."
* SceneryPorn: In the overseas episodes. The Vietnam special made particularly heavy use of this in the service of the feature's main objective: to show the country as more than "just that place where a war happened."
* SchmuckBait:
-->'''Hammond:''' This is the red naga chili. On the chili Richter scale, it measures just under one million heat units. You can't handle this with bare skin, you have to wear gloves. You don't chop it up and put it in your food, you just touch it against the ingredients and that's enough. This is your BMW Z4 M.
--> [''pauses, then licks chili'']
-->'''Hammond''': ''GUH!''
* SeinLanguage: "...in the '''world'''."
* SeinfeldianConversation: Pops up now and again, usually when the presenters are waiting for their challenge or Jeremy and Richard are waiting for Captain Slow. This troper's particular favorite was in the lorry challenge, where they were discussing what Yorkie bars came out when. %%Is THAT what they were talking about? This American troper was completely lost.%%
* SelectiveSquick: I'm sure Scandinavians wouldn't bat an eye at this, but ''reindeer blood''? ''Really'' James?
* SelfDeprecation: May's first appearance on the revived ''Top Gear''
-->'''James May''': [on buying a used car from a "classic cars" magazine listing] Mind you, you'd have to be a complete ''idiot'' to buy one of those. [''gets into an old Bentley T2''] This one's mine.
* ShaggyDogStory: Arguably, the whole of the Mallorca classic car rally in Season 13, but particularly Hammond's car: a badly-broken 1953 Lanchester, which he tolerated only because he believed it was built by his grandfather. [[spoiler: It wasn't.]]
* ShipperOnDeck: Oddly enough, talk show host and one-time Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car Jonathan Ross apparently ships Clarkson/Hammond.
** And then there's Hammond and May, both of whom jokingly ship Clarkson/Will Young
* ShroudedInMyth: The Stig, based on the RunningGag introductions almost every episode.
* SlidingScaleOfSillinessVersusSeriousness: Very much on the "silly" side.
* SmugSnake: Jeremy Clarkson, in every sense. During one episode the studio audience actually booed his success at a task, a reaction which Hammond ''loved''.
** Even better are the two (!) Simon Cowell interviews. Battle of the {{Smug Snake}}s!
** And from Season 12:
--->'''May''': [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUmmkSG81NI&NR=1 And now the news.]] And it's great news ladies and gentlemen, it's news to warm the hearts of nations. Jeremy Clarkson has lost his voice! [''Audience cheers and applauds'']
* SomethingThatBeginsWithBoring: In the Polar Special.
** And again in the "Economy Run" episode.
* SorryILeftTheBGMOn: In the charity special ''Top Ground Gear Force'' the music was provided by a military brass band, whom Jeremy had to stop before continuing his monologue. In a second instance he, May and Hammond were arguing and he went as far as destroying a trombone to achieve silence.
* [[SorryBillyButYouJustDontHaveLegs Sorry Billy, But You Just Don't Have Legs]]: Aversion: when Richard Whiteley set an atrocious time on the ''Top Gear'' test track, a blind fan wrote in to say he could do better. And then did (with Jeremy Clarkson riding shotgun and guiding him through the track).
* SoundEffectBleep: In order to keep the show suitable for its pre-{{watershed}} slot, most of the swearing is either bleeped or drowned out by a horn or car radio.
* SoundtrackDissonance: ''Top Gear'' tends to pull music from other sources, including ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean'', ''Backdraft'', and ''TheDarkKnight'', as the BBC's music library is simply ''huge''. So you'll be wondering why there are pirates in Iceland or why [[IronChef Chairman Kaga]] is a pyro (in a SoundtrackDissonance times two).
* SpellMyNameWithAThe: The Stig (of course).
* SpikedWheels: Clarkson adds Boudicea spikes to his "improved" police interceptor in the police car challenge. Needless to say, it doesn't work out exactly as planned.
* SpinoffBabies: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yoKhOIlXhk Advertisements]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=653YzsMXojE for Season 13]] featured child versions of all four presenters, including a Li'l Stig. Adorable.
** Continuing in the commercials for Season 14.
* SpoofAesop: Especially when it comes to environmental matters or money saving. Usually in the form of a "Top Gear Top Tip".
** One of the best: the "American South" special, in which they traveled across the southern United States in cars purchased for no more than $1,000 US. After nearly crashing into a river due to bad brakes, getting chased out of a gas station by an angry mob for having slogans such as "MAN-LOVE RULES OK" and "NASCAR sucks!" painted on their cars, and witnessing firsthand the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina (which inspired them to donate their vehicles to local families), they all learned a valuable lesson: Don't go to America.
* SpotOfTea: Often, and sometimes under the most outrageous circumstances (i.e. while floating in the Bay of Dover after one's amphibious vehicle has capsized.)
-->'''May''': Oops, sorry mate, the cup sank.
* {{Squick}}: Several of the challenges have involved eating dubious items, like roadkill or snake.
** Also, when one presenter teases another with a little [[HoYay homoerotic subtext]], expect to see the second person twisting in comical discomfort.
--->'''Hammond''': When we left the action, Jeremy was in the lead just approaching Doncaster, I was in second place and as you would expect Captain Slow was bringing up the rear...
--->'''May''': Steady.
--->'''Hammond''': ...Hoping to take me from behind.
--->'''May''': Yeah alright.
--->'''Hammond''': And then press home his advantage and take Jeremy in the tunnel...
--->'''May''': Stop saying things like that!
**And
--->'''May''': I really enjoyed our day out together, Richard. It's not very often I get to take someone out for a nice dinner.
--->[''camera switches to Hammond, who is now looking somewhat concerned'']
** And on the caravan holiday, when the trio realize they are parked near a noisy and active train crossing
--->'''May''': It's alright. It's romantic.
--->'''Hammond''': Don't say things like that! I'm on the same bed as you!
* StiffUpperLip: All three presenters. Clarkson and Hammond can both keep up a steady narrative even in tense situations (i.e. driving through a shopping center being chased by a Corvette; sitting in a car slowly filling up with water), and May blends it with {{Deadpan Snarker}}y for comic effect.
* StraightMan: May. Paradoxically, he stands out compared to Hammond and Clarkson because they're so over-the-top and he's completely ordinary
* StuffBlowingUp: Almost every episode. In fact, it's noteworthy when they ''don't'' do it.
* [[SurprisinglyGoodEnglish Surprisingly Good Vietnamese]]: In the Vietnam special, Clarkson actually learned enough Vietnamese to understand the oral driver's exam, and answer the question directed at him. Predictably, Hammond and May were shocked.
-->'''Clarkson''': Did you not bother learning Vietnamese before you came here?
-->'''Hammond''': Well, no!
* SwissMoment: In the 2009 "car for a 17-year-old" challenge, when Hammond is getting an insurance quote for a teenage driver and claims to have had no accidents in the last five years, accompanied by a quick, guilty grimace at the camera. Humorous when you consider his line of work; funnier yet if you have seen the show; utterly brilliant when you remember he was nearly killed in 2006 in the infamous Vampire crash.
* TakeOurWordForIt: We don't see what Clarkson has found on the internet each week, only the response from the studio audience. At one point Jeremy joked that there's more to the internet than "Abi Titmuss's 'Lady Garden'" and those who have attended filming have confirmed that the unseen screen shows "[[TheInternetIsForPorn particularly nasty porn]]".
* TakeThat: In the 2008 Christmas show, Clarkson joked about how lap footage would be improved by playing a CD of V8 engine noises as a TakeThat to fan allegations that [[http://www.topgear.com/blogs/planettopgear/135-show-six-wilman/ a lap soundtrack had been falsified]] earlier in the series.
* TakeThatCritics: Clarkson again.
* TalksLikeASimile: Clarkson yet again (also in his newspaper articles). The effect is amplified by the fact that many of them reference random subjects pulled out of nowhere apparently on the spur of the moment.
-->"It's an Audi! It weighs as much as the moon!"
-->[''responding to another critic who has said car X is better than car Y''] "Yes, in the same way that treading on a rusty nail is better than having sex with the entire sixth form of a girls' school!"
* TankGoodness: Clarkson, driving a Land Rover, tries evading a British Army Challenger 2 tank.
** [[MultiTrackDrifting And fails.]]
* TeamPet: Top Gear Dog, a female Labradoodle owned by Hammond.
* TechnologyPorn: especially with the camera swooping over the glossy curves of expensive cars.
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Rare is the co-operative ''Top Gear'' project that does NOT go this way. Perhaps the best example is the episode where the boys [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/videos/index.shtml?cat=more_challenges&id=55 built their own Caterham]].
* TemptingFate: Whenever Clarkson sets his jaw, looks into the camera, and says, "How hard can it be?" Inevitably, HilarityEnsues.
** For a while now they've been [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]] this by having Richard Hammond shout "Don't say that!" (or similar) when Clarkson says his [[CatchPhrase catchphrase]].
* ThatCameOutWrong: Often. Whether a given instance is genuine or just playing to the RuleOfFunny is sometimes up for debate
-->'''Hammond''': [''gleefully riding a Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle''] I am now straddling my boyhood hero! [''[[{{Beat}} beat]]''] No, no wait, that's not right, no.
* ThatMakesMeFeelAngry: In the "Polar Special" (Clarkson, Hammond, and May's attempt to reach the magnetic north pole), James May finally tells Jeremy Clarkson, "I'm so unspeakably outraged with you." (Granted, this is after they have been in extreme cold digging a path through an ice boulder field for days and are both exhausted past the point of civility.)
* ThereAreNoTherapists: James May often falls afoul of the obsessive compulsive disorder he swears he doesn't have, spending more time naming and filing his tools than actually using them to complete a job.
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Believe it or not, there are some people who think the show's original, pre-2002 format was better, and that the current series is just one giant adolescent fantasy on acid. Others believe that the first series of the new format, with Clarkson and Hammond there to provide the entertainment and Jason Dawe providing more serious discussion was a happy medium between the two formats, and that it's gone too far to the "entertainment" side since then.
** It may be a bit early to tell on this one, but since roughly the lorry driving challenge, the presenters seem to have pretty much given up on the actual competition aspect of the challenges and either use some strange and random criteria to decide the winner, or just pick whichever vehicle actually seems the ''least'' suited to the challenge in hand. Again, it's not too obvious if this is a permanent thing, but it's not stopped some getting up in arms about it.
* TimTaylorTechnology: Clarkson is a frequent advocate of this approach: for example, during the episode the team were challenged to build amphibious cars, he demanded to have his vehicle powered by two massive outboard motors, which would have given it half the horsepower of a Formula 1 racing car.
** In another episode he fitted a large turbocharger to his car's engine for an endurance race, making it the fastest car there but only able to do one lap at a time before the engine overheated.
** Even Hammond got in on the act during ''Top Gear Ground Force'', creating a barbecue out of a jet-engine, complete with a turbo-powered skewer for the chicken. It was a side-splitting [[EpicFail epic failure]].
** [[http://www.bbcamerica.com/shows/topgear/video.jsp?bclid=31560299001&bctid=30112208001 V8 Blender]].
*** [[http://www.bbcamerica.com/shows/topgear/video.jsp?bclid=31560299001&bctid=30115382001 V8 Rocking Chair]].
* TongueOnTheFlagpole: Jeremy Clarkson during the Polar Challenge. In a variant, it was a metal hex nut he was holding with his mouth -- but since he was standing on the polar ice north of Canada at the time, it had the same effect.
* TooSoon: The show received criticism for broadcasting a feature in which they demonstrated the importance of taking care on level crossings by crashing a locomotive into a car, shortly after a train crash had made the news. More reasonable voices pointed out that it was an ideal time to broadcast it with rail safety high in the public consciousness.
** Someone else also pointed out that whenever they chose to air the segment, someone would get offended.
** This trope was [[TakeThatCritics intentionally flaunted]] when Richard Hammond returned to the show after his near-fatal high-speed crash. Jeremy Clarkson even made a point of saying "speed kills" and asked Hammond if he was "now a mental".
* TotallyRadical: In a wry and self-deprecating way (of course) during May's review of the life-size [=FAB1=]
-->'''May''': I'm not sure I really understand "bling," but I think this must be it. I mean, it's got 24-inch rims and blacked-out glass. It's.. wicked.
-->[''at the end of the review'']
-->'''May''': [''in the car, throwing up a 'sign'''] So I aks you... is I bling?
* {{Transplant}}: The Stig sometimes appears on Clarkson's other car related shows.
* TrophyRoom: After the show won an Emmy they kept it in a toilet in their offices, which are little more than portable cabins. The Top Gear set does have other 'trophies', such as the indestructible Toyota Hilux.
* TwoGamersOnACouch: A conservative-leaning but self-deprecating and witty middle-aged men equivalent (and there's three of them).
* {{Understatement}}: Any time you hear the phrase "That's not gone well."
* UnfriendlyFire: May, manning a paintball-shooting 'tank,' opened fire on Clarkson's car during one of the ''D Motor'' crossover challenges
-->'''Hammond''': James, what are you doing!?
-->'''May''': Shooting at Jeremy.
-->'''Hammond''': But he's on our side!
-->'''May''': Yeah, but why wouldn't you?
-->[''pause'']
-->'''Hammond''': You're right, you would. Fire!
* UniversalDriversLicense: Both played straight by driving unusual vehicles on little or no training and subverted in the historic cars segment.
* UnreliableVoiceover: The presenters' narration (especially Clarkson's) frequently contradicts events as seen on-screen. [[RuleOfFunny Played for humor]].
* UnusualEuphemism: As ''Top Gear'' is a family-oriented show (to a point) broadcast before 9pm, the team often use these and have any cursing censored, visually and audibly.
* VanityLicensePlate: 0LIV3R
** The modified Toyota Hilux used by Clarkson and May in the Polar Special had a [=TY07 HLX=] plate.
** May owns a [[http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1133855/ Champion 8KCAB Decathlon light airplane]] with the registration number G-[[CatchPhrase OCOK]], though it has not appeared in the show
* VerbalBackspace: Often.
-->[''while driving a rough-road course, with points lost if pieces of the car are shaken loose'']
-->'''Clarkson''': [''having just lost a door''] Still. I'd only lost one thing.
-->[''a side mirror falls off'']
-->'''Clarkson''': Two things.
* VerySpecialEpisode: The team will often contribute to televised charity fundraisers by changing their usual format and embarking on challenges completely outside their field of expertise to raise money, [[RuleOfFunny just for the hell of it]].
** The best of these is probably ''Top Ground Gear Force'', where the team's attempts at improving five-time Olympic medal winner Sir Steve Redgrave's garden went so horribly wrong it ''couldn't'' have been accidental.
** Runner-up: ''Top Gear of the Pops'', where they [[strike:forced]] asked [=McFly=] to write and perform a song that had to include words of their choice ("sofa","administration" and "Hyundai")... without the words "love","baby" or "heart".
* VictoryGloating: Only to be expected from Clarkson and Hammond, but even James May will do a smug victory dance
* VisualPun: On occasion. For example: Hammond's review of three new hatchbacks ended with him in the Volkswagen Golf on a driving range.
* VitriolicBestBuds: All three presenters, who can't resist making jabs at each other (and honestly, that's a large part of the attraction of the show). Occasionally borders on WithFriendsLikeThese
** Really, the only clue that the ''Top Gear'' presenters are genuinely fond of each other is that none of them has snapped and murdered the other two. Yet.
* WatchThePaintJob: Oliver. Pretty well averted however, in that despite the dangers of driving cross country through the spine of Africa, and despite Clarkson and May's best efforts in the lorry challenge episode, no harm has yet befallen Oliver.
** Played straight with Hammond's Dino... er...Ferrari that he bought for the "Italian Supercars Cheaper Than A Two Year Old Ford Mondeo" challenge, as after he lovingly restored it, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8En7Qooyx0 it was damaged]] on the horrible BBC game show ''Gearheads''. He [[TranquilFury didn't react well]].
***It's a good job they didn't use Oliver for that, or he probably would have become violent.
** Also, the kiddy car Hammond was hypnotised into thinking was a Porsche 911.
** May finally got his hands on a Dacia Sandero in the Romania episode... only for it to be utterly wrecked five minutes later when a truck driver "accidentally" backed into it.
* WeHaveReserves: Jeremy Clarkson's attitude towards cameramen.
** And fellow presenters.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: James May was originally planning to present the Vampire rocket-car segment but had to back out due to a schedule conflict.
* WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong: "How hard can it be?"
* WhatDoesThisButtonDo: A conspicuous lever in May's Alfa Romeo/Saab limousine. Naturally, Hammond pulls it. (It uncouples the steering between the Alfa and Saab halves, making the [[strike:Alfaab]] Salfa Romeab all but undriveable.)
* [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome What Do You Mean, It's Not Awesome?]]: The editing -- particularly the background music -- frequently pushes scenes from their challenges and races to epic levels of Awesome.
** ''Top Gear'' is well recognized in the professional film and television industries as having some of the world's best editing and production values.
*** BoringButPractical: The magazine has revealed that they shoot most of their rolling action shots from the opened back of a Ford Mondeo hatchback, rather than a purpose-designed camera rig.
** The intros often play into this trope as well -- in an episode that had a European rally race and ''dinosaurs on the track'' Jeremy Clarkson's introduction went "Tonight: I wear some GOGGLES! Richard Hammond FALLS DOWN A SMALL SLOPE! James May SAYS HELLO to a MAN!"
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Richard Hammond says "I have several recurring nightmares. One in which I am presenting a radio show and can't work the desk, another in which I find myself on stage with a truly catastrophic band. I am only waiting now for ''Top Gear'' to make me run naked through a shopping centre on a Saturday and I will have completed the set."
** Also, Jeremy HATES motorcycles. This was a problem when they had the Vietnam roadtrip. [[HilarityEnsues Hilarity Ensued]].
* WiperStart: Richard while hypnotised into believing he couldn't drive.
* WomenDrivers: Subversion. Sabine Schmitz, who Clarkson would replace Hammond with because she's a better driver, better looking, speaks better English and is taller.
** And the team aren't averse to recommending what they would consider "a girl's car" if it's a [[RuleOfFun whole lot of fun]].
** Not only a subversion but a CrowningMomentOfAwesome when Sabine mocked Clarkson's 9:59 time around the Nürburgring in a diesel Jaguar with "I tell you something, I do that lap time in a van," and then hopped in the Jag to beat his time by over 45 seconds -- without ever having driven that car before.
*** Alas, when the time came to do Clarkson's lap time in a van, Sabine came up just a bit short. Try as she might, she couldn't get the Ford Transit to do the lap any faster than 10:08, even though she'd stripped the van (by removing the hub caps, spare tyre, toolkit, ''and'' Richard Hammond) and attempted slipstreaming behind a Dodge Viper. Granted, they did supply her with a UK-spec right hand drive one.
---->'''Clarkson:''' You said you were scared; was it dangerous?
---->'''Schmitz:''' Yes, it was really dangerous.
---->'''Hammond:''' You didn't tell ''me'' that; you said it was perfectly safe!
** Don't forget sailboat racer Ellen [=MacArthur=], who held the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car lap record until the Liana was retired, despite having little applicable experience.
* TheWoobie: Typically averted: RuleOfFunny and StiffUpperLip generally turn a suffering character into a ButtMonkey rather than a Woobie.
* YouBlockhead: Often.
* {{YouTube}}: Mostly illegitimately, of course, but the BBC has put up segments on [[http://www.youtube.com/user/TopGear the official Top Gear account]], [[http://www.youtube.com/user/BBCWorldwide#grid/user/793CABDF042A9514 a playlist on the BBC Worldwide account]], and [[http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=9B9305D2D2F9155E a playlist on the main BBC account]] (not available in the United States).
** Note that official BBC videos are also available at the [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/ UK official site]] and the [[http://www.bbcamerica.com/shows/topgear/index.jsp BBC America official site]].
* ZanyScheme: Half of what Clarkson does after saying "How hard can it be?"
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