This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Benteen: Is "Hamster" really a Fan Nickname, or was it bestowed on him by Clarkson and May? I get the impression it was Clarkson/May, myself, but I've only recently discovered Top Gear so I don't feel justified in changing it. At any rate, the fans use it enough to justify categorizing it as a Fan Nickname.
- Chariset: It started as an in-show, unofficial nickname, but it's not an official alias (like The Stig) and fans use "Jezza," "Hamster," and "Captain Slow" as much or more than the presenters' real names, so I think it qualifies
- Chariset: Although now that I've seen In-Series Nickname, I think it's a better description. They originated with the presenters, not the fanbase, even though the fans love using them.
Deadbeatloser22: I've corrected the Just Plane Wrong error under Refuge in audacity. They're clearly spitfires, not hurricanes.
Silent Hunter: And I went to the RAF Museum in Hendon the day before...
Chariset: I'm having fun expanding this page. Do you think Top Gear needs a Crowning Moment Of Awesome page? There have been so many neat moments
- Chariset: Also, I think I need to be banned from editing this page, because it's taking over my life....
- Benteen: As the original creator of this page, I understand the fascination. :-) I'm also very pleased by how the Wiki Magic has significantly improved this page over my original...
- Chariset: I want a second opinion: Do you think Hammond qualifies as The Woobie?
Kazokuhouou: Can someone confirm or deny whether 13x01 was another Ratings Stunt, what with the Stig's maybe-reveal?
Chariset: I need examples for Comedic Sociopathy. I can think of a few, but I want to see what the rest of you think
- Listy: There's tons in this series that I can think of. The Africa episode is full of it, for one, then there's the running gag of one of the hosts constantly banging their car into one of the others during a parking scene, as well as Clarkson constantly being mocked every time he is sick on the show.
Chariset: Added a Quotes page.
Chariset: Sorry, seem to have killed the page image. I'll try to fix it
- Fixed.
Benteen: Ok guys, I've sat on my hands for a while here, but I've got to speak up (apologies, but since I wrote the original "Top Gear" article I've become a little bit protective over it). Let's lighten up a bit with the minor edits. The substantive edits are great, but when people are editing things like changing " ' " to "’" or to " ’ " and back again, it strikes me as getting a bit much. I suggest for proper rendering on all platforms that we standardize on the plain ASCII characters " and ' for double and single quotes respectively—I suspect that a lot of this edit-and-re-edit is because some people's browsers don't render Unicode correctly. Ok, I've donned my nomex undies; let the flames begin! ;-)
- Robin Zimm: ...is it still all right to add missing periods to ends of sentences?
- Benteen: That doesn't bother me as much, because I tend to be anal about punctuation mistakes, myself. I guess what's irritating me about this is that as far as I'm concerned, " ' " (ASCII single quote) is just fine, and it strikes me as being the height of nit-picking to change " ' " to " ’ " (that's the edit that started raising my blood pressure). I realize that some people probably wind up using " ’ " because they're writing their edits in a word processor that replaces " ' " with " ’ " and then copying/pasting them into the edit window here. I can live with that, but then my browser renders both characters correctly. I suppose I just need to find me a good sedative and relax...
Chariset: Thanks for writing our first review, Robin Zimm
- Robin Zimm
- Glad to do it - I figure I've wasted enough hours of my life on it to have an opinion. Hope it'll be helpful to hoi polloi.
- Chariset: Wow, you're one of the few people I've met who realize that "the hoi polloi" is redundant.
- Robin Zimm: Thank you!
Chariset: Thinking of putting up a character sheet, but I'm not sure. The presenters are playing fictionalized (or at least exaggerated) versions of themselves, but they're not exactly characters, so I don't know if they qualify. Thoughts?
- Robin Zimm
- I would have no objections - even if they weren't playing roles, they'd still be real characters. Besides, it's a reference - it loses nothing by being a reference for real people.
- Chariset: Okay, we're off. Have at it.
Chariset: So... who's your favorite presenter?
- Robin Zimm: This is probably forum material, but ... James May. I'd surely make all my air vents line up if I had a car.
- Chariset: I'm with you... I think he's easily the most interesting person on the show. Doesn't hurt that he's also One Of Us.
- Kazokuhouou to Chariset: Yep. It was a bit of a Swiss Moment when I saw a Yorkie bar and realized that that was what they were talking about.
- Benteen: Captain Slow, of course. Anyone who can and would calculate the total number of engine revs his Porsche has sustained in its lifetime has instant geek cred, in my book.
Chariset: Thinking of expanding the overseas special section in the intro, but the intro is so long I don't know whether it would be helpful or just inconvenient. Thoughts?
- Benteen Why the heck not? Frankly, I don't think the intro section is outrageously long, but rather that we've gone certifiably batsh*t insane on the example section, which has grown far beyond what I ever thought possible when I did the original draft of this entry a bit over a year ago. (Speaking of which, I hope someone is keeping a copy of the entry source saved in case the TV Tropes server ever crashes and eats up all the content, like it did almost a year ago. :) )
- Robin Zimm: I know — I'll copy it to the discussion page! That way it wi... wait...
- Chariset: Bet you had no idea TG was so tropey, didya Benteen?
- Benteen: 'nary a clue. After all, it's a "nonfiction Magazine Show"... :)
- Chariset: The "Top Gear on tvtropes team"... ambitious but rubbish!
- Chariset: Done with the Running Gag and Overseas Specials section. The intro still seems way too long, but I'm not sure how to slim it except maybe by putting it into folders...
Chariset: For the sake of consistency, is it "The Stig" or "the Stig"?
- Robin Zimm: I vote "the" - The Other Wiki led me here
, which says, quote:
The first television work Andy and I did together was a spin-off of Top Gear called Motorworld. We did the series Extreme Machines and then we started to think about reviving Top Gear in a new format, with a track, special guests and the Stig — new boys at Repton were always called Stig — and we thrashed it out over a couple of years. - Benteen: On the other hand, looking at my copy of The Big Book of Top Gear 2009, every reference to The Stig in that book is rendered "The Stig", with the upper case "T". FWIW, TBBoTG is an official series tie in, and (IMNSHO) indicates "official" usage of the Top Gear production team and Auntie Beeb herself. But most importantly, the upper case "T" renders proper homage to The Awesomeness That Is The Stig.
- Chariset: My preference is for the lowercase "t" as well, just because "The Stig" looks increasingly awkward. However, I also have TBBOTG2009 and can confirm that officially it seems to be The Stig, so we should probably go with that and manipulate the style accordingly.
Benteen: While I'm here, there's a point that's been bugging me, and I figure one of you demented geniuses can come up with the proper trope. In at least two episodes I can think of, segments have introduced The Stig in the segment by treating him as a piece of equipment brought in for a special task, by showing him coming in on an airline's luggage carousel, or being transported using a hand truck (IIRC, the performance sports coupe shootout on the Isle of Man (Series 07x01) did this, and I recall at least one other episode which did something similar). But to save my lack-of-a-soul, I can't find or think of an appropriate trope heading for this.
- Robin Zimm: ...I can't think of one. Can anyone think of other works with similar gags?
- Chariset: I'm not sure either, but I think there's some overlap with Living Toys, Ridiculously Human Robots, and Pick Your Human Half (the first type). Try asking YKTTW?
Chariset: Since it's obvious we're all obsessed lunatics, do you want a Top Gear trivia page to go with the article?
- Benteen: Go for it. I regret I don't have time (damn Real Life!) to be contributing much to it right now... :-(
