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* RecycledSoundtrack: Having access to the BBC's library of licensed music means that a lot of film score tracks get thrown in. This results in the occasional change being required for re-runs and international airings.
Deleted line(s) 19 (click to see context) :
* RecycledSoundtrack: Every so often, the incidental music during a challenge will be a track borrowed from John Barry's score for Film/CasinoRoyale, likely thanks to some of the film's stunts being performed on the Top Gear track, using their 747.
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* RingOfFire: Jeremy actually created one during in S22E2 using firewood and petrol, his intention being that it would act as both a campfire and as protection against wild animals. The only problem is, [[WhatAnIdiot he forgot to bring the tents into the circle before lighting the fire]].
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* TechnicianVersusPerformer: The dynamic between German cars and British cars, respectively. German cars are [[GermanicEfficiency magnificent pieces of mechanical engineering]] manufactured in laboratories and packed to the brim with fancy gadgets, but often criticised for being joyless and clinical. In complete contrast, British cars may not be the fastest or most reliable or most advanced things in the world, but what they ''are'' is lovingly built pieces of hand-craftsmanship that ooze charm.
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Changed line(s) 98 (click to see context) from:
-->'''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.
to:
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Changed line(s) 17 (click to see context) from:
-->'''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!
to:
Changed line(s) 103 (click to see context) from:
-->'''Andy Wilman''':I am pleased that the appeal court has upheld the previous ruling and the case has been struck out. I'd also like to apologise to the judges for making them have to watch so much Top Gear.
to:
Changed line(s) 133,135 (click to see context) from:
--->'''Hammond:''' Oh, I'm gonna get grief for this now...
--->[Cuts to James and Jeremy, trackside. James presses the transmit button on the radio...]
--->'''May:''' [[Film/TheGreatEscape Cooler. Eight veeks.]]
--->[Cuts to James and Jeremy, trackside. James presses the transmit button on the radio...]
--->'''May:''' [[Film/TheGreatEscape Cooler. Eight veeks.]]
to:
--->'''Hammond:''' Oh, I'm gonna get grief for this now...
--->[Cutsnow...\\
[Cuts to James and Jeremy, trackside. James presses the transmit button on the radio...]
--->'''May:''']\\
'''May:''' [[Film/TheGreatEscape Cooler. Eight veeks.]]
--->[Cuts
[Cuts to James and Jeremy, trackside. James presses the transmit button on the radio...
--->'''May:'''
'''May:''' [[Film/TheGreatEscape Cooler. Eight veeks.]]
Changed line(s) 142 (click to see context) from:
--> '''Hammond''': You've only [[TheItalianJob blown the bloody door off!]]
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Changed line(s) 172 (click to see context) from:
--->'''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...\\
to:
Changed line(s) 189,192 (click to see context) from:
-->'''Jeremy:''' I have been rescued ''[Referring to the two women with him]'' and I haven't even broken down.
-->'''Richard:''' Well then you don't-
-->''(Cut into James, who just arrived)''
-->'''[[DeadpanSnarker James:]]''' [[Funny/TopGear Hello.]]
-->'''Richard:''' Well then you don't-
-->''(Cut into James, who just arrived)''
-->'''[[DeadpanSnarker James:]]''' [[Funny/TopGear Hello.]]
to:
-->'''Richard:'''
'''Richard:''' Well then you
-->''(Cut
''(Cut into James, who just
-->'''[[DeadpanSnarker
''[[DeadpanSnarker James:]]''' [[Funny/TopGear Hello.]]
Changed line(s) 201 (click to see context) from:
--> '''May''': You can't have an explosion at a ''funeral!''
to:
Changed line(s) 220 (click to see context) from:
-->'''May''': [[http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2008/james-may-american-rant-p1.php I think that man is a danger, frankly]]. If there is one thing I can't stand it's beardy, sanctimonious, patronising Americans in tartan trousers coming to England and trying to persuade us to turn into a museum. He wants the East End for the cheeky Cockney chaps pushing wheelbarrows full of eels and he wants northernists to be industrialists with big braces and blokes dying of consumption -- Good morning Bill, I've got the consumption, it's tradition alright. I say Bill, if you're watching -- OK, now you won't be watching because we're not talking about steam engines or longboats or bear-baiting -- but IF you've happened to tune in by mistake: We're not interested in your views of stupid Americans who come over here with their big video cameras saying Gee, I love your history, it's just so old. SOD OFF!
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Changed line(s) 253 (click to see context) from:
-->'''Clarkson''': And, because it's part Tank, part Bulldozer, it's the king of... anywhere it damn well wants to go.
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Changed line(s) 326 (click to see context) from:
-->'''Clarkson''': We don't know its name, we really don't know its name, nobody knows its name, and we don't wanna know, 'cause it's a racing driver.
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Changed line(s) 332 (click to see context) from:
--> '''Clarkson''': I went on [[TheInternetIsForPorn the internet]]... and I found ''[[BrainBleach this!]]''
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Changed line(s) 340 (click to see context) from:
--> '''Clarkson''': Look at this, it hasn't been invented in Italy yet... its called ''"a seatbelt"''.
to:
Changed line(s) 348,350 (click to see context) from:
-->'''Hammond:'''Jeremy, how are you doing out there?
-->'''Clarkson:'''Not brilliantly.
-->''Cut to Jeremy's car laying on its side.''
-->'''Clarkson:'''Not brilliantly.
-->''Cut to Jeremy's car laying on its side.''
to:
-->'''Clarkson:'''Not brilliantly.
-->''Cut
'''Clarkson:''' Not brilliantly.\\
''Cut to Jeremy's car laying on its side.''
Changed line(s) 413 (click to see context) from:
--> Your cars will each be given 23 litres of fuel, which because they're so economical should ''easily'' be enough for them to cover the hundred or so miles to your destination, a town near the border with Belarus. Your challenge is to run out of fuel before you get there. This is something you'll want to do, as the town in question is called... Chernobyl.
to:
Changed line(s) 417,418 (click to see context) from:
--> [[spoiler:'''Clarkson''': '''''MY EYES!''''']]
--> [[spoiler:'''Hammond''': You cretin!]]
--> [[spoiler:'''Hammond''': You cretin!]]
to:
-->
[[spoiler:'''Hammond''': You cretin!]]
Changed line(s) 427 (click to see context) from:
-->'''Hammond:''' What was that? An acid trip?... Seriously, how much Night Nurse[[note]]an over-the-counter cold remedy that helps you sleep. Clarkson mentions it early on in the "review".[[/note]] did you take before you did that film?
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Changed line(s) 431 (click to see context) from:
--> What kind of paint thinner were you sniffing when you thought of this?
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Changed line(s) 433 (click to see context) from:
--> I though you [James] had sniffed thinners making that.
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Changed line(s) 452 (click to see context) from:
---->'''Clarkson:''' You said you were scared; was it dangerous?\\
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Changed line(s) 266 (click to see context) from:
-->'''James May:''' With the score at 2-1 to the ''Grosser'', we were given the easiest challenge in the history of Top Gear.
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Changed line(s) 268 (click to see context) from:
--> '''Auctioneer''': And now we come to [[TheAllegedCar the]] ''[[TheAllegedCar last]]'' [[TheAllegedCar lot]]!
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Changed line(s) 270,272 (click to see context) from:
--> '''Clarkson''': You never forget how to sew...
--> *[[GilliganCut Five seconds later]]*
--> '''Clarkson''': Damn and blast! I've sewn myself to the machine!
--> *[[GilliganCut Five seconds later]]*
--> '''Clarkson''': Damn and blast! I've sewn myself to the machine!
to:
-->
*[[GilliganCut Five seconds
-->
'''Clarkson''': Damn and blast! I've sewn myself to the machine!
Changed line(s) 275 (click to see context) from:
---> '''Clarkson:''' That will put testes on your chest, that will.\\
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Changed line(s) 247 (click to see context) from:
--> '''Clarkson''': 806 brake-horsepower! And that’s on that ''limp-wristed, fairy liquid'' the Americans call "petrol"! If you run this on the more explosive ''jungle-juice'' we have here in Europe, you'll be getting 850 brake-horsepower!
to:
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Changed line(s) 230,235 (click to see context) from:
--> that he'd been getting divorced from PaulMcCartney he'd keep his stupid whining mouth shut.
--> that if he wrote you a letter of condolence he would at least get your name right.
--> while he has been known to leave his house in a bit of a hurry, he's never once hit a fire hydrant.
--> that if he wrote you a letter of condolence he would at least get your name right.
--> while he has been known to leave his house in a bit of a hurry, he's never once hit a fire hydrant.
to:
-->
\\
that if he wrote you a letter of condolence he would at least get your name
-->
\\
while he has been known to leave his house in a bit of a hurry, he's never once hit a fire
Changed line(s) 239,243 (click to see context) from:
--> '''Clarkson''': I think if we need an adjudicator, I think OFCOM should do it, for they are ''most wise''.
--> '''Hammond''': [[TooSoon Don't go there]]!
--> '''Clarkson''': And ''you'' should be taken out and shot in front of your family, which it turns out, you ''can'' say on television!
--> '''Hammond''': See, what you've done there Jeremy, is take your leg out of the bear trap... and turn around and stuck your head in, instead!
--> '''Clarkson''': *''winks at the camera''*
--> '''Hammond''': [[TooSoon Don't go there]]!
--> '''Clarkson''': And ''you'' should be taken out and shot in front of your family, which it turns out, you ''can'' say on television!
--> '''Hammond''': See, what you've done there Jeremy, is take your leg out of the bear trap... and turn around and stuck your head in, instead!
--> '''Clarkson''': *''winks at the camera''*
to:
-->
'''Hammond''': [[TooSoon Don't go
-->
'''Clarkson''': And ''you'' should be taken out and shot in front of your family, which it turns out, you ''can'' say on
-->
'''Hammond''': See, what you've done there Jeremy, is take your leg out of the bear trap... and turn around and stuck your head in,
-->
'''Clarkson''': *''winks at the camera''*
Changed line(s) 245,246 (click to see context) from:
-->"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!"
-->[''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!"
to:
-->"It's an Audi! It weighs as much as the moon!"
-->[''respondingmoon!"\\
[''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!"
-->[''responding
[''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!"
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* TearJerker: Rare as they are on this usually goofy show, in the Patagonia Special (or Episode 0 of the 22nd Series), Jeremy explains the story why he chose a Porsche 928. [[spoiler: Because it enabled him to meet his dying father a last time. He said on-screen that he was sure he wouldn't have been able to say good-bye to his father if he hadn't tested the 928 that week in 1994.]]
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Changed line(s) 7 (click to see context) from:
* ReactionShot: The "I went on the internet and I found this" gag, in which James and Richard's disgusted reactions are shown, [[TakeOUrWordForIt but the thing that Jeremy found is not]].
to:
* ReactionShot: The "I went on the internet and I found this" gag, in which James and Richard's disgusted reactions are shown, [[TakeOUrWordForIt [[TakeOurWordForIt but the thing that Jeremy found is not]].
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* TearJerker: Rare as they are on this usually goofy show, in the Patagonia Special (or Episode 0 of the 22nd Series), Jeremy explains the story why he chose a Porsche 928. [[spoiler: Because it enabled him to meet his dying father a last time. He said on-screen that he was sure he wouldn't have been able to say good-bye to his father if he hadn't tested the 928 that week in 1994.]]
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Changed line(s) 7 (click to see context) from:
* ReactionShot: The "I went on the internet and I found this" gag, in which James and Richard's disgusted reactions are shown, but the thing that Jeremy found is not.
to:
* ReactionShot: The "I went on the internet and I found this" gag, in which James and Richard's disgusted reactions are shown, [[TakeOUrWordForIt but the thing that Jeremy found is not.not]].
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* ReactionShot: The "I went on the internet and I found this" gag, in which James and Richard's disgusted reactions are shown, but the thing that Jeremy found is not.
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Changed line(s) 436 (click to see context) from:
** Jeremy hates motorcycles. This was a problem when they had the Vietnam roadtrip.
to:
** Jeremy hates motorcycles. This was a problem when they had the Vietnam roadtrip.roadtrip[[labelnote:*]]He actually quite enjoys motorcycles (he owns at least one), but {{Kayfabe}} had him be miserable for most of the trip. In his defense, however, he was essentially riding a ''scooter'' cross-country for days, which certainly isn't going to be comfortable or fun[[/labelnote]].
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Changed line(s) 222 (click to see context) from:
** They also take potshots at the Toyota Prius practically nonstop.
to:
** They also take potshots at the Toyota Prius practically nonstop.nonstop, with ''one exception'': during the SIARPC with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, after Diaz said she owned a Prius, Jeremy said [[BlatantLies he loved it]].
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** Even more so with New White Stig (identity unknown) replacing Old White Stig (Ben Collins).
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** Along with this noteworthy gem:
--> '''May''': You can't have an explosion at a ''funeral!''
--> '''May''': You can't have an explosion at a ''funeral!''
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Changed line(s) 164 (click to see context) from:
* SpikedWheels: Clarkson adds Boudicea spikes to his "improved" police interceptor in the police car challenge. It doesn't work out exactly as planned.
to:
* SpikedWheels: Clarkson adds Boudicea spikes to his "improved" police interceptor in the police car challenge. It doesn't work out exactly as planned. [[spoiler: It ''does'' take a wheel off...but from ''Clarkson's car''.]]
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Changed line(s) 110,111 (click to see context) from:
*** Then Sebastian Vettel beat Barrichello's time by three-tenths...then ''Lewis Hamilton'' came along and beat Vettel's time ''by over a second!'' (for those keeping score at home, that means Lewis Hamilton is ''1.5 seconds faster than the Stig'').[[note: It's worth noting Ben Collins, who played the Stig, never reached F1 (regarded as the pinnacle of motorsport) during his racing career, while Hamilton and Vettel were World Champions and Barrichello and Mark Webber (the only other driver to beat Stig's time) both had repeated top-three championship finishes. Not to mention all except Barrichello were in the prime of their career at the time they made their runs.]]
* SeriousBusiness: It is more or less established that, if necessary, the BBC will fend off any criticisms against any part of Top Gear, including Jeremy's category of AcceptableTargets, and bring their guns to bear against any party that threatens the integrity of the show. And with good reason, since Top Gear is one of their most successful television shows ever. The BBC actually ''sued a book publisher'' to try to stop them from publishing a book revealing The Stig's identity. They failed.
* SeriousBusiness: It is more or less established that, if necessary, the BBC will fend off any criticisms against any part of Top Gear, including Jeremy's category of AcceptableTargets, and bring their guns to bear against any party that threatens the integrity of the show. And with good reason, since Top Gear is one of their most successful television shows ever. The BBC actually ''sued a book publisher'' to try to stop them from publishing a book revealing The Stig's identity. They failed.
to:
*** Then Sebastian Vettel beat Barrichello's time by three-tenths...then ''Lewis Hamilton'' came along and beat Vettel's time ''by over a second!'' (for those keeping score at home, that means Lewis Hamilton is ''1.5 seconds faster than the Stig'').[[note: It's Stig'')[[labelnote:*]]It's worth noting Ben Collins, who played the Stig, never reached F1 (regarded as the pinnacle of motorsport) during his racing career, while Hamilton and Vettel were World Champions and Barrichello and Mark Webber (the only other driver to beat Stig's time) both had repeated top-three championship finishes. Not to mention all except Barrichello were in the prime of their career at the time they made their runs.]]
[[/labelnote]]
* SeriousBusiness: It is more or less established that, if necessary, the BBC will fend off any criticisms against any part of Top Gear, including Jeremy's category of AcceptableTargets, and bring their guns to bear against any party that threatens the integrity of the show. And with good reason, since Top Gear is one of their most successful television shows ever. The BBC actually ''sued a book publisher'' to try to stop them from publishing a book revealing The Stig's identity. Theyfailed.failed[[labelnote:*]]And the Stig (at the time, Ben Collins) was subsequently ''fired''. It's in his contract that he can't reveal his identity[[/labelnote]].
* SeriousBusiness: It is more or less established that, if necessary, the BBC will fend off any criticisms against any part of Top Gear, including Jeremy's category of AcceptableTargets, and bring their guns to bear against any party that threatens the integrity of the show. And with good reason, since Top Gear is one of their most successful television shows ever. The BBC actually ''sued a book publisher'' to try to stop them from publishing a book revealing The Stig's identity. They
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Changed line(s) 393,394 (click to see context) from:
* VitriolicBestBuds: All three presenters, who c.
** Clarkson drew massive criticism for his an'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. May came damn close during the Bolivia Special, though.
** Clarkson drew massive criticism for his an'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. May came damn close during the Bolivia Special, though.
to:
* VitriolicBestBuds: All three presenters, who c.
** Clarkson drew massive criticism for his an'tcan'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. May came damn close during the Bolivia Special, though.
** Clarkson drew massive criticism for his an't
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Changed line(s) 290 (click to see context) from:
[Camera changes to show Mays standing BehindTheBlack next to him. Clarkson droops his head and sighs.]
to:
[Camera changes to show Mays May standing BehindTheBlack next to him. Clarkson droops his head and sighs.]
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Changed line(s) 290 (click to see context) from:
[Camera pans out to show Mays standing next to him. Clarkson droops his head and sighs.]
to:
[Camera pans out changes to show Mays standing BehindTheBlack next to him. Clarkson droops his head and sighs.]
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* ThisIsGonnaSuck: Clarkson starts off "The Worst Car In The World" episode with this.
-->'''Clarkson:''' Things are about to get a bit... dreary. You'll find out in 3... 2... 1...\\
[Camera pans out to show Mays standing next to him. Clarkson droops his head and sighs.]
-->'''Clarkson:''' Things are about to get a bit... dreary. You'll find out in 3... 2... 1...\\
[Camera pans out to show Mays standing next to him. Clarkson droops his head and sighs.]
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** During The Final Challenge in the Ukraine special:
--> Your cars will each be given 23 litres of fuel, which because they're so economical should ''easily'' be enough for them to cover the hundred or so miles to your destination, a town near the border with Belarus. Your challenge is to run out of fuel before you get there. This is something you'll want to do, as the town in question is called... Chernobyl.
--> Your cars will each be given 23 litres of fuel, which because they're so economical should ''easily'' be enough for them to cover the hundred or so miles to your destination, a town near the border with Belarus. Your challenge is to run out of fuel before you get there. This is something you'll want to do, as the town in question is called... Chernobyl.
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so it WAS a Nissank. oof.
Changed line(s) 193 (click to see context) from:
** One of the modifications inflicted by Clarkson upon his Toyota for the English Channel challenge was to mount two foam-filled barrels on its sides to prevent capsizing. As in, anti-roll bar...rels.
to:
** One of the modifications inflicted by Clarkson upon his Toyota Nissan for the English Channel challenge was to mount two foam-filled barrels on its sides to prevent capsizing. As in, anti-roll bar...rels.
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stealth puns, yay
** One of the modifications inflicted by Clarkson upon his Toyota for the English Channel challenge was to mount two foam-filled barrels on its sides to prevent capsizing. As in, anti-roll bar...rels.
Changed line(s) 389 (click to see context) from:
* 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. May came damn close during the Bolivia Special, though.
to:
* VitriolicBestBuds: All three presenters, who can't c.
** Clarkson drew massive criticism for his an'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. May came damn close during the Bolivia Special, though.
** Clarkson drew massive criticism for his an'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. May came damn close during the Bolivia Special, though.
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Changed line(s) 134 (click to see context) from:
--->'''May:''' [[TheGreatEscape Cooler. Eight veeks.]]
to:
--->'''May:''' [[TheGreatEscape [[Film/TheGreatEscape Cooler. Eight veeks.]]
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Changed line(s) 348 (click to see context) from:
** Piddington.
to:
** Peniston. Doesn't seem so bad on it's own until strategic sign blocks and breaks make only the first part of the name show.
** Piddington. Clarkson uses the name of the town to describe those who drive people carriers. [[note]]Minivans, for the Americans reading[[/note]]
** Piddington. Clarkson uses the name of the town to describe those who drive people carriers. [[note]]Minivans, for the Americans reading[[/note]]
Changed line(s) 351 (click to see context) from:
** Jezza, Uganda. Jeremy is pleased, the other two are quite dismayed.
to:
** Jezza, Uganda. Jeremy Clarkson is pleased, the other two are quite dismayed.dismayed. Especially as it leads to a lot of HomoeroticSubtext as the two start talking about entering or coming into Jezza.
** Samuel Chuffart. The three proceed to have great fun with the poor guy's name throughout the news segment.
** Samuel Chuffart. The three proceed to have great fun with the poor guy's name throughout the news segment.
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occaisionally to occasionally
Changed line(s) 63 (click to see context) from:
**** Also in Series 12, Clarkson mentioning the Dacia Sandero, occaisionally to May's complete confusion.
to:
**** Also in Series 12, Clarkson mentioning the Dacia Sandero, occaisionally occasionally to May's complete confusion.
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TopGear/TropesAToC | TopGear/TropesDToG | TopGear/TropesHToQ | '''Tropes R to Z''' | TopGear/{{Segments}}
----
* RacingTheTrain:
** ''Top Gear'' has used the format several times with Jeremy Clarkson in a car vs. James May and Richard Hammond riding the train. In Europe the train was the Eurostar and TGV, and in Japan it was the ''Shinkansen''.
** There is also the famous Top Gear Race to the North, with Jeremy Clarkson ''in the train''[[note]]''Tornado'', a recreation of the 1949 Peppercorn A1 Class post-war British Railways express passenger locomotives[[/note]], James May in a Jaguar [=XK120=] and Richard Hammond and on a Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle.
* 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.
* ReallyGetsAround: The Stig's Italian Cousin, nicknamed ''Bunga-Bunga Stig'', who is introduced leaving his coach with four women.
* RealMenWearPink: James May. Although he is teased for having "lady's hair", wearing flowery shirts and listening to Bach, he claims to be the only "proper bloke" on Top Gear because of his love of brown beer, pies, tools and fart jokes. He's also the best shot with a rifle, and has a machete and knows how to use it.
* RealSongThemeTune: A europop cover of the Allman Brothers Band's "Jessica". Also an InstrumentalThemeTune. See also ThemeTuneCameo below.
* RecklessGunUsage: In one episode, the hosts travel to the North Pole, and are given a variety of firearms in case they need to defend themselves from polar bears. At one point, though, James May earnestly looks down the barrel of his shotgun, and is yelled at by their guide, who grabs the weapon out of his hands. In a Series 14 outtake, May defended himself, claiming it was the only way to see whether the barrel is unblocked, which is still incredibly wrong.
** In the series 16 "USA Road Trip" special, one the challenges is for the hosts to perform a mock drive-by shooting in their chosen supercars. While getting weapons training, Jeremy is seen playing with his pistol as if it was a toy. In an overlap with ArtisticLicenseGunSafety, none of the trainers intervene.
* RecordNeedleScratch: Clarkson interrupts his own epic narration in the Nile Special with one to inform viewers that they've already found the source of the Nile River five minutes in.
* RedBaron: "All we know is, he's called The Stig."
* 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.
* RecycledSoundtrack: Every so often, the incidental music during a challenge will be a track borrowed from John Barry's score for Film/CasinoRoyale, likely thanks to some of the film's stunts being performed on the Top Gear track, using their 747.
* RenaissanceMan: James May, between his music degree, pilot's license, and shows about toys, the Apollo program, technology and alcoholic drink, not to mention his knowledge of cars. His programme ''Series/JamesMaysManLab'' and book ''How To Land An A330 Airbus, And Other Vital Skills for the Modern Man'' are further examples of his diverse areas of interest and expertise.
* RepeatCut: Used and overused in early films (the Toyota Hilux torture test was a particularly gross offender) but largely averted now.
* {{Revival}}: The original Top Gear was cancelled in 2001. When the show was relaunched in 2002, the focus shifted toward humour and crazy stunts with the cars sometimes merely an afterthought. It's become vastly more popular than the original, up to the point of SequelDisplacement in many parts of the world, like the US.
* 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''". [[spoiler:Clarkson demonstrates that a Rolls should not be used as a flotation device.]]
* RiddleForTheAges: Anything about The Stig beyond the fact that he's a "tame racing driver."
* RidiculousExchangeRates: 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.
* RightHandCat: In 02.06 Clarkson and Hammond threaten May with dire consequences if he does not break the landspeed record for towing a caravan, all the while petting white plush toy cats.
* RingRingCRUNCH:
** An annoying talking device meant to remind diesel drivers to put the correct fuel in their vehicles. Clarkson killed it with a hammer.
** James May once shot his mobile phone, apparently.
--->'''May:''' [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1192350/Jeremy-Clarkson-Politicians-Aston-Martins-Dont-Top-Gears-James-May-started.html Yes. It made annoying noises]]. Digital stuff is my technological blind spot. I got so cross that I got my Beretta, took it into a field and blew it to bits....If technology annoys you, I highly recommend shooting it to death. It's very cleansing.
* RockstarParking: At the end of their epic races. The presenters may have to fight traffic getting to the hotel, but they can always pull up right at the door[[note]]Sometimes this is set up in advance by the production team. Other times, it's less "park the car in front of the hotel", and more "stop the car and leave it for the production team while I run to the finish line"[[/note]]. Averted when May and Clarkson were doing challenges in their luxury limousines. They were ordered to drive into the center of London and park. They failed.
* RomanticismVersusEnlightenment: Jeremy is mostly Romantic with some Enlightenment moments; you could argue that the practical James is the opposite. Richard leans more towards Romantic arguably.
** Perhaps this is best shown when Jeremy Clarkson reviewed the [=McLaren=] [=MP4=]-12C and compared it to the Ferrari 458 Italia, to test [=McLaren's=] claim that "it was better in every measurable way". While the test showed that the [=McLaren=] was better in every measurable way, he then proceeded to criticize the car and company for being "too serious, lacking art, and soul-less." Saying that the 458 was still more preferable and better artistically, and ended up being the car he would much rather have. Jeremy later did a similar review/comparison between the Audi R8 and Corvette [=ZR1=]. Even though he considered the R8 to be better practically and in some areas of performance, he said the [=ZR1=] was still better saying "you would have to be a lunatic to own one, and that is exactly why you should."
** Certain cars or brands could qualify. For example most Italian cars, Alfa Romeo for a specific example, are considered artsy, soulful, and full of passion. Some other cars also qualify, including some American cars, which can sometimes be considered cheap or bad, but certain cars from there are spectacular in terms of fun, including the Corvette [=ZR1=], or the Mustang which was not considered to be spectacular but "there was something about it" which made it "borderline sub-zero" on the show's "Cool Wall".
** The presenters in general will often feel somewhat sad when a car sacrifices fun or speed for practicality or eco-friendlyness. Even the normally Enlightened James May is not always immune to this.
*** This feeling applies to the auto industry as a whole. They all expressed disappointment that there will likely never be another car like the Bugatti Veyron, and just about every "old vs. new" review picks nostalgia and "pure driving experience" over superior technology.
* 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
* DarthWiki/RuinedForever:
** Surprisingly invoked by the hosts themselves numerous times, mostly when a new model of a car line is inferior to its predecessors. They also call it on their own show when [[spoiler:during the London race, a car driven by May comes dead last in a competition between it, a boat, a bike, and public transport.]]
* TheRuinsICaused: Hammond and May cackling over the devastation after their 'car darts' game.
* 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! A literal RuleOfCool is used to decide where a car goes on the Cool Wall -- with the codicil that some cars are so cool that they must be declared ''uncool'', because you would only buy such a car if you were CompensatingForSomething.
* 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!
* RuleOfThree: The main reason there are three primary presenters -- two can ally against the third.
* 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.
** The ridiculous outfits they end up wearing in Vietnam, matching their bikes and cargo.
** The clothing worn for losing mysterious bets during Series 12.
* RunningGag: One of the show's favorite tropes.
** There are many gags pertaining to the presenters themselves:
*** The stylized introductions of the Stig; Clarkson's love of hammers, chainsaws, and powweeeeeerrrr; the frequent characterization of presenter James May as "Captain Slow" or similar, because of his generally unaggressive and leisurely driving style; and of course comic hints that one presenter is concealing an embarrassing personal secret -- that Hammond has had his teeth whitened; that May is gay and/or is [[DepravedBisexual enamoured of one of the others]]; and that Clarkson has a crush on ''Pop Idol'' winner Will Young. Although the last one might be true...
*** Jeremy always refers to Norwegians as "Nors". "I would clear a runway on the ice, and then a Nor would land his plane on it." He does this because he thinks it sounds better.
*** Clarkson describing a test facility as "top secret", before giving detailed road directions for how to find it. Actually started out on his chat show ''Clarkson''.
*** Any car that May drives will be ''accidentally'' bumped into by the other two presenters, especially when parking. This eventually culminates on ''Death Road'' during the Bolivian Special where May warns Clarkson not to do it or he'll "cut his f**king head off". Both give him their word they won't, but when Clarkson takes his eye off when another car overtakes them, he bumps into him. Cue May stopping the car and coming towards Clarkson with a large machete and shouting at him. The scary thing was this [[BewareTheNiceOnes may not have been a joke.]]
*** Both Clarkson and Hammond putting something in May's car to annoy him. In the past this has been cheese that grilled over his engine so he'd lose points in a classic car competition, replacing the [[WickedCultured Bach]] to Techno from his expensive "Banging stereo for my tunes" setting it to maximum volume and then supergluing all the buttons so he couldn't turn it off. During the race to Blackpool on a single tank, they planted heavy items in his car's boot to reduce its fuel economy. And on two occasions, they've hidden cow's heads in his car so they'd attract wild animals. They've also tried putting those animal heads in May's tent.
*** Any time May's car on a budget car trip has working Air Conditioning, and the others don't, will end up destroyed by the other two out of childish spite to bring him down. He cannot even hide it.
*** May's repeated claims that Monkeys are the most dangerous animal in the world.
** One gag that is a consistent favorite is one of the presenters asking, "How hard can it be?" about the current challenge/crisis. The answer, as Hammond has confessed to outright, is usually, "Very", but it hasn't seemed to have stopped them. The only one that hasn't done it is the Stig, for obvious reasons.
** Gags that last a season and then are dropped without much warning. These usually appear in the "News" section of the episode.
*** When something dangerous is about to happen, Clarkson saying "run away, run away!"
*** Series 6: Voting Meat Loaf's song as the best driving song causes something bad.
*** Series 11: Comedy updates from May on the forthcoming Dacia Sandero, and Clarkson saying "I went on {{the Internet|IsForPorn}} and I found ''[[TakeOurWordForIt this]]''..."
**** The latter would be an image that shocked and amused the studio audience, usually implied to be something from a shock site, but was unseen on TV. After the furor died down, the real image would be shown, with Clarkson saying, "but I also found this..."
*** Series 12: "Are you wearing that for a bet?" and "Did you lose a bet?", referring to [[RummageSaleReject a piece of odd clothing]] being worn by one of the presenters[[note]]The answer is invariably "Yes" with no elaboration--unless James happens to be the target of the question.[[/note]].
**** Also in Series 12, Clarkson mentioning the Dacia Sandero, occaisionally to May's complete confusion.
*** Series 14 and 15: Using "have a crisis" as an UnusualEuphemism for an orgasm.
*** Series 15: More "Hey! Great news!" updates from May, this time on the Dacia Duster. In addition, the Stig's [[spoiler: hatred of Rubens Barrichello, after he beat his lap time in the Suzuki Liana by one-tenth of a second.]]
** Gags pertaining to the specials: The presenters painting slogans on their own (or the others') cars; the presenters buying odd, useless, or unusual gifts for each other; a CreditsGag with the presenters and crew amusingly renamed; a penalty for breaking down in the form of a backup vehicle that no one wants to drive; and someone driving into the back of James May instead of braking. By Series 14, in the [[VerySpecialEpisode Bolivia Special]], an irate James [[LampshadeHanging mentions]] that "it wasn't funny three series ago and it isn't funny now", and threatens to behead the next person who does it to him.
** Gags pertaining to specific cars or other vehicles.
*** If a Morris Marina is seen on screen, you can bet harm will come to it before too long. This got lampshaded in Series 14, where Richard claimed that they got a Morris Marina that already had a piano dropped on it (really a Marina with a piano tied onto the roof) for a race. It then got a second piano dropped on it. Between this and James's pianos typically getting hit by a vehicle, don't expect them to last long either.
**** This gag was subverted (sort of) in the ''The Worst Car in the History of the World'' DVD special - a Morris Marina is dropped ''onto'' a Fiat Panda.
*** Caravans exist for the sole purpose of being destroyed violently. [[BaitAndSwitchComparison This is also true in the show]].
*** Cars entered in public races have fake sponsorship decals affixed to their sides in such a way that when the lettering is truncated by the opened door, it spells something amusing. (e.g. "Peniston Oils" becomes simply "Penis").
*** The Kia "Cee-apostrophe-D".
*** The Huayra - the successor to the Pagani Zonda - often being pronounced as incomprehensible gibberish due to having an odd spelling. Even when the car is roadtested in Series 19, it still isn't immune to the gag, although Hammond makes an effort to pronounce it "correctly" (going for a semi-phonetic ''hwai-ra'') during the video.
** Gags pertaining to specific challenges.
*** In the "Cheap Saloons In Germany" challenge, James May's choice of car has a "dog-leg" racing gearbox, meaning the positions of gears are switched round. This understandably causes some confusion as James May goes into reverse when he thinks he's in first gear. This happens throughout the challenge, and even the German Stig falls for it.
** Whenever they engage in camping (either with or without caravans) a fire is sure to follow soon. Later deliberately subverted in the River Nile special.
** Whenever Hammond has to drive very fast, in a straight line, on a runway you can be sure there will be a comment from one or both of the other presenters about how worried they are Hammond has to drive very fast, in a straight line, on a runway.
* 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."
* SawStarWarsTwentySevenTimes: The Stig's African cousin is said to have seen ''Disney/TheLionKing'' 1,780 times.
* ScareChord: When the Beetle was introduced in the Botswana Special, and whenever it showed up on screen.
--> '''Clarkson:''' Anyone whose car broke down would have to complete the journey [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f8i2Ftn9Bs in a Beetle.]] '''[[Film/WhatLiesBeneath *Bum BUUM, Bum]]''' '''''[[Film/WhatLiesBeneath BUUUM!*]]'''''
* 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." The Polar Special also featured some truly stunning cinematography.
** Subverted in the Bolivia Special, which started with some very nice aerial shots, that Clarkson then admitted were from another show because the helicopter they hired had crashed. The presenters were then shown arriving at their start location in boat.
* 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!''
* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: Hammond during the Bolivia Special [[FlyCrazy in response]] to the insect life and [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes the snake in his car]].
* [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Screw This, We're Outta Here]]:
** During the Alabama challenge, all the presenters, as well as the camera crew fled from a gas station after their car decorations pissed off the locals.
** While testing their new hovervan, the trio tried to stop off at a restaurant, but quickly changed their mind after the van's turbine caused havoc with the restaurant's outside tables and diners.
* SeinfeldianConversation: Pops up now and again, usually when the presenters are waiting for their challenge or Jeremy and Richard are waiting for Captain Slow. The best was in the lorry challenge, where they were discussing what Yorkie bars came out when. It can be rather culturally specific at times.
* 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.
** The show's motto of "Ambitious but Rubbish."
** Clarkson [[InsistentTerminology consistently refers to the show as]] "that poky little motoring programme on [=BBC2=]", especially when accepting awards.
** Reportedly, after Richard Hammond's accident, the first thing he said to Clarkson, from his hospital bed, was "Was I driving like a twat?"
** Producer Andy Wilman after winning the lawsuit brought on by the review of the Tesla Roadster:
-->'''Andy Wilman''':I am pleased that the appeal court has upheld the previous ruling and the case has been struck out. I'd also like to apologise to the judges for making them have to watch so much Top Gear.
** The Cool Wall has a rule that states that if any of the presenters own the car in question, it can ''never'' be cool. ''Ever''. All other considerations be damned.
* SeparatedByACommonLanguage: American viewers quickly learn that the British [[http://www.bg-map.com/us-uk.html#1 have different terms]] for a ''huge'' number of automotive topics. Starting with the cars themselves. It may take a while for Americans to realize that the guys are really talking about sedans when they say "saloon cars," station wagons when they say "estate cars," etc. Jeremy Clarkson has theorized that this trope is the primary reason why the U.S. is pretty much the only major international market in which ''Top Gear'' is ''not'' a huge mass-audience hit.
* SerendipitousSymphony: In an episode of Season 10 where the hosts attempt to produce a tribute to [[TheAllegedCar British Leyland]], the various squeaks, rattles, clunks and other noises given off by their cars are cut together into a small musical number
* SerialEscalation:
** What unbelievably hard task can the producers set the three presenters this week?
** In the Botswana special, after Hammond has sunk his beloved Oliver, he returns with it in full working order. Clarkson remarks, "Is that technically possible?", to which Hammond cheerfully responds, "Probably not."
** [[FormulaOne Rubens Barrichello]] drove faster ''[[BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame than the Stig!]]''
*** Then Sebastian Vettel beat Barrichello's time by three-tenths...then ''Lewis Hamilton'' came along and beat Vettel's time ''by over a second!'' (for those keeping score at home, that means Lewis Hamilton is ''1.5 seconds faster than the Stig'').[[note: It's worth noting Ben Collins, who played the Stig, never reached F1 (regarded as the pinnacle of motorsport) during his racing career, while Hamilton and Vettel were World Champions and Barrichello and Mark Webber (the only other driver to beat Stig's time) both had repeated top-three championship finishes. Not to mention all except Barrichello were in the prime of their career at the time they made their runs.]]
* SeriousBusiness: It is more or less established that, if necessary, the BBC will fend off any criticisms against any part of Top Gear, including Jeremy's category of AcceptableTargets, and bring their guns to bear against any party that threatens the integrity of the show. And with good reason, since Top Gear is one of their most successful television shows ever. The BBC actually ''sued a book publisher'' to try to stop them from publishing a book revealing The Stig's identity. They failed.
* SexSells: Played for laughs on occasion:
** Clarkson's contribution to his and May's Volkswagen Scirocco ad was to put the attractive actress in a bikini. When told it was going to be a funeral scene, he clarified: "Black bikini."
** May called up a local model agency for the Alfa Romeo calendar challenge. They sent ''a man''.
--> '''May:''' I couldn't send him away, he was so excited...
* 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.]]
* ShapedLikeItself: Jeremy is quite fond of this. For example:
--> '''Jeremy''': This is the North... Where Northerners live.
* ShipperOnDeck:
** Hammond and May jokingly ship Clarkson/Will Young.
** The kinds of things May imagines Clarkson and Hammond to be doing in the master suite of an American-style motorhome involve a traffic warden costume, handcuffs, and a ball gag.
** Oddly enough, talk show host and one-time Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car Jonathan Ross apparently ships Clarkson/Hammond.
* ShockSite: [[CatchPhrase "I went on the internet this week,]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMGa6uxSp5o and I found this...]] Of course, they never show any of the images over the network, but Hammond, May, and the entire audience sees them. Some of them are unknown, but the only one that's certain Clarkson showed off was "Tailpipe Man". Rather tame under the standards of a shock site, but [[spoiler: it's still a picture of an overweight man dressed in lingerie sticking his erect penis into the tailpipe of a car.]]
* ShootingGallery: In the East Coast America special, the guys learn to do a drive-by shooting at one. Amusingly all the targets are shaped like the Stig, since it was shortly after the second Stig (Ben Collins) had published a book revealing he had been the Stig, in violation of his working contract.
* ShoutOut: The show makes too many to mention.
** [[http://www.dilbert.com/2010-05-16/ This]] ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}} strip introduces software legend Wolfgang with the following lines in riff on the Stig's RunningGag intro. [[spoiler: It's Wally with a beard.]]
---> "Some say his talent is a genetic mutation. Others say that God speaks to him in UNIX. All we know is that he glows, and he never needs to eat."
** Creator/TimothyZahn did the same in his book ''[[Literature/TheCobraTrilogy Cobra Gamble]]'':
---> "You can drive one of those vehicles?" Rashida asked, sounding doubtful.\\
"Sure," Jody said. "I mean, how hard can it be?"
** James May made one when one of the other two screwed up a challenge during their race against the German car show.
--->'''Hammond:''' Oh, I'm gonna get grief for this now...
--->[Cuts to James and Jeremy, trackside. James presses the transmit button on the radio...]
--->'''May:''' [[TheGreatEscape Cooler. Eight veeks.]]
** Perhaps an unintended one but Clarkson seems to like using [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime HEY! HEY! LISTEN! HEY!]] to get everyone's attention from time to time.
** During the snowplough challenge whenever something goes wrong [[spoiler: meaning all the time]]:
---> "[[Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail Run away! Run way!]]"
** The Series 17 premiere, when Clarkson introduced guest star Music/AliceCooper:
---> '''Clarkson''': Ladies and gentlemen, [[WaynesWorld we are not worthy.]]
** When Clarkson attempted to use explosives to blow up a condemned series of houses, which had the grand effect of knocking down a ''door''.
--> '''Hammond''': You've only [[TheItalianJob blown the bloody door off!]]
** The Stig farm could be seen as a homage to former-guest Harry Enfield's sketch "Clarkson Island" which featured a farmer raising a herd of ''Clarksons''.
** The ''Where's Stig'' book has a [[Film/TheThing1982 UFO buried under the ice in the Arctic page.]]
* ShroudedInMyth: The Stig, based on the RunningGag introductions almost every episode.
* ShowWithinAShow: "''The Interceptors''", their spoof of 1970's detective shows in tribute to the Jensen Interceptor. Much to everyone's lament, it only lasts for the opening credits.
--> '''Hammond''': Why don't we make ''that'' every week?
* 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]]. Exemplified by Clarkson's catchphrase: "How hard can it be?" Generally followed by Hammond shouting "Don't say that!"
* SkunkStripe: May has the white-hair-at-the-temples variety.
* SlidingScaleOfSillinessVersusSeriousness: Very much on the "silly" side.
* SmallReferencePools: During the second USA trip, Jeremy does a few practise runs on the Nevada Salt Flats in their motorhome. He calls it a Winnebago... even though it's clearly a Chevy.
** Chevrolet does not build motorhomes, but they do sell a lot of chassis (known as "cutaways" in the industry) to motorhome manufacturers. It may just be a Winnebago.
* SmugSnake:
** Jeremy Clarkson, in every sense. During one episode the studio audience actually booed his success at a task, a reaction which Hammond ''loved''.
** The Clarkson / Simon Cowell interviews: battle of the Smug Snakes!
** And from Season 12:
--->'''May''': [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wxn2cTlW3I 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'']
* SoBadItsGood: In-universe. James May wrote a [[http://www.topgear.com/uk/james-may/james-may-the-old-masters-2008-07-01 column]] about how, while he does get a kick out of getting to drive incredible supercars, he's grown to love absolutely ''terrible'' cars and he said Clarkson agrees with him, because of the challenge, triumph, and nothing-left-to-lose freedom that comes from driving them.
* SomethingThatBeginsWithBoring: In the Polar Special. And again in the "Economy Run" episode.
* SorryBillyButYouJustDontHaveLegs: 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). [[spoiler:It wasn't Clarkson, it actually was The Stig directing him behind the scenes, they only showed Clarkson on the show.]]
* SoundEffectBleep: In order to keep the show suitable for its pre-{{watershed}} slot, most of the swearing is either bleeped, drowned out by a horn or car radio, or cut away from quickly.
** Only mildly subverted when James May, in a display of extreme irritation, checks to see if the show has gone beyond the watershed before proceeding to [[spoiler:call Jeremy a fucking idiot]], complete with a concerned Richard interrupting in case the timing's off.
* SpellMyNameWithAThe: The Stig.
--> Some say that his first name really is "The"
* SpikedWheels: Clarkson adds Boudicea spikes to his "improved" police interceptor in the police car challenge. 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 Series 13]] featured child versions of all four presenters, including a Li'l Stig. Adorable. Continuing in the commercials for [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekLfVmmo9Qw Series 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. Hammond nearly crashed into a river full of alligators due to bad brakes, they had an angry mob of rednecks chase them out of a gas station while throwing rocks at them ''and'' their film crew for having slogans such as "MAN-LOVE RULES OK" and "NASCAR sucks!" painted on their cars, and witnessed firsthand the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. This inspired them to donate their vehicles to local families, which ''then'' prompted a "[[AmoralAttorney lawyer]]" to threaten to sue them for misrepresentation because a researcher mistakenly claimed Jeremy's '89 Camaro was a '91 model, and also ever so kindly offered to drop the lawsuit for $20,000. 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.
* SpringtimeForHitler: Jeremy's efforts in the Blackpool economy race. Despite choosing a vehicle with fuel range well short of what was needed to reach the finish, and further, intentionally ignoring the economy part of the race for about half the length of it, he not only [[BeyondTheImpossible somehow made it to Blackpool]], but on time as well, and only just behind Richard for first place.
* {{Squick}}. In-universe, when one presenter teases another with a little 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!
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%% Audience reactions go in YMMV.
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* StealthHiBye: The Chinese "Attack" Stig is fond of mixing these with a GroinAttack.
** A more hilarious take: James during their [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3s6TfiA8c8 Cheap Alfa Romeos Challenge]]:
-->'''Jeremy:''' I have been rescued ''[Referring to the two women with him]'' and I haven't even broken down.
-->'''Richard:''' Well then you don't-
-->''(Cut into James, who just arrived)''
-->'''[[DeadpanSnarker James:]]''' [[Funny/TopGear Hello.]]
* StealthPun: The Stig and Richard Hammond fighting over the little trophy for the Golden Cock Award in 2009. Apparently Stig really likes the cock, though Hammond clearly wanted Stig to give him the cock.
* 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 more low-key.
* StronglyWordedLetter: After James had a rant about calling a Bentley British because of the company being owned by VW, the car in question being styled by a Belgian and engineered by a German:
-->'''Clarkson:'''"James, are you presenting ''Top Gear'' or are you writing a letter to the [[BritishNewspapers Daily Telegraph]]?"
* StuffBlowingUp: Almost every episode. In fact, it's noteworthy when they ''don't'' do it.
* StupidStatementDanceMix: Jeremy's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY9u0LxIWJk got one]].
* [[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; the legal age required to get a full motorcycle license (the answer being 18). Predictably, Hammond and May were shocked.
-->'''Clarkson''': Did you not bother learning Vietnamese before you came here?\\
'''Hammond''': Well, no!\\
'''Clarkson''': You're ''screwed'', then.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: The white Stig (Ben Collins), replacing Perry [=McCarthy=] as the black Stig.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: In one episode they had to get their cheap Alfa Romeos into a Concours d'Elegance competition. Hammond's Alfa died on the way there and since cars were only allowed to enter if they did so under their own power that was a bit of a problem. They snuck in under the eyes of the marshalls by driving their cars bumper to bumper, May towing Hammond's Alfa with the tow rope hidden under Clarkson's car. Hammond at least tried to come up with an excuse but Clarkson just couldn't be bothered...
-->'''Hammond''': We always travel together, so if you don't mind us sticking together, that would be kind...\\
'''Clarkson''': No tow ropes here. Nothing to see here.
* TheSwearJar: James May was subjected to one when reviewing an Alfa Romeo -- not for profanity, but for cliche words and phrases like "passion" or "heart" which typically come up in reviews for Italian cars.
* 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]]".
* TakeOverTheWorld:
** Top Gear Live World Tour in 2008 started off with the three presenters [[http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/sep/02/bbc.television driving over Tower Bridge in a tank]].
** [[http://live.topgear.com/ Top Gear Live World Tour in 2009]] had promo pictures of the three presenters plus The Stig [[http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/top-gear-live-launch-2009-09-28 sitting around a map of the world]] - the kind that shows troop movements. [[CatchPhrase I think you can see where this is going.]]
* 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.
** After Clarkson and Hammond have been discussing a campaign by the author Bill Bryson against needless roadside signs and clutter, and generally agreeing with the sentiment behind it, May launches into this fabulous [[CharacterFilibuster rant]]:
-->'''May''': [[http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2008/james-may-american-rant-p1.php I think that man is a danger, frankly]]. If there is one thing I can't stand it's beardy, sanctimonious, patronising Americans in tartan trousers coming to England and trying to persuade us to turn into a museum. He wants the East End for the cheeky Cockney chaps pushing wheelbarrows full of eels and he wants northernists to be industrialists with big braces and blokes dying of consumption -- Good morning Bill, I've got the consumption, it's tradition alright. I say Bill, if you're watching -- OK, now you won't be watching because we're not talking about steam engines or longboats or bear-baiting -- but IF you've happened to tune in by mistake: We're not interested in your views of stupid Americans who come over here with their big video cameras saying Gee, I love your history, it's just so old. SOD OFF!
*** Cue a large round of applause - as much as the Brits like Bill, May touched a nerve there.
** In the Stig's first power lap of Series 15, the footage suddenly cut away halfway through to show some cars playing football, while Clarkson could still be heard narrating about how the Stig's car had exploded and crashed, and other incredibly exciting things were happening. This was a TakeThat at ITV for their ill-timed CommercialPopUp during the HD broadcast of England's first game of the 2010 World Cup two weeks earlier.
** They also take potshots at the Toyota Prius practically nonstop.
** During the first of two 2010 Christmas specials, where all three literally took shots at the now fired Stig. All three used standees of the Stig as targets for a drive-by-shooting challenge. Richard actually took the time to flip the standees backwards so that he could shoot them in the back, like he apparently did to them... and where the other two used pistols, Jeremy used an assault rifle.
** In the 2012 series, after the presenters became annoyed at Audi placing their new car all over Moscow as part of an advertising campaign that blocked all the good views of Red Square, a RunningGag developed that involves an Audi being randomly parked in front of one of the presenters in the studio while they're trying to present the next segment.
** ITV infamously cutting off {{Adele}} at the Brit Awards was referenced by Clarkson not showing the end of one lap "because we let ITV record the footage for that one".
** The Vietnam special can be seen as almost one long TakeThat against the Americans for the Vietnam War, highlighting that they spent years wrecking up a country that is both spectacularly beautiful and populated by people who are simply brilliant.
** Despite his driving skills The Stig is a TakeThat towards racing drivers. The reason he doesn't speak is because they weren't able to find a racing driver capable of an intelligent thought or opinion.
** Some of the things that "some say" about the Stig include these -- for example:
--> that he'd been getting divorced from PaulMcCartney he'd keep his stupid whining mouth shut.
--> that if he wrote you a letter of condolence he would at least get your name right.
--> while he has been known to leave his house in a bit of a hurry, he's never once hit a fire hydrant.
* TakeThatCritics: Clarkson again.
** In a far more personal and literal ''Take That!'', Jeremy Clarkson once took a more direct route to redress from a newspaper that had defamed him. Eschewing a long and costly libel action, Clarkson walked up to the newspaper editor as he and his fellow-journalist mistress sat down to dinner in a swanky London hotel. Noting that the editor was doing for real what his newspaper had falsely accused Clarkson of doing - neglecting his wife in favour of a mistress - Jeremy addressed the double standard involved by punching the hapless hack out cold, laying him in a heap several feet away from his chair. This appears to have done nobody's career any harm, as the punchee Piers Morgan is now a TV presenter in his own right, and his bit on the side has advanced up the pecking order of the Guardian.... but Clarkson is right in that while ''his'' alleged affair became front-page news, newspapers become strangely protective and close-lipped when it involves one, or in this case two, of their own.
** After making a [[RefugeInAudacity particularly audacious]] joke on ''The One Show'' that those on a recent strike "should be taken out and shot in front of their families" which caused minor controversy, OFCOM cleared Clarkson of breaching regulations by stating that it was clear that he wasn't being serious. Clarkson then made fun of how overblown the incident had become in 18x06.
--> '''Clarkson''': I think if we need an adjudicator, I think OFCOM should do it, for they are ''most wise''.
--> '''Hammond''': [[TooSoon Don't go there]]!
--> '''Clarkson''': And ''you'' should be taken out and shot in front of your family, which it turns out, you ''can'' say on television!
--> '''Hammond''': See, what you've done there Jeremy, is take your leg out of the bear trap... and turn around and stuck your head in, instead!
--> '''Clarkson''': *''winks at the camera''*
* 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!"
** When comparing British vs American petrol on the performance of the Koenigsegg([[RunningGag igseggigsegg]]) CCX;
--> '''Clarkson''': 806 brake-horsepower! And that’s on that ''limp-wristed, fairy liquid'' the Americans call "petrol"! If you run this on the more explosive ''jungle-juice'' we have here in Europe, you'll be getting 850 brake-horsepower!
** Lampshaded in one episode when he test drives a car while reading a book on hyperbole.
* TankGoodness:
** Clarkson, driving a Land Rover, tried evading a British Army Challenger 2 tank. [[MultiTrackDrifting And failed.]]
** Clarkson, Hammond and May [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1051349/Pictured-Top-Gear-presenters-thunder-central-London-massive-armoured-tank.html rode in a "tank" over the Tower Bridge]] as a promotional stunt for Top Gear Live 2008. [[TanksButNoTanks The press like the word "tank".]] It is actually an [[AwesomePersonnelCarrier armoured personnel carrier.]]
** And then there's the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_%28vehicle%29 Trojan]]:
-->'''Clarkson''': And, because it's part Tank, part Bulldozer, it's the king of... anywhere it damn well wants to go.
** When challenged to a knock-houses-down-off by a demolition team, they decided on ex-military vehicles. Although none were actually tanks per se, they were visually fairly similar. They were tempted to use some of the tanks, but ultimately went with support vehicles like Clarkson's deminer.
** One episode had Hammond driving a US Army [=M1A2=] Abrams and shooting the main gun and machine guns on it.
** In the 80's hot hatch challenge, when Clarkson and Hammond were trying to catch May, they first resorted to a military-spec JCB, then a mine-clearing machine similar to the one used in the demolition-off, [[SerialEscalation then finally]] [[UpToEleven an actual tank]].
* TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat: During Simon Cowell's lap in Series 10, Episode 5.
* TeamPet: Top Gear Dog, a female Labradoodle owned by Hammond.
* TechnologyMarchesOn: The "flappy-paddle" gearbox. When ''Top Gear'' was first relaunched, over a ''decade'' ago, the presenters were all unimpressed by and dismissive of the idea. Then, as the tech improved, they started praising a few individual ones for being better than most. Nowadays they tend to describe them, more often than not, as an option worth considering.
* TechnologyPorn: Basically what the show is for, and what they do pretty much all the time, 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]].\\
\\
The rare exception is are challenges where the three presenters team up to 'prove' that the production team's low opinion a certain type of car is unjustified - using BlatantLies of course - in which they all effusively praise each other for their choice of cars.
* TemptingFate:
** Whenever Clarkson sets his jaw, looks into the camera, and says, "How hard can it be?" Inevitably, Hilarity Ensues. 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.
-->'''James May:''' With the score at 2-1 to the ''Grosser'', we were given the easiest challenge in the history of Top Gear.
** When at a car auction, James repeatedly rejects cars, claiming that not to worry, there are plenty more to choose from.
--> '''Auctioneer''': And now we come to [[TheAllegedCar the]] ''[[TheAllegedCar last]]'' [[TheAllegedCar lot]]!
** Clarkson when sewing a new roof for their home-made convertible;
--> '''Clarkson''': You never forget how to sew...
--> *[[GilliganCut Five seconds later]]*
--> '''Clarkson''': Damn and blast! I've sewn myself to the machine!
** In Series 21 Episode 1, when Clarkson in his hot hatch is being chased by Hammond and May in police cars, the latter two seem to disappear. Clarkson remarks that whatever it is they're trying to do, it won't work - his car is invinc- *[[KilledMidSentence BOOM]]* [[note]]They strapped two lit sticks of dynamite to the roof of an RC car and then drove it under Clarkson's car. Luckily, he got better.[[/note]]
* TestosteronePoisoning: Clarkson's V8 Engine powered blender. And the "Manly V8 Smoothie" he concocted with it, which contains beef (with bones in it), peppers, bovril, Tabasco, and (for extra bite) a ''brick''.
---> '''Clarkson:''' That will put testes on your chest, that will.\\
'''Hammond:''' [''in pain''] It's put hairs on my eyeballs!!
* 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}}''] No, no wait, that's not right, no.
** Also: "This is the biggest and most powerful [[ForeignCussWord car]] I have ever experienced. [''{{Beat}}''] I can't believe I just said that."
* ThatMakesMeFeelAngry: In the "Polar Special," 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.
* ThatsNoMoon: The presenters looking down the giant sand dunes along the Chilean coast and suddenly realizing a) they're huge, and b) they'll have to drive down them.
* TheInternetIsForPorn: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frqvoVY1wSU I went on the Internet, and I found this.]]
-->'''Hammond:''' Have you been on the Internet again?
-->'''Clarkson:''' Yes I have. And I found this: [gestures to the screen]
-->'''Hammond:''' OH GOD NO! [flinches away]
* ThemeTuneCameo: 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:''' [points at radio in complete bewilderment] I wasn't expecting to hear ''that''.\\
'''Clarkson:''' On tonight's program...[chuckles]
* 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.
* ThereIsAGod: Uttered by Jeremy Clarkson, when he draws the train and Richard Hammond draws the Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle for the Series 13 race to Edinburgh (Clarkson hates motorbikes). Pure {{Kayfabe}}, however, as all three presenters knew which vehicle they would get beforehand.
* ThrowTheDogABone: On occasion ''Top Gear'' allows humble vehicles to have a moment to shine. When James May traveled to Iceland to see the volcano erupting, he used the Toyota Hilux driven by the camera crew in the Polar Special, arguing that it too had been to the north pole but hadn't received the glory of its counterpart, which Clarkson and May drove.
* 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. And also enough weight on the back end that it'd have sunk right away - even the eventual one-engine version was only a couple inches out of the water.
** 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]].
** The [[http://www.bbcamerica.com/shows/topgear/video.jsp?bclid=31560299001&bctid=30112208001 V8 Blender]] and the [[http://www.bbcamerica.com/shows/topgear/video.jsp?bclid=31560299001&bctid=30115382001 V8 Rocking Chair]], so old V8 engines won't go to waste.
* TimeCompressionMontage:
** In episodes featuring long road trips or extensive work on a car. Sometimes spoofed by showing a series of clips that suggests the work of hours and then revealing that only a minute or two have passed.
** In series 18's 2nd episode, Richard Hammond was in America for NASCAR. With NASCAR races taking hundreds of laps and several hours long, a montage ensued after the race started, featuring various scenes including Hammond bringing tires to the pit stop. All with [[TeamAmericaWorldPolice an appropriate "montage" song]].
* 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. He then proceeded to burn his mouth with hot coffee trying to get it off, before realising afterwards that the steam would have 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. Some thought it was an ideal time to broadcast it with rail safety high in the public consciousness. Others thought it would have caused offense to ''someone'' at any time.[[note]]At that point the segment had been postponed more than once due to, you guessed it, level crossing accidents. The producers decided there was never going to ''be'' a proper time to air it.[[/note]]
** 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".
** Clarkson drew massive criticism for his "Change gear, change gear, change gear, murder a prostitute" joke in the Lorry Driving Challenge, having made it mere weeks after a lorry driver was arrested and charged in connection with a string of prostitute murders. It's well known that Clarkson is a huge fan of TooSoon jokes and uses them a lot on purpose just to wind the press up, but the reaction continued to be that he went too far with this one.
* TotallyRadical: In his usual wry and self-deprecating way, during May's review of the life-size [[Series/{{Thunderbirds}} 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.
** James May has appeared on Richard Hammond's series [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/shouldiworryabout/drinking.shtml ''Should I Worry About...?'']] in the 'drinking' segment.
** Tiff Needell (from the pre-2002 version of ''Top Gear'' and currently of [[GearheadShow ''Fifth Gear'']]) was the substitute Stig for one episode, and also appeared in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OPeosWveYc&NR=1 ''James May's Toy Stories'']].
* TransAtlanticEquivalent: The [[Series/TopGearUS US version of]] ''[[Series/TopGearUS Top Gear]]'' has premiered in the History Channel. It's got a race track (with different names), a Stig, three hosts, and only 40 minutes to do their [[SceneryPorn gorgeously filmed]] thing in.
---> '''Adam Ferrara:''' We could explain what ''Top Gear'' is, or you could watch this [=[=]awesome {{montage}}[=]=].
** The opening narration explained what ''Top Gear'' [[TakeThat is not]]: no dancing, no makeovers, no cooking ...
* TrashTheSet:
** Unintentionally. The barn storing the props for the show was [[http://www.autoblog.com/2007/08/15/top-gear-burns-props-destroyed/ destroyed by fire]], probably arson. The Cool Wall was lost as was their furniture for the News segment. Series 10 featured the burned and melted remains of the Cool Wall as well as 'new' (i.e. second hand and ugly) furniture, and snarky comments that their rivals on ''Fifth Gear'' might have been the ones to set the blaze.
** The Caravan Holiday episode, where the caravan they were using is 'accidentally' set on fire at the end of the show. James May claims that it really did start by accident, but that they decided not to rush to put it out as it made for great television!
*** Hammond even tried smothering it with a pillow, only for the pillow to catch fire, and threw it out the window. It landed on the tent of the neighbouring caravan, the same one May backed into earlier, setting it on fire. At least May didn't have to explain about damaging the tent (assuming it wasn't set up by the crew).
** During the news segment filmed closest to Christmas (and thus the end of that series), it's practically a tradition for the Christmas tree and/or the car-themed gifts to be destroyed in some way.
* {{Troll}}: Clarkson.
** Clarkson's insistence that racing drivers have very small brains and worthless opinions[[note]]In reality, a race driver is ''the'' go-to guy for pretty much all race-tuning and for a full understanding of how well a car works for performance driving.[[/note]] leads to this remark about the Stig:
-->'''Clarkson''': We don't know its name, we really don't know its name, nobody knows its name, and we don't wanna know, 'cause it's a racing driver.
** Also, the slogans during the US Special.
** And his dozens and dozens of other targets.
** The comments about truck drivers got him into trouble:
---> '''Clarkson''': Change gear, change gear, change gear, check mirror, change gear, change gear, change gear, murder a prostitute, change gear. That's a lot of effort in a day.
** Not to mention;
--> '''Clarkson''': I went on [[TheInternetIsForPorn the internet]]... and I found ''[[BrainBleach this!]]''
** Burning the Morris Marina in the Communist Car challenge. After the backlash for it, they started destroying all Marinas the appear on camera.
* {{Troperiffic}}: Just look at the size of this page. Go on, look. We'll wait. And this only is a quarter of them.
* 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.
* TrueCompanions: The presenters play up how horrible human beings can be towards one another when they're on camera, but they're only able to do so because they are very close friends in RealLife.
** When Richard returned to the show after his accident, the other two made several tasteless jokes about the potential results of brain injuries that resulted in Ofcom receiving numerous complaints about Jeremy and James' insensitivity. In reality, the two rushed to the hospital when they heard about the accident and made sure that Richard's wife took care of herself while Richard was in a coma.
* TwoDecadesBehind:
** Clarkson comments that as of 2012, the Italians have yet to discover an interesting little safety-feature.
--> '''Clarkson''': Look at this, it hasn't been invented in Italy yet... its called ''"a seatbelt"''.
** Clarkson and Hammond often accuse May of being stuck in the 1950's in terms of attitude and sensibilities. Averted in real life, though; while he appreciates what came before, May is quite fond of modern technology.
* TwoGamersOnACouch: A conservative-leaning but self-deprecating and witty middle-aged men equivalent. And there's three of them.
* UnconventionalSmoothie: The "Man's V8" from the V8 blender, which out of among other ingredients, also had bits of brick. Dubbed by May "The Bloody Awful"
* {{Understatement}}:
** Any time you hear the phrase "That's not gone well."
** Jeremy, after testing the V8 blender: "I'm not sure this works."
** Another example:
-->'''Hammond:'''Jeremy, how are you doing out there?
-->'''Clarkson:'''Not brilliantly.
-->''Cut to Jeremy's car laying on its side.''
* UnexplainedRecovery: 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.]]
* UnflinchingFaithInTheBrakes: An element of some cheap-car challenges. Sometimes this faith is justified. Other times... not.
* UnfortunateNames:
** Piddington.
** Intercourse, Pennsylvania. Hammond wonders if there was a village named Foreplay they should have visited prior to encountering that particular sign...
** John Manlove, who owns Manlove Forensics, the company that they have used twice to check the forensic history of second-hand cars.
** Jezza, Uganda. Jeremy is pleased, the other two are quite dismayed.
* 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!
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: In a rather harsh example of this trope, on at least two occasions the presenters have been through a peaceful country on one of their adventures mere months before it exploded into violence - first Syria and then Ukraine.
* UnitConfusion: In Series 15 Episode 3 May refers to a measurement as "an eighth of an inch, or three millimetres in Roman Catholic."
* UniversalDriversLicense:
** Played straight by driving unusual vehicles with little or no training (at least, no training shown to the audience.)
** Subverted in the historic cars segment, when Clarkson and May attempt to find the first car with the pedal set-up currently thought of as standard.
** Subverted during the tractor challenge, when May gave up after spending more than an hour just trying to figure out how to get his tractor into gear.
** Played for laughs in the Vietnam Special when Clarkson is hopeless on a Vespa. Later, it turns out that all three presenters have to take a motorcycle license exam when they crossed into North Vietnam, as their original licenses are invalid.
* UnreliableVoiceover: The presenters' narration (especially Clarkson's) frequently contradicts events as seen on-screen. [[RuleOfFunny Played for humor]].
* UnsportsmanlikeGloating: Only to be expected from [[http://youtu.be/Hxmc9_bovsg Clarkson]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH7M5elnU8A&feature=related Hammond]], but even [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZOsm0Gdh-g James May]] will do a smug victory dance.
* 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.
** 'Crisis' has become Clarkson's go-to euphemism for orgasm over the last few series.
** In the episode where May and Hammond work as "Scootermen", allowing them to test a lot of people's cars (with the tipsy owner in the back). Hammond says he doesn't want to criticise their cars in front of them, so he'll use ambiguous condiment-related adjectives ("these brakes are a bit salty", "this steering is peppery") to describe those negative aspects. May then says this is cowardly and resolves to speak his mind... then in a BrickJoke near the end we hear him saying someone's car is "quite cranberry sauce".
* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: During the Middle East Special
--> '''Clarkson:''' ''(in a monotone voice)'' "To showcase my brilliant idea, we stopped at an underground market which had a waterfall and a river in it."
* UnusualUserInterface: Older Citroens have oddities such as single-spoked steering wheels and controls in unexpected places. When reviewing a newer one, Clarkson remarked that he wanted to be able to start it by licking the sun visor.
* 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, usually as something falls to pieces or breaks.
-->[''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 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".
* 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. May came damn close during the Bolivia Special, though.
** After May's injury in the 2010 Christmas special, the other two showed genuine concern for him. They might find him boring and at times terribly annoying, but they care about him really. At least, until he gets better.
* VomitDiscretionShot: We're not actually shown Jeremy being sick during his test of the Prodrive P2's active differential system. Just a shot from the interior camera of him leaning out the door with the appropriate sound effects.
* WatchThePaintJob: Often averted.
** Several of the crap car challenges have the presenters "accidentally" rear-ending or banging their doors into one another's cars. James got particularly irate about this during the Alfa Romeo challenge on the way to the concourse, since his car did look rather good. He also gave the other two a serious warning about rear-ending his car during the South America trip. By "serious warning" we mean [[AxeCrazy threatened with a machete]].
** 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.
** 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 ''Petrolheads''. He didn't react well. It's a good job this was before he "met" Oliver. If they had used his Opel for that, he probably would have become violent.
** The trio's homemade convertible, having survived the car wash fire in its first appearance, finally met its demise during the tractor challenge when it was fatally smashed by the Top Gear Production Office, which Hammond was dragging along with his tractor. Hammond gave an OhCrap reaction, but Clarkson said that he had been meaning to destroy the convertible for several weeks, and thanked Hammond for saving him the job.
* WeaponizedCar: The '[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUe_7-j4qpI Turn A Car Into A Bond Car]]' segment in 01.05, as well as the Cheap Cop Car Challenge in series 11.
* WeHaveReserves: Jeremy Clarkson's attitude towards cameramen. And fellow presenters.
* WeWinBecauseYouDidNot: Attempted by Clarkson and Hammond after the race across London, when they realize how bad it looks that a bike (Hammond) and a boat (Clarkson) beat a car (May) travelling across the capital. Jeremy tries to rationalize a victory in that May should still be able to beat the Stig, who is using public transport, but it falls flat when the Stig shows up a little while later. [[EpicFail And still beats May by twenty minutes]].
* WelcomeBackTraitor: Hammond riffs on this when Ben Collins (The Second Stig) returns to help train the disabled ex-servicemen getting ready for the Paris-Dakar Rally.
--> '''Hammond''': Don't tell him anything, he'll put it in a book!
* WhamLine: During the Middle East special: "You have landed in Iraq."
* WhatAnIdiot:
** Said in-universe by the producers and the Foreign Office after the trio crossed from relatively-peaceful Iraqi Kurdistan into the less peaceful South Turkey during the Middle East special (although the alternative, admittedly, was driving through the less-peaceful-than-either Mosul).
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=LLNouGUyHBTr0sjm1ohFwBlA&feature=player_detailpage&v=xe__RnelG14#t=77s Clarkson demonstrating]] a, er, potent mini-cab scented perfume... haphazardly:
--> [[spoiler:'''Clarkson''': '''''MY EYES!''''']]
--> [[spoiler:'''Hammond''': You cretin!]]
** During '''"The Perfect Road Trip"''' Hammond/Clarkson get a little carried away driving their Porsche 911/Aston Martin Vanquish respectively and end up leaving the more sensible speed-limit following production team behind. When they catch up, the two presenters are talking to several police over their speeding (Clarkson's newspaper collumn showed they were doing 87mph in a 56mph zone). The response? They had all the physical cash on them removed as well as their driving licenses THEN banned from driving in France for 3 months, cutting the intended end race of the show short. What's more, Clarkson has been fined for speeding in France before on the show.
* WhatAPieceOfJunk: Every now and then.
** For example, the rusty old Fort Transit [[spoiler:body mounted on the chassis and powertrain of a Jaguar [=XJ220=]]] that they used in a race against the Australians.
** The 1985 Jaguar XJ-S, which had all its excess weight stripped and fitted with {{nitrous|Boost}}.
* WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong: Embodied in Clarkson's favorite phrase: "How hard can it be?"
* WhatDoTheyFearEpisode: Bolivia Special: May is afraid of heights and has the worst time on the Yungas Road. Hammond is phobic toward insects and spends the entire time in the rainforest freaking out. Clarkson claimed he was only afraid of manual labour.
* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs:
** The InUniverse reaction to Clarkson's "normal road test" of the Renault Twingo 133.
-->'''Hammond:''' What was that? An acid trip?... Seriously, how much Night Nurse[[note]]an over-the-counter cold remedy that helps you sleep. Clarkson mentions it early on in the "review".[[/note]] did you take before you did that film?
** The anti-drunk driving PSA Bacardi asked them to show during [[spoiler: Schumacher]]'s interview. As Jeremy put it:
-->'''Clarkson:''' Forgive me on this, forgive me. I have quite literally ''no'' idea what that's all about.
** Invoked by Jeremy when James May arrives in his "Salfa Rameoab" in the limo challenge.
--> What kind of paint thinner were you sniffing when you thought of this?
** Invoked again by Hammond upon seeing Jeremy's ''Film/TheGreatEscape'' style trolley system to reach the rear seats.
--> I though you [James] had sniffed thinners making that.
* 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."
** Jeremy hates motorcycles. This was a problem when they had the Vietnam roadtrip.
** Hammond's fear of insects and May's fear of heights. Both of which are brought up in the Bolivia special.
* WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell: In the Luxury Cars for an Albanian Mafia Hitman segment, Clarkson and May admire Soviet-era planes and submarines and reminisce about the ColdWar, while Hammond is too young to see the appeal.
** Explored earlier in series 12: Did the Communists ever make a good car? Answer: [[spoiler:No.]]
* WildTake: Hammond in the Bolivia special, reacting to the wildlife in his vehicle and tent.
* WiperStart:
** Hammond while hypnotised into believing he couldn't drive.
** May, after nearly half an hour of attempting to start a tractor.
** Again with May, during the 'Best Driving Road in the World' segment, when he cannot get his Aston Martin V8 Vantage N24 started at the end of a ferry trip.
** Clarkson does it with the Ferrari 458 Italia due to the control stalks for the indicators and wipers having been shifted to buttons on the steering wheel, which of course end up on the opposite side he's expecting once he's turned the wheel.
** Clarkson's mum does it while attempting to start a Peugeot 1007 during a test to see how user-friendly the car is to normal people who aren't car bores.
* WireDilemma: 19.05 has Clarkson and Hammond agree to remove the airbags from their car for the elderly (to avoid injuring them with the expanding bag), only to find that they need to cut one of two wires to defuse it. [[spoiler: Nothing happened.]]
* WomenDrivers: Averted. The team aren't averse to recommending what they would consider "a girl's car" if it's a [[RuleOfFun whole lot of fun]].
** Subversion. Sabine Schmitz, who Clarkson would replace Hammond with because she's a better driver, better looking, speaks better English and is taller. 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.\\
\\
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 passenger seat, ''with Hammond still in it!'') 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!
** 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.
** Supermodel Jodie Kidd (who's also a part time racing driver) held the record for the faster star in the old reasonably priced car for some time. She notably beat Jay Kay of Jamiroquai, a picture of who's Ferrari Enzo appeard in later episode with the words "Jodie was faster." Later, in Clarkson's 2008 spinoff DVD special "Thriller" he stages a car chase with Jodie using a Mini One and a Fiat 500.
** Cameron Diaz was the fastest Star in a Reasonably Priced Car for the Kia Cee'd until Tom Cruise's time was announced. She allegedly also made Clarkson vomit after a ride with her in a Jaguar
** May's mother, during the test where the three presenters had their mothers test cars, averts this trope by being actually pretty fast driver and apparently plays it straight by James's admission that it's her quick driving that traumatized him as a child.
** Sienna Miller also held an impressive time on the score board.
* TheWorldIsJustAwesome: Usually takes place during a road trip or special episode. Some examples:
** The three presenters looking at the sunset from the top of Kubu Island in Botswana.
** Looking down the Stelvio Pass during the 'best driving road' segment.
** Standing at the side of the road in Vietnam looking at the view of the valley.
** Most of the Nile River special consists of the trio marveling at the scenery.
* WorthyOpponent: While they still heckle her for being German, it's clear they have nothing but utter respect for [[BadassDriver Sabine Schmitz]].
* {{Yandere}}: The Dodge SRT 10 according to Clarkson:
--> "On the one hand it's gentle and benign and concerned for your well being, but on the other hand it's an axe murderer"
* YankTheDogsChain: In the Val Thorens ice race, James May in the Morris Marina won the challenge. They exclaimed that they've saved the reputation of the Marina and their owners will be forever grateful... [[spoiler:And then a piano falls on it.]]
* YouMakeMeSic: After receiving a threatening letter from the Morris Marina Owners' Club calling for the presenters to be hanged, drawn and quartered ("or is that to good for them?"), Clarkson points out the word should be spelled "too."
* ZanyScheme: Half of what Clarkson does after saying "How hard can it be?"
--> '''Hammond''': "[[RunningGag Don't SAY THAT!!]]"
----
----
* RacingTheTrain:
** ''Top Gear'' has used the format several times with Jeremy Clarkson in a car vs. James May and Richard Hammond riding the train. In Europe the train was the Eurostar and TGV, and in Japan it was the ''Shinkansen''.
** There is also the famous Top Gear Race to the North, with Jeremy Clarkson ''in the train''[[note]]''Tornado'', a recreation of the 1949 Peppercorn A1 Class post-war British Railways express passenger locomotives[[/note]], James May in a Jaguar [=XK120=] and Richard Hammond and on a Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle.
* 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.
* ReallyGetsAround: The Stig's Italian Cousin, nicknamed ''Bunga-Bunga Stig'', who is introduced leaving his coach with four women.
* RealMenWearPink: James May. Although he is teased for having "lady's hair", wearing flowery shirts and listening to Bach, he claims to be the only "proper bloke" on Top Gear because of his love of brown beer, pies, tools and fart jokes. He's also the best shot with a rifle, and has a machete and knows how to use it.
* RealSongThemeTune: A europop cover of the Allman Brothers Band's "Jessica". Also an InstrumentalThemeTune. See also ThemeTuneCameo below.
* RecklessGunUsage: In one episode, the hosts travel to the North Pole, and are given a variety of firearms in case they need to defend themselves from polar bears. At one point, though, James May earnestly looks down the barrel of his shotgun, and is yelled at by their guide, who grabs the weapon out of his hands. In a Series 14 outtake, May defended himself, claiming it was the only way to see whether the barrel is unblocked, which is still incredibly wrong.
** In the series 16 "USA Road Trip" special, one the challenges is for the hosts to perform a mock drive-by shooting in their chosen supercars. While getting weapons training, Jeremy is seen playing with his pistol as if it was a toy. In an overlap with ArtisticLicenseGunSafety, none of the trainers intervene.
* RecordNeedleScratch: Clarkson interrupts his own epic narration in the Nile Special with one to inform viewers that they've already found the source of the Nile River five minutes in.
* RedBaron: "All we know is, he's called The Stig."
* 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.
* RecycledSoundtrack: Every so often, the incidental music during a challenge will be a track borrowed from John Barry's score for Film/CasinoRoyale, likely thanks to some of the film's stunts being performed on the Top Gear track, using their 747.
* RenaissanceMan: James May, between his music degree, pilot's license, and shows about toys, the Apollo program, technology and alcoholic drink, not to mention his knowledge of cars. His programme ''Series/JamesMaysManLab'' and book ''How To Land An A330 Airbus, And Other Vital Skills for the Modern Man'' are further examples of his diverse areas of interest and expertise.
* RepeatCut: Used and overused in early films (the Toyota Hilux torture test was a particularly gross offender) but largely averted now.
* {{Revival}}: The original Top Gear was cancelled in 2001. When the show was relaunched in 2002, the focus shifted toward humour and crazy stunts with the cars sometimes merely an afterthought. It's become vastly more popular than the original, up to the point of SequelDisplacement in many parts of the world, like the US.
* 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''". [[spoiler:Clarkson demonstrates that a Rolls should not be used as a flotation device.]]
* RiddleForTheAges: Anything about The Stig beyond the fact that he's a "tame racing driver."
* RidiculousExchangeRates: 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.
* RightHandCat: In 02.06 Clarkson and Hammond threaten May with dire consequences if he does not break the landspeed record for towing a caravan, all the while petting white plush toy cats.
* RingRingCRUNCH:
** An annoying talking device meant to remind diesel drivers to put the correct fuel in their vehicles. Clarkson killed it with a hammer.
** James May once shot his mobile phone, apparently.
--->'''May:''' [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1192350/Jeremy-Clarkson-Politicians-Aston-Martins-Dont-Top-Gears-James-May-started.html Yes. It made annoying noises]]. Digital stuff is my technological blind spot. I got so cross that I got my Beretta, took it into a field and blew it to bits....If technology annoys you, I highly recommend shooting it to death. It's very cleansing.
* RockstarParking: At the end of their epic races. The presenters may have to fight traffic getting to the hotel, but they can always pull up right at the door[[note]]Sometimes this is set up in advance by the production team. Other times, it's less "park the car in front of the hotel", and more "stop the car and leave it for the production team while I run to the finish line"[[/note]]. Averted when May and Clarkson were doing challenges in their luxury limousines. They were ordered to drive into the center of London and park. They failed.
* RomanticismVersusEnlightenment: Jeremy is mostly Romantic with some Enlightenment moments; you could argue that the practical James is the opposite. Richard leans more towards Romantic arguably.
** Perhaps this is best shown when Jeremy Clarkson reviewed the [=McLaren=] [=MP4=]-12C and compared it to the Ferrari 458 Italia, to test [=McLaren's=] claim that "it was better in every measurable way". While the test showed that the [=McLaren=] was better in every measurable way, he then proceeded to criticize the car and company for being "too serious, lacking art, and soul-less." Saying that the 458 was still more preferable and better artistically, and ended up being the car he would much rather have. Jeremy later did a similar review/comparison between the Audi R8 and Corvette [=ZR1=]. Even though he considered the R8 to be better practically and in some areas of performance, he said the [=ZR1=] was still better saying "you would have to be a lunatic to own one, and that is exactly why you should."
** Certain cars or brands could qualify. For example most Italian cars, Alfa Romeo for a specific example, are considered artsy, soulful, and full of passion. Some other cars also qualify, including some American cars, which can sometimes be considered cheap or bad, but certain cars from there are spectacular in terms of fun, including the Corvette [=ZR1=], or the Mustang which was not considered to be spectacular but "there was something about it" which made it "borderline sub-zero" on the show's "Cool Wall".
** The presenters in general will often feel somewhat sad when a car sacrifices fun or speed for practicality or eco-friendlyness. Even the normally Enlightened James May is not always immune to this.
*** This feeling applies to the auto industry as a whole. They all expressed disappointment that there will likely never be another car like the Bugatti Veyron, and just about every "old vs. new" review picks nostalgia and "pure driving experience" over superior technology.
* 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
* DarthWiki/RuinedForever:
** Surprisingly invoked by the hosts themselves numerous times, mostly when a new model of a car line is inferior to its predecessors. They also call it on their own show when [[spoiler:during the London race, a car driven by May comes dead last in a competition between it, a boat, a bike, and public transport.]]
* TheRuinsICaused: Hammond and May cackling over the devastation after their 'car darts' game.
* 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! A literal RuleOfCool is used to decide where a car goes on the Cool Wall -- with the codicil that some cars are so cool that they must be declared ''uncool'', because you would only buy such a car if you were CompensatingForSomething.
* 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!
* RuleOfThree: The main reason there are three primary presenters -- two can ally against the third.
* 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.
** The ridiculous outfits they end up wearing in Vietnam, matching their bikes and cargo.
** The clothing worn for losing mysterious bets during Series 12.
* RunningGag: One of the show's favorite tropes.
** There are many gags pertaining to the presenters themselves:
*** The stylized introductions of the Stig; Clarkson's love of hammers, chainsaws, and powweeeeeerrrr; the frequent characterization of presenter James May as "Captain Slow" or similar, because of his generally unaggressive and leisurely driving style; and of course comic hints that one presenter is concealing an embarrassing personal secret -- that Hammond has had his teeth whitened; that May is gay and/or is [[DepravedBisexual enamoured of one of the others]]; and that Clarkson has a crush on ''Pop Idol'' winner Will Young. Although the last one might be true...
*** Jeremy always refers to Norwegians as "Nors". "I would clear a runway on the ice, and then a Nor would land his plane on it." He does this because he thinks it sounds better.
*** Clarkson describing a test facility as "top secret", before giving detailed road directions for how to find it. Actually started out on his chat show ''Clarkson''.
*** Any car that May drives will be ''accidentally'' bumped into by the other two presenters, especially when parking. This eventually culminates on ''Death Road'' during the Bolivian Special where May warns Clarkson not to do it or he'll "cut his f**king head off". Both give him their word they won't, but when Clarkson takes his eye off when another car overtakes them, he bumps into him. Cue May stopping the car and coming towards Clarkson with a large machete and shouting at him. The scary thing was this [[BewareTheNiceOnes may not have been a joke.]]
*** Both Clarkson and Hammond putting something in May's car to annoy him. In the past this has been cheese that grilled over his engine so he'd lose points in a classic car competition, replacing the [[WickedCultured Bach]] to Techno from his expensive "Banging stereo for my tunes" setting it to maximum volume and then supergluing all the buttons so he couldn't turn it off. During the race to Blackpool on a single tank, they planted heavy items in his car's boot to reduce its fuel economy. And on two occasions, they've hidden cow's heads in his car so they'd attract wild animals. They've also tried putting those animal heads in May's tent.
*** Any time May's car on a budget car trip has working Air Conditioning, and the others don't, will end up destroyed by the other two out of childish spite to bring him down. He cannot even hide it.
*** May's repeated claims that Monkeys are the most dangerous animal in the world.
** One gag that is a consistent favorite is one of the presenters asking, "How hard can it be?" about the current challenge/crisis. The answer, as Hammond has confessed to outright, is usually, "Very", but it hasn't seemed to have stopped them. The only one that hasn't done it is the Stig, for obvious reasons.
** Gags that last a season and then are dropped without much warning. These usually appear in the "News" section of the episode.
*** When something dangerous is about to happen, Clarkson saying "run away, run away!"
*** Series 6: Voting Meat Loaf's song as the best driving song causes something bad.
*** Series 11: Comedy updates from May on the forthcoming Dacia Sandero, and Clarkson saying "I went on {{the Internet|IsForPorn}} and I found ''[[TakeOurWordForIt this]]''..."
**** The latter would be an image that shocked and amused the studio audience, usually implied to be something from a shock site, but was unseen on TV. After the furor died down, the real image would be shown, with Clarkson saying, "but I also found this..."
*** Series 12: "Are you wearing that for a bet?" and "Did you lose a bet?", referring to [[RummageSaleReject a piece of odd clothing]] being worn by one of the presenters[[note]]The answer is invariably "Yes" with no elaboration--unless James happens to be the target of the question.[[/note]].
**** Also in Series 12, Clarkson mentioning the Dacia Sandero, occaisionally to May's complete confusion.
*** Series 14 and 15: Using "have a crisis" as an UnusualEuphemism for an orgasm.
*** Series 15: More "Hey! Great news!" updates from May, this time on the Dacia Duster. In addition, the Stig's [[spoiler: hatred of Rubens Barrichello, after he beat his lap time in the Suzuki Liana by one-tenth of a second.]]
** Gags pertaining to the specials: The presenters painting slogans on their own (or the others') cars; the presenters buying odd, useless, or unusual gifts for each other; a CreditsGag with the presenters and crew amusingly renamed; a penalty for breaking down in the form of a backup vehicle that no one wants to drive; and someone driving into the back of James May instead of braking. By Series 14, in the [[VerySpecialEpisode Bolivia Special]], an irate James [[LampshadeHanging mentions]] that "it wasn't funny three series ago and it isn't funny now", and threatens to behead the next person who does it to him.
** Gags pertaining to specific cars or other vehicles.
*** If a Morris Marina is seen on screen, you can bet harm will come to it before too long. This got lampshaded in Series 14, where Richard claimed that they got a Morris Marina that already had a piano dropped on it (really a Marina with a piano tied onto the roof) for a race. It then got a second piano dropped on it. Between this and James's pianos typically getting hit by a vehicle, don't expect them to last long either.
**** This gag was subverted (sort of) in the ''The Worst Car in the History of the World'' DVD special - a Morris Marina is dropped ''onto'' a Fiat Panda.
*** Caravans exist for the sole purpose of being destroyed violently. [[BaitAndSwitchComparison This is also true in the show]].
*** Cars entered in public races have fake sponsorship decals affixed to their sides in such a way that when the lettering is truncated by the opened door, it spells something amusing. (e.g. "Peniston Oils" becomes simply "Penis").
*** The Kia "Cee-apostrophe-D".
*** The Huayra - the successor to the Pagani Zonda - often being pronounced as incomprehensible gibberish due to having an odd spelling. Even when the car is roadtested in Series 19, it still isn't immune to the gag, although Hammond makes an effort to pronounce it "correctly" (going for a semi-phonetic ''hwai-ra'') during the video.
** Gags pertaining to specific challenges.
*** In the "Cheap Saloons In Germany" challenge, James May's choice of car has a "dog-leg" racing gearbox, meaning the positions of gears are switched round. This understandably causes some confusion as James May goes into reverse when he thinks he's in first gear. This happens throughout the challenge, and even the German Stig falls for it.
** Whenever they engage in camping (either with or without caravans) a fire is sure to follow soon. Later deliberately subverted in the River Nile special.
** Whenever Hammond has to drive very fast, in a straight line, on a runway you can be sure there will be a comment from one or both of the other presenters about how worried they are Hammond has to drive very fast, in a straight line, on a runway.
* 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."
* SawStarWarsTwentySevenTimes: The Stig's African cousin is said to have seen ''Disney/TheLionKing'' 1,780 times.
* ScareChord: When the Beetle was introduced in the Botswana Special, and whenever it showed up on screen.
--> '''Clarkson:''' Anyone whose car broke down would have to complete the journey [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f8i2Ftn9Bs in a Beetle.]] '''[[Film/WhatLiesBeneath *Bum BUUM, Bum]]''' '''''[[Film/WhatLiesBeneath BUUUM!*]]'''''
* 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." The Polar Special also featured some truly stunning cinematography.
** Subverted in the Bolivia Special, which started with some very nice aerial shots, that Clarkson then admitted were from another show because the helicopter they hired had crashed. The presenters were then shown arriving at their start location in boat.
* 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!''
* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: Hammond during the Bolivia Special [[FlyCrazy in response]] to the insect life and [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes the snake in his car]].
* [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Screw This, We're Outta Here]]:
** During the Alabama challenge, all the presenters, as well as the camera crew fled from a gas station after their car decorations pissed off the locals.
** While testing their new hovervan, the trio tried to stop off at a restaurant, but quickly changed their mind after the van's turbine caused havoc with the restaurant's outside tables and diners.
* SeinfeldianConversation: Pops up now and again, usually when the presenters are waiting for their challenge or Jeremy and Richard are waiting for Captain Slow. The best was in the lorry challenge, where they were discussing what Yorkie bars came out when. It can be rather culturally specific at times.
* 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.
** The show's motto of "Ambitious but Rubbish."
** Clarkson [[InsistentTerminology consistently refers to the show as]] "that poky little motoring programme on [=BBC2=]", especially when accepting awards.
** Reportedly, after Richard Hammond's accident, the first thing he said to Clarkson, from his hospital bed, was "Was I driving like a twat?"
** Producer Andy Wilman after winning the lawsuit brought on by the review of the Tesla Roadster:
-->'''Andy Wilman''':I am pleased that the appeal court has upheld the previous ruling and the case has been struck out. I'd also like to apologise to the judges for making them have to watch so much Top Gear.
** The Cool Wall has a rule that states that if any of the presenters own the car in question, it can ''never'' be cool. ''Ever''. All other considerations be damned.
* SeparatedByACommonLanguage: American viewers quickly learn that the British [[http://www.bg-map.com/us-uk.html#1 have different terms]] for a ''huge'' number of automotive topics. Starting with the cars themselves. It may take a while for Americans to realize that the guys are really talking about sedans when they say "saloon cars," station wagons when they say "estate cars," etc. Jeremy Clarkson has theorized that this trope is the primary reason why the U.S. is pretty much the only major international market in which ''Top Gear'' is ''not'' a huge mass-audience hit.
* SerendipitousSymphony: In an episode of Season 10 where the hosts attempt to produce a tribute to [[TheAllegedCar British Leyland]], the various squeaks, rattles, clunks and other noises given off by their cars are cut together into a small musical number
* SerialEscalation:
** What unbelievably hard task can the producers set the three presenters this week?
** In the Botswana special, after Hammond has sunk his beloved Oliver, he returns with it in full working order. Clarkson remarks, "Is that technically possible?", to which Hammond cheerfully responds, "Probably not."
** [[FormulaOne Rubens Barrichello]] drove faster ''[[BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame than the Stig!]]''
*** Then Sebastian Vettel beat Barrichello's time by three-tenths...then ''Lewis Hamilton'' came along and beat Vettel's time ''by over a second!'' (for those keeping score at home, that means Lewis Hamilton is ''1.5 seconds faster than the Stig'').[[note: It's worth noting Ben Collins, who played the Stig, never reached F1 (regarded as the pinnacle of motorsport) during his racing career, while Hamilton and Vettel were World Champions and Barrichello and Mark Webber (the only other driver to beat Stig's time) both had repeated top-three championship finishes. Not to mention all except Barrichello were in the prime of their career at the time they made their runs.]]
* SeriousBusiness: It is more or less established that, if necessary, the BBC will fend off any criticisms against any part of Top Gear, including Jeremy's category of AcceptableTargets, and bring their guns to bear against any party that threatens the integrity of the show. And with good reason, since Top Gear is one of their most successful television shows ever. The BBC actually ''sued a book publisher'' to try to stop them from publishing a book revealing The Stig's identity. They failed.
* SexSells: Played for laughs on occasion:
** Clarkson's contribution to his and May's Volkswagen Scirocco ad was to put the attractive actress in a bikini. When told it was going to be a funeral scene, he clarified: "Black bikini."
** May called up a local model agency for the Alfa Romeo calendar challenge. They sent ''a man''.
--> '''May:''' I couldn't send him away, he was so excited...
* 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.]]
* ShapedLikeItself: Jeremy is quite fond of this. For example:
--> '''Jeremy''': This is the North... Where Northerners live.
* ShipperOnDeck:
** Hammond and May jokingly ship Clarkson/Will Young.
** The kinds of things May imagines Clarkson and Hammond to be doing in the master suite of an American-style motorhome involve a traffic warden costume, handcuffs, and a ball gag.
** Oddly enough, talk show host and one-time Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car Jonathan Ross apparently ships Clarkson/Hammond.
* ShockSite: [[CatchPhrase "I went on the internet this week,]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMGa6uxSp5o and I found this...]] Of course, they never show any of the images over the network, but Hammond, May, and the entire audience sees them. Some of them are unknown, but the only one that's certain Clarkson showed off was "Tailpipe Man". Rather tame under the standards of a shock site, but [[spoiler: it's still a picture of an overweight man dressed in lingerie sticking his erect penis into the tailpipe of a car.]]
* ShootingGallery: In the East Coast America special, the guys learn to do a drive-by shooting at one. Amusingly all the targets are shaped like the Stig, since it was shortly after the second Stig (Ben Collins) had published a book revealing he had been the Stig, in violation of his working contract.
* ShoutOut: The show makes too many to mention.
** [[http://www.dilbert.com/2010-05-16/ This]] ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}} strip introduces software legend Wolfgang with the following lines in riff on the Stig's RunningGag intro. [[spoiler: It's Wally with a beard.]]
---> "Some say his talent is a genetic mutation. Others say that God speaks to him in UNIX. All we know is that he glows, and he never needs to eat."
** Creator/TimothyZahn did the same in his book ''[[Literature/TheCobraTrilogy Cobra Gamble]]'':
---> "You can drive one of those vehicles?" Rashida asked, sounding doubtful.\\
"Sure," Jody said. "I mean, how hard can it be?"
** James May made one when one of the other two screwed up a challenge during their race against the German car show.
--->'''Hammond:''' Oh, I'm gonna get grief for this now...
--->[Cuts to James and Jeremy, trackside. James presses the transmit button on the radio...]
--->'''May:''' [[TheGreatEscape Cooler. Eight veeks.]]
** Perhaps an unintended one but Clarkson seems to like using [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime HEY! HEY! LISTEN! HEY!]] to get everyone's attention from time to time.
** During the snowplough challenge whenever something goes wrong [[spoiler: meaning all the time]]:
---> "[[Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail Run away! Run way!]]"
** The Series 17 premiere, when Clarkson introduced guest star Music/AliceCooper:
---> '''Clarkson''': Ladies and gentlemen, [[WaynesWorld we are not worthy.]]
** When Clarkson attempted to use explosives to blow up a condemned series of houses, which had the grand effect of knocking down a ''door''.
--> '''Hammond''': You've only [[TheItalianJob blown the bloody door off!]]
** The Stig farm could be seen as a homage to former-guest Harry Enfield's sketch "Clarkson Island" which featured a farmer raising a herd of ''Clarksons''.
** The ''Where's Stig'' book has a [[Film/TheThing1982 UFO buried under the ice in the Arctic page.]]
* ShroudedInMyth: The Stig, based on the RunningGag introductions almost every episode.
* ShowWithinAShow: "''The Interceptors''", their spoof of 1970's detective shows in tribute to the Jensen Interceptor. Much to everyone's lament, it only lasts for the opening credits.
--> '''Hammond''': Why don't we make ''that'' every week?
* 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]]. Exemplified by Clarkson's catchphrase: "How hard can it be?" Generally followed by Hammond shouting "Don't say that!"
* SkunkStripe: May has the white-hair-at-the-temples variety.
* SlidingScaleOfSillinessVersusSeriousness: Very much on the "silly" side.
* SmallReferencePools: During the second USA trip, Jeremy does a few practise runs on the Nevada Salt Flats in their motorhome. He calls it a Winnebago... even though it's clearly a Chevy.
** Chevrolet does not build motorhomes, but they do sell a lot of chassis (known as "cutaways" in the industry) to motorhome manufacturers. It may just be a Winnebago.
* SmugSnake:
** Jeremy Clarkson, in every sense. During one episode the studio audience actually booed his success at a task, a reaction which Hammond ''loved''.
** The Clarkson / Simon Cowell interviews: battle of the Smug Snakes!
** And from Season 12:
--->'''May''': [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wxn2cTlW3I 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'']
* SoBadItsGood: In-universe. James May wrote a [[http://www.topgear.com/uk/james-may/james-may-the-old-masters-2008-07-01 column]] about how, while he does get a kick out of getting to drive incredible supercars, he's grown to love absolutely ''terrible'' cars and he said Clarkson agrees with him, because of the challenge, triumph, and nothing-left-to-lose freedom that comes from driving them.
* SomethingThatBeginsWithBoring: In the Polar Special. And again in the "Economy Run" episode.
* SorryBillyButYouJustDontHaveLegs: 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). [[spoiler:It wasn't Clarkson, it actually was The Stig directing him behind the scenes, they only showed Clarkson on the show.]]
* SoundEffectBleep: In order to keep the show suitable for its pre-{{watershed}} slot, most of the swearing is either bleeped, drowned out by a horn or car radio, or cut away from quickly.
** Only mildly subverted when James May, in a display of extreme irritation, checks to see if the show has gone beyond the watershed before proceeding to [[spoiler:call Jeremy a fucking idiot]], complete with a concerned Richard interrupting in case the timing's off.
* SpellMyNameWithAThe: The Stig.
--> Some say that his first name really is "The"
* SpikedWheels: Clarkson adds Boudicea spikes to his "improved" police interceptor in the police car challenge. 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 Series 13]] featured child versions of all four presenters, including a Li'l Stig. Adorable. Continuing in the commercials for [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekLfVmmo9Qw Series 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. Hammond nearly crashed into a river full of alligators due to bad brakes, they had an angry mob of rednecks chase them out of a gas station while throwing rocks at them ''and'' their film crew for having slogans such as "MAN-LOVE RULES OK" and "NASCAR sucks!" painted on their cars, and witnessed firsthand the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. This inspired them to donate their vehicles to local families, which ''then'' prompted a "[[AmoralAttorney lawyer]]" to threaten to sue them for misrepresentation because a researcher mistakenly claimed Jeremy's '89 Camaro was a '91 model, and also ever so kindly offered to drop the lawsuit for $20,000. 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.
* SpringtimeForHitler: Jeremy's efforts in the Blackpool economy race. Despite choosing a vehicle with fuel range well short of what was needed to reach the finish, and further, intentionally ignoring the economy part of the race for about half the length of it, he not only [[BeyondTheImpossible somehow made it to Blackpool]], but on time as well, and only just behind Richard for first place.
* {{Squick}}. In-universe, when one presenter teases another with a little 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!
%%%
%% Audience reactions go in YMMV.
%%%
* StealthHiBye: The Chinese "Attack" Stig is fond of mixing these with a GroinAttack.
** A more hilarious take: James during their [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3s6TfiA8c8 Cheap Alfa Romeos Challenge]]:
-->'''Jeremy:''' I have been rescued ''[Referring to the two women with him]'' and I haven't even broken down.
-->'''Richard:''' Well then you don't-
-->''(Cut into James, who just arrived)''
-->'''[[DeadpanSnarker James:]]''' [[Funny/TopGear Hello.]]
* StealthPun: The Stig and Richard Hammond fighting over the little trophy for the Golden Cock Award in 2009. Apparently Stig really likes the cock, though Hammond clearly wanted Stig to give him the cock.
* 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 more low-key.
* StronglyWordedLetter: After James had a rant about calling a Bentley British because of the company being owned by VW, the car in question being styled by a Belgian and engineered by a German:
-->'''Clarkson:'''"James, are you presenting ''Top Gear'' or are you writing a letter to the [[BritishNewspapers Daily Telegraph]]?"
* StuffBlowingUp: Almost every episode. In fact, it's noteworthy when they ''don't'' do it.
* StupidStatementDanceMix: Jeremy's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY9u0LxIWJk got one]].
* [[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; the legal age required to get a full motorcycle license (the answer being 18). Predictably, Hammond and May were shocked.
-->'''Clarkson''': Did you not bother learning Vietnamese before you came here?\\
'''Hammond''': Well, no!\\
'''Clarkson''': You're ''screwed'', then.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: The white Stig (Ben Collins), replacing Perry [=McCarthy=] as the black Stig.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: In one episode they had to get their cheap Alfa Romeos into a Concours d'Elegance competition. Hammond's Alfa died on the way there and since cars were only allowed to enter if they did so under their own power that was a bit of a problem. They snuck in under the eyes of the marshalls by driving their cars bumper to bumper, May towing Hammond's Alfa with the tow rope hidden under Clarkson's car. Hammond at least tried to come up with an excuse but Clarkson just couldn't be bothered...
-->'''Hammond''': We always travel together, so if you don't mind us sticking together, that would be kind...\\
'''Clarkson''': No tow ropes here. Nothing to see here.
* TheSwearJar: James May was subjected to one when reviewing an Alfa Romeo -- not for profanity, but for cliche words and phrases like "passion" or "heart" which typically come up in reviews for Italian cars.
* 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]]".
* TakeOverTheWorld:
** Top Gear Live World Tour in 2008 started off with the three presenters [[http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/sep/02/bbc.television driving over Tower Bridge in a tank]].
** [[http://live.topgear.com/ Top Gear Live World Tour in 2009]] had promo pictures of the three presenters plus The Stig [[http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/top-gear-live-launch-2009-09-28 sitting around a map of the world]] - the kind that shows troop movements. [[CatchPhrase I think you can see where this is going.]]
* 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.
** After Clarkson and Hammond have been discussing a campaign by the author Bill Bryson against needless roadside signs and clutter, and generally agreeing with the sentiment behind it, May launches into this fabulous [[CharacterFilibuster rant]]:
-->'''May''': [[http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2008/james-may-american-rant-p1.php I think that man is a danger, frankly]]. If there is one thing I can't stand it's beardy, sanctimonious, patronising Americans in tartan trousers coming to England and trying to persuade us to turn into a museum. He wants the East End for the cheeky Cockney chaps pushing wheelbarrows full of eels and he wants northernists to be industrialists with big braces and blokes dying of consumption -- Good morning Bill, I've got the consumption, it's tradition alright. I say Bill, if you're watching -- OK, now you won't be watching because we're not talking about steam engines or longboats or bear-baiting -- but IF you've happened to tune in by mistake: We're not interested in your views of stupid Americans who come over here with their big video cameras saying Gee, I love your history, it's just so old. SOD OFF!
*** Cue a large round of applause - as much as the Brits like Bill, May touched a nerve there.
** In the Stig's first power lap of Series 15, the footage suddenly cut away halfway through to show some cars playing football, while Clarkson could still be heard narrating about how the Stig's car had exploded and crashed, and other incredibly exciting things were happening. This was a TakeThat at ITV for their ill-timed CommercialPopUp during the HD broadcast of England's first game of the 2010 World Cup two weeks earlier.
** They also take potshots at the Toyota Prius practically nonstop.
** During the first of two 2010 Christmas specials, where all three literally took shots at the now fired Stig. All three used standees of the Stig as targets for a drive-by-shooting challenge. Richard actually took the time to flip the standees backwards so that he could shoot them in the back, like he apparently did to them... and where the other two used pistols, Jeremy used an assault rifle.
** In the 2012 series, after the presenters became annoyed at Audi placing their new car all over Moscow as part of an advertising campaign that blocked all the good views of Red Square, a RunningGag developed that involves an Audi being randomly parked in front of one of the presenters in the studio while they're trying to present the next segment.
** ITV infamously cutting off {{Adele}} at the Brit Awards was referenced by Clarkson not showing the end of one lap "because we let ITV record the footage for that one".
** The Vietnam special can be seen as almost one long TakeThat against the Americans for the Vietnam War, highlighting that they spent years wrecking up a country that is both spectacularly beautiful and populated by people who are simply brilliant.
** Despite his driving skills The Stig is a TakeThat towards racing drivers. The reason he doesn't speak is because they weren't able to find a racing driver capable of an intelligent thought or opinion.
** Some of the things that "some say" about the Stig include these -- for example:
--> that he'd been getting divorced from PaulMcCartney he'd keep his stupid whining mouth shut.
--> that if he wrote you a letter of condolence he would at least get your name right.
--> while he has been known to leave his house in a bit of a hurry, he's never once hit a fire hydrant.
* TakeThatCritics: Clarkson again.
** In a far more personal and literal ''Take That!'', Jeremy Clarkson once took a more direct route to redress from a newspaper that had defamed him. Eschewing a long and costly libel action, Clarkson walked up to the newspaper editor as he and his fellow-journalist mistress sat down to dinner in a swanky London hotel. Noting that the editor was doing for real what his newspaper had falsely accused Clarkson of doing - neglecting his wife in favour of a mistress - Jeremy addressed the double standard involved by punching the hapless hack out cold, laying him in a heap several feet away from his chair. This appears to have done nobody's career any harm, as the punchee Piers Morgan is now a TV presenter in his own right, and his bit on the side has advanced up the pecking order of the Guardian.... but Clarkson is right in that while ''his'' alleged affair became front-page news, newspapers become strangely protective and close-lipped when it involves one, or in this case two, of their own.
** After making a [[RefugeInAudacity particularly audacious]] joke on ''The One Show'' that those on a recent strike "should be taken out and shot in front of their families" which caused minor controversy, OFCOM cleared Clarkson of breaching regulations by stating that it was clear that he wasn't being serious. Clarkson then made fun of how overblown the incident had become in 18x06.
--> '''Clarkson''': I think if we need an adjudicator, I think OFCOM should do it, for they are ''most wise''.
--> '''Hammond''': [[TooSoon Don't go there]]!
--> '''Clarkson''': And ''you'' should be taken out and shot in front of your family, which it turns out, you ''can'' say on television!
--> '''Hammond''': See, what you've done there Jeremy, is take your leg out of the bear trap... and turn around and stuck your head in, instead!
--> '''Clarkson''': *''winks at the camera''*
* 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!"
** When comparing British vs American petrol on the performance of the Koenigsegg([[RunningGag igseggigsegg]]) CCX;
--> '''Clarkson''': 806 brake-horsepower! And that’s on that ''limp-wristed, fairy liquid'' the Americans call "petrol"! If you run this on the more explosive ''jungle-juice'' we have here in Europe, you'll be getting 850 brake-horsepower!
** Lampshaded in one episode when he test drives a car while reading a book on hyperbole.
* TankGoodness:
** Clarkson, driving a Land Rover, tried evading a British Army Challenger 2 tank. [[MultiTrackDrifting And failed.]]
** Clarkson, Hammond and May [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1051349/Pictured-Top-Gear-presenters-thunder-central-London-massive-armoured-tank.html rode in a "tank" over the Tower Bridge]] as a promotional stunt for Top Gear Live 2008. [[TanksButNoTanks The press like the word "tank".]] It is actually an [[AwesomePersonnelCarrier armoured personnel carrier.]]
** And then there's the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_%28vehicle%29 Trojan]]:
-->'''Clarkson''': And, because it's part Tank, part Bulldozer, it's the king of... anywhere it damn well wants to go.
** When challenged to a knock-houses-down-off by a demolition team, they decided on ex-military vehicles. Although none were actually tanks per se, they were visually fairly similar. They were tempted to use some of the tanks, but ultimately went with support vehicles like Clarkson's deminer.
** One episode had Hammond driving a US Army [=M1A2=] Abrams and shooting the main gun and machine guns on it.
** In the 80's hot hatch challenge, when Clarkson and Hammond were trying to catch May, they first resorted to a military-spec JCB, then a mine-clearing machine similar to the one used in the demolition-off, [[SerialEscalation then finally]] [[UpToEleven an actual tank]].
* TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat: During Simon Cowell's lap in Series 10, Episode 5.
* TeamPet: Top Gear Dog, a female Labradoodle owned by Hammond.
* TechnologyMarchesOn: The "flappy-paddle" gearbox. When ''Top Gear'' was first relaunched, over a ''decade'' ago, the presenters were all unimpressed by and dismissive of the idea. Then, as the tech improved, they started praising a few individual ones for being better than most. Nowadays they tend to describe them, more often than not, as an option worth considering.
* TechnologyPorn: Basically what the show is for, and what they do pretty much all the time, 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]].\\
\\
The rare exception is are challenges where the three presenters team up to 'prove' that the production team's low opinion a certain type of car is unjustified - using BlatantLies of course - in which they all effusively praise each other for their choice of cars.
* TemptingFate:
** Whenever Clarkson sets his jaw, looks into the camera, and says, "How hard can it be?" Inevitably, Hilarity Ensues. 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.
-->'''James May:''' With the score at 2-1 to the ''Grosser'', we were given the easiest challenge in the history of Top Gear.
** When at a car auction, James repeatedly rejects cars, claiming that not to worry, there are plenty more to choose from.
--> '''Auctioneer''': And now we come to [[TheAllegedCar the]] ''[[TheAllegedCar last]]'' [[TheAllegedCar lot]]!
** Clarkson when sewing a new roof for their home-made convertible;
--> '''Clarkson''': You never forget how to sew...
--> *[[GilliganCut Five seconds later]]*
--> '''Clarkson''': Damn and blast! I've sewn myself to the machine!
** In Series 21 Episode 1, when Clarkson in his hot hatch is being chased by Hammond and May in police cars, the latter two seem to disappear. Clarkson remarks that whatever it is they're trying to do, it won't work - his car is invinc- *[[KilledMidSentence BOOM]]* [[note]]They strapped two lit sticks of dynamite to the roof of an RC car and then drove it under Clarkson's car. Luckily, he got better.[[/note]]
* TestosteronePoisoning: Clarkson's V8 Engine powered blender. And the "Manly V8 Smoothie" he concocted with it, which contains beef (with bones in it), peppers, bovril, Tabasco, and (for extra bite) a ''brick''.
---> '''Clarkson:''' That will put testes on your chest, that will.\\
'''Hammond:''' [''in pain''] It's put hairs on my eyeballs!!
* 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}}''] No, no wait, that's not right, no.
** Also: "This is the biggest and most powerful [[ForeignCussWord car]] I have ever experienced. [''{{Beat}}''] I can't believe I just said that."
* ThatMakesMeFeelAngry: In the "Polar Special," 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.
* ThatsNoMoon: The presenters looking down the giant sand dunes along the Chilean coast and suddenly realizing a) they're huge, and b) they'll have to drive down them.
* TheInternetIsForPorn: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frqvoVY1wSU I went on the Internet, and I found this.]]
-->'''Hammond:''' Have you been on the Internet again?
-->'''Clarkson:''' Yes I have. And I found this: [gestures to the screen]
-->'''Hammond:''' OH GOD NO! [flinches away]
* ThemeTuneCameo: 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:''' [points at radio in complete bewilderment] I wasn't expecting to hear ''that''.\\
'''Clarkson:''' On tonight's program...[chuckles]
* 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.
* ThereIsAGod: Uttered by Jeremy Clarkson, when he draws the train and Richard Hammond draws the Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle for the Series 13 race to Edinburgh (Clarkson hates motorbikes). Pure {{Kayfabe}}, however, as all three presenters knew which vehicle they would get beforehand.
* ThrowTheDogABone: On occasion ''Top Gear'' allows humble vehicles to have a moment to shine. When James May traveled to Iceland to see the volcano erupting, he used the Toyota Hilux driven by the camera crew in the Polar Special, arguing that it too had been to the north pole but hadn't received the glory of its counterpart, which Clarkson and May drove.
* 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. And also enough weight on the back end that it'd have sunk right away - even the eventual one-engine version was only a couple inches out of the water.
** 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]].
** The [[http://www.bbcamerica.com/shows/topgear/video.jsp?bclid=31560299001&bctid=30112208001 V8 Blender]] and the [[http://www.bbcamerica.com/shows/topgear/video.jsp?bclid=31560299001&bctid=30115382001 V8 Rocking Chair]], so old V8 engines won't go to waste.
* TimeCompressionMontage:
** In episodes featuring long road trips or extensive work on a car. Sometimes spoofed by showing a series of clips that suggests the work of hours and then revealing that only a minute or two have passed.
** In series 18's 2nd episode, Richard Hammond was in America for NASCAR. With NASCAR races taking hundreds of laps and several hours long, a montage ensued after the race started, featuring various scenes including Hammond bringing tires to the pit stop. All with [[TeamAmericaWorldPolice an appropriate "montage" song]].
* 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. He then proceeded to burn his mouth with hot coffee trying to get it off, before realising afterwards that the steam would have 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. Some thought it was an ideal time to broadcast it with rail safety high in the public consciousness. Others thought it would have caused offense to ''someone'' at any time.[[note]]At that point the segment had been postponed more than once due to, you guessed it, level crossing accidents. The producers decided there was never going to ''be'' a proper time to air it.[[/note]]
** 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".
** Clarkson drew massive criticism for his "Change gear, change gear, change gear, murder a prostitute" joke in the Lorry Driving Challenge, having made it mere weeks after a lorry driver was arrested and charged in connection with a string of prostitute murders. It's well known that Clarkson is a huge fan of TooSoon jokes and uses them a lot on purpose just to wind the press up, but the reaction continued to be that he went too far with this one.
* TotallyRadical: In his usual wry and self-deprecating way, during May's review of the life-size [[Series/{{Thunderbirds}} 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.
** James May has appeared on Richard Hammond's series [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/shouldiworryabout/drinking.shtml ''Should I Worry About...?'']] in the 'drinking' segment.
** Tiff Needell (from the pre-2002 version of ''Top Gear'' and currently of [[GearheadShow ''Fifth Gear'']]) was the substitute Stig for one episode, and also appeared in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OPeosWveYc&NR=1 ''James May's Toy Stories'']].
* TransAtlanticEquivalent: The [[Series/TopGearUS US version of]] ''[[Series/TopGearUS Top Gear]]'' has premiered in the History Channel. It's got a race track (with different names), a Stig, three hosts, and only 40 minutes to do their [[SceneryPorn gorgeously filmed]] thing in.
---> '''Adam Ferrara:''' We could explain what ''Top Gear'' is, or you could watch this [=[=]awesome {{montage}}[=]=].
** The opening narration explained what ''Top Gear'' [[TakeThat is not]]: no dancing, no makeovers, no cooking ...
* TrashTheSet:
** Unintentionally. The barn storing the props for the show was [[http://www.autoblog.com/2007/08/15/top-gear-burns-props-destroyed/ destroyed by fire]], probably arson. The Cool Wall was lost as was their furniture for the News segment. Series 10 featured the burned and melted remains of the Cool Wall as well as 'new' (i.e. second hand and ugly) furniture, and snarky comments that their rivals on ''Fifth Gear'' might have been the ones to set the blaze.
** The Caravan Holiday episode, where the caravan they were using is 'accidentally' set on fire at the end of the show. James May claims that it really did start by accident, but that they decided not to rush to put it out as it made for great television!
*** Hammond even tried smothering it with a pillow, only for the pillow to catch fire, and threw it out the window. It landed on the tent of the neighbouring caravan, the same one May backed into earlier, setting it on fire. At least May didn't have to explain about damaging the tent (assuming it wasn't set up by the crew).
** During the news segment filmed closest to Christmas (and thus the end of that series), it's practically a tradition for the Christmas tree and/or the car-themed gifts to be destroyed in some way.
* {{Troll}}: Clarkson.
** Clarkson's insistence that racing drivers have very small brains and worthless opinions[[note]]In reality, a race driver is ''the'' go-to guy for pretty much all race-tuning and for a full understanding of how well a car works for performance driving.[[/note]] leads to this remark about the Stig:
-->'''Clarkson''': We don't know its name, we really don't know its name, nobody knows its name, and we don't wanna know, 'cause it's a racing driver.
** Also, the slogans during the US Special.
** And his dozens and dozens of other targets.
** The comments about truck drivers got him into trouble:
---> '''Clarkson''': Change gear, change gear, change gear, check mirror, change gear, change gear, change gear, murder a prostitute, change gear. That's a lot of effort in a day.
** Not to mention;
--> '''Clarkson''': I went on [[TheInternetIsForPorn the internet]]... and I found ''[[BrainBleach this!]]''
** Burning the Morris Marina in the Communist Car challenge. After the backlash for it, they started destroying all Marinas the appear on camera.
* {{Troperiffic}}: Just look at the size of this page. Go on, look. We'll wait. And this only is a quarter of them.
* 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.
* TrueCompanions: The presenters play up how horrible human beings can be towards one another when they're on camera, but they're only able to do so because they are very close friends in RealLife.
** When Richard returned to the show after his accident, the other two made several tasteless jokes about the potential results of brain injuries that resulted in Ofcom receiving numerous complaints about Jeremy and James' insensitivity. In reality, the two rushed to the hospital when they heard about the accident and made sure that Richard's wife took care of herself while Richard was in a coma.
* TwoDecadesBehind:
** Clarkson comments that as of 2012, the Italians have yet to discover an interesting little safety-feature.
--> '''Clarkson''': Look at this, it hasn't been invented in Italy yet... its called ''"a seatbelt"''.
** Clarkson and Hammond often accuse May of being stuck in the 1950's in terms of attitude and sensibilities. Averted in real life, though; while he appreciates what came before, May is quite fond of modern technology.
* TwoGamersOnACouch: A conservative-leaning but self-deprecating and witty middle-aged men equivalent. And there's three of them.
* UnconventionalSmoothie: The "Man's V8" from the V8 blender, which out of among other ingredients, also had bits of brick. Dubbed by May "The Bloody Awful"
* {{Understatement}}:
** Any time you hear the phrase "That's not gone well."
** Jeremy, after testing the V8 blender: "I'm not sure this works."
** Another example:
-->'''Hammond:'''Jeremy, how are you doing out there?
-->'''Clarkson:'''Not brilliantly.
-->''Cut to Jeremy's car laying on its side.''
* UnexplainedRecovery: 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.]]
* UnflinchingFaithInTheBrakes: An element of some cheap-car challenges. Sometimes this faith is justified. Other times... not.
* UnfortunateNames:
** Piddington.
** Intercourse, Pennsylvania. Hammond wonders if there was a village named Foreplay they should have visited prior to encountering that particular sign...
** John Manlove, who owns Manlove Forensics, the company that they have used twice to check the forensic history of second-hand cars.
** Jezza, Uganda. Jeremy is pleased, the other two are quite dismayed.
* 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!
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: In a rather harsh example of this trope, on at least two occasions the presenters have been through a peaceful country on one of their adventures mere months before it exploded into violence - first Syria and then Ukraine.
* UnitConfusion: In Series 15 Episode 3 May refers to a measurement as "an eighth of an inch, or three millimetres in Roman Catholic."
* UniversalDriversLicense:
** Played straight by driving unusual vehicles with little or no training (at least, no training shown to the audience.)
** Subverted in the historic cars segment, when Clarkson and May attempt to find the first car with the pedal set-up currently thought of as standard.
** Subverted during the tractor challenge, when May gave up after spending more than an hour just trying to figure out how to get his tractor into gear.
** Played for laughs in the Vietnam Special when Clarkson is hopeless on a Vespa. Later, it turns out that all three presenters have to take a motorcycle license exam when they crossed into North Vietnam, as their original licenses are invalid.
* UnreliableVoiceover: The presenters' narration (especially Clarkson's) frequently contradicts events as seen on-screen. [[RuleOfFunny Played for humor]].
* UnsportsmanlikeGloating: Only to be expected from [[http://youtu.be/Hxmc9_bovsg Clarkson]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH7M5elnU8A&feature=related Hammond]], but even [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZOsm0Gdh-g James May]] will do a smug victory dance.
* 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.
** 'Crisis' has become Clarkson's go-to euphemism for orgasm over the last few series.
** In the episode where May and Hammond work as "Scootermen", allowing them to test a lot of people's cars (with the tipsy owner in the back). Hammond says he doesn't want to criticise their cars in front of them, so he'll use ambiguous condiment-related adjectives ("these brakes are a bit salty", "this steering is peppery") to describe those negative aspects. May then says this is cowardly and resolves to speak his mind... then in a BrickJoke near the end we hear him saying someone's car is "quite cranberry sauce".
* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: During the Middle East Special
--> '''Clarkson:''' ''(in a monotone voice)'' "To showcase my brilliant idea, we stopped at an underground market which had a waterfall and a river in it."
* UnusualUserInterface: Older Citroens have oddities such as single-spoked steering wheels and controls in unexpected places. When reviewing a newer one, Clarkson remarked that he wanted to be able to start it by licking the sun visor.
* 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, usually as something falls to pieces or breaks.
-->[''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 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".
* 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. May came damn close during the Bolivia Special, though.
** After May's injury in the 2010 Christmas special, the other two showed genuine concern for him. They might find him boring and at times terribly annoying, but they care about him really. At least, until he gets better.
* VomitDiscretionShot: We're not actually shown Jeremy being sick during his test of the Prodrive P2's active differential system. Just a shot from the interior camera of him leaning out the door with the appropriate sound effects.
* WatchThePaintJob: Often averted.
** Several of the crap car challenges have the presenters "accidentally" rear-ending or banging their doors into one another's cars. James got particularly irate about this during the Alfa Romeo challenge on the way to the concourse, since his car did look rather good. He also gave the other two a serious warning about rear-ending his car during the South America trip. By "serious warning" we mean [[AxeCrazy threatened with a machete]].
** 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.
** 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 ''Petrolheads''. He didn't react well. It's a good job this was before he "met" Oliver. If they had used his Opel for that, he probably would have become violent.
** The trio's homemade convertible, having survived the car wash fire in its first appearance, finally met its demise during the tractor challenge when it was fatally smashed by the Top Gear Production Office, which Hammond was dragging along with his tractor. Hammond gave an OhCrap reaction, but Clarkson said that he had been meaning to destroy the convertible for several weeks, and thanked Hammond for saving him the job.
* WeaponizedCar: The '[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUe_7-j4qpI Turn A Car Into A Bond Car]]' segment in 01.05, as well as the Cheap Cop Car Challenge in series 11.
* WeHaveReserves: Jeremy Clarkson's attitude towards cameramen. And fellow presenters.
* WeWinBecauseYouDidNot: Attempted by Clarkson and Hammond after the race across London, when they realize how bad it looks that a bike (Hammond) and a boat (Clarkson) beat a car (May) travelling across the capital. Jeremy tries to rationalize a victory in that May should still be able to beat the Stig, who is using public transport, but it falls flat when the Stig shows up a little while later. [[EpicFail And still beats May by twenty minutes]].
* WelcomeBackTraitor: Hammond riffs on this when Ben Collins (The Second Stig) returns to help train the disabled ex-servicemen getting ready for the Paris-Dakar Rally.
--> '''Hammond''': Don't tell him anything, he'll put it in a book!
* WhamLine: During the Middle East special: "You have landed in Iraq."
* WhatAnIdiot:
** Said in-universe by the producers and the Foreign Office after the trio crossed from relatively-peaceful Iraqi Kurdistan into the less peaceful South Turkey during the Middle East special (although the alternative, admittedly, was driving through the less-peaceful-than-either Mosul).
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=LLNouGUyHBTr0sjm1ohFwBlA&feature=player_detailpage&v=xe__RnelG14#t=77s Clarkson demonstrating]] a, er, potent mini-cab scented perfume... haphazardly:
--> [[spoiler:'''Clarkson''': '''''MY EYES!''''']]
--> [[spoiler:'''Hammond''': You cretin!]]
** During '''"The Perfect Road Trip"''' Hammond/Clarkson get a little carried away driving their Porsche 911/Aston Martin Vanquish respectively and end up leaving the more sensible speed-limit following production team behind. When they catch up, the two presenters are talking to several police over their speeding (Clarkson's newspaper collumn showed they were doing 87mph in a 56mph zone). The response? They had all the physical cash on them removed as well as their driving licenses THEN banned from driving in France for 3 months, cutting the intended end race of the show short. What's more, Clarkson has been fined for speeding in France before on the show.
* WhatAPieceOfJunk: Every now and then.
** For example, the rusty old Fort Transit [[spoiler:body mounted on the chassis and powertrain of a Jaguar [=XJ220=]]] that they used in a race against the Australians.
** The 1985 Jaguar XJ-S, which had all its excess weight stripped and fitted with {{nitrous|Boost}}.
* WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong: Embodied in Clarkson's favorite phrase: "How hard can it be?"
* WhatDoTheyFearEpisode: Bolivia Special: May is afraid of heights and has the worst time on the Yungas Road. Hammond is phobic toward insects and spends the entire time in the rainforest freaking out. Clarkson claimed he was only afraid of manual labour.
* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs:
** The InUniverse reaction to Clarkson's "normal road test" of the Renault Twingo 133.
-->'''Hammond:''' What was that? An acid trip?... Seriously, how much Night Nurse[[note]]an over-the-counter cold remedy that helps you sleep. Clarkson mentions it early on in the "review".[[/note]] did you take before you did that film?
** The anti-drunk driving PSA Bacardi asked them to show during [[spoiler: Schumacher]]'s interview. As Jeremy put it:
-->'''Clarkson:''' Forgive me on this, forgive me. I have quite literally ''no'' idea what that's all about.
** Invoked by Jeremy when James May arrives in his "Salfa Rameoab" in the limo challenge.
--> What kind of paint thinner were you sniffing when you thought of this?
** Invoked again by Hammond upon seeing Jeremy's ''Film/TheGreatEscape'' style trolley system to reach the rear seats.
--> I though you [James] had sniffed thinners making that.
* 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."
** Jeremy hates motorcycles. This was a problem when they had the Vietnam roadtrip.
** Hammond's fear of insects and May's fear of heights. Both of which are brought up in the Bolivia special.
* WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell: In the Luxury Cars for an Albanian Mafia Hitman segment, Clarkson and May admire Soviet-era planes and submarines and reminisce about the ColdWar, while Hammond is too young to see the appeal.
** Explored earlier in series 12: Did the Communists ever make a good car? Answer: [[spoiler:No.]]
* WildTake: Hammond in the Bolivia special, reacting to the wildlife in his vehicle and tent.
* WiperStart:
** Hammond while hypnotised into believing he couldn't drive.
** May, after nearly half an hour of attempting to start a tractor.
** Again with May, during the 'Best Driving Road in the World' segment, when he cannot get his Aston Martin V8 Vantage N24 started at the end of a ferry trip.
** Clarkson does it with the Ferrari 458 Italia due to the control stalks for the indicators and wipers having been shifted to buttons on the steering wheel, which of course end up on the opposite side he's expecting once he's turned the wheel.
** Clarkson's mum does it while attempting to start a Peugeot 1007 during a test to see how user-friendly the car is to normal people who aren't car bores.
* WireDilemma: 19.05 has Clarkson and Hammond agree to remove the airbags from their car for the elderly (to avoid injuring them with the expanding bag), only to find that they need to cut one of two wires to defuse it. [[spoiler: Nothing happened.]]
* WomenDrivers: Averted. The team aren't averse to recommending what they would consider "a girl's car" if it's a [[RuleOfFun whole lot of fun]].
** Subversion. Sabine Schmitz, who Clarkson would replace Hammond with because she's a better driver, better looking, speaks better English and is taller. 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.\\
\\
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 passenger seat, ''with Hammond still in it!'') 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!
** 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.
** Supermodel Jodie Kidd (who's also a part time racing driver) held the record for the faster star in the old reasonably priced car for some time. She notably beat Jay Kay of Jamiroquai, a picture of who's Ferrari Enzo appeard in later episode with the words "Jodie was faster." Later, in Clarkson's 2008 spinoff DVD special "Thriller" he stages a car chase with Jodie using a Mini One and a Fiat 500.
** Cameron Diaz was the fastest Star in a Reasonably Priced Car for the Kia Cee'd until Tom Cruise's time was announced. She allegedly also made Clarkson vomit after a ride with her in a Jaguar
** May's mother, during the test where the three presenters had their mothers test cars, averts this trope by being actually pretty fast driver and apparently plays it straight by James's admission that it's her quick driving that traumatized him as a child.
** Sienna Miller also held an impressive time on the score board.
* TheWorldIsJustAwesome: Usually takes place during a road trip or special episode. Some examples:
** The three presenters looking at the sunset from the top of Kubu Island in Botswana.
** Looking down the Stelvio Pass during the 'best driving road' segment.
** Standing at the side of the road in Vietnam looking at the view of the valley.
** Most of the Nile River special consists of the trio marveling at the scenery.
* WorthyOpponent: While they still heckle her for being German, it's clear they have nothing but utter respect for [[BadassDriver Sabine Schmitz]].
* {{Yandere}}: The Dodge SRT 10 according to Clarkson:
--> "On the one hand it's gentle and benign and concerned for your well being, but on the other hand it's an axe murderer"
* YankTheDogsChain: In the Val Thorens ice race, James May in the Morris Marina won the challenge. They exclaimed that they've saved the reputation of the Marina and their owners will be forever grateful... [[spoiler:And then a piano falls on it.]]
* YouMakeMeSic: After receiving a threatening letter from the Morris Marina Owners' Club calling for the presenters to be hanged, drawn and quartered ("or is that to good for them?"), Clarkson points out the word should be spelled "too."
* ZanyScheme: Half of what Clarkson does after saying "How hard can it be?"
--> '''Hammond''': "[[RunningGag Don't SAY THAT!!]]"
----
