Ruminations on cars. And Florida. And Americans in general.

[triedunture]

So I finally got around to watching the special in season 9 where the boys go to the South and cock about like a bunch of twits. They started in Miami, bought crappy cars for $1000 and drove them to New Orleans.

It was exciting to watch them travel upwards through Florida because they more or less traveled along the route I used to take from my hometown to university in Tallahassee. They passed overpasses that I recognized, and the cameramen seemed very tickled by Yeehaw Junction, which is a town (if you can call it that) between my hometown and Orlando.

They also stopped at Moroso to race their cars; that's the track nearest my hometown! We used to hear adverts on the radio all the time for monster truck rallies at Moroso. And Jeremy even went to a Maroone dealer to look at cars in Miami! Remember those awful jingles? "Who you gonna call? MA-ROON-IE!"

The boys even stopped in Gainesville to camp, and that was familiar territory for me as well. Although I cringed when Richard suggested they use Spanish moss as an herb. That stuff's a parasitic airplant! I don't think it's edible, and it could possibly poison you.

But the most cringe-worthy part was the challenge where they painted each other's cars with homosexual slogans and then saw how long it took to be attacked by angry locals. Did they think that it would just be uncomfortable? Did they know how seriously dangerous that is? I mean, on the one hand, I felt embarrassed that they were chased by a bunch of stupid rednecks, but on the other hand, they were in Alabama; they should have known better.

I was especially scared for James. Richard could have probably charmed his way out of a fight, and Jeremy could have just shouted at someone until they lost interest, but poor floppy-haired James. He could have been killed to death!

FYI, UK: southerners do not eat roadkill. That's what people do in the west.

FYI, Jeremy: if it's bigger than a Camero, then it's not roadkill. It's compost.

Anyway, it was a very sweet special. I liked it a lot. I especially liked how they donated their cars to folks in New Orleans at the end. It's so shameful though how, god, what's it been? Four years now? New Orleans is still in such awful shape. So many people have just given up on it and moved to Houston or Dallas or DC. I haven't been there since the hurricanes, and you don't hear about it much on the news, but it's still pretty beat up, I think.

That's all. I just wanted to squee.

Comments

[jackpy.livejournal.com]

I was a bit shocked by the way people reacted in the South, to be honest. I know people are violent and hateful things, but I hadn't expected them to get so eagerly violent. Especially with the cameras rolling? I thought there'd be a little more sense. =\

[georgeodowd.livejournal.com]

What's this about us eating roadkill? :P

[mirien.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, we in the UK knew the part about the roadkill wasn't true, Top Gear being the merciless piss-take of everyone and everything that it is. I cringed too when they painted the slogans though, and it appears that perception turned out to be true, redneck-wise!

[cestlavieminako.livejournal.com]

I absolutely loved that special, it's right up there with the amphibious cars and convertible people-carrier episodes as my all-time favorite. :D The whole Alabama thing, though...yeah. Someone should have warned them that rednecks are crazy, so maybe they wouldn't have gone quite as far as they did with the car "decorating"?

And Richard in his pickup and cowboy hat was just adorable.

[triedunture.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I think the cameras only made things worse because it made them feel like they were being observed, documentary-style, like animals in the wild. Southerners, I think, aren't very comfortable with being filmed (insert joke about their only appearances on film being an episode of Cops). But to me it seemed like a sort of "oh, you expect us to react like ignorant hicks? Well, son, we're gonna give you what you want and then some" mentality. I'm not saying it's a good thing. It's embarrassing to see the south portrayed in such a horrible caricature. But whatayagonnado?

[triedunture.livejournal.com]

It was one of their challenges, but I don't think they seriously did it.

[georgeodowd.livejournal.com]

Yes, but there was some implication that us westerners eat roadkill... unless you were only talking about the midwest. I'll buy that. :)

[triedunture.livejournal.com]

Yes, let's gang up on midwesterners. Polite deadbeats!

[tasha-elizabeth.livejournal.com]

::standing up for the Midwest::

We do not eat roadkill! Or baby squirrels, no matter what Stephen Fry says!

Although I do recall an uncle of mine talking about dressing a deer he hit with his truck. But he was nuts. And probably joking.

Revised. We do not make a habit of eating roadkill!

[triedunture.livejournal.com]

Good point, midwest! Let's just agree on one thing: Alaska can go to hell. RIGHT?

[pinglederry.livejournal.com]

I was going to step in and stick up for Westerners (being a relatively new addition to the fold), but then I remembered that I've eaten roadkill since I've moved here. In my defense and in the defense of the people I was eating with, their usual modus operandi was that if they saw an animal struck by a car or encountered one that had recently been hit, they'd put the animal out of its misery, then carve them up and store the meat where it wouldn't go bad. We spent a wonderful night roasting chunks deer on sticks over three campfires, eating soup made out of foraged forest edibles from bowls and spoons we'd found/carved ourselves, and listening to stories about revolution and hypothetical apocalypses while a lovely girl sang and played old blues and jazz standards on a well-loved banjo. Good times. :)

In conclusion... heh, gay cars. Did they really get chased?

[triedunture.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. And got pelted by rocks.

[georgeodowd.livejournal.com]

You come in from the east, I'll come in from the west, and we'll squish 'em in the middle!