What NOT to Paint on Your Car When Traveling in the Deep South
The International Emmy Award-winning BBC TV series, Top Gear, is a program about cars. Though motor vehicles are not normally a topic of concern for me personally, I could not help but sit with my mouth wide open while watching this clip from a 2008 episode filmed in Alabama.
The hosts are presented with the task of sabotaging one another's cars to see just how much "attention" they can amass. What ensues next is much more than they planned for. As the host says before the project begins, there are three religions in this territory:
- George Bush
- God
- Country & Western
Please note that I in no way, mean to insult Alabamians. I know that stereotyping any one group is dangerous and imprudent; and that of course, few citizens in the state would respond in this manner. However, the handful that they do encounter are rather astounding.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009 at 10:45AM
Reader Comments (120)
I love this episode, Its a great show overall!
www.ispyriches.com
wooow! im not from the US, but i kinda knew about that stuff... its crazy!
i mean, how mind closed they are.
i guess every country has a bit of everything.
In the spirit of internet vigilanteism, what is the name of the town?
Thats funny! I know rednecks like that!
That's so unfortunate....and sad. It's only in tiny towns like that where people behave that way.
In Montgomery and Birmingham there were more Democrats and Libertarians than anything hahaha.
We have electricity too btw. :D
But here's the funny thing, any nothing tiny town in the North or West is just the same. Hahaha.
These guys are a bunch of pussies.
These TV guys are a bunch of pussies. Anyone that would run from a truck full of malnourished muleteers shouldn't be writing on their cars anyways.
That is the human race for you. Sad.
I'm a big fan of TG but I knew they were flirting with disaster here. I have a close friend from Alabama and he tells me it's like a foreign country down there. Thank god they made it. The show they did from Viet Nam was great too. Ironically it looked much safer for them over there then in Alabama.
I was hoping they had some worse comments painted, but it was funny anyways...LOL
WOW.
I shouldn't be shocked, though. I'm sad to say I share my home-state with these MORONS.
This inspires me to go out and stir bigots like this up even more.
=D
Yeah its sad isnt it....a friend of my husband's is black who married a white girl....they went back home to HER family in South Carolina.....they ended up paying I think $1000 more for earlier tickets and the only ones left were first class...they didnt care. it was awful what they said about him and their mixed race baby!!!!! didnt matter if they were in the room or not......it makes me sick!!!! THEIR BABY was made fun of just bc shes mixed race........they all down there are prolly inbred anyway......just awful :-( I LOE YOU JINX!!!!!
My first reaction is, "wow!". But if you think about it, they are just standing up for what they believe in. Obviously, I'm playing devil's advocate here but if someone drove through boys town Chicago with Fags are evil written on their cars they would receive some strong reactions. However, the reactions would probably be more passive aggressive. Very interesting though. There is definitely difference of belief even just across the border.
omg jinxi,
i laughed at 1st but then when it dawned on me what a dangerous world we are in, if we are at all different, it brings me to tears. too bad. i'm glad no one was hurt, except for the tarnish on the souls of the rednecks.
stay safe...!
Yup, that's Alabama for ya. The hometown I grew up in is just like that. It's sad but true. I don't condone this ignorance but if you really wanted a show, they shoulda brought a gay black man. That kind of company might have brought out the shotguns.
People like that are the reason my country went through a civil war. Even though it's maybe a 20% minority that is like that, the rest of the world seems to lump us all into the same demographic.
Very amusing.
What? Its not OK to attack people who are different than you? Go back to France you wusses.
I think it's funny. It's also funny how WillyG and Ryan are calling them pussies as if they themselves wouldn't run from a pickup truck full of angry rednecks. And matt; i hope you're joking...i really hope so.
Ok, to be fair, the woman at the petrol station caught on right away to what they were doing. "Are you trying to get beat up in a hick town?" They were. That was their goal. She admitted it was a hick town, and she obliged them.
This is why I tell people I'm Canadian when I'm in Europe or Australia.
You forgot the 4th religion of this region...NASCAR.
To the few of you who called the TG crew pussies for running away, I am going to go out on a limb and say that you are either a redneck or have been around rednecks. Lilly white englishmen should run at the sight of these people when angered. They are like rodents, if you see one he is sure to have 3 brothers and a couple of cousins not far behind. ANd that is ignoring the issue of firearms....
I never thought that these people still existed in this country.
Makes me embarrassed to call myself American.
The only thing that disgusts me more than the behavior of the rednecks in this video is the unbelievable stupidity of the producers of the show. They set out to paint all southerners with a broad brush as ignorant, bigoted, and xenophobic. And they succeeded, too.
Maybe they should go back to the south and show what the people are REALLY like when you're not purposefully insulting us.