Amazon Sign Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon Sign Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May

#61

Post by Shish2k » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 2:12 PM UTC

foldr wrote: post #52

yokohama11 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he wasn't on BBC (which as a state broadcaster has far more political sensitivity) it probably wouldn't have been so much of an issue in the UK. Most of his "controversies" would not even be news in the US. A person on a humorous show cracking a racial/ethnic joke is on TV every night. We have nothing like OFCOM where you could actually get in trouble with the government for being highly offensive either. And cele…

How do you square these claims with the public outcry over a brief glimpse of Jannet Jackson's tit? There are plenty of examples of similar controversies in the U.S. media.

> How do you square these claims with the public outcry over a brief glimpse of Jannet Jackson's tit?

"America", perhaps? Clarkson is racist and violent; Jackson is a human being with human body parts - the latter crime is far more severe.

Re: Amazon Sign Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May

#62

Post by century19 » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 2:14 PM UTC

vollmond wrote: post #55

johneth wrote: post #10

As much as I enjoy watching those three mess around on TV, I'm not giving tax-dodging Amazon £80 (~$125) a year for the privilege. Prime seems to have a poor UI (and from what I've read has an inferior service in the UK in terms of apps and content). I wouldn't benefit from the next day delivery because I don't order enough from them. Their (Clarkson, Hammond, May) audience will decrease wherever they ended up, but A…

Are they doing anything illegal in their "tax-dodging"? If not, why would they ever choose to pay more? I've never understood the point of vilifying companies for using "loopholes" to pay less taxes. If there was a loophole that allowed me to pay less income tax, I would absolutely take advantage of it. Why give away more of my money than I have to? If you want them to pay more, close the loophole that allows them to…

The tactics that some companies (I don't know about Amazon) use verge on abusive. I remember hearing about Vodafone being subject to a tax investigation regarding billions they had in accounts in Luxembourg. They hired key people in the investigation to hamper progress. E.g.

http://www.accountancyage.com/aa/news/1774186/top-taxman-dit...

I think in the end the HMRC took a deal on Vodafone's terms. Nothing illegal but I think you could vilify that behavior.

Re: Amazon Sign Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May

#63

Post by justincormack » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 2:14 PM UTC

vollmond wrote: post #55

johneth wrote: post #10

As much as I enjoy watching those three mess around on TV, I'm not giving tax-dodging Amazon £80 (~$125) a year for the privilege. Prime seems to have a poor UI (and from what I've read has an inferior service in the UK in terms of apps and content). I wouldn't benefit from the next day delivery because I don't order enough from them. Their (Clarkson, Hammond, May) audience will decrease wherever they ended up, but A…

Are they doing anything illegal in their "tax-dodging"? If not, why would they ever choose to pay more? I've never understood the point of vilifying companies for using "loopholes" to pay less taxes. If there was a loophole that allowed me to pay less income tax, I would absolutely take advantage of it. Why give away more of my money than I have to? If you want them to pay more, close the loophole that allows them to…

Almost certainly it was illegal, yes, certainly highly dubious process which at one point threatened to being down the European Commission president. The European Commission is investigating eg see [1] and Amazon have stopped doing it. Oh and Amazon's head of tax was Luxembourg Honorary Consul to the Seattle are, hum.

[1] http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/15/amazon-lux...

Re: Amazon Sign Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May

#64

Post by freehunter » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 2:15 PM UTC

foldr wrote: post #52

yokohama11 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he wasn't on BBC (which as a state broadcaster has far more political sensitivity) it probably wouldn't have been so much of an issue in the UK. Most of his "controversies" would not even be news in the US. A person on a humorous show cracking a racial/ethnic joke is on TV every night. We have nothing like OFCOM where you could actually get in trouble with the government for being highly offensive either. And cele…

How do you square these claims with the public outcry over a brief glimpse of Jannet Jackson's tit? There are plenty of examples of similar controversies in the U.S. media.

If we happen to see Jeremy's gentleman's sausage, we can worry about it then. Doesn't change the fact that South Park and Family Guy are two extremely popular shows in the US. And one of them is on network television. I mean, Game of Thrones has plenty of full-frontal nudity and lewd acts, and no one cares. Because it's not network television.

My opinion? The people who care about such things aren't likely to be watching shows on Amazon anyway, so they would never even see them. Compare to the BBC where someone could be flipping through a channel and find it accidentally.

Re: Amazon Sign Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May

#65

Post by SCAQTony » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 2:18 PM UTC

Everybody loses with the Clarkson fiasco. The Amazon deal will garner fewer viewers and lack the production quality that the BBC offers. The BBC reboot will have fewer viewers (from what I am told by British friends) and lack the brand personality of the former three hosts.

Perhaps this could be likened to Howard Stern moving to satellite radio. Is he as popular as he was when he was "free." The once self-declared "king of all media" is rarely talked about now.

Re: Amazon Sign Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May

#66

Post by stevewilhelm » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 2:18 PM UTC

JohnTHaller wrote: post #8

It's a shame they went to Amazon instead of Netflix since Amazon's video apps universally suck in comparison (I'm especially looking at the Xbox 360 and Xbox One Amazon apps). Heck, you can't even watch Amazon Prime Video on your Android device without compromising the security of the device and enabling untrusted app installs.

Amazon's video app on Fire TV over XFinity Blast 150Mbs service is brilliant.

Re: Amazon Sign Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May

#67

Post by omonra » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 2:21 PM UTC

DanBC wrote: post #15

stephenr wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure how a guy saying something that offends some people once, is "a persistent racial slur"?

And there's the stuff about "slopes". And the stuff about gypsies. And the stuff about Mexicans. And all the other stuff. http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/here-are-all-the-nonra... http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/jere... Here's a useful Graniad opinion piece about Clarkson: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/08/not-eno... It's a persistent pattern. Whether that should affec…

Thanks for the links.

The more I read from this guy, the more I like him.

It's sort of a fine balance - we can't have everybody on tv making fun of gypsies and mexicans. On the other hand it feels too sterile when nobody can say what 90% of the people think.

I'm glad he exists.

Re: Amazon Sign Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May

#68

Post by omonra » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 2:26 PM UTC

ris wrote: post #56

omonra wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm happy to see Amazon not give a toss about non-issues that keep SJWs up at night. Not that I watch the show or care for Clarkson.

I must assume you consider it a non-issue because you didn't see a clip of, e.g., the "slope" incident, which is unmistakeably a racial reference. The shot in question makes no sense otherwise. Allowing "clever" references like this continue to signal that it's A-OK to use these terms casually. It is not a non-issue. And I suggest you would not consider it a non-issue if it were the word "nigger".

I did not see it - but I read the Wiki article about his controversies.

All of them appear to be no more than play on words, there is never any ill will or desire to humiliate anybody.

The reason these particular jokes get noticed is because some people are obsessed with crying foul when certain groups are offended. He could make 10 jokes about the English/Scotts/Welsh and nobody would bat an eyelash.

Re: Amazon Sign Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May

#69

Post by freehunter » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 2:27 PM UTC

ris wrote: post #56

omonra wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm happy to see Amazon not give a toss about non-issues that keep SJWs up at night. Not that I watch the show or care for Clarkson.

I must assume you consider it a non-issue because you didn't see a clip of, e.g., the "slope" incident, which is unmistakeably a racial reference. The shot in question makes no sense otherwise. Allowing "clever" references like this continue to signal that it's A-OK to use these terms casually. It is not a non-issue. And I suggest you would not consider it a non-issue if it were the word "nigger".

On the flip side, making a big deal out of an attempt at comedy shows the world that these words bother you, which gives malicious people more ammunition to attack you with.

Did you know the word idiot used to refer to someone with a mental handicap? They stopped using it because it was being used as an insult and was no longer politically correct. The new politically correct term was "retard", which of course became an insult as well, so the term had to be changed again. And these days, no one would cover their child's ears if someone said the word "idiot" on television.

Either everything can be made fun of or nothing can. Where do we draw the line? Family Guy makes jokes about Catholics vs Protestants, but South Park gets censored when talking about Muhammed. Chris Rock can say "nigger" in his comedy, but no one else can? Gabriel Iglesias is "fluffy". Can I, a city-dweller, make jokes about rednecks like Jeff Foxworthy?

No one watches Top Gear and says "oh hey it must be okay to commit violent acts against people who are different than me". At worst, it's a tasteless joke that some might find funny and others might roll their eyes at. Or maybe people like Clarkson are removing the power of the word much in the same way words like "idiot" or "lame" are no longer pejoratives against the handicapped.

Re: Amazon Sign Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May

#70

Post by ris » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 2:31 PM UTC

JosephRedfern wrote: post #3

ris wrote: post #2

This is an interesting statement by Amazon about its stance on (persistent) racial slurs.

If you were to follow the same argument, you could also argue that the continued popularity of Top Gear is an equally interesting statement by society about it's stance on (persistent) racial slurs.

I don't think racial slurs are Top Gear's primary appeal. They're just slipped in by the hosts (and clearly with the approval of the production team in some circumstances) as a (quite sinister) wink-and-nod to appear chummy with viewers who "think like them". It validates their behaviour and views.