I think it's about time James May went it alone. He loves the history bits and his stand-alone shows have always been excellent.

There was a channel 5 series recently 'the cars that made Britain great' and I could imagine James Mays knowledge and love of cars excelling in something like that.

Hammond is awful and is dragging the show down, James May looks like he's doing an inner sigh every time the 'banter' starts.

I thought the last episode was the best so far. I agree that May is excellent and Hammond has become an irritant. Still think they should do away with the seating for both presenters and audience to facilitate more interaction. The tent part of the show is still not 100% working for me.

I'm looking forward to the 2 parter coming up - hope its up to old TG touring standards.

I object to your comment quite strongly. I've enjoyed TG and TGT for many years and I am most certainly not a 'homophobic moron'. It speaks volumes about your attitude that you should think that way.

As a gay person, I'm not offended by a joke at the expense of homosexuality, per se. But is this actually a joke? There's no wit or irony. There isn't even a punchline. Does the joke come from the fact that he's trying to say something stupid? People keep saying 'chill out, it's a joke.' But by definition, it isn't a joke. It's just a statement.

He's saying that he doesn't eat ice cream because he is straight. It doesn't even make sense as a joke, an opinion or even as a statement. I'm surprised Amazon kept it in, especially post-Clarkson scandal.

The whole conversation is an absolute embarrassment.

Hard to be offended by this, but it does further play into the idea that Hammond was that little jerk at school who egged on the bullies from afar.

To be fair, there have been 23 series of TG with between 6 and 11 episodes per series. set that against a mere 1 series and 6 episodes of TGT. So it's far more likely that episodes from TG would feature in any Top 10 list.

Exactly that, it wasn't offensive to gays, it was offensive to humour.
It was just straight out weird and pointless.

Considering how the other two reacted the joke seemed to be laughing AT Hammond's sheer stupidity and fragile masculinity. But it fell flat so I'm not sure why they left it in.

Everything on this show is scripted and rehearsed Hammond didn't come up with this on his own, all 3 of them and the writers pre-planned it.

Usually Clarkson is the one to say or do something controversy for a bit of free publicity, but I guess they thought it's best someone else take the hit.

Apparently a reference to this Finnish advert:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6Dyjq8jSFQ

Basically yes - the 'punchline' isn't the comment itself, it's the reflection on Hammond himself for saying it, like is the case with most (all?) of the controversial things they've said over the years (particularly Clarkson) - it's basically the Till Death Us Do Part/Alf Garnett-type of humour, where you're laughing at the idiot making the stupid comment, not laughing because you agree with the stupid comment.

That type of humour has been around for decades at least, but is basically the cornerstone of the Clarkson TV persona, with the added benefit (for them) that some people seem to miss the point and get so excited by the actual comment that it generates extra publicity for the show, which is rarely a bad thing and might even feed into them trying to push things a little further to get more of a reaction.

In this case the comment was really, really stupid, but again the joke is Hammond, not homosexual people, nor indeed ice-cream lovers

The easily offended are out.

Of the closet??

Nah those firmly locked in, it's usually them and basically the bandwagon followers here on DS

That's entirely my point. It was scripted to laugh AT the idiot saying the stupid thing. Not to agree with the idiot saying the stupid thing.

It wasn't very funny but I don't think 'laughing at stupid fragile masculinity' spiel is particularly controversial.

Which may explain why a Finnish audience roared with laughter and applauded when Hammond said it

Apparently hammonds joke about ice cream being gay has offended hundreds and thousands.

Well, he is a bit of a flake.

Nice find and explains it all, thank you.

I hope the hands-in-the-air-in-horror brigade feel suitably embarrassed now and if they don't, they certainly should

The only embarrassment I feel is when I see posts like this. And it's embarrassment on your behalf.

I wasn't offended by what's hammond said (it's too ridiculous a comment, and too pathetic a 'joke' to get worked up over). But I cannot stand it when people tell a community of people how they should be feeling. Why should a community of people who, to this day, are committing suicide based purely on their experiences of homophobia, not be allowed to feel some kind of anger or upset when a prolific television figure makes a 'joke' at the expense of their sexuality, which a studio audience laughs at and applauds.

That advert doesn't explain anything. It's potentially the source material, but just because the inspiration was maybe some dodgy advert, it doesn't make it any less ridiculous.

His comment was not homophobic in the least. He merely said that gays are more likely to eat ice-cream than straights. He didn't say it was a bad thing. It was funny because it is clearly a ridiculous thing to say and that's where the laughs came from. Good grief.

Think this pretty much hits the nail on the head.

I don't think it's anything to be overly offended about (they've said far worse over the years) but at the same time it was a very, very odd statement to make.

It's a shame because it's taken away from what was an excellent episode. I enjoyed all the sections. Definitely the best episode yet.

Edit: Suspected it may have been an in-joke for the Finnish audience. The advert above proves it.

It really wasn't.

Anyone who's ever found Richard Hammond funny needs to have a long hard think about how their lives have panned out

Probably the best episode yet. Still don't like the American. James May bit was excellent. Enjoyed the Mustang item but thought it would have benefited from being a bit shorter. Studio bits still too forced and stilted but have improved.

Oh really. Of course I could just say "It really was".

Anyone who's never found Richard Hammond funny needs to have a long hard think about how their lives have panned out.

For the record, my life has panned out rather well, all through my own efforts. I live in a nice house with my nice wife and we are very happy. And guess what - I think Richard Hammond says some very funny things. Wow, how can that be possible?