An entertaining and amusing show in many ways, but a bit too Clever, Clever and smart arse me thinks.
Precisely. The more the show has grown, the harder the creative team has struggled for ideas - thus inserting shock value stunts to keep interest, more often ruining a good show than anything else.
Case in point: The VW Scirocco commercial. Very funny, right until the extensive use of gore for very poor humor.
And yet, they want that - because, as stated here before, well-managed controversy is your best PR, and this Argentina stunt can't be any different.
It's probably how they scripted the whole segment, which seems to come out of a Monogram kit box anyway (Skill Level 1):
Creative 1: "Let's have them do (insert silly or offensive thing) while in (select name of country)!"
Creative 2: "That sounds great! Let's have them modify their cars for another (insert silly challenge)."
Creative 1: "That's good - everybody likes the challenge segments. But how can we make this one different and stand out?"
Creative 2: "We can have explosions, because explosions make everything better!"
Creative 1: "We've done that already. Let's have everyone shoot each other and kill Jeremy. If the teens and tweens who watch Freddy Wong's channel on YouTube think it's funny when someone gets blown to bits, it'll work for us."
Marketing assistant 1: "Not good enough. We've already pissed off the older people who think it's disgusting. They don't complain as much, and thus we don't get as much attention thanks to their lack of complaints. No, we need something different."
Marketing 2: "I concur."
Creative 3: "You are all disgusting. Don't you realize that humor is the key? I've written every single funny automotive joke that you ever heard in the series, and my contribution is what keeps the show funny, not your shock bullsh!t."
Creative 2: "Shut up and go write something funny."
Creative 3: "If it weren't for my big fat paycheck, I'd be outta here. You'll be sorry - someday you'll piss me off so much that I'll leave, and your show's ratings will go down the tube, because you'll lose my humor, which is the only thing that holds your reality show shock crap from blowing up in your face. I mean, it almost got us thrown out of (insert country)."
Creative 1: "Thrown out of...damn, you're brilliant! Could you imagine the publicity if we had been kicked out of a country, like when we almost were thrown out in (insert country)? Maybe get (dictator or president of a country) make a real assassination attempt on the TG hosts!"
Marketing assistant 2: "Perfect. We'll get them kicked out of Argentina. Make them look like Nazi sympathizers or something - we'll figure it out later. This will get us international coverage. Save the assassination for next season's sequel."
Creative 2: "Awesome! We have our ending. What makes and models of cars haven't we destroyed yet?"
Creative 3: "Why don't you idiots blow up Hammond's Mustang? That'll piss off everybody."
Creative 1: "Booyah! We'll have him destroy an old Mustang! That's an icon! No wonder we keep you around."
Creative 2: "Guys, let's take 5. I need to pick up my big fat paycheck."
Everyone else in the room: "Me too."
All a big stunt.
Now, if these guys REALLY do their homework, Jeremy, Hammond, and May will quote this post on the show for laughs, and it'll probably read like this:
Jeremy: "You know, strangely enough Hammond, there are a bunch of
Americans who want to kill you!"
Hammond: "What?"
Jeremy: "Yes! When you cut up that Mustang in Argentina!"
Hammond: "Well, I..."
May: "Yes, indeed! It's all over the internet and forums!"
Jeremy: "I'm glad you mentioned that, James, for I have an excerpt here from one forum, who said
this about our show:"
(Jeremy reads off excerpt of what I wrote above, adding "...yours respectfully, f*** you.")
*Audience laughs*
Jeremy: "...and you know what? He's right!"
*Audience belly laughs along with hosts*
Cut to commercial.
-Kurt
