Top 10 Times Top Gear Made Fun of Americans

#10: USA Muscle Car Road Trip

In series 12, the trio embarked on a road trip from San Francisco to Bonneville, all driving American muscle cars. As you can expect from any “Top Gear” America trip, they spent most of the time insulting the locals, when they weren’t discussing cars. Hammond is the only one who seems to have a soft spot for muscle cars, while May complains about the radio and Clarkson about pretty much everything. Eventually, May seems to settle in when the lads visit a casino and even make a friend. One of Clarkson’s lines from the trip was so controversial, the BBC had to censor it to prevent upsetting too many Americans.

#9: Americans Discover an Atlas

As we’ve already seen, Clarkson can be pretty brutal about American cars. One of his most biased reviews was of the Cadillac CTS-V, a flashy muscle car. Clarkson decided to get as sassy as possible, poking fun at them for discovering a world atlas. Then, he goes on to sarcastically mispronounce Germany as badly as possible. Of course, he’s making fun of the stereotype that Americans only learn about their country. So, he wasn’t impressed by this first-gen CTS-V, but in the previously mentioned muscle car episode, May chose a second-gen and fell in love with it. This makes it a bit unclear whether the first gen was worse, or if Clarkson just despises all American cars.

#8: All American Cars Are Rubbish

Hammond & May both seem open to American cars. They’ll happily discuss being curious about a new release, but Clarkson always interjects to tell them how strongly he detests any American automobile. One time, he ended up going on a huge tangent about how much better Europeans are than Americans. The debate gets increasingly heated until Clarkson & Hammond are aggressively shouting and gesticulating at each other. On the bright side, there’s a dog in the studio who appears to love the energy. This debate seems to never end, with it carrying over into “The Grand Tour,” where Hammond is accused of secretly being an American.

#7: Lap & Breaking Challenge

This challenge comes from the first ever “Top Gear” special from series 9. To test their trio of automobiles, they have the Stig’s cousin take them for a spin. The segment begins with Clarkson insulting the track, but their anti-Americanism comes in full force when the Stig’s cousin arrives. They’re identical to the regular Stig, except slightly larger, and they also drive much slower, hence his name “Big Stig”. Don’t get your hopes up for him returning, this was his only appearance. There’s been multiple cousins of the Stig over the years however, such as Communist Stig and Janet Stig Porter.

#6: Mispronouncing Car Brands

A lot of words are pronounced differently in the States. This is only a natural part of languages, but many argue that brand names should be pronounced the same, almost everywhere. Well, it seems in the southern states, they pronounce every single car brand differently, much to Clarkson’s dismay. Even Hammond gets involved joking about the southern accent, despite having the most positive opinion of Americans. According to Clarkson, it was the globe’s biggest dealership, but that’s since been beaten by South Korea. He’d likely be happy to hear this, as he’s far more critical of America than Korea.

#5: Asking About Murders

The idea of guns being commonly available is a wild concept to most Brits. This means when we visit America, a lot of us are often shocked by the quantity of guns. Here, we see Clarkson jokingly ask a local car dealer about local murder rates. It turns serious fairly quickly, with the dealer explaining how common it is and then frighteningly showing off two guns. Well, it would have been three if he could’ve found his shotgun. After learning this, Clarkson rushes to give Hammond a passive aggressive phone call, warning him from entering a dangerous area, more for humour's sake rather than his safety.

#4: Florida Visit

Their first stop in the series 9 road trip was Miami, Florida. As you may know, Florida has a particularly unique reputation. It’s generally considered one of the wildest states, which makes it feel like hell on Earth to Jeremy Clarkson. This leads him to listing all the issues he has with the State. Hilariously, one of them is “old people”, which is ironic considering old people exist in all countries. All 3 end up acquiring relatively cheap cars in Miami, with the American-loving Hammond choosing a pickup truck. May is fond of it, but as you might expect, Clarkson seems to despise the vehicle.

#3: American Corners

Our next quip comes not from Clarkson, but surprisingly from Hammond. While reviewing a car, he decides to make a joke about how bad American cars are at turning corners. Younger viewers might not have heard this stereotype before. It stems from the old perception of American cars being behemoths, with a focus on size and comfort over functionality. This is of course not entirely true, and the myth seems to be spread less these days. This was proven only a few minutes after Hammond’s joke, when he took the Cadillac smoothly around a corner.

#2: Speaking Hillbilly

There are plenty of clips online of Clarkson struggling to hear the more challenging English-language accents. Whether that’s the famous Gerald from “Clarkson’s Farm”, or Duncan Bannatyne from “Dragons’ Den”. One of the funniest examples comes from the “East Coast Road Trip” episode. Clarkson went to two separate tyre shops, and couldn’t comprehend a word either of their owners were saying. Thankfully, he gradually began enjoying their company, chatting with them about history and watching them have a boogie. He didn’t get his tyre though unfortunately, so had to drive the broken one all the way to Virginia.

#1: Running Out of Alabama

The top spot has to go to one of the most provocative stunts ever performed on “Top Gear”. Alabama is infamous for being one of the more traditional states, to put it mildly. In the series 9 “USA Special”, the lads decided to paint each other's cars with phrases that may outrage Alabama locals. This turned into an absolute disaster. They only made it one gas station into the state before they were chased away by a group of outraged locals. It was so terrifying, most of the chase wasn’t caught on film. As far as making fun of Americans go, this is easily the moment where they pushed things a bit too far.

Were there any particularly scathing moments we forgot to mention? Let us know in the comments section!