Jeremy Clarkson’s Farmkhana or the end of good taste
In the latest episode of The Grand Tour, we watch Jeremy Clarkson running over and killing several sheep in ‚Farmkhana‘. Much later (too late), we learn on social media that these were fake sheep. The show has made a huge effort to pretend that real animals were harmed. Why? And should they? Jeremy Clarkson and the end of good taste.
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Let me begin by stating that I consider myself quite a big fan of Top Gear. I have watched the show almost since it restarted in 2002, visited the Top Gear studio, the Top Gear Museum and drove on the Top Gear Test Track. I was sad when Jeremy Clarkson got fired by the BBC, but he had it coming after several warnings and last warnings. Still I think it was the right decision as punching a producer should not go unpunished.
I watch The Grand Tour but don’t like it as much as I liked Top Gear. It has just become the Jeremy Clarkson show with him in the middle of everything and James May and Richard Hammond degraded to mere stooges. Their challenges and specials don’t have a purpose, mission or destination like the Top Gear ones had. It’s just messing around aimlessly. Plus I really didn’t like ‚The American‘ test driver and the Celebrity Brain Crash parts which have since been abandoned.
In this week’s episode 5 of season 2, Jeremy Clarkson suggested that everyone could drive like Ken Block and do a great Gymkhana video. He wants to proof that by playing a video of him driving around on a farm when James and Richard interrupt and show another video about what really happened: Jeremy couldn’t do the spinning and had someone else do it, he crashed into fences, a mud hole, and sheep. Afterwards, Jeremy and the crew stood in a field, with several sheep lying around motionlessly, with concerned looks on their faces.
The show ended without any disclaimer about no animals were harmed, leaving everyone in doubt. A majority of viewers were convinced the sheep ‚were obviously fake and everyone who believes they were real are idiots‘, or that the sheep were real but they would’ve ended up at the butcher anyway so no worries, and a minority of viewers assumed they were real and it was not okay to hurt them or still not okay to pretend even if they were fake. I belong to the latter category, spoke my opinion on the internet and cancelled my Amazon Prime subscription immediately.
Then, the reactions started to arrive. And the bullying and name-calling. Suddenly, the whole world has become a sheep expert. Only they’re not, clearly. They just don’t know better but have an unbelievable urge to speak up. They think that the louder they are, the more they be right. Here’s what they say:
‚You see clearly that the sheep are obviously fake.‘
- No, you can’t. We mostly see in-car footage of a camera directed at Jeremy Clarkson. The affected sheep are not seen during the driving segment, only heard, or they are only visible for a split second when one fake sheep got smashed into the windscreen and flies over the roof. So you really can’t tell whether this sheep is real or not, well, you maybe couldn’t even tell it was a sheep to begin with. It was also really difficult to get a screenshot of the incident as the sheep appeared and disappeared again so quickly.
- There’s a long shot with Jeremy Clarkson and the car on the meadow, with several sheep lying in the background. As they are not moving at all, it’s even more difficult to distinguish between real but dead and fake ones.
- We have since seen a photo of a production assistant carrying one of the fake sheep and it looks very real. They have therefore made a huge effort to trick the viewers into believing that the sheep were real. They seem to have even added thud-like impact sounds of the sheep. Plastic ones would just crack or make no sound at all. The fake sheep that gets smashed into the windscreen and cracks it in the process. Lightweight plastic sheep wouldn’t be able to cause such damage. It must have been loaded to the weight of a real one to be able to do that.
‚Dead sheep don’t look that way.‘
- Yes, they do. The person is referring to the sheep’s legs which don’t hang to the ground, defying gravity as he seems to think, by pointing away from the body parallel to the ground. Unfortunately, he doesn’t know about rigor mortis. Being dead affects the body’s muscles and makes animals straighten their legs, no matter how they lie on the ground. They then stay stiff like this for hours. It’s impossible to rearrange their limbs during this time.
- Another guy insisted that because of the lack of blood and guts hanging out of the sheep, they must be fake. Of course that’s rubbish. If a sheep gets hit by blunt force causing a blunt trauma, it can easily get injured and killed without any blood or guts leaving the body. The opposite would be called a penetrating trauma, when a blade, bullet or any other object enters the body, creating an opening through which bodily fluids or organs may come out.
- The inanimate sheep on the meadow look like in photos from news stories where sheep got killed by wolves or bears or hit by a bolt of lightning. Apparently no-one watches the news anymore.
‚They wouldn’t kill sheep on TV.‘
- Yes, I agree, they wouldn’t. However, The Grand Tour is NOT on TV. Amazon Prime is a video-on-demand service. They therefore don’t have to adhere to the same strict rules and regulations as film or TV productions, like the BBC, but only to very minimal standards mainly regulating advertising. I read through these standards and they would allow real sheep to be killed and the way The Grand Tour showed/not showed it.
- The car drove on the same meadow that was used by the sheep, very close to them and with some speed in order to shepherd them into their pen. I’m sure Clarkson didn’t and wouldn’t aim for the sheep to kill them on purpose, but you can’t predict whether some sheep would flee in the wrong direction and end up in front of the car. There are enough incidents with boar and deer that run in front of cars. So the dead sheep would be an accident and of course they would be able to use that footage.
- Given Jeremy’s track record with violence/not sticking to rules/never being politically correct, it was more likely that he really killed the sheep (by accident) than he didn’t, and that he would show a clip of it.
- James and Richard present the ‚making of‘ clip to show what really happened: the professional driver who actually does the driving that looks good, how Jeremy kept crashing into the fence, the barn wall, and the sheep. In this context, we have to assume (or: they want to make us believe) that the sheep part was what really happened, too.
‚Animals are being ‚killed‘ in many films and TV series. So why do you bother here?‘
- Yes, on rare occasion, animals are being ‚killed‘ in films and fictional TV series. Although producers try not to (as well as children) or keep the number to a minimum. But everyone knows that it’s not real. There are lots of professional animals trained to appear on screen. They act alongside the actors, do tricks and pretend to die. But Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond are not actors in a fictional production but journalists hosting a motoring entertainment show.
- Films and most TV series state in the end credits that no animals were harmed during production. As there was no such message/disclaimer/statement that no sheep were harmed, they have left this topic unclear. Hence, the viewers were left to assume that animals indeed must have been harmed.
‚You’re just upset because you’re a vegan.‘
- No, I’m not. I enjoy eating meat, I just don’t need a huge lump of it on my plate each day. I sure know that animals have to die in order for me to eat meat, but there are laws for breeding and killing animals for food. I’m just a decent human being who thinks that it’s not okay to harm animals or pretend to harm them for entertainment purposes only.
- Also, I don’t believe that I have suddenly grown up at age 39 but that the show that Jeremy, James and Richard come up with has changed to the worse when they left the BBC.
Not denying, and then refueling the discussion about the sheep
- Half a day after the episode became available online, AmazonHelp started to reply to tweets by stating that: ‚No sheep were hurt in the marking of The Grand Tour Season 2, Episode 5.‘ The Grand Tour started to comment the same in discussions on Facebook. However, they missed the opportunity to publicly state that no sheep were harmed in a stand-alone Facebook post or tweet. That’s a shame and, in my humble opinion, not handled well.
- Later, The Grand Tour posted a confusing Facebook post and tweet saying that: ‚X-Ray fact: The Farmkhana film is one of the most expensive items in this season of The Grand Tour, mainly due to all the things Jeremy damaged and killed.‘ That’s not well done either.
Is it funny to pretend to kill sheep?
- I’m shocked to see that most of the viewers are okay with the sheep to be killed – or pretend to be killed – and even say that this was the best episode so far. ‚Now I’m hungry!‘, someone commented. That’s what the world has become.
- Public people set an example that will be followed by others. President Trump degraded women and made racist jokes and got away with it. Now such a (wrong) behaviour has suddenly become common and seemingly okay. Same goes for Clarkson. If he shows us that it’s okay to run over and kill sheep, it will affect at least some of the viewers. Torture and cruelty against animals could rise. Motorists could cease to stop for cats and dogs running across the street in front of them. That’s why we need to assure that no, it’s not okay to harm or pretend to harm animals. It’s not funny and never will be.
In conclusion, I guess we’re all glad that no sheep were harmed. You really couldn’t tell just from watching the episode. However, as one person on Facebook described it, it’s ‚disgusting‘ to make such an effort to trick people into believing that they were. That’s really going way beyond funny. It’s the end of good taste. I have made my decision and won’t watch the show anymore in the future.
I loved Top Gear, but The Grand Tour is nothing like Top Gear was. I have cancelled my Amazon Prime subscription and won’t watch it anymore. But I’m really glad that the new Top Gear is excellent entertainment – maybe not the first season with Chris Evans, but now with Matt LeBlanc and the other presenters who really know what they’re doing and what they’re talking about. I’m now looking forward to the new Top Gear season. :-)
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