# BBC America and the show Top Gear **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 15, 2008, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612 "2008-07-15T22:53:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![tetranz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a587f6/32.png) [@tetranz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tetranz)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/41 "2008-07-16T17:46:53Z")
[QUOTE=Morbo] Which I watched on YouTube, laughed my ass off, and then completely got into the show. Imagine my surprise when I later saw that episode available On Demand on BBC America and excitedly showed it to a friend of mine, and several of Jeremy’s funniest lines about hating America (like his rant on “you want cheese with that” and his line one morning about how rude we are) were **removed**. I don’t watch it on BBC America anymore. ETA: I see they’re doing an American version with Adam Carolla. Barf. [/QUOTE] Yeah I saw the good part of that episode on YouTube and recently again on BBC America. I remember on YouTube that after they were chased out of town they got caught in a torrential rain storm. That part was missing from BBC America. I makes me wonder what else we miss. I think it’s related to the fact that BBC in the UK is non-commercial so their programs don’t fit nicely into commercial hour or half hour slots. I don’t know why BBCA doesn’t simply let them run longer. There is no law of nature that says everything has to start on the hour or half hour. Of course if you have a Tivo with the secret 30 second skip enabled, you don’t watch commercials anyway 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/42 "2008-07-16T17:49:52Z")
[QUOTE=fiddlesticks] About the only time an American might run into “stone” as a unit of weight would be watching Ricky Hatton box in Manchester on HBO. [/QUOTE] Unless you read, or god forbid, chat with a Brit! /sarcasm - just to be sure 🙂 I also love Top Gear. I’d want to buy it, but you have to have region-sensitive DVD players, I don’t think they sell it for American players. And I don’t have cable. So until then I watch what I can on youtube. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/43 "2008-07-17T04:07:15Z")
[QUOTE=tetranz] I think it’s related to the fact that BBC in the UK is non-commercial so their programs don’t fit nicely into commercial hour or half hour slots. I don’t know why BBCA doesn’t simply let them run longer. There is no law of nature that says everything has to start on the hour or half hour. Of course if you have a Tivo with the secret 30 second skip enabled, you don’t watch commercials anyway 🙂 [/QUOTE] I thought that too, but it was On Demand, so there weren’t any commercials, plus it was a little too convenient that most sections they removed were the anti-American ones. I’ll never really know, since I won’t be watching that channel ever again. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/44 "2008-07-17T07:31:31Z")
[QUOTE=Tastes of Chocolate] Thanks for the answers, and color me educated. I had assumed that the UK was mostly metric, and as **SmackFu** said, it’s because of the “America is so backwards, they don’t use the metric system” messages we hear. [/QUOTE] There was just as much _vocal_ resistance to metrication here in the UK as I’m perceiving as happening in the US, it’s just that it pretty much _ended_ at vocal resistance - people grumble about it, newspapers write dumb, opinionated, fact-free articles about how the EU wants all our bananas to be straight, then life carries on as normal, with a few more metric units in place. ---
**Author:** ![tetranz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a587f6/32.png) [@tetranz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tetranz)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/45 "2008-07-17T11:16:46Z")
[QUOTE=Morbo] I thought that too, but it was On Demand, so there weren’t any commercials, plus it was a little too convenient that most sections they removed were the anti-American ones. [/QUOTE] It’s probably because it’s not worth them messing around with two versions one for live and one for On Demand. ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/46 "2008-07-17T11:57:09Z")
[QUOTE=Dervorin] Annnnd… for your viewing pleasure, I present: [http://www.sensibleunits.com/](http://www.sensibleunits.com/) Some of those I think should be immediately standardised across the world. [/QUOTE] I quite like the measures proposed by The Register [Length and Volume](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/24/vulture_central_standards/) , [temperature, force and weight](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/28/additional_reg_standards/) ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/47 "2008-07-17T12:20:51Z")
**Anaamika** google you DVD player make with “region unlock”. Most models have codes or remote keypad combos that unlock your player. I never buy one without getting the shop to unlock it before I leave. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/48 "2008-07-17T12:39:32Z")
[QUOTE=Santo Rugger] Me too, except an eighth was "defined "as 3.5 grams, a quarter as 7. Methinks I was getting ripped off that extra .35g per ounce. ☹ The Onion article reminds me of the old word problem, “If Johny and his buddies can take on 3 unarmed guys when they’re each wielding nunchucks, and 1 guy with a machine gun can take on 7 guys with nunchucks, how many unarmed guys does it take to bring down a machine gunner?” [/QUOTE] Are any of them stoned? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/49 "2008-07-17T14:34:32Z")
[QUOTE=yojimbo] **Anaamika** google you DVD player make with “region unlock”. Most models have codes or remote keypad combos that unlock your player. I never buy one without getting the shop to unlock it before I leave. [/QUOTE] Really? We just bought a new one, too a year or two ago, and it might work. Hmm. I will look into that, thanks! ---
**Author:** ![pretend\_my\_name\_is\_witty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9e5f3/32.png) [@pretend\_my\_name\_is\_witty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pretend_my_name_is_witty)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2008, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612/50 "2008-07-18T07:03:02Z")
[QUOTE=1920s Style “Death Ray”] Hilarious name ;). [/QUOTE] Thank you! I study Engineering, so I think in metric. Except for beer. I’ll make a scene next time I’m short-changed on my ‘pint’… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-america-and-the-show-top-gear/456612.md?page=2)