Jeremy Clarkson is really intimidated by Greta Thunberg isn’t he? The Grand Tour host and former Top Gear presenter previously went after the teen in The Sun for loudly speaking up about climate change and now he’s blaming her for the death of the car shows and young people’s general interest in cars.
Chatting to The Sun (again), Jeremy Clarkson cranked up his inner pillock to OK boomer levels and laid the seemingly lack of interest in cars by millennials and Gen Z squarely at Greta’s feet.
“Everyone I know under 25 isn’t the slightest bit interested in cars — Greta Thunberg has killed the car show.
“They’re taught at school, before they say ‘Mummy and Daddy’, that cars are evil, and it’s in their heads.”
Okay, I see what you’re getting at there, Jeremy, but perhaps you should look at the part you’ve played in killing the car show rather than blaming a teenager for trying to do something about the climate crisis.
You’ve been hosted a car show of some sort with the same irreverent schtick since 1988 and it was honestly quite entertaining during your early Top Gear days.
Not only did you, James May and Richard Hammond set the bar so incredibly high that no other car show can hope to match it, you’re still chugging along well after your prime years. So maybe it’s time to admit that watching a 60-year-old man trying to be funny and relevant while driving around in super cars like a lunatic isn’t as charming as it once was.
And besides, kids are also more likely going to have posters of young F1 superstars like Lewis Hamilton or Daniel Ricciardo on their bedroom walls rather than that of grumpy old men like Jeremy Clarkson.
Having blurted out a heap of rubbish in his usual unfiltered “Jeremy Clarkson” manner, the TV host does ultimately say something that’s rooted in common sense as he concedes that climate change is a thing and those denying the crisis are morons, though he can’t help but squeeze in a final shot at Greta.
“For the first time ever, we’ve had global warming rammed down our throats — and we’ve not been idiotic, it’s very definitely a thing. You can change your mind.
“Only an idiot doesn’t change their mind when faced with irrefutable evidence. The question is, what to do about it? That’s a more interesting debate than what is happening.
“She’s an idiot. Going round saying we’re all going to die, that’s not going to solve anything, my dear.”
But the most ironic thing out of all this is how Greta Thunberg’s climate crisis concerns have found their way into season four of Clarkson’s The Grand Tour.
In the episode titled ‘Seamen’ (see what I mean by trying to be funny and relevant?), Clarkson, May and Hammond acknowledge the impact of climate change in a non-mocking way and end up travelling from Cambodia to Vietnam in boats rather than their usual selection of cars.
So before going around and pointing the finger at Greta Thunberg for killing car shows like Top Gear and The Grand Tour, Jeremy Clarkson, maybe consider the fact that kids these days are simply not interested in being told what cars are cool by 60-year-old white man.