Jeremy Clarkson Meets Polyphony – And Makes Them Look Like Fools

Whilst browsing around on the internet I happened to come across a rather strange article that a lot of people seemed to have completely missed.

As a huge fan of Jeremy Clarkson, I often read some of his columns that he writes, be it for Top Gear or The Times.

Whilst reading through one of his columns I was surprised to find that the end of the article was about the fact that he had met Yamaouchi and the boys from Polyphony Digital and without realising it, did something very bad that caused a lot of Japan to frown in his general direction.

The article (here) tells the story of a day when Clarkson was wearing a shirt with a very, very bad word on it.

This happened to be the day that Polyphony had stopped by the Top Gear studio to get data for their version of the track that will feature in Gran Turismo 5.

In his article, Clarkson writes that:

“It turned out they were there from the company that makes the incredible Gran Turismo computer racing game, and they were in England to map out and chart the Top Gear test track for inclusion in the next, even more realistic version.

Of course, it was very important that I met the boss.”

The story continues to explain that after a short while the cameras came out and multiple photos were taken. The bad word on his shirt (four letter word, starts with a “C”) was obviously not recognised by the Japanese people, so they happily snapped away.

This is the part where Clarkson got himself into a bit of trouble. You see, the photographs were then put onto promotional material for Polyphony Digital and also spread across the media. That is, until someone who understood English finally saw them and made the people aware of what his shirt said.

Clarkson, being who he is, then apologised for what happened and ended his article with a very sincere:

I am so very, very solly.

Last Updated: August 7, 2009