Talk:The Stig

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the The Stig article. This is not a forum for general discussion about the article's subject.
Please sign and date your posts by typing four tildes (~~~~). Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic. New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Ask questions, get answers.	Be polite Assume good faith No personal attacks Be welcoming	Article policies No original research Neutral point of view Verifiability

• /Archive 1 (Start to December 2006)

Contents 1 Infobox 2 Series or Season? 3 The Stig revealed? 4 Rewrite of 10 January 2007 5 Julian Bailey as the Stig? 6 Ben Collins 7 Jimmy Carr 8 'American Stig'

[edit] Infobox

I don't feel the first infobox is really necessary or encyclopedic. "Birth date = unknown" and "occupation = tame racing driver" come across as in-universe jokes rather than genuine informative descriptions. None of the other fields in the infobox will ever be filled, rendering it useless. This should simply be replaced by the picture. Zunaid©^{Please rate me at Editor Review!} 08:39, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Series or Season?

Minor point: should we use the term series or season? The body of the article uses "series", while the refs use "season". I prefer season, but either way the usage should be consistent. Zunaid©^{Please rate me at Editor Review!} 08:39, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Isn't season more of an Americanism? Since this is a UK show, I'd use series.

Series would be the proper term to use for Top Gear-related articles, as that's what it's always referred to as, never season. NeilSenna 23:21, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Stig revealed?

According to [[1]], this guy is the stig, and has been announced as such. Maybe someone with more knowledge should check this up? Mouse Nightshirt 00:09, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

That article is about Perry McCarthy, who was indeed the first (black) Stig, and is already mentioned in the article as such. Zunaid©^{Review me!} 07:04, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Rewrite of 10 January 2007

I'm not sure that the addition of all the extra info necessarily improves the article. WP:WAF favours writing articles in an out-of-universe style. In-universe sections are mainly to provide "internal" context and should be kept brief and terse. This would include things such as the black/white Stig succession. The article should concentrate more on the "real-world" context of the show, such as the comparison to real-world racing drivers, and not delve too deeply "in-universe", such as overly quoting in-universe jokes and detailing every aspect of The Stig's action within the show itself. Zunaid©® 07:47, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

And how do you favor describing The Stig, when all the hosts and Top Gear have done is either mention him as some superior being, keeping his real identity a secret, and ambigiously hinting towards the F1 drivers as being The Stig? He's a "ficticious character." You can't make him real no matter how you cut it.--293.xx.xxx.xx 10:09, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

And I find offense in your useage of my username to title your scathing comments. Please edit it post haste.--293.xx.xxx.xx 10:11, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Scathing? Seriously? I thought I was being quite neutral and purely descriptive. But anyway, I've changed the title. Back to the discussion: the distinction between in- and out-of-universe is quite easy to maintain. Compare: "During different seasons of the show the Stig would listen to many different genres of music..." vs. "The Stig likes listening to a variety of music". The first sentence puts the statement in a real world context, the second is a statement about the Stig as if he were a real person rather than a fictional character. To my mind, and according to WAF, the first phrasing is preferred and more "encyclopedic". The second phrasing sounds too much like fan-fiction. Anyway, I think other editors should jump in at this point, else we won't reach a consensus. Zunaid©® 07:35, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Bit late here, but I think the new, slimmer article looks much better than it did a month ago. A great example of how getting rid of the 'in-universe' stuff can improve an article. --Gavinio 11:19, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Julian Bailey as the Stig?

I remember reading an interview with McCarthy on Crash.net, where he said that someone stood in for him once. I think it was Bailey. The Crash.net page is down. Anyone know who it was? Damiancorrigan 00:30, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

The statement that is currently in the article is true. The Daily Express did report that the Stig was Julian Bailey. However, their website archive is open to subscribers only. There is a scanned copy of the article floating around on the web, but it would violate fair-use to upload the image, and the website hosting the scanned article may be violating copyright (and is probably not a reliable source) so even linking to it as a source would be questionable. Zunaid©® 12:00, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Ben Collins

Why the lines which mentioned that Ben Collins is the Stig were erased?? Isn't it credible?

No references = removal from article. --293.xx.xxx.xx 11:39, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Jimmy Carr

I was in the audience at Jimmy Carrs latest live show, Gag Reflex, and when questioned by an audience member saying "Who's the stig?" he replied instantly saying, "Perry McCarthy was the first, and now the just switch between 2 different rally drivers". He then went on to say "Yeah BBC got me to sign a secrecy contract, but I'm with Channel 4". I thought I should tell you all this, I wont edit the article myself though. 86.0.244.70 11:56, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

First-hand reports are not considered reliable sources for the purposes of verifying statements. To this end, if his statement was documented in a reliable source (transcript perhaps?) it would be usable in the article. Zunaid©® 12:02, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 'American Stig'

I've just watched an episode of Top Gear on TV (Sunday 11th February 2007) where they went on a road trip in America. In this episode, the Stig was featured as "the Stig's American cousin", who was identical to the white Stig apart from his bulging midriff, which looked to be due to padding - the pun obviously being that Americans are stereotyped as being obese. Just thought you'd like to know to put it in somewhere. --Liamshaw 21:35, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

the american stig was called "fat stig" if i remember corectly. i find it amusing that i was warned for "vandalism",when i truly was correcting the page.

the american stig WAS in fact called "fat stig" (and "big stig" too). I don't get why someone removed my change where I mentioned this fact. I am putting it back.

Big Stig was uttered first by Hammond after the reveal (18 minutes in), Clarkson then utters Big Stig during the Camaro Run urging him to lean his weight in (18:44), Clarkson again utters Big Stig during the Caddy run (20:05), Hammond then notes Stig was Big (21:19), and then Hammond utters Fat Stig after the finale of the runs (21:27). Going with the first utterance.--293.xx.xxx.xx 09:46, 19 March 2007 (UTC)