An Annotated Guide to the Top Gear "Bloke" Episode

Top Gear 2.5 is all about "blokeishness," which seems to be the British equivalent to "dude-ishness"--in other words, stuff guys like. One might ask what distinguishes this episode in a series largely compiled of footage of men driving cars rapidly as more blokeish than the rest, but no matter.
Maybe it was the Aeschylus reference last week, or maybe blokes don't like allusions, but this show was fairly light on the references.

Reference: "You've been to Dixons, you're men of the world."
Heh: Dixons gets referenced fairly frequently on Top Gear, and I've finally gotten around to looking it up. Dixons Retail is a British-based electronics megastore. It's sort of like the Best Buy of the U.K., so visiting one is not exactly a marker of cosmopolitanism.

Reference: "Imagine the whole of the French Air Force crashing into a fireworks factory--that's how much of a laugh this car is."
Heh: The Top Gear blokes, and really, quite a large portion of British humorists, enjoy needling the French for their rather lackluster performance in World War 2. In addition to the FAF remark, the Stig drove a French car with a turning radius so poor, it "surrendered" on the curves.

The Top Gear blokes, featuring Richard Hammond doing his best Harry Potter impersonation, Jeremy Clarkson being tall, and James May sporting some truly epic hair.