My Korean in-laws told me that these things are popular in Korea because open-bed trucks are taxed at the lower commercial-vehicle rate, whereas SUVs are taxed as passenger cars. Throw a shell on the back and you have an ugly SUV without the higher taxes.

I had a rental car once that had apparently gone through the car wash with one of the rear windows open an inch or two — not enough for there to be standing water in the floor pan, just really soaked carpet. Didn't notice until I pulled my computer bag out of the backseat floor a couple of hundred miles later and…

There are strangers on the Plain, Croaker.

There's a South Korean film in the same vein called "Castaway on the Moon." A guy tries to kill himself by jumping off a bridge over the Han river (which runs through Seoul). The bid fails, and he washes up on an island in the river under a bridge, can't get off, can't get anyone's attention, so he lives off junk that…

@Bueller: My vehicle of choice for the cartoon zombie apocalypse.

I had a college roommate from the east coast who had the same attitude. Then he had to drive from Champaign, IL to St. Louis and back, repeatedly. Suddenly he became an advocate for cup holders, cruise control, long wheelbase and high speed limits. To quote him: "Good God! I was going 80 and could still see where…

During the credits of the sixth movie we discover that the entire franchise has been the imaginings of Cory Doctorow who had suffered a bad perscription drug interaction while listening to "Exile on Main Street" at the Tokyo Disneyland.

@Doug Dascenzo's Only Fan: They borrowed the manual from the Salt Lake City Olympic Committee. Or at least the chapter titled "Rationalization for Profit."

I think there's a point in that video where the same Bear DL misses him twice in the same play.

@Dr. Spaceman, Esq.: Totally. That and Question Time are two things the US needs to import from the UK next time we're raiding for sitcoms.

@amit916: Maybe, but if you get several wildly different vehicle types, lots of different courses (tracks, rally-style courses, Central London, off-road courses), different race types (head-to-head, best lap, endurance, closest to time, etc.), then some extras (while towing X, on one tank of gas, without losing the…

How is it that there is not a Top Gear game? Aside from the test track stuff, imagine a multiplayer mode where the players have to choose a car from, say, a selection of mid-80s European police vehicles with unknown amounts of damage. Only once selections are made will you know where and how you're racing, then…

@Donnie_Iris: only if he can find the caps lock key.

@VicViper: Your kid getting spooked and unintentionally interrupting sexy time would have been a far more realistic family moment. And would have heightened the "when is she going to come clean?" tension.

I'm just waiting for someone's five-year-old to get detained for screaming "BAD TOUCH" at a TSA screener. And then get harranged by McCain in the subsequent Senate hearings.

Huh. I read through this twice and didn't see the name "Michael Crichton" anywhere. #oversights

@SewerShark: Looks a bit like Beaker.

@DennyCraneDennyCraneDennyCrane: You'd want to make that $450, so you can budget for some outriggers with casters up front. Unless you can convince the judges that they count as safety equipment.

@rodrigotrigo: I bet with a little googling you could find an image of the KDM version on the streets of Seoul in taxi livery. With some "tight parking" body damage already.

@Tarp_Kill_Vince_Coleman: Ginny got a big box of Shitty Coaches at Costco, and damned if she isn't going to use all of them.