The Elegant Gentleman’s Guide To Knife Fighting – a complaint on behalf of Prius Owners everywhere

There's a new comedy show on Australian ABC-TV called "The Elegant Gentleman’s Guide To Knife Fighting". I won't explain. In the first episode was several sketches featuring a lecherous sociopath who was able to get away with bullying by virtue of him owning a Prius. So I decided write to the ABC to "complain". There's no need to thank me.

Here's the iView thread ABC iview that would be accessible in Australia. Outside Australia? Do a few googles around "iview" and "downloader" or something, maybe. If you can't access the show, there's enough detail in the first paragraph (below) to give you the gist.
WARNING: The Prius-owning sociopath is one of the least offensive sketches.

(Shameless plug for my blog) The Elegant Gentleman’s Guide To Knife Fighting – a complaint on behalf of Prius Owners everywhere | Bradley's Raw Data Feed

Dear Sir/Madam
I would like to register a complaint about “The Elegant Gentleman’s Guide To Knife Fighting” episode 1 as shown on ABC 1 on Wednesday 3 April 2013 (not including subsequent re-broadcasts or iView). While I appreciate that the show does as it says in its promotional material and has saved me the time of watching two separate programs for the guidance of elegant gentlemen and knife fighting, it has failed me terribly in another respect. I refer of course to the recurring sketch of the dinner party guest who owns a Prius. He is depicted as a sociopath who forces the other guests to live out his sick fantasies, powerless to resist his urges. He is shown bullying the guests, forcing two females to kiss in a provocatively sexual manner, emasculating the males and humiliating the guests to perform “Scarborough Fair” as various states of undress and bondage. As a Prius owner myself I must naturally object in the strongest possible terms to a characterisation of a Prius owner as one who is ignorant of the specifications and capabilities of his Prius.
EV Mode or EV mode?

The Prius Owner (PO) arrives unannounced to the surprise of the Dinner Party Guests (DPG) by virtue of running his car silently in EV mode. However, he wrongly suggests that 24km/h is the maximum speed that can be attained in this mode. If PO were a real Prius owner he would have known that Stealth Mode can be maintained at 66km/h in the NHW11* (2001 – 2003) and NHW20 (2004 – 04/2009) and 74km/h in the current ZVW30 (05/2009- ). And even if he meant EV Mode (not EV mode) by pressing the EV button, this Mode is disabled at 40km/h, as long as the car in in Stage 3 or Stage 4. That is a schoolboy error.
* Note: I’m ignoring the NHW10 Japan-only model (1997-2000) that may have been obtained by grey import for reasons that, if not already obvious, soon will be.
What is the sound of shaking Prius car keys?

Secondly, PO goads the DPG by shaking his car keys. This is particularly puzzling since neither the NHW20 nor the ZVW30 have keys in the normal sense as all Australian-delivered Prii have the Smart Key System. Any metal key would have been concealed within the black, plastic keyfob, which was clearly not present. Perhaps he was referring to the NHW11 model, which did have keys but also had a keyfob. However this is obviously not an explanation as PO declares that he obtains a fuel consumption figure of 3.7 litres per 100km, which corresponds to the ADR 81/02 extra-urban cycle figure for the ZVW30, which busts the myth of the rattling keys.
“Because I get 3.7l/100km.” Oh really?

Thirdly, PO stated that he gets 3.7l/100km, not merely that its ADR81/02 figure obtained under laboratory conditions is 3.7l/100km. Here’s where the mystery deepens further. Under real-world conditions, the average fuel consumption for the ZVW30 Prius is 5.0l/100km when the variety of driving conditions, techniques and climates are taken into account. It should be obvious to the even casual observer that PO must be intimately aware of the capabilities of his Prius and hypermiling techniques such as Stealth, Pulse and Glide, Warp Stealth, Super Highway Mode and Driving Without Brakes (notice that I have not mentioned drafting) to achieve the ADR81/02 figure. That is not to say that such a feat is impossible; there is a 1000 mile club for Prius drivers, which corresponds to slightly better than 2.8l/100km for some 1609 km. However, it is clear that PO’s poor knowledge of his own vehicle and, we can safely assume, poor knowledge of driving technique would make his claim of 3.7l/100km impossible to sustain.
Naturally, I can also dismiss the notion that his Prius has a plug-in conversion (See EV Mode or EV mode). In short, I bet the character doesn’t even own one.
It is just this sort of misrepresentation of the Prius and their owners that I have sadly come to expect. Should PO be a regular character I can’t imagine what ignorance he will display next. ABC has probably bought the series so there’s probably little you could be bothered to do about any future episodes.
BTW, I have owned a Prius for just over 1 year, so I am eminently qualified to comment.
Good day to you… I said GOOD DAY!

 

The funny thing is I was watching the Prius-owning bully strike fear and impotence into his victims and all I could think of was, "I don't want people thinking that my car has keys like a 'normal'!"

 

I'm glad you read to the end of the first paragraph. Hope they do too.

I sent it through the Contact ABC page. It accepted all of the text AFAIK. I can't remember if I ticked the box to require a reply, but I haven't got one yet either way.
It is a funny show. I'm mindful humour is according to taste. I suspect that ABC will get complaints. Same mob did "A Moody Christmas". And it's nice to see nice guy Craig Anderson (Life in a Datsun, Double the Fist, Next Stop Hollywood) with some subtle material (Joseph Banks).

 

A full year's expertise, no less, aided and abetted by PriusChat.
I learnt to drive in a Leyland/Morris Marina. Awful car. There's not much ice and snow here but its propensity for four-wheel drifts meant that I got a real lesson in handling, steering and braking. But easy to fix with a hammer, string and some ordinary household bleach.

My complaint received a reference number from ABC-TV. That's a start.

 

Australian readers can view episode 1 for another 28 days at ABC iview
Everyone else needs to solve this puzzle: [iview / google / downloader] + [the elegant gentlemaan's guide to knife fighting] And there's closed captions available.
BTW, it's rated MA 15+

 

All that you have to do is create about 490 dummy accounts and use them to Like the post and I'll get a level 3 Trophy of Like.
That would be thanks enough.