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Top Gear ‘bigots’ slammed for lazy Mexicans joke
Unfortunately for Jeremy Clarkson, Mexican ambassador wasn't asleep and takes him to task over racist comments
In a month that has seen two TV personalities nailed for making offensive comments you'd think that even the provocative presenters of Top Gear would have the good sense to err on the side of caution, but no, not a bit of it.
In an episode of the car review show watched by six million people on Sunday night, presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May insulted an entire nation by branding Mexicans as "lazy" and "oafish".
Mexico's ambassador to London has demanded an apology after Hammond said that Mexican cars were typical of their countrymen, and went on to describe "a lazy, feckless, flatulent, oaf with a moustache leaning against a fence asleep looking at a cactus with a blanket with a hole in the middle on as a coat".
Ambassador Eduardo Medina Mora Icaza might well have seen the funny side of it had he not been personally targeted by Clarkson, who joked that they would not receive any complaints because the ambassador would be asleep.
"It is utterly incomprehensible and unacceptable that the premiere broadcaster should allow three of its presenters to display their bigotry and ignorance by mocking the people and culture of our country with such vehemence," the ambassador wrote in a letter to the BBC.
But in being singled out by Jeremy Clarkson, the ambassador is in good company. The Top Gear presenter called Gordon Brown "a one-eyed Scottish idiot" in 2009 - and before that he characterised lorry drivers as prostitute murderers in November 2008. ·
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Very funny and entertaining, no mention of the drugs war thats ripping Mexico apart though, plenty of material there.
They're entertainers. If they'd been making jokes about the French nobody would have said a thing. It happens all the time. Yes, that doesn't make it right, but get a sense of humour, Mexico.
You don't see British officials demanding an apology for every American TV presenter who suggests we all have bad teeth and crap food.
Get a grip.
I'm sure the Top Gear guys will be traumatised by the uprising of an entire nation in annoyance at their petty pranks. And Mexicans might be a bit miffed too. Middle Aged Boors 1. Humourless Latinos 0.
All I can say is "what an idiot". His show should be cancelled.
Where has all the humour gone?
Long time passing...
Where has all the humour gone?
Long time ago...
Where has all the humour gone?
Died of political correctness every one
They will never learn...
They will never learn...
Clarkson has a go at everyone. He is the only person on TV to do so and the nation loves him for it. I wish people would lighten up and stop feeling so offended by everything. Where is the British sense of humour?
These people sit around joking for an hour a week on fantastic pay. They know a lot about laziness. Projectionism. Given all the BBC resources, it was intellectually astonishing lazy not to come up with some better material for their program.