Anti-Mexican comments on BBC's Top Gear

[ed miliband]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/feb/02/top-gear-viewer-sues-bbc

Top Gear seems to get away with a lot of racism, sexism, homophobia and so on, so I do hope something big is made of this. The "joke" strikes me as particularly absurd because Mexicans never seem to be the target of such stereotypes in Britain; people make "jokes" like that about Indians, Caribbeans, Eastern Europeans, even the Irish, but we don't seem to have the same culture of anti-Mexican racism as exists in the States. That isn't to say that these comments would be acceptable if they were commonplace, but I do think it makes them slightly more damaging, giving way to an anti-Mexican sentiment that was perhaps not so widespread before.

[Summerspeaker]

Wow. What jerks. There wasn't even any joke beyond the supposed humor of mocking Mexico.

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

Usually, what makes the content of this kind of humour bad is the lack of a counter narrative. Most Brits have never met or will never meet people from Mexico, and there are certainly none on the everyday programming. And so even one little joke like this will have far more impact than it would in America. In America, when someone makes a "joke" (normally "jokes" have to be funny) about lazy mexicans, I have as a counterpoint the thousands of hard working Mexican migrants where I live and in the rural areas. But there is really no major Mexican culture or presence in London.

Also, if you are going to have racially contentious humour, at least make it socially or politically critical (like Dave Chapelle's stand-up about visiting the Navajo Reservation, which was more a critique of stereotypes). I think Jeremy Clarkson is just an old white (conservative) male, and is more interested in running ferraris around a track than confronting issues of repression than making critical humour. So instead, he goes after the low-hanging fruit; "lazy messicuns, effeminate gays, women who can't drive". Jeremy Clarkson should stick to doing what he does best-driving in circles very quickly and complaining about how crappy the steering wheel is in overvalued bourgeoise racing cars (mind you, I doubt the BBC will let him go much farther without giving him the boot-I'm guessing TG provides them a lot of revenue and Jeremy Clarkson is half of the show, but they don't want TG to detract from their overall image of "professionalism"). I wouldn't be surprised if he has received a strongly worded memo from his managers telling him to desist, however he's made his share of outrageous jokes before.


Anyway, my gf is from Mexico City and when she read this on the news, it pissed her off to no end. Needless to say, it damaged the image of the BBC in her eyes (an organization she respects a lot for being more honest a reporter of information and a better distributor of culture than any news or entertainment network here in America).

[ed miliband]

The response:


"Our own comedians make jokes about the British being terrible cooks and terrible romantics, and we in turn make jokes about the Italians being disorganised and over dramatic, the French being arrogant and the Germans being over-organised."

"stereotype-based comedy was allowed within BBC guidelines in programmes where the audience knew they could expect it, as was the case with Top Gear".

etc.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/04/top_gear_apology/

Casual racism is just part of being British apparently. A funny part.

[Bad Grrrl Agro]

Dumb anglo mother fuckers!

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/04/top_gear_apology/

Casual racism is just part of being British apparently. A funny part.

If you saw Ricky Gervais's bit (i only saw parts) for the award ceremony, you'd see how British humor is often openly offensive. And it can be funny. Jeremy Clarkson himself can be quite funny sometimes. But you need to be careful when making this humor, especially when speaking about an ethnic group which Britons don't exactly encounter very often. If Jeremy Clarkson makes jokes about bad british chefs, the bbc has other shows like gordon ramsey. If he makes fun of stoned west indians, the beeb often has non-stereotyped west indian characters in its programming. But it is bad to joke about stereotypes when there are few or no non-stereotyped characters presented.

[ed miliband]

Um, I live in Britain... I just don't think the BBC's defence is very convincing at all.

[hatzel]

Interestingly enough, I've known Mexican women to accuse their male compatriots of a lot of this stuff. "They're just lazy guys sitting at home in their vests all day long whilst women keep the country running by actually getting the jobs the men can't be bothered to do done". Of course it's somewhat different coming from frustrated Mexican women, rather than the clearly non-Mexican Top Gear presenting team :)

(Oh, and by the way, Ricky Gervais was pretty darn funny, those celebs who felt like kicking up a fuss should pull their heads out of their backsides and deal with the fact that people make jokes about them)

[Bad Grrrl Agro]

Interestingly enough, I've known Mexican women to accuse their male compatriots of a lot of this stuff. "They're just lazy guys sitting at home in their vests all day long whilst women keep the country running by actually getting the jobs the men can't be bothered to do done". Of course it's somewhat different coming from frustrated Mexican women, rather than the clearly non-Mexican Top Gear presenting team :)

(Oh, and by the way, Ricky Gervais was pretty darn funny, those celebs who felt like kicking up a fuss should pull their heads out of their backsides and deal with the fact that people make jokes about them)
I get more pissed off at some anglo pigs talking about Mexicans than I do about Mexican men being men.

[Dimentio]

Who cares about Jeremy Clarkson?

He is not exactly an authority, and his intellectual depth amounts to an ordinary kitchen table discussion.

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

Who cares about Jeremy Clarkson?

He is not exactly an authority, and his intellectual depth amounts to an ordinary kitchen table discussion.

Pretty much. As I said he should avoid offensive jokes on his show and stick to reviewing boy toys for the rich n famous.


Um, I live in Britain... I just don't think the BBC's defence is very convincing at all.

Oh right, didn't mean to presume you didn't live there, I think i was being too rhetorical in how i phrased my response. You're right, it really isn't a very convincing defense. There's no sense of context. And the joke wasn't even funny or creative... not only has it been made a million times before, but it is a slap in the face to people who do backbreaking labour so the American versions of Jeremy Clarkson can eat cheap farm produce and complain.

[Aurorus Ruber]

Who cares about Jeremy Clarkson?

He is not exactly an authority, and his intellectual depth amounts to an ordinary kitchen table discussion.

Quite. I've always found him pretty distasteful as well and this latest comment only confirms that.

[Magón]

Meh, I never really cared for the cars they had on Top Gear anyway. (US or UK versions.) And are there really any Mexicans in the UK?

[ed miliband]

Who cares about Jeremy Clarkson?

He is not exactly an authority, and his intellectual depth amounts to an ordinary kitchen table discussion.


The 487,534 members of the 'Jeremy Clarkson should be Prime Minister' group on facebook seem to.

:blushing:

[brigadista]

not funny, not witty,
Top Gear is everything that is wrong with the UK .

Clarkson still thinks the UK has an empire..the 3 presenters on this programme present a picture of white British men as emotionally retarded permanent infants. No doubt they are very popular in the tory home counties

and yes there are Mexicans in the UK. the whole world lives in London particularly

[ed miliband]

and yes there are Mexicans in the UK. the whole world lives in London particularly

Including myself.

Who said there were no Mexicans here? I simply said there doesn't seem to be the same level of anti-Mexican bigotry as exists in the US.

[brigadista]

wasn't criticising your comments at all:):) a reply to Nin above...

[Psy]

not funny, not witty,
Top Gear is everything that is wrong with the UK .

Clarkson still thinks the UK has an empire..the 3 presenters on this programme present a picture of white British men as emotionally retarded permanent infants. No doubt they are very popular in the tory home counties

and yes there are Mexicans in the UK. the whole world lives in London particularly

Yhea this is not the first time he made such remarks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Clarkson#Offensive_remarks



In October 1998 Hyundai (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyundai_Motor_Company) complained to the BBC about what they described as "bigoted and racist" comments he made at the Birmingham Motor Show (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_Motor_Show), where he was reported as saying that the people working on the Hyundai stand had "eaten a dog" and that the designer of the Hyundai XG (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyundai_XG) had probably eaten a spaniel for his lunch. Clarkson also allegedly referred to those working on the BMW (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW) stand as "Nazis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazis)", although BMW said they would not be complaining.[36] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Clarkson#cite_note-Clarksoninthedoghouse-35) In a later incident during a Top Gear episode broadcast on 13 November 2005, Clarkson, while talking about a Mini (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini_%28BMW%29) design that might be "quintessentially German", made a mock Nazi salute (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_salute), and made references to the Hitler (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler) regime and the German invasion of Poland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Poland_%281939%29) by setting the GPS system to Poland.[78] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Clarkson#cite_note-77)
In April 2007 he was criticised in the Malaysian parliament for having described one of their cars, the Perodua Kelisa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perodua_Kelisa), as the worst in the world, built "in jungles by people who wear leaves for shoes". A Malaysian government minister countered, pointing out that no complaints had been received from UK customers who had bought the car.[79] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Clarkson#cite_note-78)[80] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Clarkson#cite_note-kelisa-79)
While in Australia, Clarkson made disparaging remarks aimed at Gordon Brown (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Brown), in February 2009, calling him a "one-eyed Scottish idiot" and accused him of lying. These comments were widely condemned by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_National_Institute_of_Blind_People) and also Scottish politicians who requested that he should be taken off air.[81] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Clarkson#cite_note-80)[82] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Clarkson#cite_note-81) Furthermore, the comments were condemned as racist.[83] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Clarkson#cite_note-82)[84] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Clarkson#cite_note-83)[85] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Clarkson#cite_note-84) He subsequently provided a qualified apology for remarks regarding Brown's "personal appearance".[86] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Clarkson#cite_note-85)
In July 2009 though, Clarkson made another indignant remark about the British Prime Minister during a warm-up while recording a Top Gear show, apparently describing Brown as "a silly ****".[87] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Clarkson#cite_note-86) Although several newspapers reported that he had subsequently argued with BBC 2 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_2) controller Janice Hadlow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janice_Hadlow),[88] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Clarkson#cite_note-guardian-87) who was present at the recording, the BBC denied that he had been given a "dressing down".[89] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Clarkson#cite_note-88) John Whittingdale (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Whittingdale), Conservative chair of the Culture Select Committee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture,_Media_and_Sport_Select_Committee) remarked: "Many people will find that offensive, many people will find that word in particular very offensive [...] I am surprised he felt it appropriate to use it."[88] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Clarkson#cite_note-guardian-87)
On 6 July 2010 Clarkson reportedly angered gay rights campaigners after he made a remark on Top Gear that did not get aired on the 4th of July (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_%28United_States%29)'s episode. But guest Alastair Campbell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alastair_Campbell) wrote about it on twitter. Clarkson apparently said he "Demanded the right not to get bummed". The BBC later said that they cut this remark out as they had to "Cut Down" the interview as it was too long to fit into the show.[90] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Clarkson#cite_note-89)
That and also doesn't know much about vehicles that are designed to be work horses. Many years ago in his last show Jeremy Clarkson's Motorworld he reviewed the UAZ-469 and was grinding the gears because he didn't know about unsynchronized transmissions and that you had to double clutch the UAZ-469 because it had a unsynchronized transmission like all heavy duty vehicles of its time including those made in the USA. He also picked on the UAZ-469 being very basic when the UAZ-469 was a fleet vehicle primarily engineered for the military and that was common even in American fleet vehicles during that time that wasn't engineered with the military in mind because workers don't get a say on what they drive and bosses didn't want to pay for worker comforts.

[brigadista]

when have either 3 of them actually done any work?

[Psy]

when have either 3 of them actually done any work?
Yet why do they bother to bring up practice vehicles? For example when they raced Japanese public transit with a Nissan GT-R ignoring the the extra dead labor the Nissan GT-R consumed (in the form of fuel) to arrive 3 mins faster then Japanese public transit transported the other two not to mention in its higher maintenance costs. Same when they raced against a steam train in the UK that only lost because the steam train didn't have priority on the line.

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

Jeremy Clarkson is a wanker, this is just another example in the long list of examples that inform us of this fact.

He's an overpaid, uninformed, opinionated, ignorant, arrogant, untalented and annoyingly popular shit head just like Johnathan Ross, Chris Moyles, Russel Brand, Simon Cowell, Peaches Geldof or pretty much any British media figurehead. The sad truth is that these people are incredibly popular, which makes being British very fucking annoying.

[Ligeia]

Though it's just an advertisement for the mexican market and not a real official statement, I thought it was nice from Javier (ManU-player) to do this. Then again Powerade denied this being a response to the comments in Top Gear.

It states ""Yes, imagine waking up and remembering you're Mexican. Less prejudice. More exercise."
That sounds like a response to Hammond's comment, "I'm sorry, but just imagine waking up and remembering you're Mexican."



http://www.merca20.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Powerade-Chicharito-Gde.jpg

[Omsk]

Again Top Gear,they just dont seem to understand,those kind of 'jokes' are not popular,well,they maybe are among sub-urban primitive blokes who find racism and stereotypes funny.:sleep:.
First the anti-everything rants now this..
I even watched that show before..

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

I enjoy watching Top Gear, and find the chemistry between the presenters hilarious.

They will take the piss out of anyone, including each other. That and the fact they don't take themselves seriously is why I still watch it.

[Mather]

Top Gear is shite and it's presenters are a bunch of sad middle aged men who seem to get paid a lot of money to be utter twats.

Hopefully this is a show that will be getting axed when the budget cuts hit the BBC.

[Mather]

I enjoy watching Top Gear, and find the chemistry between the presenters hilarious.

They will take the piss out of anyone, including each other. That and the fact they don't take themselves seriously is why I still watch it.


They really are not that funny.