The BBC has offered an apology to Mexicans offended by the humor on Top Gear. The Mexican Ambassador had complained after the hosts joked that like all cars, the Mastretta would reflect the characteristics of its country. ”Mexican cars are just going to be lazy, feckless, flatulent, overweight, leaning against a fence asleep looking at a cactus with a blanket with a hole in the middle on as a coat,” Richard Hammond said. Jeremy Clarkson said they wouldn’t get complaints from the Mexican ambassador because he would be asleep. (So really, he had to say something.) The BBC said it was sorry if some were offended, but jokes based on national stereotyping were a pillar of British comedy (and Top Gear), and while they may have been rude, they were not malicious. Here’s the statement:
“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 overdramatic, the French being arrogant, and the Germans being over-organised,” the BBC said in a statement. It also added, “Whilst it may appear offensive to those who have not watched the programme or who are unfamiliar with its humour, the executive producer has made it clear to the ambassador that that was absolutely not the show’s intention.”
I recall reading about a similarly offensive episode where they drove across the south in a car covered in things like “we love gays” or something trying to get assaulted to show people how redneckish Americans are. These guys are classless, elitist tools.
That’s hilarious! I’m going to start watching that show.
Thanks James I will now be watching the show as well. I may not be a car enthusiast but I love good humor. Also, a good portion of the south is “redneckish”. I was in Alabama with my fried and when he told a woman at a diner he was Jewish she became terrified of him. Another guy told him “But you look normal, how?”. Best vacation ever!
So writing “Manlove rules ok” on the side of a car and pulling in for gas (as they did) counts as “trying to get assaulted”? While it might be a controversial topic in some parts of the world, it really oughtn’t get people to the point of throwing stones after someone (which was done). And about the elitist thing…. To quote a popular 80′s film: “I don’t think it means what you think it means.”
Top Gear is one of the funniest shows on television. They make fun of everybody, especially each other and themselves. No national stereotype goes unmentioned, particularly ones about the British. If you’re offended, then don’t watch. We Gear-heads won’t miss you.
Seriously, that episode was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen – I laughed so hard I was crying. But obviously you haven’t seen it yourself if you think what you wrote is what happened.
Clarkson and company can be very funny but they are basically rednecks themselves, covered up with posh accents.
Elitist? Seriously? Do you even know what that word means? Stop repeating drivel you read on Drudge moron. Gearheads are not “elitist”. It’s not a negative word either. Stop hating on people for being intelligent.
Hmmm, intelligent is not the word I would use to describe Jeremy Clarkson. The man is a right-wing, ill-informed bigot with a history of making offensive and inflamatory statements. His lackey Hammond is just as bad. I actually feel sorry for James May, who seems a decent chap.
Exactly, Ben! He’s a complete and total ass who only appeals to people with an IQ just south of seepage.
This would explain Leno being such a big fan.
Hello, Irony! honeslty, what an ignorant comment. You guys are idiots yourself if you think he’s not an intelligent person, regardless of whether you agree with his politics. That’s just the hater-ade talking.
At least he didn’t say that the Mexican cars would cut your head off and leave you in an unmarked mass grave if you were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
idiot
Hilarious.
Only problem is that Mexicans are not lazy. They stand around for hours for the opportunity to earn an honest living. And yes, they do do the jobs nobody else wants. They even did a campaign in California challenging legal, white people to go pick strawberries. Surprise, surprise, there were no takers.
You are so uptight. It’s an automobile show. What do you drive, a Prius?
LOL
Nice one!
Seriously, has this guy even seen the show? They poke fun at everyone, and the joke is on the people who rise to the bait and don’t just laugh it off. I love the show, and they routinely bash Americans, America, and American cars. And when they went to Vietnam they threatened to make them ride a “stars and bars” bike that blasted “God Bless America.” They’re brilliantly funny and highbrow crass (never thought I would ever use those two terms together).
Top Gear is one of the funniest shows on the air – and they’re not “classless, elitist fools”, as James indicated…It’s wonderfully rude British humor. The American South episode referred to was hilarious – and I’m from that region…
and they almost got the sh@t kicked out of them too. It was very funny. And elitist? AHAHAHAHAH. Funny. These guys are about the farthest thing from elitists. They are strictly out of the “Lads and Lager” school of British thinking.
If you listened carefully to the people that chased them, it sounded like they weren’t mad about what the guys wrote on the cars. They were mad because they knew they were being made fun of. It was still pretty scary stuff.
The creators of Top Gear have long admitted that it comes from the point of view of overgrown adolescents, including crude, idiotic humor. If anything, the Top Gear guys are roughest of all on the U.K. Nothing they say can be taken very seriously.
I lived in England for a short time, and they are the most xenophobic group of people I’ve ever come across. They hate everyone and everything including the people from the next town over. They do not understand politically correct anything, and enjoy being hateful, a la Ricky Gervais. You just have to take them as they are like any foreign culture.
It must be nice to not be politically correct all the time.
They don’t like political correctness? Sounds great. (Though the irony of you calling an ENTIRE nation xenophobic made me laugh)
Perhaps they just didn’t like you.
If they make fun of every group, why is this one that’s been getting aired on TV? It’s a genuine question, I just don’t get why this one matters over the others.
The American version is awesome.
Really? I find it to be a very pale imitation of the original.
Yaeh, yeah, yeah. Poking fun is all very well and good, but the problem is that the “lazy, feckless” Mexicans are in a current struggle to take care of their families and promoting stereotypes of them that really aren’t true, even in a “funny” sense, just increases their obstacle. I doubt the “romantically challenged” Brits are digging ditches for $8 an hour while having to drive 5 miles under the speed limit wherever they go because they know if they get pulled over there will be no one to send food money back to their families. The problem is that eliminating illegal immigration sounds really neat and tidy, but people are dealing with a very tough reality and these kinds of jokes don’t help.
It’s a funny show that’s nominally about cars, not a sociological study of various foreign cultures. Laugh or don’t laugh, watch or don’t watch, but don’t try to pretend that some national stereotype based jokes on Top Gear have anything to do with why it’s hard for some Mexicans to earn a decent living.
While I think the Mexicans are being a little uptight about all this, saying that this is just British humour is completely ridiculous and doesn’t constitute an apology. And that comment about the British making fun of themselves, I have watched British television all my life and this is complete nonsense. Yes, the ENGLISH make jokes about the Scottish and Welsh but NEVER about themselves. They’re a nationalistic bunch and this “apology” shows it.
You’ve obviously never watched Top Gear – they make fun of the English all the time. Check out one of the episodes about the British penchant for caravanning and you’ll see.
This perpetuates false stereotypes from people that have never been to Mexico. Wrong is wrong.
The Mexican ambassador should have fired back that the British car would be ill bred and in perpetual decline with a superiority complex.
HAHAHA agreed
what bother me the most was that they even critized the food, i mean, wth? REAL mexican food (not taco bell) is the best food you can ever have.
I think they just went too far, they didn’t even talk about the characteristics of the car
Melissa, they often don’t talk about the actual characteristics of the cars, unless they’re pointing out what’s wrong with them(i.e. the episode about communist-produced cars).
These guys are awesome. They crack jokes about everyone and everything! People are WAY to sensitive! They called the French “Cheese eating surrender monkeys”. I thought I was going to die laughing. I am from the south and their stunts just highlighted how stupid some people are. At the end of the show they donated one of the cars to a Katrina victim who then sued them for telling her the wrong year model of it. Classic American! Lighten up people.