The who have Top Gear insulted this week thread

I can't wait for the lads' reaction on the next Top Gear episode.

I'm eager to know what jokes they're going to make. Because in the past they usually piled on after complains.
 
Dave Chappelle was one of the funniest people on TV or stand up, and he made fun of every race/country he could and went as far as possible with it. If you can't laugh about yourself/race/country then you are a bit too serious. I've been made fun of my entire life, doesn't leave me overly angry.

However you want to rationalize or justify it is fine, it doesn't make what happened right or okay. The fact that it has made the news on a greater level than being published in The Daily Mail should say something. The food jokes were not over the top, the laziness jokes started to bring it over the top, then it was simply taken too far when Hammond said "I'm sorry, but just imagine waking up and remembering you're Mexican." Things took a serious wrong turn with that last comment.

The funny thing is though, Top Gear will now be something that millions more people have heard of around the world. I wouldn't say that it's a good thing to get more renown from a bigoted comment, but it probably won't hurt the show.

An apology should be made for Hammond's remarks, that way the majority of people can just move on and forget it ever happened.
 
An apology should be made for Hammond's remarks, that way the majority of people can just move on and forget it ever happened.

Just stop by TG fanpage in FB to measure the heat this has brought. It was on the 5 o clock news in Mexico City's prime news channel ("TV AZTECA"). Over 20 million people just inside Mexico City alone... that is a lot of people to piss off.

I too want to move on, but it definitely requires a true apology.
 
It was wrong of me to leave out that there are many legal citizens of Mexican background who have professional jobs. That said, this is a forum, not a TV show, and I hope I've made it clear that I was attempting to make the point that Mexicans are not lazy, and that I wasn't trying to generalize negatively about a group of people. If I were on TV, I would need to apologize.

Point taken. I for one I am a Software Engineer with two masters, speak fluent English, Portuguese, Spanish and understand French. I have a pretty international family. My brother is a lawyer with a JD from La Sobornne, my other brother has two different degrees, journalism and art. My father is a mechanical engineer, used to be one of the top designers for Chrysler in the days of the K model (yea a know... not the best years, but he designed trucks...).

So yes... I am a Mexican American (naturalized) and not all of us just cut grass or serve food. And even so... would there be anything wrong with that? Isn't any job a noble one?
 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/feb/02/top-gear-viewer-sues-bbc

A Mexican woman who saw the BBC's Top Gear programme on Sunday, in which her compatriots were described as "lazy, feckless, flatulent [and] overweight", has instructed lawyers to bring a test case against the show under new UK equality laws.

Lawyers for Iris de la Torre, a 30-year-old jewellery design student in London, claim the case could cost the BBC up to ?1m in damages, for using racism to boost ratings. They demanded an investigation by the BBC and suspension of the show.

The BBC has already received an official complaint from the Mexican ambassador, who wrote demanding an apology for the broadcast's "xenophobic" and "offensive" content.

The remark was made by the presenter Richard Hammond and his co-presenters, Jeremy Clarkson and James May, described Mexican food as "refried sick."

De la Torre's lawyers previously brought legal action against Channel 4 for remarks made about the Indian actor Shilpa Shetty in the reality show Celebrity Big Brother.

In a legal complaint seen by the Guardian, and sent as a letter to the BBC, they claim that the remarks made on Top Gear are unlawful and a breach of the rules banning discrimination by public bodies.

"I was shocked at what the BBC allowed to be broadcast," de la Torre said.

"I have never had a bad experience in the UK due to my nationality. I do not understand how such ignorant people hold such high-profile jobs."

The complaint could become the first case brought under the Equality Act which came into force last September. Under the new law, anyone providing a "service to the public" is prohibited from anything that constitutes discrimination.

Writing to the BBC is the first stage of bringing a case; the next would be making an application to a county court.

"These remarks were probably calculated and deliberate to fuel anger and hence boost ratings ? the presenters apparently feel that they are fighting a battle against political correctness," said Lawrence Davies of de la Torre's solicitors, Equal Justice.

"However they are not permitted to use unlawful means to do so and broadcast their racist thoughts. A broadcast is a service and it is unlawful to produce racist services."

The BBC said it had not yet received the letter, but that it would be dealt with through the appropriate channels.

The controversy is the latest in a series of TV scandals involving offensive behaviour by presenters. Last month Sky Sports presenters Richard Keys and Andy Gray lost their jobs after sexist off-air remarks were leaked.

Top Gear presenter Clarkson, who has been repeatedly criticised for making offensive comments, had condemned Sky for the decision, describing it as "heresy by thought".

I highlighted the bit that sums up my thoughts about it.
 
Crazies are everywhere, and they will sue you.
 
Theory: So far this story is developing exactly as anyone could have predicted it would and as they would have known it would when they were editing. There must be some form of angle on this, which I suspect will be revealed this Sunday.
 
i dont think i can get offended by them...its just too funny sometimes that it doesnt really matter
 
A couple of corkers from Sickipedia to lighten the mood.....

As a Christian I was deeply offended by tonight's Top Gear where it was suggested that the the new 'Stig' was born in Israel. The Stig is a fictional character dressed in white, whose entire history is nothing more than a load of ridiculous, made up stories and no one has ever actually seen him. Whereas Jesus...

The Mexican Ambassador has complained to the BBC about comments on Top Gear. Richard Hammond is accused of calling Mexicans lazy. Mr Eduardo Medina Mora, 54, said that he saw the show live on Sunday and rang to complain as soon as he woke up on Tuesday afternoon.
 
How does a "jewellery design student" find the cash to keep bringing these high profile actions? I assume that Iris de la Torre is a front (wo)man for a firm of lawyers trying to make a name for themselves.
 
The keyword is "student" (and Mexican? ;) ) ergo poor. The lawyers are bound to be doing it at no charge to her.
 
The keyword is "student" (and Mexican? ;) ) ergo poor.
does not compute

If you're Mexican and studying, you're well off. If you're studying abroad, you're loaded... unless of course the English universities charge Mexicans less than Englishmen, which I suppose would cause widespread outrage in Mexico.

Anyway, let's look forward to next Sunday. :-D
 
At age 30, she is rather old, my guess would be that she has british husband/ boy friend who is sponsoring her studies, but calvinhobbes could also be right.
 
TopGear and the boys have gotten rich and famous for saying offensive things. Karma can be a real bitch. :dunno:
 
I went on the internet and found this (shield your children's eyes):

hispanic2.jpg

It's one of the first search results, when you enter "lazy Mexican" in Google Images.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: MWF
How does a "jewellery design student" find the cash to keep bringing these high profile actions? I assume that Iris de la Torre is a front (wo)man for a firm of lawyers trying to make a name for themselves.

The way I read the statement, I understood it to mean that the lawyers were involved in the previous suit, not Ms. De la Torre.

"De la Torre's lawyers previously brought legal action against Channel 4 for remarks made about the Indian actor Shilpa Shetty in the reality show Celebrity Big Brother."
 
I personally don't care who they insult. They insult us every week, and thankfully our ambassador must have actual work to do besides trying to get on the news. In civilized countries we have a right to free speech, and if you don't like it, tough shit. Change the channel.

However I would say that I wish the gag was funnier. Just repeating a negative cultural stereotype isn't exactly the height of comedy writing sophistication. It's been done a zillion times before.
 
Enter 'Mexican Jokes' and you get a whole boatload of Jokes about Mexicans on American websites, most of them alot more rude then the ones on TopGear.

What is immidiatly obvious is that they are mostly the same generalising jokes western Europeans tell about eastern Europeans, Arabs, African's , you name it, pretty sure there are plenty of yokes about western Europeans in return.

My point is,while I am willing to believe that what TopGear did came across as insulting to Mexican people, lets face it, every ethnicity gets jokes told about them at some point by someone.....
 
Top