Mexican woman gets litigious on Top Gear's ass A Mexican woman has instructed lawyers to take action against the BBC's Top Gear over unflattering remarks made by the show's presenters about her native land. As we reported yesterday, the programme is already in hot water with the country's ambassador to Blighty after Richard Hammond likened a Mexican sports car to "a lazy, …
OK, so the comments on the show were fairly offensive even though obviously intended to be funny (there must be a certain sense of humor there). Gotta say that reading these comments makes me feel that the Top Gear team are probably slightly less xenophobic than the average El Reg reader.
I'm really quite upset about this. When are we going to get this episode of Top Gear on BBC Canada or Netflix.ca? I'd like to laugh at the Mexican sports car too! We always lag behind. :(
Not only that, Jeremy hasn't insulted Canada in ages. Why the discrimination? Is it just because we don't make any genuinely Canadian cars?
The BBC will do OK if they just stick to their guns and defends it's rights to produce humourous material.
If her so called legal advisers want to save some money they might want to read Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights which covers the Right to Freedom of Expression.
The only legal advisers I know of that go by the name of Equal Justice are a bunch of employment lawyers, not exactly specialists in the relevant laws.
Still, given the past craven cowardice of the BBC they are more likely to apologise than stand up for freedom.
Let's turn Aussie TG loose on / in Mexico. Take Pommie Stig and Kevin Stig with them.
Much merriment will ensue on several fronts --
1) The Aussie presenters are rubbish; I know I've been to a filming and walked out
2) No one can whinge more than an Aussie, so add Pommie Stig in with his buddy Kevin Stig and the verbal pain will be incredible.
3) Given Aussie TG might have a clue how to drive in dirt - let's give them a whole country of it.
4) The wonderful will clear their back passages, so they can complain what a shit country Mexico is
:):):):):):):)
...clearly hasn't heard Henning Wehn yet. The self-styled "German Comedy Ambassador to Great Britain"'s act consists mostly of taking the anti-Teutonic prejudices exemplified by certain knuckle-dragging oafs in the British media (name your own exemplars) and turning them back on their originators.
As you can imagine, Wehn had a field day on Radio 4's "The Now Show" last year, when England were knocked out of the World Cup...
James May likened a Mexican sports car to "a lazy, feckless and flatulent oaf with a mustache, leaning against a fence asleep, looking at a cactus with a blanket with a hole in the middle on as a coat".
I think it was Hamster who actually mentioned "a blanket with a hole in the middle on as a coat" rather than James May.
It wasn't the funniest thing I've seen on TV, so I can't recall it exactly, BUT...
As Matt Hawkins points out, they didn't say Mexicans were "lazy, feckless and flatulent...", they said the Mexican car was like such a person - no nationality specified. So maybe it's a case of the cap fitting?
If they had referred to Mexicans as gun toting, drug dealing, mass murdering lunatics it would have been ok given the number of drug related murders in that fine country.
In terms of equality Top Gear has never discriminated against anyone, they abuse all and sundry in equal measure.
Nice to see an ambulance chasing lawyer joining the fun in the name of equality, clearly not doing it for the money.
Underlay, Underlay!
I was also distressed at the lack of references to kidnapping, mass murders, corruption, cocaine and pickup trucks bristling with expensive ordnance. I can only assume that Top Gear is sponsored by exporters of marching powder.
It's a conspiracy by the B.B.C. I tell you!
Man, our new Top Gear season doesn't even start until Monday. At least they now show the entire episodes no matter how stuffed full of fat American commercials it is... (yes, even our commercials are fat and boring)
I can't wait to see this episode, and see if it's shown or altered.
now this woman that was "offended"...
as top gear really has a cult following, its a bit like marmite, you love it or hate it, nothing really between....
If this woman was watching top gear then I assume she is a fan of the show.. if this is the case then I assume she has enjoyed the ribbing that other nationals get... sort of like "I can laugh at you, but dont dare laugh at me"...
or did the telegraph go searching for some mexican who in all truth had never watched top ger before and decided on this day to watch for the first time....if this is the case, the correct procedure should be to make sure you dont watch it again...
oh, and I would sooner have a beer in a pub with clarkson, in fact, I would sooner have clarkson and palls running the government....
This is the problem when you understand the words of a language but not necessarily the contextual meaning.
Combine with the Great British Sense of Humour, (which can be impenetrable to Daily Mail readers, let alone foreigners), and further amusement is inevitable!
Cue much harrumphing from the usual quarters, whilst in the background you hear lawyers booking an extra holiday. Possibly ordering a new car too.
What I found odd about it was the amount of screen time the segment got. Usually on Top Gear it's a couple of throwaway pseudo-xenophobic comments from Clarkson that get shouted down by May & Hamster pretty quickly. This went on much longer than was funny. Besides, given Hammond's love for the Zonda as a car designed 'by a 10 year old', surely a car that they could've put in a Mexican wrestling mask had much better material than that?!
Top Gear hosts may be called ANYTHING buy liars. As a US educated Mexican living in Mexico, I am damn pleased somebody has the guts to say that the emperor has no clothes. I have worked for government agencies, and believe you me; I have had the displeasure to meet some of the most incompetent, corrupt and, yes, feckless people anywhere. As a consequence, this is a Country whose main export is illegals. In fact, somebody should take on the ambassador about his personal wealth, and his exhibition of fecklessness and stupidity when as attorney general, started the bloodiest period in Mexican history, as organized crime overwhelmed him. Where is Wikileaks when you need them?
As far as that woman trying to sue the show, the UK should either deport her or have her executed in the Tower of London. It wouldn´t be a first.
joking about Obese America. In fact, one of my favourite Top Gear episodes was when they drove through the south with things like "Hillary for President" painted on their vehicle.
Maybe the Mexican woman is offended because she hasn't the humility to understand the British sense of humor.
As much as I love Top Gear and absolutely hate these so easily offended PC do-gooders who can't take a joke and a bit of banter, did anyone else not really find this all that funny at the time? I mean, it was Hammond who said it at the time and not Clarkson - I got the impression that Hammond was just trying to copy Clarkson to be "cool", but pulled it off really badly. I mean they didn't actually tell us ANYTHING about the Mexican sports car at all - only that it was Mexican and therefore would be shite.
I get the feeling that if Clarkson had made the jokes he would have pulled it off much better than Hammond!!
Clearly the various traits levelled at the Mexican national traits do not include a sense of humour!
Top Gear have been taking the mickey out of the Germans, French, Italians, Swedes, Russians, Australians, English, Scots, Irish, Welsh, Americans and a broad range of nationalities for years. Therefore they cannot be accused of discrimination as they are willing to find all targets in any audience.
Interesting how none of the other nations took exception to the moments of mirth these boys bring to our lives!?
Don't tell me; the Mexican individuals complaining about the Top Gear team will also make sure that no one from Mexico, Portugal, Spain (or any other country with a Hispanic majority, indigenous or otherwise) will ever describe white people as 'gringos'. Similarly, the British will never call Germans 'krauts' (after herbal butter), the French 'frogs' (after another dietary habit that sprang from siege economies), and the French will never call the English 'le rostbif'.
Finally, when all undesired speech has been eradicated by socialism (such as that variety imposed on us by the last 'Labour' government, which encouraged all manner of bizarre legal challenges and convictions), the state will wither away and people will never, ever, ever thay nathty thingth about one another, cwoss my heart and hope to die, Julian Assange will live with Jesus in the sky.
Sheesh. Sometimes there are stupidities in this world (like police officers referring drivers to the CPS for blowing their noses whilst driving) that can only be dealt with by extreme actions. To paraphrase from a friend of mine, ordinarily one would assume that stupidity would naturally self select *out* of the gene pool. However, and since it does not, one is left wondering if there actually is a purpose for intelligence. As it is, and given the soft restricting, straight-jacket blanket of PC that has been laid over culture in the UK and some other countries, with such insistence that it is absolutely correct and must be accepted (or we would be breaking some or other law or moral code), the nightmare appears to be hovering in front of us of George Orwell's dystopian nightmare, or perhaps Huxley's 'soma' ingesting Brave new world. The invasion by the state, driven by people with an agenda that appears to be hijacking it for ulterior motives, centralisation of government, these things demonstrate that people have forgotten what government is for and that politicians have too. As it is we are left with little choices in seeking to overturn interference by others, though we could of course vote for another party, but there is little to choose from them unless we select some more blatant radical form of stupidity.
Now the madness has 'gone global', with it would seem little to stop it from escalating to its logical conclusion, a living form of the reductio ad absurdum.
Was the individual referred to as "a lazy, feckless and flatulent oaf with a mustache, leaning against a fence asleep, looking at a cactus with a blanket with a hole in the middle on as a coat" allegedly a male -- or was it perchance a female?
Paris -- because she isn't Mexican and doesn't wear a moustache
Seems many complaints these days come from people who only hear about these things afterwards, as if you had any sense, you wouldn't watch TV programmes or listen to radio shows that have a reputation for being liberal with their word usage that'll you're likely to find offensive.
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