Jeremy Clarkson accused of 'racism' during Top Gear series finale in Thailand

[mojorison]

Surely the usage of such a term might suggest the user had clue as to its double meaning. I am a couple of years older than Jeremy and was born in the UK. I know what the term means. A true proffessional should know not to abuse the privilige by belittling those unfortunate enough to be caught on camera with them. A sign of pompousness at its worst.

And there is no excuse for it. It would have been scripted and staged. Not dissimilar to "the sheriff is a-near" scene from Blazing Saddles... but it is not Blazing Saddles... it is Aunty, and it's on TV. I cannot believe the muppets on here attempting to justify it, saying idiotic nonsense about PC gone crazy etc.. It is base racism, and what you'd expect from Clarkson.

[HooHaa]

I just hate these guys and their nonsense.

I find this kind of thing offensive.

Downloaded some of their stoopidity and halfway through the ordeal of watching them screw up some road trip they were on I dumped the whole series and moved on to something else.

It was either that or get on a plane, hunt these two screaming yammering, over caffeinated peckerwood yobs down and pound on their arrogant beaks for ten or fifteen minutes.

They were THAT irritating.

The explanation that "Oh It's British humour that's alli, you just don't understand British humour is one offensive arrogant blurt that you hear less and less from these tw@ts . . . . . . . . . .. but occasionally you do hear it.

The British would do well to make a note of this idiot's comment and learn something from it.

"Sometimes, 'fuggedabowdit' just means fuggedabowdit."

from what i've read here, an afternoon with any of the three of them would be preferential to spending a half hour with you and your keyboard posturing

Edited March 18, 2014 by HooHaa

[bulekee]

Just as a matter of interest,the bridge at Kanchanaburi is not actually the river Kwai (however it is spelt ).It was adopted for tourism reasons.If you want to know a little about Thai history from the second world war onwards,and how Siam might be a different country today,I suggest you watch a UK tv series entitled "The Life and Times of Earl Mountbatten of Burma".I think it is episode 6 that is quite enlightening.I don't want to go into detail as I might leave myself open to you know what.You can download from the torrent sites,it might open a few eyes.

So in addition to rice scams we have had a river scam as well, all the tourist who have been conned should sue YK for their money back

To be technically correct JC and the boys built the bridge over the river cock

Did you happen to notice if the bridge over the river cock had a slant to it?

Yes it's called "Brewers Droop".I am sure all you Brit expats will get the meaning (if you have a sense of humour ).

[bulekee]

Just to lighten things up guy's,look at Benny Hill on youtube (Chinaman,where you bin )

[348GTS]

Oh Puh-leeeeze... gimme a break. Yet more PC bullsh*t from the liberal left wing do-gooders who feel obliged to feign offense on behalf of the 99.9% of the population whose head the joke went straight over. Of course JC knew what he was saying, but it was a pun, a double entendre if you will. A play on words, nothing more. Juvenile humour, nothing else. If you can't see that then you need to grow a sense of humour. Sorry if you don't find it funny, that's your problem. So why make it everyone else's problem too??

Racism is about CONTEXT. There was no discrimination or hatred behind the comment. Politically incorrect and in bad taste, maybe. Funny? Well perhaps in a cringe worthy way. No different to Phil Spencer on home improvement shows making comments about trimming your bush and entering the back door, or Beavis & Butthead making fun of "normal" words that can be used in other contexts. Just because you don't get or like a joke doesn't suddenly make it "offensive" or "racist". Next you will be watching a Chris Rock show and twittering coz he used the "the N-word" (ooohhh!!!) a hundered times or feeling offended on behalf of gay German men whilst watching Bruno. The sad part is not that people make jokes like this but that the humour needs to be explained to those offended. It's not rocket science people.

[mojorison]

Oh Puh-leeeeze... gimme a break. Yet more PC bullsh*t from the liberal left wing do-gooders who feel obliged to feign offense on behalf of the 99.9% of the population whose head the joke went straight over. Of course JC knew what he was saying, but it was a pun, a double entendre if you will. A play on words, nothing more. Juvenile humour, nothing else. If you can't see that then you need to grow a sense of humour. Sorry if you don't find it funny, that's your problem. So why make it everyone else's problem too??

Racism is about CONTEXT. There was no discrimination or hatred behind the comment. Politically incorrect and in bad taste, maybe. Funny? Well perhaps in a cringe worthy way. No different to Phil Spencer on home improvement shows making comments about trimming your bush and entering the back door, or Beavis & Butthead making fun of "normal" words that can be used in other contexts. Just because you don't get or like a joke doesn't suddenly make it "offensive" or "racist". Next you will be watching a Chris Rock show and twittering coz he used the "the N-word" (ooohhh!!!) a hundered times or feeling offended on behalf of gay German men whilst watching Bruno. The sad part is not that people make jokes like this but that the humour needs to be explained to those offended. It's not rocket science people.

Chris Rock's black.

[rhythmworx]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Having lived and worked in Asia for 13 years, I now realise I have led a sheltered life.

I have never heard the "slope" expression used before and if some sensationalists hadn't written this drivel, I would still have been happily ignorant of it's meaning.

+1, a shitstorm about buggerall by the PC brigade as usual!

No not really had a black guy been walking over the bridge with a racoon in the shot, he could of said oh there's a coon on the bridge.

That would be racist and would cause a shit storm here in the UK, but if someone from Asia with sloped eyes, as the term originally comes from (mainly speaking of the Chinese) it makes it alright?

never heard them refered to as sloped eyes , only as slanty , ..''.sloped" suggests to me they protrude outward from the socket ,...........i think you should join the PC brigade and make sure our schools only use whiteboards and bannish the blackboards ,.....looking for a fight ..... PATHETIC !

No not at all.

If you care to read the post I made a few minutes after the one you chose to quote, you may realize I don't give a toss what he said.

I was just speaking of it as how the PC brigade will see it.

[348GTS]

Chris Rock's black.

Really? I hadn't noticed. Not that it makes any difference. This whole "you can use racial slurs if you are part of the ethnic group they are aimed at" is for the birds. People make it worse by buying into it.

[GeckosDiving]

All I read into this is To Many Politically Correct Dick Heads Reading To Much Into His Comment !!! I've lived and work here for over 20 years and never heard of this word ? How ever I don't give a crap either as I see it there will always be someone who wants to Bitch about anything !! To those people I say Get a Life

[i claudius]

Surely the usage of such a term might suggest the user had clue as to its double meaning. I am a couple of years older than Jeremy and was born in the UK. I know what the term means. A true proffessional should know not to abuse the privilige by belittling those unfortunate enough to be caught on camera with them. A sign of pompousness at its worst.

And there is no excuse for it. It would have been scripted and staged. Not dissimilar to "the sheriff is a-near" scene from Blazing Saddles... but it is not Blazing Saddles... it is Aunty, and it's on TV. I cannot believe the muppets on here attempting to justify it, saying idiotic nonsense about PC gone crazy etc.. It is base racism, and what you'd expect from Clarkson.

I bet your great fun on a night out , did you get upst that they had blackboards in schools?

[cliffly]

So what !!!!

Aussies call us Pommes every day!!!! Do we get offended?

Only their own inferiority complex will allow them to be bothered by this comment.

Clarkson merely said it for comedic value. I am sure it made a lot of people laugh and that is not a bad thing, laughing is good for you. We should all laugh more.

I just saw a Thai lady taking her dog for a walk...she was on her motorbike of course....absolutely cracked me up, it's good to laugh.

The people that are offended by Clarkson need to lighten up, I do not say this a Clarkson fan as he annoys me sometimes with his presumptuous humour but please lighten up, it's not that bad. It's called wit.

I think it is fun to make fun of each other, we are all different and funny. The truth is that we have always and will always feel more comfortable mixing with our own and some people are happy to try and make the people in their group laugh.

I am sure Jeremy has nothing against this chap at all and would just as quickly shake his hand and have a chat with him about the area or something.

What a crazy world we live in eh!

From Vanilla Boy, Ice cream face, farang...whatever.

[mojorison]

Chris Rock's black.

Really? I hadn't noticed. Not that it makes any difference. This whole "you can use racial slurs if you are part of the ethnic group they are aimed at" is for the birds. People make it worse by buying into it.

No you're right... doesn't make a shred of difference.

[metisdead]

An inflammatory post has been removed.

[Chicog]

I skipped past the 19 pages of this thread just to ask the PC brigade to stop clinging to their keyboards waiting to be offended by something.

I think this thread needs a new slant on it.

[Skint]

Who is genuinely upset? If this upsets you then you need to have a word with yourself.

[buhi]

All day this has been going on!

As for slopes, Thai are proud of their round eyes and hate their noses.

Thai chin have slity eyes and whiter skin.

So what.

I have made worse jokes than Clarkson and so did Shakespeare!

[lamkhamhaeng]

Brilliant! Will you admit this PC crap has gone too far? As if you've just boxed me into a corner with your watertight logic.

Ahh, miss the days of gollywogs do you? Who can blame you? It was a simpler time. Tell you what, build a time machine and go back there, and take your unreconstructed antiquated crap with you. You'll be happier, we'll be happier... you can surround yourself with images of racial stereotypes, and forget these troubling confusing modern times, when words magically change their connotations leaving you sad and confused, when it's generally assumed that all people should be treated with a modicum of respect and be granted basic human rights, not just white men.

who exactly does a golliwog offend by being a company mascot that sells strawberry jam ?

whos rights do you imagine infringing on ?

some golliwogs might be offended ?

what about the children in need teddy bear with just one eye ?

my friend lost an eye in an accident as do hundreds of thousands of peoplpe every year ,should they be offended and make children in need change their mascot ?

or wil you just admit this PC crap has gone too far??

If you must have it spelled out for you like a child:

Gollywogs are racist stereotypes which exaggerate elements of the body characteristic to people of African descent. Much like the images of huge-nosed Jewish villains disseminated by the nazi propagandists of the 30s and 40s. They are offensive to anyone with a modicum of moral decency, including those of African descent who are well aware of their meaning, and those of causasian descent who don't spend their days pining for the pre-civil rights movement era.

you said it ,not me lol

i thought a golliwog was just a harmless golliwog .........

Yeah, just to help you out here, since you're obviously not familiar with this whole language thing, you haven't actually made any point there. At all. Not one point. Not even close to one. What was the point you thought you were making? Or were you just staring out of the window and randomly tapping keys with your toes? Or trying to swipe a troublesome mosquito away from your face and bashing the keyboard on the downstroke?

[lamkhamhaeng]

Chris Rock's black.

Really? I hadn't noticed. Not that it makes any difference. This whole "you can use racial slurs if you are part of the ethnic group they are aimed at" is for the birds. People make it worse by buying into it.

"Racism is about CONTEXT"

In caps mind you... followed by...

'the race of the person using the slur doesn't matter' (paraphrasing).

Brilliant. With reasoning skills like that I'm amazed you managed to string a sentence together. If you're going to finish your ill-advised unreconstructed ramblings with phrases like "it's not rocket science" you should probably be more careful not to say things quite so mind-bogglingly stupid.

[lamkhamhaeng]

Chris Rock's black.

Really? I hadn't noticed. Not that it makes any difference. This whole "you can use racial slurs if you are part of the ethnic group they are aimed at" is for the birds. People make it worse by buying into it.

To a Brit Chris Rock is not funny,not because he is black,because he is a colonial. personnaly I do not find American humour funny ( and for our colonial bretheren,spelt humor ).P.S. I like fishing).Brits will get the joke.

...I can verify that Brits, in fact, won't.

[lamkhamhaeng]

Surely the usage of such a term might suggest the user had clue as to its double meaning. I am a couple of years older than Jeremy and was born in the UK. I know what the term means. A true proffessional should know not to abuse the privilige by belittling those unfortunate enough to be caught on camera with them. A sign of pompousness at its worst.

And there is no excuse for it. It would have been scripted and staged. Not dissimilar to "the sheriff is a-near" scene from Blazing Saddles... but it is not Blazing Saddles... it is Aunty, and it's on TV. I cannot believe the muppets on here attempting to justify it, saying idiotic nonsense about PC gone crazy etc.. It is base racism, and what you'd expect from Clarkson.

I bet your great fun on a night out , did you get upst that they had blackboards in schools?

HA! This is the absolute best! I see this comment all the time, and it's always from the bottom-of-the-barrell worst excuse for an adult human in the vicinity! As if fun nights out revolve around numbskulled throwback douchebags swapping slurs! That's what fun nights out look like on Louis Theroux documentaries!

What's the matter, you don't like institutionalised racism and the systems which enforce it? You didn't cheer when Stephen Lawrence was beaten to death, or George Zimmerman got off scot free? Bloody ell, wouldn't want to sit next to you in a pub. Genius mate.

[laobali]

I just hate these guys and their nonsense.

I find this kind of thing offensive.

Downloaded some of their stoopidity and halfway through the ordeal of watching them screw up some road trip they were on I dumped the whole series and moved on to something else.

It was either that or get on a plane, hunt these two screaming yammering, over caffeinated peckerwood yobs down and pound on their arrogant beaks for ten or fifteen minutes.

They were THAT irritating.

The explanation that "Oh It's British humour that's alli, you just don't understand British humour is one offensive arrogant blurt that you hear less and less from these tw@ts . . . . . . . . . .. but occasionally you do hear it.

The British would do well to make a note of this idiot's comment and learn something from it.

"Sometimes, 'fuggedabowdit' just means fuggedabowdit."

from what i've read here, an afternoon with any of the three of them would be preferential to spending a half hour with you and your keyboard posturing

It's obviously a US keyboard .

[BwindiBoy]

I watched this earlier at 1st I thought it was James May walking across until he made his slope remark.

The BBC doesn't take kindly to remarks like that, but yet they aired it.

I think it was a bit out of order but with my British humour I did a chuckle only at his gall to come out with that..

There will be more on this I can guarantee, he will get his arse kicked and so will the editor.

The bridge slopes, &lt;deleted&gt;. End of!

[Crushdepth]

Couple of farangs on it too.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Mosha]

far more offensive (if indeed offense must me taken) is the refusal to refer to Myanmar as myanmar but rather burma.

I still call HCM City Saigon & I still prefer to use Burma. Offensive?

Sent from my GT-N5100 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

I believe Auntie Aung calls it Burma

[chooka]

When someone can show me a pure race of people left in this world then I will show you racism. Black, yellow, red or white who on here is pure thoroughbred

[Rooney860]

Bloody hell you would have thought JC had shot the slope!!!!

Edited March 18, 2014 by Rooney860

[ginjag]

I skipped past the 19 pages of this thread just to ask the PC brigade to stop clinging to their keyboards waiting to be offended by something.

I think this thread needs a new slant on it.

Uphill battle Ada.

[brit1984]

I skipped past the 19 pages of this thread just to ask the PC brigade to stop clinging to their keyboards waiting to be offended by something.

I think this thread needs a new slant on it.

Uphill battle Ada.

a steep slope?

[razer]

Sloap-head, gook, farang ... all are dehumanizing terms for a person of different origin. The dehumanization is for a purpose... It is easier to hate something not quite human. Where Vietnamese, Asian and Westerner relate to human beings, sloap-head gook and farang have no human connotation.

[JohnThailandJohn]

Sloap-head, gook, farang ... all are dehumanizing terms for a person of different origin. The dehumanization is for a purpose... It is easier to hate something not quite human. Where Vietnamese, Asian and Westerner relate to human beings, sloap-head gook and farang have no human connotation.

I agree with you in the sense of how some words are used to dehumanize, especially names used during wars such as gooks, slopes, krauts..., but farang is not generally one of these words. Thailand is not a melting pot of foreigners with different looks as you see in much of the west and it is simply a term to distinguish foreigners (usually white). Somebody can even make "white foreigner" sound like a bad terms but generally it is not used this way. Thais in general find farang features (skin, eyes & hair color) very attractive. While you may hear many Thais talk about a very "cute farang baby" in a very loving way, I don't think you will hear too many people talk about a "cute gook baby".

Farang is not much different than whites saying Asian.

Thais are much less offended by pointing out or commenting on the obvious than westerners. A waiter may tell another waiter the farang table needs more water but in the west you are not going to hear a waiter say publicly the Asian table needs more water. In the west we may ask a friend, who looks like they have got fat, if they have been working out? In Thailand it is not uncommon to have a friend blurt out, you got fat.

However any of these words can be used negatively. Asian is certainly not a negative term but it can be used as one such as saying, "the dirty lying piece asian". The bottom line being is farang has not negative connotation by itself just as Asian doesn't unless the person using it is a racist.