Friday, February 4, 2011

Mexican ambassador demands apology over Top Gear remarks

The Mexican ambassador in London has demanded an apology from the BBC over remarks made by Top Gear presenters, saying they were "outrageous, vulgar and inexcusable."


Eduardo Medina Mora complained about comments made when Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson and James May were reviewing the Mastretta, a Mexican car, on Sunday's program.

"Why would you want a Mexican car? Because cars reflect national characteristics don't they?" Hammond said on the show.

"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."



Clarkson later said that they wouldn't get any complaints about what they had said because the Mexican ambassador would be "sitting there with a remote control like this," and he slumped down in his chair and made a snoring sound.

The ambassador did complain though.

He wrote: "The presenters of the programme resorted to outrageous, vulgar and inexcusable insults to stir bigoted feelings against the Mexican people, their culture, as well as their official representative in the United Kingdom.

"These offensive, xenophobic and humiliating remarks only serve to reinforce negative stereotypes and perpetuate prejudice against Mexico and its people."

Other comments by the presenters have resulted in complaints in the past, but their style of banter has also made the program very successful.

Some people were upset by scenes which showed Clarkson and Hammond wearing burkas in their recent Christmas special.

There were complaints last year after Clarkson said that when a woman wearing a burka tripped he had seen her red g-string and stockings.

In 2009 he called Gordon Brown a "one-eyed Scottish idiot." In 2008 there were hundreds of complaints after he joked about lorry drivers killing prostitutes.

The show was also criticised in 2008 after Clarkson and May were seen drinking while driving in the Polar Special.

The BBC said they would respond directly to the Mexican ambassador over the latest incident.

Not only do they dress like thay live in the 70's, they act like it too,

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