At risk of losing sense of humour

Feb 6 2011 by Ian Robson, Sunday Sun

DID the Top Gear presenters really overstep the mark in their comments about Mexicans?

Jeremy Clarkson and his co-accused Richard Hammond had a swipe at the country in last week’s show.

Hammond said Mexican cars would be like the Mexicans themselves – lazy, feckless, and flatulent.

His words, remember, not mine.

Clarkson said there would be no complaints because the Mexican ambassador would be sitting watching TV snoring with the remote-control at his side.

His words, remember, not mine.

The result, predictably, was a flurry of complaints including one from the ambassador Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza.

Comments on Top Gear can be a bit tasteless at times, but that’s what comes with the territory.

Clarkson fans expect it, Hammond’s fans expect it, so do fans of the other one who’s always last. Hey, Eduardo, don’t take it so seriously.

It’s not a slur on Mexico, it does not perpetuate prejudice, it’s just banter between a couple of blokes’ blokes.

It might not be clever, it might not even be true, but there is nothing sinister in it.

I am worried the killjoys are at it again when any kind of national humour is considered offensive.

The quiz show QI was in hot water for suggesting a man who survived the atomic attack on Hiroshima, and then escaped to Nagasaki, which was bombed several days later, was the unluckiest man in the world. The Japanese complained and the BBC apologised.

I don’t think Stephen Fry was racist, but if being witty is a crime then he is guilty. What about our own regional humour? Are jokes about stuffy Englishmen, tight Scotsmen and intellectually-challenged Irishmen to be banned?

And, if so, what about the jokes Irishmen tell about men from County Kerry?

Jokes about Asians – except when they are told by Asian comics – are often held up to be wrong.

Gags about Jewish mothers are often told by Jewish comedians and are not anti-semitic.

Yet again and again presenters – and ordinary members of the public – are expected to be wary of causing offence to the thin-skinned where no offence was intended.

Or do the powers-that-be prefer us not to laugh at all?

Sharing the pain

A LOT has been said about the Royal Shakespeare Company not coming to Newcastle this year.

These are hard times for us all and why should the arts be exempt from cost cutting?

If you ask me, and no one did, it’s much ado about nothing.