Jeremy Clarkson should be sacked

[ComedyPilot]

Like @User1314 I too want Clarkson to go. Not only fo his 'innocent' gaffes and un-PC comments (made almost on cue as if scripted, so his writers/producers/editors and directors need to go too), but also for the bile-inducing Pied-Piper-esque 'hold' his pro-car anti-cycle views have to the fawning sycophants in the audience and the millions at home watching.

 

[ComedyPilot]

Some people on here need to look up the meaning of the word subjugate. Middle class (in control?) white people don't have many derogatory comments used against them, but boy do they have an offensive arsenal to use elsewhere.....

Look at Clarkson, who he is, what he represents, and then wonder why (in his position) he needs to make derogatory comments about anyone?

 

[Rapples]

To eradicate racism you would probably have to kill half the world's population, which would be interesting!!

Only half?

I think you've way underestimated there.

 

[ComedyPilot]

[QUOTE 3058339, member: 45"]Ah...

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/may/01/jeremy-clarkson-begs-forgiveness-n-word-top-gear[/QUOTE]

That's an apology?

I quote RBKH*:

"Ordinarily I don't respond to newspaper allegations but on this occasion I feel I must make an exception. A couple of years ago I recorded an item for Top Gear in which I quote the rhyme "eeny, meeny, miny, moe". Of course, I was well aware that in the best-known version of this rhyme there is a racist expression that I was extremely keen to avoid. The full rushes show that I did three takes. In two, I mumbled where the offensive word would normally occur and in the third I replaced it altogether with the word teacher. Now when I viewed this footage several weeks later I realised that in one of the mumbled versions if you listen very carefully with the sound turned right up it did appear that I'd actually used the word I was trying to obscure. I was mortified by this, horrified. It is a word I loathe and I did everything in my power to make sure that that version did not appear in the programme that was transmitted.

"I have here the note that was sent at the time to the production office and it says: 'I didn't use the N-word here but I've just listened through my headphones and it sounds like I did. Is there another take that we could use?'

"Please be assured I did everything in my power to not use that word, as I'm sitting here begging your forgiveness for the fact my efforts obviously weren't quite good enough, thank you."

I don't see the word sorry anywhere, and he's 'begging forgiveness' not for using the word, but for not trying hard enough to obscure it......

*racist, bigoted, knob-head

James May (slowly seeing his gravy train being sent to the sidings) comes out in support......?

 

[raleighnut]

Some people on here need to look up the meaning of the word subjugate. Middle class (in control?) white people don't have many derogatory comments used against them, but boy do they have an offensive arsenal to use elsewhere.....

Look at Clarkson, who he is, what he represents, and then wonder why (in his position) he needs to make derogatory comments about anyone?

White middle class people have plenty of insults used against them and to think that rascism does not exist between persons of every creed and colour is naïve Mind you "jezza" is to quote "Captain Slow" a "Bellend"

 

[ufkacbln]

Malignant Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

 

[oldfatfool]

Thank fark he didn't recite BaBa %$^%$ sheep, the world would have ended!!!

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

There's a lovely irony in his twittering ("On his twitter account this morning, Clarkson issued a firm denial: "I did not use the n word. Never use it. The Mirror has gone way too far this time," he said." from the Independent.) Gone too far? Hasn't he fuelled his career by doing just that, going way too far?

 

[screenman]

Must be an age thing, but the rhyme as wrong never crossed my mind.

 

[biggs682]

never liked the guy myself

 

[Rapples]

Having watched the video on the Mirror website, I clearly hear n*gger. I'd be interested to hear the first attempt, but the Mirror just give us the middle one 4 times in a row.

This is not surprising, this is how I learnt the rhyme, and it's still the first word that springs to mind, all the other permutations sound just wrong. (Clarkson is one year older than I am).

Having watched the video it's clear throughout the "catch a ....... by the toe" his lips don't move. He makes a continuous sound in time with the rhyme, a deliberate mumble.

Listening to a foreign language spoken that I have no understanding of, I do not hear each word but a continuous sound with gaps for breathing. If French is spoken quickly to me, or with a strong accent the same still happens.

Our brains decipher the sounds into the individual words, with a best match scenario I assume, we often mishear during conversation, i.e. "you said x, no I said y." etc.

The important part is the ger sound, and I think he does mumble this which is why we all clearly hear n*gger.

Clarkson would have known full well he couldn't say the word, however it's clear the whole point (or joke) was him not saying the word. It didn't work so they used teacher.

No one was offended in the making of this video, so what's all the fuss about again?

 

[screenman]

I do not like beetroot or Whiskey, does that mean they should both be taken off sale?

 

[Louch]

He should be wondering more how this got released if its not the cut that made the tv show..,

 

[L14M]

Am I the only one that thinks he's fricken hilarious?

 

[hoopdriver]

He is an arse and he likes to tease and I suspect he is now so rich and fat that there's a mischief elf sitting in his head that prompts him to push it just a bit further and a bit further just for the rather childish thrill of seeing just how far he can go and they still won't touch him, but I tend to draw my overall take on this 'incident' (which I was surprised among other things to find happened two years ago), from this, taken from the Guardian article:

Clarkson's Top Gear co-host James May earlier leapt to the star's defence. May told his 1.4 million Twitter followers: "Jeremy Clarkson is not a racist. He is a monumental bellend and many other things, but not a racist. I wouldn't work with one. #ThatIsAll."

Piers Morgan, the former CNN presenter with a long history of feuding with Clarkson, led calls on Twitter for him to be dismissed. He said Clarkson should be "TV toast", and added: "Ron Atkinson was fired by @ITV for using the N-word.

I think May is probably right. He is a bellend (and would be the first to admit it), but not a racist. Let's also try to maintain a sense of perspective. Yes, Ron Atkinson was fired 'for using the N word'. But there's a big difference between 'mischievously/stupidly' mumbling it as part of a childhood rhyme (and yes, I'm Clarkson's age, and it was still around in that form when I was a boy...tho' it was beginning to be frowned on, and definitely on its way out), and using it to abuse someone. Atkinson didn't just 'use the N word'; he called a player 'a lazy N'. That, in my view, is a very different matter. And why Clarkson's grovelling apology, and the BBC's acceptance of it, seems to me about right.

But he is an arse.

I agree entirely. I too am old enough to recall the days when the words to that old rhyme were current, although fading fast. Context needs to be applied. In no way was he abusing anybody, merely (and foolishly) reciting a dated and out-of-touch childish rhyme the words to which are familiar to nearly all.

If the simple utterance of the N word, in any context, is to be grounds for sacking someone and drumming them out of society then Samuel Jackson, Ving Rhames and Quentin Tarantino should be boycotted for life for the sheer number of times they uttered the word in Pulp Fiction. Of course the reason the word popped up in the film's dialogue so much was that it was authentic street-speak amongst the sorts of characters being portrayed. And still is. Are we to issue licenses to use the N word? Or do we extend the censure and opprobrium, and potential sanctions, to blacks who use it as well? In fiction or on the street? Where does it stop?

The racist utterings made by the Clippers owner in the US fully deserved the penalties they incurred this week. Clarkson's gaff, and that's what it was, is something else entirely. There needs to be less radical knee jerking and a sense of context and proportion applied.