"Use the off switch or change channel".The recent controversy triggered by the TopGear trio of Disco Vicars (Clarkson, Hammond, May) and their round of offensive comments dressed up as just-a-bit-of-fun prompted the usual charge of lame justifications.
From "no-one cares" (read "I don't, meeeeee, therefore it follows that the whole world doesn't either") and "haven't the Mexicans more important things to think about", to "this country is losing its sense of humour", the defenders of casual bullying and casual racism have been out in force to stick up for the three white upper class broadcasters.
The lamest defence, however, comes in the guise of the trite "You don't need to watch TopGear. Use the off switch or change channel".
Which really says a lot about some people's sapped power of observation. Because:
a) TopGear is paid for by the taxpayer - that is you and me and the bloke over there. You may change channel (and rest assured Clarkson's is the last TV programme this blog would want to watch), but still you won't be able do jack to stop your own money from being used to fund Clarkson and his side-splitting remarks about the disabled, the blind and various vulnerable people.
b) This is no page-32 article written in dubious taste and published by some local paper we're talking about. Alas, TopGear is the most popular BBC programme worldwide. Me and you may switch off the telly, but in the meantime tens of millions of people abroad will have found more reasons to believe the Brits' growing reputation as a nation of small-minded xenophobic little islanders.
c) Like Steve Coogan wrote in his Observer piece this morning, "tolerance of casual racism [is] arguably the most sinister kind [as] [i]t's easy to spot the ones with the burning crosses".
So here's a question for the "I'm-Not-Racist" Brigade: what's more dangerous and more hateful, a twat dressed up in ku klux klan robes that everyone can see, or a (not so) subtle and growing set of xenophobic remarks thrown left right and centre and dressed up as "just-a-bit-of-fun"?
If no-one ever stood up to bullies and racists in the name of "getting-a-sense-of-humour" and "relaxing", telly would still be packed with stuff like The Black and White Minstrel Show and Curry and Chips.
You may be content enough to switch channels, but I don't want to be forced to spend £145.50 a year to reinforce the notion that the British constantly look down on everything foreign, thank you very much.
Jeremy Clarkson and his sidekicks can play the bully if they want, but not with the taxpayer's money.
PS: Incidentally- Three Brits pouring scorn on Mexican food saying that it's like "sick with cheese on top"? Brits laughing at other people's food???? Now what did you say about sense of humour?
Click here to access the full list of cliches (2010-11):
"Young female TV presenters are a response to market demand".
"You've GOT to own your own home";
"Society benefits from extreme wealth at the top";
"There are jobs out there if you really want one";
"The Royal Family brings in tourism revenue".
5 comments:
'most people ARE small-minded bigots who just want to be left alone by 'the man'.'
*laughs* That's a good joke. Oh wait, you were being serious...
I agree with the post. Yes the "switch over if you don't like it" mentality annoys me as we still have to pay the TV licence. I really wish the BBC would can this bunch of offensive losers!
This is an inverted mirror-image of stuff I used to read in the Guardian way back when Mary Whitehouse or her successors were complaining about some ground-breaking piece of (usually sexual) BBC envelope-pushing.
a) "Don't they know where the off-button is? If they don't like it they don't HAVE to watch it. What a kinky bunch they must be, making themselves watch it when they know they'll be offended"
b) "That's not the point - OUR TAXES are paying for this vileness"
In Mrs Whitehouse's day the majority of TV viewers were on her side - but it booted not. BBC execs did what they wanted to do. Nowadays the majority are probably on Clarkson's side, and BBC execs are more scared now than they were then.
You don't want to see Clarkson's influence on our impressionable youth.
What do you expect, Laban? Pefectly normal to see king twat worshipped by total twatlets.
So anti-establishment eh? "Burn that lightbulb, pollute that river, laugh at that disabled person!", now that's what I call true maverick spirit. Good god save us all.
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