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Jeremy Clarkson

JEREMY Clarkson was ­accused of “crossing the line” last night after a ­tasteless joke about Lenny Henry being black.

The Top Gear ­presenter, who ­has a track record of saying anyone he ­offends lacks a sense of humour, was under fire for plain racism.

He complained an energy-saving mode on his new TV made the screen so dim “every programme looks like it is being presented by Lenny Henry in a cave”.

Clarkson’s BBC bosses refused to comment on the line, which ­was in his Saturday newspaper column.

But there was a hail of criticism. Grenada-born war hero Johnson Beharry, 31, who won the Victoria Cross fighting for Britain in Iraq, said: “Remarks like this just aren’t funny. They ­legitimise racism. People think it’s acceptable to poke fun at people without thinking about the ­consequences. Clarkson needs to be stopped from saying things like this.”

Race campaigner Lee Jasper, said: “It starts off with Clarkson making stupid racist comments and it ends up as playground taunts and racist slurs on the street.

Lenny Henry

Scathing: Comic Lenny Henry

“People take a green light and think, ‘Well, if Clarkson can have a joke at the expense of someone’s race then so can I.’

“It’s totally gratuitous because it’s not necessary. The whole point is Clarkson is naturally funny. There is no need to resort to racism.

“He has provocatively and ­deliberately crossed the line.”

Labour MP Denis MacShane said: “Clarkson’s full-on innuendo is unpleasant and offensive and out of tune with multi-cultural, multi-ethnic Britain.

“It’s like a blast from the south of the US when the Ku Klux Klan thought these jokes were funny.”

Clarkson, 51, and comic Lenny, 52, were co-presenters on the charity telethon Comic Relief in 2007.

A year later in a speech Lenny launched a scathing attack on the “Alf Garnett” generation of ­programme makers and claimed racism still existed in TV.

Clarkson, spotted in bomb ­disposal gear while filming for Top Gear in Gravesend, Kent, last week, has had a series of run-ins sparked by his controversial “jokes”.

Korean car firm Hyundai ­complained about Clarkson’s ­“bigoted and racist” claim that their staff had “eaten a dog”.

He also caused offence with mock Nazi salutes talking about German design of a new Mini.

And Clarkson has ­apologised to the Mexican ambassador for saying his people are lazy.

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Originally Posted by velvet donkey:

Bullets for Henry  

 

One of the greatest underestimated comedians of our times.

 

Up there with Victoria Wood.

victoria wood is funny

lenny henry isnt

he never was

pirate1111
Originally Posted by pirate1111:

and lenny henry used to do his silly jokes about white people

racism works both ways

clarkson is still a twat though

And black people too - including his own mother's Jamaican accent. 

He earned his current celebrity status as a comedian, by public approval,

after winning the-then UK TV talent show 'New Faces' back in 1975 by impersonating Stevie Wonder - another black man.

Therefore, he redresses the balance, and that makes any accusation of "racism working both ways" in this context, flawed. 

 

Whereas, Clarkson, is simply another dickhead who taunts someone else's skin colour or cultural background, except his own - making any accusations of racism, very plausible.   

Having said that, one man's meat is another man's poison. 

For example, some might perceive Prince Philip as being 'racist' after his comment during the China State visit in 1986, where he was reported to have said: "if you stay here much longer, you'll all be slitty-eyed". 

Ninja
I've had zero tolerance for him for many a year. If I may put it so as not to offend, every time someone from Scunthorpe passes me on my bike and makes a rude sign, or tries to knock me off, I blame him, his childish car fetishism, and the idiots who pay him respect. As far as this story goes, I assume that he has a new product?
Garage Joe
Originally Posted by Garage Joe:
Having said that, I'm not sure that I would brand him a racist on that flimsy evidence. To compare him to the Ku Klux Klan is plain stupid.

I'd agree with that... idiot he may be, but racist? 

SazBomb
Originally Posted by SazBomb:
Originally Posted by Garage Joe:
Having said that, I'm not sure that I would brand him a racist on that flimsy evidence. To compare him to the Ku Klux Klan is plain stupid.

I'd agree with that... idiot he may be, but racist? 

Yep I agree too - although as Jer would say he is Patron saint of Scunthorpians

FM

I cannot stand the great lurching fugly git, and find him as funny as being high fived in the face with a chair...He is always saying stuff.  what about the stuff about the lorry drivers being all rapists?  He is just a wanker.

FM

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