BBC Apologizes for Mexican Slurs

Mexican cars 'lazy, feckless,' Top Gear presenters say
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 4, 2011 3:03 AM CST
BBC Sorry for Top Gear Mexican Slur
This Mexican-made Mastretta sports car should be called the Tortilla, Hammond quipped.   (Getty Images)

The BBC has apologized for remarks made by the hosts of a car show following a deluge of complaints from outraged Mexicans. When reviewing the Mexican-made Mastretta sports car, Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond said that cars reflect national characteristics, so "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."

Program co-host Jeremy Clarkson joked that the show wouldn't receive a complaint from the Mexican Embassy, because the ambassador would be snoring in front of the TV. He was wrong. Mexico's ambassador to Britain wrote to the BBC complaining about the show's "outrageous, vulgar and inexcusable insults to stir bigoted feelings against the Mexican people," reports CNN. The BBC explained as part of its apology that jokes based on national stereotyping are part of typical British national humor. (More Top Gear stories.)

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