Clarkeson joke - did anyone laugh?

[Gromit]

Jeremy Clarkeson's 'joke' the strikers should be executed, shot in front of their families seems to have upset a few people. He clearly didn't mean it, and he himself once went out on strike when he was a mere magazine journalist.

I am more offended by the joke not being at all funny. It was feeble.

He is a good motoring presenter, why do we need to know his opinion on strikers?

[AB Editor]

Wasn't the joke about the tedious way the BBC are required to offer "balance"? I.e. "here's a loony from one extreme, and now one from the other" - usually totally ignoring the middle-ground?

I giggled as it was a subversion of that problem the BBC faces. He said something like "I love the strikes, there's no one about on the roads. But to offer balance, as it is the BBC, I'd have them all shot."

As has been mentioned elsewhere I am not sure if everyone moaning about it had seen the whole interview? Or even the whole clip?

[LoftyLottie]

Don't think it was even meant to be a joke as such, or that anybody was expected to laugh. Agree with the Ed. Just a Jeremy Clarkson'ism. I saw the whole interview.

[ichkeria]

"Not meaning it" is no excuse. John Terry probably didn't really mean what he called Anton Ferdinand.
As I have just said somewhere else though, he's plainly an intelligent and talented person, so how sad that on a prime time TV programme we have a rather pathetic set-up to get the great God of Political Incorrectness to make an a**e of himself when he could have so many more interesting and constructive - and controversial - things to say without going over the top. In his defence I think even he realised he overstepped the mark and has apologised.

[erin-x]

Exactly as Ed has said. He was giving both extremes. And you do know if it was a comedian like Alan Carr that had said it, there would have been no complaints. People are just blowing this way out of proportion.

[Euphemia]

I think it was quite spontaneous and without malice. I too had a giggle.

[ummmm]

No I don't think he did think he'd over stepped the mark. At the end of the show you could see him asking the presenters why they apologised.

If they didn't want to hear what Jeremy Clarkson had to say...they should have asked the question.

[ichkeria]

I am trying to think who could have said such a thing without causing offence.
Given that the defence being offered up for Clarkson is that "you expect that sort of thing from him" then I'd have thought had anyone else said it it would have been even worse.

[ichkeria]

He has, I believed, apologised since. Apologies from the presenters are meaningless.

[LoftyLottie]

Seeing as what he thinks makes no difference because he has no influence whatsoever on anything, I can't see what the fuss is about. He is a TV personality, that is all. I saw the interview, made a comment that the BBC probably now had a jammed switchboard and thought no more about it. I have often said I would like to shoot somebody who has annoyed me. The strikers have annoyed me - (in fact they have very much angered me) It was a turn of phrase - it happens. Mountain out of molehill.

[ummmm]

Yes...doubt it was meant though. And rightly so...

[LoftyLottie]

It made me giggle too Euphemia. Not for one second did I consider that he meant what he said.

[ichkeria]

Sorry to hog the discussion - last word - but the point about satirising BBC "balance" is not very convincing. His inital comments appearing to support the strike (which I thought were quite witty, if a little predictable and unoriginal) were no such thing. And then to compound it in the way that he did ...

[carrust]

Ummmm would defend Clarkeson whatever he did methinks!

[heathfield]

When he said strikers should be shot, the studio audience, (i.e. the One Show cameramen and lighting guys), laughed. Obviously, they assumed he was joking. But when he said, ''...in front of their families.'' there was a much cooler response - he'd gone too far, and it was no longer funny.

[ummmm]

That was him balancing things out...

[jackthehat]

I think his comments and his apology are equally meaningfull, or meaningless.....depending upon your stance.

If you believed his original comments to have 'power' then you must concede that so does his apology.........and if not, not.

[LoftyLottie]

Absolutely Jack. Well said.

[ummmm]

No quite carrust. I do think people complain about him because they don't like him...not because he's offensive. I also think most of the people who complain about him do so because the papers rile them...not because they seen/read it for themselves.

[Gromit]

The Spontaneous argument is contradicted by Clarkeson himself saying the show's producers had cleared his remarks beforehand

://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc
/8930218/Jeremy-Clarksons-execute-strikers-jo
ke-was-cleared-by-BBC-producers.html


It was scripted, but his writers much have also been on strike that day.

[Gromit]

http://www.telegraph....by-BBC-producers.html