[crabcakes_windermere]

Thing is, it's not an apology but he's right to make it a non-apology. It shouldn't be something to apologise for in exactly the same way Ross and Brand shouldn't have been hounded out of the BBC for a spoof answerphone message that got virtually no complaints when first aired. Was it twattish? Yes, but he's spot on in saying that in context it was blatantly, blatantly a joke, and it was the bit he said was for balance - NOT the bit he said first. And as mentioned, The One Show is so insanely bland that you'd probably get complaints if someone said "bum" live on air.

Clarkson is an oaf, and I wish he'd just stick to what he's good at - pratting about with cars and actually being quite entertaining. Just like I wish someone in BBC comedy with a spine would start telling the Mail to fuck off when it gets on its high horse. Two sides of the same coin, or something. And as I saw on Twitter, someone said if he'd said Cameron should be shot and it was the exact same obvious gag the same people trying to get him fired right now would either be silent or applauding him.

[AOB]

Re Oboogie: It was unwise to invite him on on strike day. But he's a BBC employee and hosts his own show which is on before the watershed so the comparison with a decision to invite Frankie Boyle, who isn't a BBC employee and whose job is entertaining an adult audience isn't quite a fair one. I guess they thought he might strongly disagree with the strikes but obviously they underestimated his childishness. I bet if Stephen Fry was a fellow guest he wouldn't have dared, he'd have been as mousy as he was when I saw him on QI once, in the presence of a man who'd verbally wipe the floor with him in a couple of swift sentences.

[Carlos The Badger]

Didn't see it last night as The One Show is shite so I didn't think I was qualified to comment on it.

The clip is now on the BBC News site so I've just had a quick butcher's.

Anyone getting their knickers in a twist over this that didn't see it in context is just as guilty as the Mailtards that complained about the Ross/Brand "scandal" but were unaware of its very existence until that Shite-Rag told them to be OUTRAGED about it.

As usual the proceeding sentence has somehow managed to be ignored by all the offended parties.

Clarkson doesn't believe 90% of the shit he spouts - he even let that fact slip out in an interview. It's all an act.

But he's a BBC employee and hosts his own show...

No he's not. He's freelance like all "Talent". The BBC shouldn't have apologised. Actually, neither should have Clarkson.

[Abernathy]

Yeah, it really is a shame that all the outrage has been hung up on the wrong remark by JC.

His callous and unthinking comments on suicide victims were FAR more offensive.

[oboogie]

Didn't see it last night as The One Show is shite so I didn't think I was qualified to comment on it.

The clip is now on the BBC News site so I've just had a quick butcher's.

Anyone getting their knickers in a twist over this that didn't see it in context is just as guilty as the Mailtards that complained about the Ross/Brand "scandal" but were unaware of its very existence until that Shite-Rag told them to be OUTRAGED about it.

As usual the proceeding sentence has somehow managed to be ignored by all the offended parties.

Clarkson doesn't believe 90% of the shit he spouts - he even let that fact slip out in an interview. It's all an act.

But he's a BBC employee and hosts his own show...

No he's not. He's freelance like all "Talent". The BBC shouldn't have apologised. Actually, neither should have Clarkson.

Well said.
I've been astonished, and saddened, by some of the remarks I've read on here today which, if we read them in the Mail we would all be condemning them as right-wing and reactionary.
For me Dave Gorman put it best:

it's not about which jokes you find funny and it's got nothing to do with whether the joke targets the strong or the weak. You have to defend the jokes you don't like as well as those that do. Be offended. Register your upset. Change the channel. But don't go assuming you have a right not to be offended.
Because if you really think that you and I are entitled to live in a world without offence, then you have to concede that everyone else is equally entitled to the same. And that means that all the jokes you like but they don't will have to go too.

http://gormano.blogspot.com/2011/12/jer ... p-and.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Failure to recognise that people we don't like have a complete right to make offensive jokes about people we do like just leads us down a very dark path to a point where we are no better than the Daily Mail.
I refuse to go there.

[bluebellnutter]

Thing is, it's not an apology but he's right to make it a non-apology. It shouldn't be something to apologise for in exactly the same way Ross and Brand shouldn't have been hounded out of the BBC for a spoof answerphone message that got virtually no complaints when first aired. Was it twattish? Yes, but he's spot on in saying that in context it was blatantly, blatantly a joke, and it was the bit he said was for balance - NOT the bit he said first. And as mentioned, The One Show is so insanely bland that you'd probably get complaints if someone said "bum" live on air.

Clarkson is an oaf, and I wish he'd just stick to what he's good at - pratting about with cars and actually being quite entertaining. Just like I wish someone in BBC comedy with a spine would start telling the Mail to fuck off when it gets on its high horse. Two sides of the same coin, or something. And as I saw on Twitter, someone said if he'd said Cameron should be shot and it was the exact same obvious gag the same people trying to get him fired right now would either be silent or applauding him.

This. With bells on.

[Bearface]

I found the comments about he made about suicide jumpers equally vile. I'm sure there were people watching, what is essentially a magazine show, with relatives and friends who have commited suicide in such a violent manner who wouldn't appreciate Clarkson's "jokes" solely in order to promote his annual DVDs.

Then I suggest you nevr hang out around railwaymen, they regularly make jokes about it. I think as much for the "gallows humour" element to hide the emotion of some selfish person (and it is bloody selfish) jumping in front of your speeding train.

Personally I think this guy has a point

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-s ... edded-clip" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

well put and factually correct. I've spent 30+yrs on the footplate and 'jumpers' are viewed as an occupational hazard. gallows humour is always used in 'cabin banter' when news comes in of yet another suicide. one recently-ret'd guy had 8 hits to his name and was known amongst us as 'top gun'.

it's just a way of lifting the post-incident gloom and not meant to be disrespectful to the victims or families.

not that any of this excuses clarkson: he's still a gold-plated cunt.

I think it's different for Clarkson who doesn't work on the trains just to make that comment on a television show compared to your good self. I may come home and have a joke about idiotic patients at work but I wouldn't go public with my views!

[smod]

'I'm sorry!' Jeremy Clarkson finally apologises for saying all strikers should be SHOT after BBC gets 4,700 complaints (and even the PM says he was 'silly')

Why the hell are we so sensitive? Clarkson just speaks his mind and doesn't bow down to the PC brigade.
- Gedders74, herts, 30/11/2011 23:27 6501

Jeremy Clarkson for Prime Minister please!
- me, somewhere, 30/11/2011 23:27 5289

he's only saying what many would love to say !
- Dave in Malaga, Torrox Spain, 30/11/2011 22:52 3276

I wouldn't want to harm anyone but I do have a massive problem with under-worked people striking about their already cushy benefits. Wake up public sector people and get in the real world, you're making a show of yourselves being so totally unaware of what is happening to the rest of the British public and the real hardship they face. I'm sure you'll bring out examples of hard working nurses. Yep, we've heard it all before. Millions of private sector people world hard and long hours for limited wages and the risk of being laid off or made redundant with no back up. Not everyone is a banker. Get over yourselves.
- Katy, London, 30/11/2011 23:19 2948

It's hardly the fault of the public sector the lowest paid public jobs got privatised. I'd love to know what cushy benefits they have.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... l#comments" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Bones McCoy]

Oh, hello.

It seems KEVIN of NOTTINGHAM13.31, CHRIS of YORK 13.05 and a few others are typical examples of Labour's "Look over your shoulder, before you dare open your mouth", enforcement brigade, to ensure that the "correct" attitude is shown before you dare to utter an opinion which might possibly cause upset to Anyone at all! Perhaps we should get clearance from some Union PC commissar, before we commit the heresy of irritating some jumped-up censor from the provinces...?

- John Smith, Birmingham, England, 1/12/2011 14:01

Ah, PC Commissar. I wondered what was the rank of the head of the PC Brigade. I'd guess that he doesn't hand down orders but diktats.

That would be a PC Brigadier General...

[Bones McCoy]

Not an apology.

8. Bum Hammond.

[lord_kobel]

Just seen Brooker on News 24 kinda defending clarkson, which was berilliant as just kept talking and the interviewer didn't seem to know what was going on and he managed to plug his new show a few times too!

[spoonman]

When he doesn't go down the road of politics straight on, I find Clarkson fine as a presenter and a personality for the shows he appears on. Has a bit of wit, certainly intelligent and doesn't take himself too seriously. Attributes that you won't find much among the bolus of wankers in Darce Towers. The comment on the strikes was crass and crude, but it was done within an attempt at satire that wasn't obviously subtle. He's apologised for it fairly quickly, it wasn't a hanging offence, to me the matter should be settled and moved on. The Brand/Ross case was blown out of proportion massively itself, I'd hate the BBC, or any other broadcaster, having to err on the side of caution when dealing with comedy material in case they may get heat from an astroturfed "concerned group". The problem with Clarkson is that his own private personality and his public persona are different, but use the same name and viewers can be confused who it actually is at times. The same as Stephen Colbert, but Clarkson doesn't have his own satirical comedy show.

As for the comments on the M**l website a few posts above, the irony is lost on them.

[oboogie]

The problem with Clarkson is that his own private personality and his public persona are different, but use the same name and viewers can be confused who it actually is at times. The same as Stephen Colbert, but Clarkson doesn't have his own satirical comedy show.

Bang on the money.
Ricky Gervais has built his entire career playing on that confusion, is it him, or is he in character? Not just himself but getting others to play parodies of themselves, all those guests in Extras and currently with Warwick Davis.

[bluebellnutter]

Same with Al Murray, indeed the "pub landlord" character is done as a complete send-up of the people who laud it.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Same with Al Murray, indeed the "pub landlord" character is done as a complete send-up of the people who laud it.

Do they know that? I remember Harry Enfield saying that he killed off Loadsamoney because people liked him for what he was, rather than as a satire. I think the same thing applies to Murray. I also don't think either has ever been funny.