He's a buffoon who doesn't deserve the national status he has, but this latest hoo-hah over alleged using of the N-word seem to have been blown completely out of proportion. Obviously it's not a word that anyone should use anymore, but there seems to be such a hysteria over the use if it (despite the fact that it's commonplace in rap music) that even the unflappable Clarkson had issued a grovelling video apology. I suspect he's aiming to preserve his royalties should this media generated scandal gather further momentum.

I agree, it was the pre PC version of a kids rhyme, its not like he directed the word at a fellow human being. But when you are an opinionated oaf, its no surprise that you make some enemies that will put the boot in given the opportunity.

IMO the mirror are the racists in all of this for bringing this to light, and by enhancing the sound so we can all hear him mutter N.

The BBC and JC decided not to broadcast the poem/child's rhyme on the final edit.

James May tweet was cool tho

Stuff like this p's me off. No words are inherently offensive. The offense, surely, depends on the intent and the context.
Saying the N word and calling someone the N word are entirely different things.

I derived a certain amount of wry amusement from the fact that the online "Should Jezza be sacked?" poll on the Mirror website was running something like 79% in favour of "No". Clearly the Mirror readership is not too badly flustered by this.

That's why I blame the mirror for throwing the whole thing out of context. They take an innocent rhyme used to pick between two vehicles and try to say that this was a racist chant of some sort, what a bunch of pricks ehh.

Must be a slow week for news

Strange how these 'slips' just keep on happening to him.

In a modern context its not exactly innocent, but for an old man of clarksons generation I guess its kind of hard to unlearn the "original" version.

I do get the impression though that as a seasoned media personality he knows well enough that its not a word you can or should use. Seems to me he knew that anyway and was perhaps intending to be funny or fly in the face of political correctness by mumbling the offending bit. But I guess he has apologized after the spotlight fell on this lapse, albeit after flat out denying saying it in the first place. But that just makes him an idiot, not a racist, and JC being an idiot is hardly news.

Not a sacking offence though, and if it were 95% of the other media mouthpieces out there saying it, not really newsworthy, even in a slow news week.

What? How old do you think he is?

Older than me. When I was a kid it was a tiger that was caught by the toe.

In terms of his attitudes I would guess he went to an all boys boarding school sometime in the mid 1950s but that would make him about 70, so hes clearly a throwback of some sort.

Exactly - it's all an act for publicity.

Nissan?

Lol nice one

I think they are all guilty of taking the piss out of any country they all visit, and recently truckers, (cross Burma 2 part) than being singularly racist

Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn has the N word in it 219 times!
Just saying. The "establishment" has tried to clean it up numerous times, but largely failed. A word out of context is just a word. Saying something with intent is another matter. I personally wouldn't even have joined the dots to interpret the poem or intent as racist if I hadn't read this thread. Perhaps I'm overly naïve, but I do think a bit a bit of contextual licence can be brought to bear sometimes. Plus he can be something of a provocative oaf.

A jocular use of a form of the rhyme by a Southwest Airlines flight attendant, encouraging passengers to sit down so the plane could take off, led to a 2003 lawsuit charging the airline with intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent infliction of emotional distress. Two versions of the rhyme were attested in court; both "Eeny meeny miny mo, Please sit down it's time to go" and "Pick a seat, it's time to go". The passengers in question were African American and stated that they were humiliated due to what they called the "racist history" of the rhyme. A jury returned a verdict in favor of Southwest and the plaintiffs' appeal was denied.[13]