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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to be bemused by the reaction to Jeremy Clarkson's strike comments

153 replies

fizzwhirl · 02/12/2011 09:30

I mean, have the people who are getting all wound up about it actually watched it?

He was being completely tongue-in-cheek. He starts off by saying how nice it's been to have empty streets. Then pretends to pull himself up with the comment that 'we have to balance it though don't we, because this is the bbc', and then he makes up the most extreme anti-striker view he can think of, which is what everyone is quoting.

Even if you took it literally (which would be a very strange thing to do!), he explicitely says that it's not his view.

IT WAS IRONY!

The generous part of me wonders whether the unions are just upset because he was being rather dismissive of the effect of the strikes - he certainly wasn't being respectful and taking them seriously. But I can't help thinking that actually they're just showing genuine inability to evaluate and understand.

Karen Jennings from Unison said it was almost like Gadafi making a comment about a demonstration! And she was being serious!!! Riighhhtt... so, a celebrity making a joke is the same thing as a dictator using foreign mercanaries to slaughter his people?! I suspect the Libyans would have preferred Jeremy Clarkson...

Personally, I think it's Karen Jennings who should be sacked - not for making a comment which is more offensive than the one Jeremy Clarkson made, but just for not having the slightest clue!

OP posts:

ExitPursuedBySanta · 02/12/2011 10:04

oh - we have the festive smileys.

mollymole · 02/12/2011 10:08

Too many people with a chip on their shoulder, I thought that most people knew that JC has a public persona as an entertainer who makes outrageous comments in order to wind people up and sell his books and DVDs and to get himself work bookings. To suggest that these comments merit 'investigation' is complete bollocks, however, it will mean that people in 'non jobs' will be kept in employment as some panel will have to discuss this, write reports, ask 'experts' who will be paid huge daily rates etc etc, and all on public funds.

Original poster

fizzwhirl · 02/12/2011 10:09

I also liked 'what the actual fuck', from wannabe

OP posts:

TwoIfBySea · 02/12/2011 10:13

Doesn't surprise me and confirms my little prejudiced hatred of unions.

The One Show is awful, I actually saw this only because I was in the middle of something & couldn't turn it over. The presenters were shockingly bad & if people had listened to the whole thing then they'd realise how making a fuss over it makes them look stupid.

Gaddafi indeed! What a twonk!

TwoIfBySea · 02/12/2011 10:13

Doesn't surprise me and confirms my little prejudiced hatred of unions.

Gaddafi indeed! What a twonk!

ShowOfHands · 02/12/2011 10:14

It was a right waste of perfectly edible custard. I seem to remember Chris Evans' naked feet pattering across it while the in studio audience shrieked like he was walking on water.

It was a travesty.

AntiqueAnteater · 02/12/2011 10:16

I mean, have the people who are getting all wound up about it actually watched it?

well, after the show there were a handful of complaints - presumably by the people who actually watched

now the media has done it to death and the professional offendees have clutched their pearls, the number of complaints is up to 23000. So make of that what you will

My take on it is that people love to find things to be offended by, and will go out of their way to find those things.

ShowOfHands · 02/12/2011 10:19

Do you remember somebody watching The One Show once and frothing about Peter Kay? Did I dream that thread?

LittleEmanuel · 02/12/2011 10:24

J. Clarkson is a twat. He says twattish things. Tis the way of the world and nothing to get all whingy about.

ShowOfHands · 02/12/2011 10:28

Nope, didn't dream the frothy beserky Peter Kay thread. It's still there in aibu, gently simmering its beserking froth.

slug · 02/12/2011 10:37

Clarkson is the acceptable face of mysogeny. He is the Daily Mail incarnate, a living breating testament to the British refual to think or apply logic. They can laugh at him safe in the knowledge that their secret prejudices are being aired and legitimaised.

During the late 80's DB lived in Columbia. Many of the friends he made there are now dead. Shot for the crime of being Trade unionists.

I didn't find Clarkson's comment funny. But then I don't find rape jokes funny either. Call me humourless, I don't care.

CurlyBoy · 02/12/2011 10:42

I agree. Even though I'm a fan of his I thought he was a bit out of line until I saw the whole conversation he had. It was complete irony. He said something horrible and outrageous to balance the that he liked it for the clear streets. Get a grip folks, he was trying to wind you up!

Sevenfold · 02/12/2011 10:42

yanbu I lol at it, but then I like him.
but I can understand why people find it offensive, so feel he should be dealt with.
I wish there was as much fuss about the disablist wankers comedians though

Original poster

fizzwhirl · 02/12/2011 11:03

But slug, he wasn't making a joke about people being shot, he was poking fun at the extreme views that people sometimes spout.

OP posts:

UnexpectedOrange · 02/12/2011 11:07

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

recall · 02/12/2011 11:11

When its listened to in context, it is obviously a joke, people are just being fucking stupid about it.

SeasonsGripings · 02/12/2011 11:14

He's a twat....a man with the mind of a 10 year old boy. I can't watch him...I find myself screaming at him to grow up.

Dh is a public sector worker - was he offended? No. But here's hoping he might be taken off air for a while - call it an early Christmas present.

babybythesea · 02/12/2011 11:15

I quite like the idea that after all the idiotic things he's said and done, this might be the one that gets him sacked. Now there's a bit of irony!
I doubt it will, but heigh ho, I can dream....

slug · 02/12/2011 11:20

fizzwhirl, I get the same argument from people when I object to sexist jokes and disabilist jokes. I don't for a moment think he was being serious, but his high profile and his popularity amongst impressionable young men makes his every utterance a contribution to the culture that thinks it's OK to make vile comments under the banner of 'humour'.

Ever walked down the street and had vile comments thrown at you? And if you challenge them do you get told it was only a joke and you should learn to lighten up? How is that in any way different to Clarkson and his mealy mouth 'apology' in which he made it very clear that he was not sorry at all?

ExitPursuedBySanta · 02/12/2011 11:39

Apparently he ran it past the producers before the show. And they thought it would be funny too.

Nesbo · 02/12/2011 11:39

But slug, he used hyperbole to present a ludicrous image in what was clearly signposted as a representation of an extreme view. Not his actual view, just an extreme view. It wasn't even an extreme view about disabled people or a minority, but a large cross section of society (which I suspect includes his own friends and family). It told us nothing about his actual opinion which may well be sympathetic for all you or I know.

If I said "the Conservatives are alright, oh no, actually to be balanced they are baby eating monsters" do I have to be clear that I don't think they eat actual babies just in case such a horrific image of infant cannibalism causes them offence?

Are we really arriving at a stage where the need not to cause offence to anyone is so great that we have to avoid obvious flights of rhetorical fancy in case they are taken seriously? Are people actually losing the ability to distinguish between that and hate speech? If so I despair for us all.

Nesbo · 02/12/2011 11:43

I feel I should also add, for anyone out there who has ever heard me say that people who litter should be shot (which I have on many many occasions) I don't ACTUALLY mean that I would like to see them get shot. It was a turn of phrase presenting an extreme reaction for (an admittedly very small amount of) comic effect. I hope that clarifies my position.

Original poster

fizzwhirl · 02/12/2011 11:50

slug, if Clarkson had said those things about the strikers as if that was his opinion, and then when challenged on them said 'it's only a joke', then that would be comparable to people making horrible comments on the street, and then trying to get away with it by questioning your sense of humour.

But that's not what he did. He basically said that he didn't really care about the strikes. Then he made a joke - where he made it clear that this wasn't his opinion - about all the stirring there's been the papers about public sector workers (e.g. calling their pensions 'gold-plated').

It's an interesting point about impressionable young men - but I don't think that celebrities should have to dumb down what they say so much that no-one could possibly misunderstand it, even it's deliberately quoted out of context.

OP posts:

marge2 · 02/12/2011 11:50

Storm in a teacup. If the BBC One show wanted a sensible comment about the strikes they should have asked someone else. If you insist on asking Jeremy Clarkson a question about a serious issue, you need to be prepared for a silly answer. It was clearly tongue in cheek, and the Unions are making themselves look stupid over it.

Original poster

fizzwhirl · 02/12/2011 11:51

cross-posted with nesbo, who said it much better!

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