Yeah, if you go by the iPlayer, the most popular BBC comedy at present is the REPEAT showings of 'Mock the Week' which roundly offends about 90% of the planet every 2 minutes, and quite possibly the only BBC at present I'd bother switching on for. Yes at the moment my licence fee pays for mock the week.
After Richard Hammond crashed that jetcar at 300mph, wasn't it Frankie Boyle who said -
'You know the Government should have a new anti speeding campaign - just a shot of Richard Hammond in hospital trying to remember what his wife looks like'
That's at the tame end of things said on that show, so I don't think Clarkson is pushing it, Daily Mail 'readers' up in arms about nothing again. I say readers, I think they look at the front page, see a dusky man with a beard and a house and decide muslims are to blame for house prices.
'Top Gear' like 'Mock the week', is aimed at a largely male, 16-35 demographic, who are not going to be offended by slightly edgy jokes. I'd put a sizable bet on the only people complaining being people who have 'heard' or 'read' about something that might have been said.
It reminds me of the showing of 'Jerry Springer - The Opera' or the Brass Eye paedo special, where you have MPs condemning the material, yet, when pushed know NOTHING of the content because they haven't watched it, they're just complaining because they were told it would make them look good.
As for the Brand/Ross thing, I think it pushed it a bit too far, and chose the wrong target. I get the feeling if they'd chosen say, Jeffrey Archer, no-one would have batted an eyelid, but Andrew Sachs was part of british comedy history and a well loved character.
However, a simple apology should have been enough, and I think Andrew Sachs is worse off, where it could have been a moment of stupidity, followed by them apologising, now everyone in the country knows the details.
