Tuesday, February 8, 2011

"Top Gear" in agua caliente

Top Gear's Richard Hammond: often referred to as a "hamster"
     Writer Gustavo “¡Ask a Mexican!” Arellano—a finalist in last year’s IVC commencement speaker selection process*—has joined the chorus of complaint about an episode of the popular BBC series “Top Gear” in which the three hosts ridicule a Mexican sports car in terms of familiar, negative—and dated—American stereotypes. You can view Gustavo's understated rant below.
     I’ve been a fan of “Top Gear” for years, which is not to say that I’ve always been happy with the show and its silly and outrageous hosts. I’ll say this in their defense: I don’t think anyone who regularly watches the show takes the hosts' irreverent and anti-everybody-including-our-own-kind patter seriously. The show is a kind of flaming tower of stupidity and irresponsibility, like a "Punk'd"** for car-loving adult men (plus seriously cool cars). Maybe that's obvious to everyone. Hope so.
     On the other hand, if I were a Mexican, I’d be seriously pissed. Lazy and flatulent Mexicans? C’mon!



The offending segment:


*Gustavo is a finalist this year, too.
**I've never actually seen this show. Infantile crap, right?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think those familiar with the show know that the hosts present a mix of the silly/outrageous and the "serious" (e.g., no doubt some of their assessments of models) and that those anti-German, anti-French, and anti-Mexican blatherings are part of the goofy nonsense. Naturally, one must exercise a kind of consistency to do this right, and the anti-Mexican remarks seemed to be emphasized overmuch. On the other hand, if Germans can take being called ruthless, then maybe Mexicans should be able to handle being called lazy. --Well, maybe not. These boys should be more careful. That's for sure.

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