Another Top Gear episode, another controversy.
At the end of a year that has already seen him upset Asians and Argentineans and forced him into a groveling apology after being heard using the N-word on camera, Jeremy Clarkson seemingly couldn’t let the Top Gear Christmas special pass without offering up another opportunity for trouble.
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In the Dec. 27 episode of the BBC’s flagship car program, the British presenter appeared to deliberately mock a ruling by U.K. broadcasting regulator Ofcom, which had criticized his use of the word ‘slope’ in the show earlier this year.
The organization in July said that Clarkson had “deliberately employed the offensive word to refer to the Asian person” in reference to a March episode set in Burma. As a man walked over a makeshift bridge on the River Kwai, Clarkson had said: “That is a proud moment, but there’s a slope on it,” resulting in instant backlash.
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But in the Christmas special set in Argentina, already the epicenter of arguably Top Gear‘s most controversial episode to date, Clarkson apparently couldn’t stop himself from poking fun at the incident. Admiring another bridge, Clarkson told his co-presenter Richard Hammond: “That is a proud moment, Hammond, but — is it straight?”
