h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Fair enough Sho, and if the room is country-sized…

>>Mel Gibson made some spectacularly offensive remarks in California a number of years ago. Had he been a private citizen, chances are he would not have gotten coast-to-coast media attention for it, but since he was a famous actor and director, everybody knew about it.<<

.. and the police could of got away with giving him a beating to teach him the error of his ways

Good point. I did *not* think of that.

T think whether or not the term is widely used in the uk is relevant for the BBC letting it go out unedited. Presumably it just went over whoever is supposed to suppress Jeremy Clarkson's wilder efforts at shock jockism's heads.

As for JC himself, I wonder if it is a bit like swear words in a foreign language - it's very hard to take them seriously. You just don't *feel* the tabooishness in the same way you do for your own. Stupid thing to do though if you are fronting a programme sold around the world, and not just to places where they will creatively translate your racial slurs on their ethnicity.