Please, BBC, Don't Insult Your Viewers

I've been hesitating mentioning the whole Top Gear furore because mentioning the programme or the presenters makes people presume I'm having a go at "whatever it is they've said this time", when frankly I could be trimming my greenie-liberal beard or buffing up my sandals! I don't really give a bugger about what the presenters of Top Gear say, because they go out of their way to offend – it's like watching small children who've just learned their first swear word shouting "BUM!" at top volume in the hope of getting a response.  Life is Too Short!

However, what really does piss me off is that given a whole lot of people saying "actually that's not acceptable" and giving reasons, the BBC's response is to say "you just don't understand humour".

That same argument from Clarkson et al themselves? Have heard SO MANY TIMES and they're not important enough for me to worry. But that the BBC is prepared to patronise viewers rather than suggest that anything on Top Gear (one of their biggest grossing programmes, by the way – and yes, I'm sure that's relevant) could possibly be wrong? I'm hugely uncomfortable about that.

I've heard that particular "oh, you can't take a joke" response too many times in too many outrageous situations. I'd take it from the presenters, but from a national corporation? Not content with telling the world that we're racist and it's funny ("jokes made around national stereotyping are commonplace, and are indeed a robust part of our national humour. Typically the most comedic ones are negative"), the BBC helpfully tells the people who complained that they just aren't clever enough to understand the difference between humour and offensiveness.

It may appear offensive to those who have not watched the programme or who are unfamiliar with its humour.

Okay. How many times do you have to have seen Top Gear in order to be allowed to complain? Ten times? One hundred? Every Single Episode? Is it so complex that it takes several years of careful study in order to be able to speak about it? Blimey, and there I was thinking that it was a program about cars…