So, Jeremy, how gay is that car?Our favourite car critic Jeremy Clarkson (photo at right) has once again run afoul of the humourless mavens of political correctness.  Last December, the BBC upheld a complaint against Mr Clarkson after he disparaged a car as “a bit gay”.  Another PC guardian has now found Clarkson guilty of political incorrectitude in connection with the same incident.

Clarkson was unimpressed by the Daihatsu Copen, last year. He asked a member of the studio audience on the BBC’s Top Gear programme whether he would consider buying one. The man replied, "No, it's a bit gay” and Clarkson added, "A bit gay, yes, very ginger beer.”

Ofcom, the media watchdog, ruled this morning that there was “no justification” for the comment.

Humour can be its own justification.  Ofcom just didn’t like the joke.

The watchdog turned to the Oxford English Dictionary and agreed that “gay” can be used to mean “foolish, stupid and socially inappropriate, or disapproved of and lame”. However, it ruled that in conjunction with “ginger beer”, Cockney rhyming slang for queer, Clarkson intended to criticise the car by describing it as homosexual.

Thankfully, Jeremy Clarkson has not restrained his anti-PC instincts in the least.  Even as Ofcom was considering Clarkson’s breach of public morality, he went and did it again.  Here’s a bit from his review of the Audi S3, published last week.

Last week I was in Isachsen, a remote settlement high in the Arctic. It’s so far north that anyone who lives there would be well within their rights to call the Inuit of Greenland a bunch of southern poofs.

Two politically esteemed minority groups—homosexuals and Inuit—can take offence at that, if they feel so inclined.  No doubt more complaints are on the way.

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