Mexican comments Following the broadcast of the second episode of Series 16, controversy arose from the episode's News segment and the discussion between the presenters about Mexico's first supercar. During the discussion, two of the hosts described
Mexicans as being lazy and that no-one would complain because they were all too busy
sleeping, provoking the Mexican ambassador,
Eduardo Medina Mora, to accuse the presenters of resorting to "outrageous, vulgar and inexcusable insults to stir bigoted feelings against the Mexican people", while stating that the remarks were offensive,
xenophobic and humiliating and reinforced negative
stereotypes of Mexican people. While the
BBC defended the presenters' anti-Mexican jokes, it apologised about some of the remarks made. Comedian
Steve Coogan, however, criticised the programme for its pitiful apology following the broadcast, suggesting that the usual defence of "a bit of a laugh", or "harmless fun" was no longer appropriate, that the insults had gone too far, and described the comments as being "as funny as a cold sweat followed by shooting pains down the left arm". However, Mastretta appeared to have brushed off the insults, with general director Carlos Mastretta clarifying that the car was simply used as a pretext for the jokes, and that the controversy has increased interest in the MXT. The Mexican comments were cut when the episode was broadcast in the United States and when the episodes were put on the BBC iPlayer.
Albanian Road Trip film After the third episode of Series 16 was aired, the BBC received several complaints in regards to the road trip film, in which the presenters were finding a car suitable for the "Albanian Mafia". A number of complaints were directed to a segment of the film in which the presenters 'murdered' a fat Albanian and attempted to find out which of three car boots he would fit into the best, while the stereotypical views that
Albania was a nest for
mafia car thieves, were also criticised. ==Notes==