# Jeremy Clarkson is a pig

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeremy-clarkson-is-a-pig/976814>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [December 19, 2022, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeremy-clarkson-is-a-pig/976814 "2022-12-19T22:53:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 335

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**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2023, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeremy-clarkson-is-a-pig/976814/335 "2023-01-30T18:57:22Z")

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> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#):
>
> Correct, I don’t think race played _any_ part in that comparison. I think it is blindingly obvious that the stylised hair and glasses on the potato and on the PM, plus the overall shape of Sunaks head are what make it a good piss-take. None of those have anything to do with Sunak’s race. […]
> 
> I will concede that the skin tone of Mr Potato-head matches Sunak, that is obvious. If that is what you mean by “race played a part” then I’m happy to concede that also.

IOW, you do in fact agree that “race played _any_ part in that comparison”. Okay then.

> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#):
>
> [What are your views on this example](https://www.private-eye.co.uk/pictures/lookalikes/big/fabricant-toy.jpg)?

I think it suggests the same “realities of race perception in modern societies” as the Sunak and ElBaradei examples. Namely, skin color is perceived to be strongly determinative of whether somebody “looks like” someone else, or even like something else.

For example, for [over 20 years on these boards](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-teaching-your-daughter-racism/144776/10) we’ve been occasionally revisiting the issue of a white grandparent upset at the prospect of a non-white daughter- or son-in-law on the grounds that his grandchildren won’t “look like him”. There are, of course, hundreds of significant ways in which you can physically resemble a grandparent without having the same skin tone as your grandparent. But skin tone as a race marker is very disproportionately weighted in most people’s unexamined perceptions of what constitutes “looking alike”.

Which—in a triumphant quadruple pivot back to the actual topic of this thread—is significantly relevant to the high levels of popular antagonism towards Meghan Markle, and probably was a major factor in Clarkson’s surprise at the degree of pushback against his offensive remarks about her.

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