Am I reading way too much deep or was this a Chinese accent joke?

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Ignition1@reddit

They did the same when reviewing the "Roewe" car because that's how "Rover" sounds with a Chinese accent. That may have just been a funny fact, rather than a joke.

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Decision_Happy@reddit

It’s a witty joke for sure just like Jeremy’s slope joke in the Burma Special and just about any other stereotype joke they’ve all made.

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a45andPOW@reddit

Honestly, the controversy behind that episode taught me that slope was a slur. I had never heard it before. Silly men

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Ignition1@reddit

Same - never realised it was a slur until the controversy over it. But I mean - the bridge did have a slope, I guess saying "on it" at the end was the issue.

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Decision_Happy@reddit

as an South East Asian myself, neither have i HHAHAAH

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Few_Mine_7444@reddit

I have to say I never though about it, but is hilarious

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JordyJoe@reddit

It’s because Jeremy bought a BMW 750iL, which is the long version of the 750i

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greenrangerguy@reddit

Is definitely an L R joke cmon. Everytime in these challenges it's the thing they ALWAYS say. "I see you've bought the wrong car".

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TARDISboy@reddit

he also says "that's a no brainer on the DLagon's Den" like 2 minutes later

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I work with a few Chinese and can confirm they don't have problem pronouncing L and R to the degree of mixing up Long and Wrong, the Japanese though really struggle with it. For someone as well travelled as May, I wouldn't expect him to misplaced his dig, he just meant long in the video.

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Emergency_Cellist754@reddit

Obviously it was a Chinese accent joke.

"You bought the long car" at face value, isn't a phrase someone would use. Meanwhile in almost every episode, Clarkson always tells May "you bought the wrong car", it's one of their running phrases/jokes.

Clarkson is of the generation that makes gentle, harmless jokes about stuff like that, and it's only very recently people have started claiming they're offensive. The world was a happier place when people could take the piss out of each other provided there was no ill will intended.

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Limehaus@reddit

It’s a Japanese accent joke. The r/l confusion is mostly a Japanese thing that’s been generalised to East Asians in general

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nikhkin@reddit

Yes, it is a joke about the way many Asian people produce the letter "r", as well as being a statement about the car Clarkson bought.

One of them often states the others have bought the "wrong car".

In this case, Clarkson has bought the long version of the 750i.

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Limehaus@reddit

It’s not really many Asian people. It’s Japanese people for the most part. Most East Asian phonologies have both r and l sounds

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Ruttagger@reddit

It's a clever joke.

If it offends anyone, they have a way out because it's the long version of the car as well.

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outofmelatonin92@reddit

I’m Chinese, it’s funny.

Not offended.

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LeastPainter1488@reddit

I'm funny, its Chinese

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M0ntgomatron@reddit

I'm it's, Chinese funny

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presumputouspizza42@reddit

Funny it is Chinese.

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Sure-Perspective7497@reddit

“Funny Chinese it is” - Yoda accent / voice

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winglessrs@reddit

Other than everything else that others have explained, the "long car" is also meant as a joke on the wheelbase of the car itself because many car makers like BMW and Mercedes make LWB versions of cars specifically for China, that usually aren't sold in other markets.

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ThunderShott@reddit

Yes it was.

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CoyoteDisastrous@reddit

It might be double entendre, but as they go on to explain, the Chinese genuinely do like long wheelbase versions of cars

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memnoch112@reddit

While we are here, can someone explain what’s wrong with pronouncing it the 850 IL, Jeremy says Q pronounce it like that and no one corrects him.

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Awkward-Loquat2228@reddit

No, they're all racists.

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Upbeat-Serve-6096@reddit

Bug off, the L/R stereotype doesn't even apply to Chinese language if you even pay a slight bit attention to, like, the Chinese talking?

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boltropewildcat@reddit

Except it does. Sintic languages like Cantonese don't have an 'L' and 'R' distinction so native speakers can mix them up when learning English.

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SopaDeKaiba@reddit

Except Sintic languages do have L and R sounds. Such as the one most widely spoken, Mandarin, has both L and R sounds.

Now if you interpret you sentence differently ("Sintic languages like Cantonese" is a noun phrase) it's still wrong. Because Mandarin is like Cantonese. It's exactly the same written, it just sounds different spoken.

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retrospects@reddit

Yes

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Rogthgar@reddit

Probably is, as it often was... and probably intended to be so far down that most people would not notice or not get it... which got Jeremy into trouble a few times because the BBC did notice, like the bridge in Thailand.

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Mclarenrob2@reddit

No it's just because it's the long version of the car and car nerds such as James May would know this.

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oPlayer2o@reddit

If it was a joke I don’t think it’s intentional and I don’t think it is a joke it’s genuinely very long. Either way I don’t think offensive.

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Gothiccheese95@reddit

The thing is ‘enrgrish’ jokes really don’t bother east asians. When i lived in japan for a while i had so many jokes thrown at me about how i pronounce japanese words and i threw it back at them with engrish jokes. It is funny when people pronounce things they’re not used to saying wrong.

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UmaThermos1@reddit (OP)

Chinese food for thought, season 3

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Mattyweaves19@reddit

You can see his very slight reflection in the windshield