Keith Chegwin And Iain Lee Slammed For 'Casual Racism' On Pointless
Pointless is supposed to be a light-hearted teatime quiz show but the latest episode took a bit of a concerning turn when Keith Chegwin and Iain Lee made a questionable quip that outraged viewers have dubbed “casual racism”.
Ooft, come on guys, it’s 2016.
The duo were taking part on a celebrity special of the BBC quiz show alongside Antony Costa, Michelle Heaton, Lisa Maxwell, Rav Wilding, Nicholas Parsons and Helen Lederer when they gave the questionable answer.
In the show, the pair were asked to use a visual clue in order to guess the name of a pop band, with Keith and Iain being shown a photo of two young Asian girls looking at a range of spices.
The correct answer was, of course, Spice Girls but the two men responded with “Cornershop”.
Michelle and Antony said that they would have given that answer too but Iain realised the mistake moments before the correct answer was read out, with Keith hiding behind their podium in embarrassment.
Understandably viewers took to Twitter to express their outrage for the remark:
Ooh slightly casual racist moment with corner shop on #pointless oops…
— JP (@baddogz) April 30, 2016
bit racist off that guy to go for corner shop when there’s two Indians in the picture.. #pointless
— Jake Doyle (@jakedoyle93) April 30, 2016
#pointless on #bbc how racist was the celebs on the 1st H2H question #everydayracism. 2 asians 1st thing they think is corner shop lol.
— Darth Ry'dar (@DarthRydar) April 30, 2016
Cornershop answer from both teams on pointless. A bit racist that. Spice girls surely
— Walnuts (@PaoloWalnuts) April 30, 2016
That moment on pointless was the most unintentionally racist thing ever.
— Miranda Makepeace (@MMakepeace13) April 30, 2016
Keith has not commented on the backlash but Iain has since taken to Twitter to defend his comments, updating his bio to read “Not a racist” and replying to critics, writing: “Well being accused of being a racist in 2 ‘newspapers’ has sent me right into a funk. I was overthinking what was a very simple quiz.
"People On Twitter get offended at everything. Was it a dumb answer? Yes. Very. Was it racist? No. Of course not.
"I’m sorry. If anyone was offended. I’m sorry. I AM NOT A RACIST.”
Well, we’re glad that’s been cleared up.