Clint Eastwood defends ‘racist’ jokes

How alike is Clint Eastwood (pictured) to the character he plays in his latest film Gran Torino? Very, it seems. In the movie (see trailer below), the actor plays a retired soldier who ends up living next to a Chinese family, whom he cheerfully dismisses as "gooks" and "slit-eyes", but who he then goes on to befriend, defending them Dirty Harry-style with guns and extreme violence.

But speaking to the German newspaper, Der Spiegel, Eastwood, 78, said he firmly believes that making jokes about other races is acceptable. "People have lost their sense of humour," he said. "In former times we constantly made jokes about different races. You can only tell them today with one hand over your mouth otherwise you will be insulted as a racist.

"I find that ridiculous. In those earlier days every friendly clique had a 'Sam the Jew' or 'Jose the Mexican' - but we didn't think anything of it or have a racist thought. It was normal that we made jokes based on our nationality or ethnicity. That was never a problem."

But Clint's comments seem to go against the grain. This week BT suspended 30 call centre staff after they had circulated an Irish joke by email. The quip involved the death of three Irishmen who jump off a precipice. The first leaps with a budgie thinking he's budgie-jumping; the second shoots a parrot on the way down, thinking he's parrot-shooting and the third jumps with a hen, believing he's hen-gliding.