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Karl Stefanovic: India, New Zealand & anybody else who happens to be offended

"It was thought to be fun, it was fun, I enjoyed, he enjoyed it, but some of you didn't," says Karl after latest clanger.

After his Karl clanger yesterday in which Mr. Stefanovic attracted headlines for an apparently-racist remark about India, the Today show host has now apologised.

Whilst interviewing Indian cricket fans, Stefanovic decided to ask how many 7-11 stores would be manned yesterday. Some mild outrage ensued even though the fans seemed to take it in good jest.

But he also managed to apologise and offend New Zealanders too.

Here’s his mea culpa:

For those watching yesterday I made two remarks that got plenty of you hot under the collar.

So a mea culpa this morning from me.

The comments were only ever intended to be taken in the most light-hearted possible way but as most of you know… I have a wayward, misguided sense of humour.

In fact as plenty of you say and have pointed out – I have no sense at all.

Firstly to those members of the Indian community, our guest yesterday Kartik gave as good as he got and that banter continued in the true spirit of the World Cup after the show. We had a great conversation. He owned me on air and he owned me off air.

It was thought to be fun, it was fun, I enjoyed, he enjoyed it, but some of you didn’t. For anyone interpreting the comments in a different way my sincere apologies.

I love India and I love the contribution Indians make across many different vocations in this great country. Our country is richer for having you and so are our sauces.

For my Kiwi brothers and sisters. Calling you dole-bludgers was an awful, cheap stereotype and just not true.

As we all know, you can’t get the dole in Australia.

Again though, my sincere heartfelt apology to anyone across the ditch or in Bondi who took offence.

Just because you’ve got a cool, happening and effective government and a really, really attractive lot of livestock doesn’t mean I should take the sheep out of you.

I love all of you in New Zealand. I love your wine. I lived there for two years. I count two Kiwi blokes amongst my best friends, in fact, my only friends.

So what I want to say to all of you this morning in Aotearoa, the land of the long white cloud is this: whack on a pair of jandals and get across the ditch. It’s my shout Sunday no matter what happens. All of you, four million of you, let’s go.

Source: Nine News

15 Responses

  1. Karl skilfully uses humour to get himself out of these tasteless comments. He tries to portray himself as a knock about guy bot lets not forget his mates include Jamie Packer and right wingers like Tony Abbott and Alan Jones.

      1. Karl Stefanovic’s “Mea Culpa Apology(?)” – “Just because you’ve got a cool, happening and effective government and a really, really attractive lot of livestock doesn’t mean I should take the sheep out of you”. Even in his apology he still manages to cast aspersions on the New Zealanders! Why hasn’t Station TCN-Sydney shoved this moron out the back door with a size-9 boot up his arse?

  2. People hate Karl because he doesn’t fit their mould of a straight-laced TV presenter who never does anything out of the ordinary. This sometimes means he says some stupid things….which is just realistic because we all do. These comments are not part of that.

    1. I hope I don’t offend you by calling you the number one member of the PC brigade but when did it stop becoming acceptable for Australians, who are known for taking the piss out of themselves and others, to stop taking the piss out of themselves and others?

      I assume you don’t buy bonbons at Christmas because some of those puns could be considered racist and offensive? How about TV shows that have skits on them when they are impersonating real life people, do you watch those or do you send angry letters into the networks to have them taken off air?

      Relax a little.

  3. Regarding the original interview, I’ve seen articles that interpret Kartik’s centrelink zinger as meaning Karl was being offensive and should be looking for another job. I didn’t see it that way at all! I thought Kartik meant….at least Indians have jobs unlike all the out of work aussies who will be at centrelink.

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