Jeremy Clarkson has shared his honest thoughts on cultural appropriation after learning Winchester Cathedral was planning to erect a £100,000 Jane Austen statue.
The statue has sparked controversy since plans to honour the author on the 250th anniversary of her birth were announced a few weeks ago.
Locals have complained it could lead to a "Disneyfication" of the holy building while others have raised the objection of cultural appropriation as Austen wasn't actually from Winchester.
Clarkson has shared his thoughts on the matter, admitting he wants to "shake" those moaning about the actual birthplace and scream: "It doesn't f***ing matter."
"I can’t really get my head round all of the issues to be found in the latest social minefield: 'cultural appropriation'," Clarkson began in his latest column.
He then referred to the social restrictions surrounding fancy dress parties before he continued: "Other things? Well, we are told that in drama, midgets must be played by midgets, and homosexuals by homosexuals, and that Peter Sellers would be sent to Coventry for ever for doing what he did in The Party.
Jeremy Clarkson runs his farm Diddly Squat in Chadlington, Oxfordshire
INSTAGRAM/JEREMY CLARKSON"So was it wrong for Robert Carlyle, who’s Scottish, to play the part of a Yorkshire person in The Full Monty? Technically I suppose it was, but as a Yorkshire person, I didn’t mind."
"Let’s face it, if the producers had gone for homegrown talent, they’d have ended up with Geoffrey Boycott. Or Patrick Stewart, who’s spent most of his acting life culturally appropriating Oxfordshireness and the French."
Clarkson went on to surmise that cultural appropriation is "taking a cultural identity and pretending it is part of your background".
Exposing its flaws, he explained in The Times: "So that means every actor is guilty, along with every social climber, every expat, every immigrant who converts to Christianity to get UK citizenship, every street busker who plays a Beatles song, every white kid with dreadlocks … and every halfwit who pulls on a pair of wellies, buys a cow and says he’s a farmer."
In the end, Clarkson brilliantly picked apart the faux outrage surrounding the Austen statue, pointing out the vast majority don't mind.
"No one cares about statues unless they were erected in honour of someone who had a slave," he quipped.
It's not the first time in recent weeks that Clarkson has dismantled today's approach to matters like political correctness and cultural appropriation.
Earlier this month, following a surprise appearance at the Bahrain F1, he questioned whether the UK could ever throw an event that simply celebrated senseless male brute strength - similar to Force Basque in France of the Florida Man Games in America.
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Jeremy Clarkson has ripped apart today's cultural appropriation approach
GETTYHe surmised: "None of it would be allowed.
"There’d be claims of misogyny and then a woman would turn up saying she identified as a man and wanted to take part in the 'how hard can I be kicked in the testicles' competition."
Fans will be able to see more from Clarkson when the third series of Clarkson's Farm debuts on Amazon Prime Video in May.
There's good news for the future of the farming show too, as Amazon has already greenlit the show for a fourth season.
