Entertainment
Americans have finally watched Great British Bake Off’s Mexican Week and are unsurprisingly appalled-Sabrina Barr-Entertainment – Metro
‘Everyone should be arrested and tried for their crimes,’ one viewer declared.
Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas opened the episode by making a gag ‘in poor taste’ (Credits: Channel 4)
This week on The Great British Bake Off, the latest episode sparked controversy after the 10 remaining bakers were tasked with serving up dishes themed around ‘Mexican Week’.
In the introduction, presenters Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas were criticised for a ‘disappointing’ gag that viewers said was made in ‘poor taste’, with some also labelling the episode ‘racist’ for perpetuating harmful stereotypes.
While GBBO airs on Tuesday evenings in the UK on Channel 4 and All 4, over in the US – where it’s also known as The Great British Baking Show – the programme releases its new episodes on Fridays on Netflix.
While those in America who are fans of the show saw negative reactions to Mexican Week plastered across social media, they’ve since been able to watch the episode to ascertain how they feel about the theme, how it was interpreted and the jokes that were made at its expense.
As can be expected, the episode has received a new rush of criticism, with viewers in the US calling it a ‘train wreck’ and ‘awful’.
‘Nothing has united American Twitter more than dumping on The Great British Bake Off, Mexican Week in a long time,’ one person tweeted.
The bakers had to make pan dulce for the Signature, tacos for the Technical and tres leche cakes for the Showstopper challenge (Picture: Channel 4)
‘British people always saying how dumb Americans are as if I didn’t just watch a train wreck from start to finish of Mexican week on British Bake-Off,’ another stated.
Several people called out the pronunciation of ‘guacamole’, ‘taco’ and ‘pico de gallo’, while one fan wrote: ‘Watching Great British Bake-off with the wife (I don’t watch) and it’s Mexican Week and everyone should be arrested and tried for their crimes.’
A Mexican fan of The Great British Bake Off said that while they would still continue watching the programme, they begged those in charge of the show to ‘never do Mexican Week again’.
‘This really hurts my Mexican heart. I mean I’ll never quit you but just not a good week,’ they said.
Bad Feminist writer Roxane Gay questioned ‘how did they get here?’ while watching the episode, remarking that Bake Off is usually ‘so good at staying in their lane’.
Someone else suggested that guest judges representing different cultures should be brought in to help lend their expertise, as they quipped: ‘The worst was watching Paul explain tacos as he’d “just got back from Mexico”.’
Metro.co.uk previously contacted Channel 4 and representatives for Noel and Matt for comment over the criticism of Mexican Week.
The Great British Bake Off returns on Tuesday at 8pm on Channel 4 and All 4.
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