South Korea saved Mexico yesterday by beating Germany 2-0, a win that allowed Mexico to advance to the knockout stage despite their own 3-0 defeat to Sweden.
That led to plenty of fun scenes of Mexican fans cheering South Korea, including a massive crowd celebrating outside Mexico’s South Korean embassy.
It also somehow led to two Telemundo morning show hosts making a slant-eyes gesture, out of nowhere.
From FC Yahoo:
James, whose real name is James Tahhan, is the official chef of Telemundo and a co-presenter on the network’s morning show, Un Nuevo Dia. Video has emerged of the celebrity chef and restaurateur sporting a green Mexico jersey on air and laughing while making an offensive, inappropriate gesture that’s deeply racist toward Asians. One of the show’s other hosts then joins in on making the gesture while the rest of the panel all share a laugh over it.
And, yeah, that about sums it up:
That’s very bad!
Telemundo, to their credit, responded with a statement today that included an apology and an indefinite suspension for both hosts in question:
Tahhan and Benscosme apologized on the air, and Tahhan has also apologized via Twitter,
It was certainly an inappropriate gesture regardless of the situation, and Telemundo responding by pulling them immediately, and indefinitely, is certainly not too harsh a punishment.
[Yahoo]
About Jay Rigdon
Jay is a columnist at Awful Announcing. He is not a strong swimmer. He is probably talking to a dog in a silly voice at this very moment.