And he certainly doesn't exclude himself/his own type, as there's something negative about the UK practically 30 seconds.
As for "it's just a joke", yes, it is. Pretty much every successful comedian uses ethnicity/race sometimes. Bad ones rely on it entirely (Ex: Carlos Mencia). But as something that should be off limits for humor? No.
Also, when all the presenters are white, it's a little hard to take this "we make fun of everyone" line seriously. If a white British person makes fun of white British people, that's obviously a different dynamic to a white British person making fun of people lower down the social pecking order.
Oh, and then outside the show, there's the times Clarkson has explicitly advocated racism:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/9247835/J...
For that matter, they've done entire episodes about how terrible the UK is at things, like the British Leyland cheap car challenge.
If he made those comments about anything else, someone would call them offensive. I find that double standard and the concept that you can't make jokes about anything far more concerning than the content of his "controversies" aside from the punching.
(Or Germans, for that matter.)
Clarkson makes fun of everyone, himself more than anyone else (call that privilege). That is why he is funny.
>and when it is pointed out that he makes fun of white people
He doesn't make fun of white people as such. Making fun of Germans for being German is not the same as making fun of white people for being white.