Clint Eastwood believes the rise of political correctness is no laughing matter. He says the world would be a better place if we could still laugh at inoffensive jokes about different races.
The Hollywood actor and director, 78, said we live in constant fear of being labelled racist for simply laughing about national stereotypes.
'People have lost their sense of humour,' he told Germany's Der Spiegel magazine.
'In former times we constantly made jokes about different races.
'You can only tell them today with one hand over your mouth otherwise you will be insulted as a racist.
'I find that ridiculous. In those earlier days every friendly clique had a "Sam the Jew" or "Jose the Mexican" - but we didn't think anything of it or have a racist thought.
'It was normal that we made jokes based on our nationality or ethnicity. That was never a problem.
''I don't want to be politically correct. We're all spending too much time and energy trying to be politically correct about everything.'
His comments come in a week in which BT suspended 30 call centre staff after they had circulated an Irish joke by email.
BT, however, insists other serious matters were involved and that a joke was not the sole reason for the suspensions.