WASN’T Boris Johnson wonderful this week? Isn’t it a delight that the unfiltered mouth beneath the blond back-to-front mop has opened once again and flushed out its effluence?

Our Foreign Secretary went out to Foreign Land once again and made headlines after butting heads with a Maori chieftain, as tradition demands. But BoJo saw it as an opportunity to toss a stereotype gag in the direction of his northern neighbours (us) hinting that headbutting is as common to Glasgow bars as darts and dodgy sports socks.

It was a welcome comment for a couple of reasons; it served as a reminder that political parties are all too ready to appoint buffoons into very high places (Napoleon Bonaparte once wrote “In politics stupidity is not a handicap.”) But it also underlined the notion that Johnson’s stream of egregious comments have long been fermenting away in his Wodehousian brain, waiting for an opportunity to emerge.

He’s a powerful argument for Freud’s contention there is no such thing as a joke, that comment masks a hidden truth.

Our sharp-tongued Foreign Secretary hasn’t been alone in dressing up the gag. Last week Gary Lineker, who gets almost £2m a year for chatting to retired ba’ booters about dodgy offside decisions, reacted to claims of his salary being obscene with the Twitter comment; “This whole BBC salary exposure business is an absolute outrage . . . I mean how can Chris Evans be on more than me?’

Funny, Gary. Especially since you’ve long proclaimed yourself the liberal, the egalitarian. What the diversion device implies is you actually believe you’re worth that sort of public money.

Bouts of such delivery can of course emerge when the host is weakened, by an ego-inflating audience or alcohol, but that’s not to deny their intent. And dressing the highly pointed remarks as a joke is a convenient bandage around the badinage which has caused offence.

Top Gear’s Richard Hammond once came out with the comment Mexicans are “lazy, feckless and flatulent.” Funnily enough, the Mexican government didn’t think it funny at all. More recently Hammond suggested that men who eat ice cream are gay. There’s no doubt at all some are, but the willingness to take pleasure in a Mr Whippy isn’t absolute confirmation of same sex preference. And Hammond’s little comedy sprinkles seem to taste a little of homophobia.

As for his unreconstructed colleague Clarkson, he can be very funny and caustic, but you could script pages of his insults - Asians were once described as “Slopes” - and as such you have to worry about the character of the man.

But at least Clarkson is defiant. What’s irritating is those who insult or complain but then suggest they’re simply joking around. This week Dr Who boss Stephen Moffat mumped his gums in the direction of those who had criticised the appointment of the first female Doctor, Jodie Whittaker. He blasted journalists who claimed fans are revolting against the casting and claimed there is an 80 per cent approval rating for Whittaker on social media. “Not that I check these things obsessively,” he joked. Was he really? He griped about journos, cited his evidence and then suggested his evidence source to be spurious?

Be honest, Mr Moffat. If you’re making a cutting comment which involves criticising someone, a nation or a culture, at least have the decency not to apologise for it. Be like Prince Philip, who once asked a driving instructor in Oban “How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to get them through the test?” That’s a funny line because we can laugh at the fact the old fuddy believed it to be true.

But don’t be like Gordon Brown, who having labelled a sweet little old lady a bigot during the 2010 election backtracked and declared the comment a joke. Or Britney Spears who said she was joking after she asked “Where the hell is Australia anyway?” Admit you missed Geography that day, Britney.

It’s nice to see someone take ownership of the trashing comment disguised as a joke. The world laughed when the Pope had a very nice pop (and indulged perhaps in a little fat shameing) of portly President Trump recently when he asked Melania what she had been feeding her hubs. You knew Pope Francis had too much previous with The Donald (eg climate change, the Mexican wall) for the fat comment to be taken as light brevity.

Trump too is unapologetic, about his “jokes” about women, disabled journalists, etc. And that’s terrific because each attempt at comedy will hopefully put another nail in his political coffin.

So let’s be thankful Boris Johnson’s mouth is free flowing. Shakespeare claimed “In jest there is truth” and yes, let’s laugh at the jest, but embrace this free speech as a reminder what privilege, class and inherent crassness can create.

We need to know what our overpaid BBC presenters are thinking. And if we’re thought of as a nation of head-butting drunks who shouldn’t be allowed to drive we’re all the better for knowing that.