Villan - I thin that Harry and Ahmed might indeed have been able to joke about it with each other.

Good for Him and Ahmed.

For many other Pakistanis, Indians and Bangladeshis, particularly from older generations, the word "Paki" is one ingredient in a package of abuse including other terms like "dirty" etc and also including violence and intimidation.

This is not something from ancient history but exists in peoples living memories and revives feelings of fear and pain.

As such it was foolish and insensitive of him to record himself saying it as there was always a risk that it might fall into the wrong hands.

That is why he apologized and he was right to do so and not to say something like "There's nothing wrong with calling someone a Paki."

I too have been in social situations where I have used words like that in Jest, and in the process fel I was disempowering them as terms of abuse.

As the years have gone by, the shock value of the humour has on the one hand worn off, so that all that remains is a term of abuse and on the other hand I have realised that the mutual testing of boundaries that went with it wasn't really something I needed to do anymore.

Nowadays I have become more considerate and as I have a million other ways to express myself I allow myself to see beyond obvious predictable areas of focus and I realate to people on more varied and interesting ground.