Kate Garraway was forced to apologise to Good Morning Britain viewers on Wednesday after one guest swore live on air.
The mum-of-two was hosting the ITV show alongside Ben Shephard when they invited actress Harriet Thorpe and Dr Rob Drummond on to discuss accents.
The debate came after an Italian restaurant owner recently said his number one “bad dining etiquette” is people who order their food in a mock Italian accent.
Dr Drummond agreed with James Chiavarini's comment and said: "There’s using accents in a particular story or a joke for some kind of comedic effect, and then there’s mimicking someone’s accent to their face or behind their back and I think both are problematic but perhaps for different reasons.
"I think if you're using a particular accent in a story or a sitcom, you've got to ask yourself, 'why am I using this particular voice?'"
Dr Drummond continued: "And the chances are because of some kind of lazy stereotype, and all you're doing by using that is reinforcing this stereotype and these kind of stereotypes, they're almost always negative and they're often pretty damaging.
"Because somebody's accent, somebody's voice, is so connected to who they are, so it's very connected to their social class, their ethnicity, their gender, even their sexuality, so when you're kinda using it in a mocking, stereotypical way, it's really not a million miles away from using sexist, racist, homophobic language," he added.
Dr Drummond went on to use examples, such as popular television sitcom Fawlty Towers, which starred John Cleese.
But Absolutely Fabulous actress Harriet was keen to have her say and said: "We shouldn't mimic and mock people, absolutely not.
"But when you're expressing something, and not only in Fawlty Towers, he's taking the p*ss out of himself as the terrible owner of this horrific hotel. He also speaks in a certain way that we laugh at.
"It isn't taking the mickey out of someone, it's creating a story and that's what we do," Harriet added.
But GMB host was quick to butt in and said: "We should apologise in case somebody didn't like you're way of describing joking in that way."
Elsewhere on Wednesday's show, Ben was forced to apologise to one guest after he referred to her daughter as "he".
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV.
