AUSTIN – A crass joke using the n-word that Kinky Friedman told 26 years ago has prompted his opponents to call for an apology – a move Mr. Friedman dismissed as gamesmanship.

Mr. Friedman said he did not recall telling the joke but explained that in his years as a stand-up comic, he regularly used racial, ethnic and sexual satire. He said his act was often "raunchy" and "over the edge" in the vein of Lenny Bruce or Richard Pryor.

While at a club in Houston, Mr. Friedman is heard on an audio snippet saying: "I went to a bowling alley. I couldn't go bowling. There were no bowling balls. The people here threw them all in the sea. They thought they were [n-word] eggs."

The snippet appeared Thursday on burntorangereport.com, a blog affiliated with progressive Democratic politics.

Mr. Friedman said he did not think the joke was offensive in the context of his show. And he said he would not be surprised if opponents tried to smear him with other "redneck" jokes he used about Hispanics, women, Jews and gays.

"I think Texas voters will decide, and I think they'll decide correctly that these guys are slimy ... cockroaches," Mr. Friedman said of those who would try to paint him as a racist. "It's what keeps people from running for office. And I don't think it's going to work."

But other major candidates in the race said such comments are over the edge.

"The latest revelations of Kinky's racist comments are disgusting," said Democrat Chris Bell. "He can call it 'satire,' but it's just not funny."

Mr. Friedman, an author, musician and humorist in the crowded race for governor, has been challenged recently for other comments he has made that offended some in the black community.

AP

Kinky Friedman said his standup comedy was often in the vein of Lenny Bruce or Richard Pryor.

This month, he lamented the crime spike in Houston tied to Hurricane Katrina evacuees, calling those responsible "thugs and crackheads." In a CNBC interview last year, he said that sexual predators should be locked in cells all day and made "to listen to a Negro talking to himself."

Republican Gov. Rick Perry told reporters Thursday morning – before the latest revelation – that he stood with NAACP state director Gary Bledsoe and state Rep. Garnett Coleman, D-Houston, when they criticized Mr. Friedman for such comments.

"It's not lost on men and women of color when people make remarks that are clearly racist, if not directly racist, obliquely racist. And I think they have appropriately called his hand on it," Mr. Perry said.

Independent candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn, through spokesman Mark Sanders, said: "That kind of thinking and language was totally unacceptable when he said it and is totally unacceptable today. I think he should apologize to the people of Texas."

Mr. Friedman said those who are dredging up old quotes and jokes are busy trying to show how politically correct they are so no one will ask them why they haven't achieved improvements in education or immigration reform.

"I'm defending anything that a stand-up comedian, probably drunk and on drugs, who does his kind of thing" would say, Mr. Friedman said. "Anything he says I don't think should be taken in quite the same way as if he wrote it in an essay. If they can find a nonfiction piece of work where I attack any ethnic group, let that one fly. But they're talking about a stage act, about a person who's supposed to offend everyone – that's his act.

"We could use a good deal more politicians who are not so afraid of offending people," he said.

Mr. Friedman said he believes the criticism was an orchestrated attack, much like what lawyers did to Los Angeles police Officer Mark Fuhrman during the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

"The question became whether Mark Fuhrman used the n-word with the gangs he was working with in LA. And the real issue was did O.J. murder his wife. And we never got to that," Mr. Friedman said.

Staff writer Robert T. Garrett contributed to this report.

E-mail choppe@dallasnews.com