Kinky Friedman: Interesting Tidbits From The Past

I’ve been doing some digging just to see what other gems have come out of Kinky Friedman’s mouth over the years.

Turns out he’s insulted not only African Americans, but lawyers, gays, women, and a host of other groups. And, he and Texas Congressman Lamar Smith (R-San Antonio) are great pals!
Here are some excerpts:

Washington Post, September 8, 1986, Page C1:

“There are no good lawyers,” he writes. “There may be lady wrestlers and Catholic universities. There may be military intelligence. But a good lawyer is a contradiction in terms.” Other Kinkyisms: “Nobody really understood women except maybe bisexual hairdressers,” and “a man without a woman was like a neck without a pain.”

From that same article, here’s an interesting quote on politics, which makes us wonder if Kinky is telling the truth at all:

“If you tell the truth as a politician, you’re gonna lose. Even if you tell a little bit of it. When you’re writing fiction, it’s important to tell the truth. Not the technical truth, but the larger truth. In this book, when I was writing this, I was able to use experiences I’ve had.”

Also from that article, more usage of the word ‘negro:’

“When I got up here I was kind of a redneck, I suppose. There were all kinds of people. Right next door was a Negro family. We became very good friends. They had a little Jewish jockey in the front yard.”

Then, some making fun of gays in a March 20, 2003 Texas Monthly article:

After some minor soul-searching, I decided to throw my ten-gallon yarmulke in the ring and form an exploratory committee headed by the dead Dutch explorer Sir Wilhelm Rump-humper. The committee had one meeting and came back with the consensus that, as long as Willie Nelson or Pat Green didn’t decide to run, I could be the next governor.

They offered the opinion that many of Pat’s people were probably too young to vote and that Willie, God bless him, did not quite present as clean-cut an image as I did.

Also, neither of them had had any previous experience in politics. Not only had I run for J.P., but I’d also been chairman of the Gay Texans for Phil Gramm committee.

Though the report was encouraging, I had to admit that I was beginning to find the prospect of the governorship rather limiting. I aspired to inspire before I expired. There had to be something I could do for my country besides flying five American flags from my pickup truck and telling the guy with four American flags on his pickup truck, “Go back to Afghanistan, you communist bastard!”

But what of the president’s offer? To clear the boards for my race for governor, I asked my old Austin High pal Billy Gammon to check the status of my appointment. Billy’s so close to the president he gets to fly in the White House helicopter.

“I stand ready to serve!” I told Billy.“I’ll get back to you,” he said.And he did.

[...]

I got over my disappointment quickly. Like most of us, I determined that I’d rather be a large part of the problem than a small part of the solution. Besides, I’ve got Big Mo on my side. I’m not sure how traveling with a large homosexual will go down with the voters, but hell, I’ll try anything.

Macleans, February 14, 2000: Lamar Smith, a Republican congressman from south Texas, is Exhibit A for those who argue that Canadians are better off being overlooked in the United States. He’s the very model of a modern Republican: polite to a fault, a practising Christian Scientist whose only concession to quirkiness is his friendship with fellow Texan Kinky Friedman, the country-singer-turned-mystery-writer who once led a band known as much for its outrageous name — the Texas Jewboys — as for its music.

Note that Kinky’s been insensitive to women for years, too:

Billboard, October 31, 1998: Missing in the talent pool are any female artists, though Friedman says k.d. lang was approached to do his immortal “Get Your Biscuits In The Oven And Your Buns In The Bed”–which, in 1974, earned him the National Organization for Women’s Male Chauvinist Pig of the Year Award….

Still more…

Billboard, July 26, 1997: “We’ve got to get some women on this thing; it’s beginning to look like a gay man’s choir,”

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Filed Under: 2006 Texas Elections, Kink-Er-Iffic!
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