3 Eye-Opening Parts of Michael Eakin’s Deposition

Former Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Michael Eakin.

It was only one performance, but it doesn’t look like Louis C.K. has any reason to worry about Michael Eakin putting him out of business.

Eakin resigned from the state Supreme Court on Tuesday in a bid to save his pension and avoid a misconduct trial over racist, pornographic and misogynistic emails that he sent and received through a private email account.

But it’s clear the controversy surrounding Eakin — and anything related to the the maddening Porngate saga — won’t be dying down anytime soon.

On Thursday night, Associated Press reporter Mark Scolforo tweeted excerpts from an October deposition of Eakin, in which the now-former judge tried to explain the humor behind some of the emails he shared. Eakin even told an Irish joke for good measure.

And, well … wow.

You can read the whole thing here if you get stuck on the train later. In the meantime, here are some highlights:

• During the deposition, James Kleman Jr., the deputy counsel for the Judicial Conduct Board, talked to Eakin about comments he made on a 2011 email thread about TheeDollhouse, a strip club in Myrtle Beach, S.C., that he and his pals visited from time to time.

Kleman asked Eakin about a reference he made to Bernard Coates, a now-deceased Dauphin County judge, about having “to go out of state to see boobs.”

“Well, I don’t know that it’s inappropriate to go in this state,” Eakin explained. “That’s not what was being intended, that — what was said before to Mr. Coates was that there are appearances that you have to have in Pennsylvania because you’re going to be seen by the people that depend on you. If you go to South Carolina, you’re not likely to bump into people that are going to worry so much about whether you got shorts on or whether you have a tie on or anything else, to include going to gentlemen’s clubs, if, in fact, you wish to go to gentlemen’s clubs.”

• Kleman mentioned a domestic violence “joke” that Eakin emailed to his friends in 2012. “You see how much keeping your mouth shut helps?” a doctor asked a battered woman at the end of the joke.

“It’s — in trying to explain it, why it’s — why I thought it was funny, it had nothing to do with demeaning women. It had to do with the fact that, as a prosecutor for 20 years, I can’t tell you how many defendants in domestic violence and murder cases, murder of the people, mentioned, she just wouldn’t shut up,” Eakin said during the deposition.

“It is a common [theme]. Now, that certainly does not mean it is an excuse for domestic violence, nor does it mean that somehow I — I’m adopting that as — as something. It was just a common thing. And because of that, so much of humor is funny because it has, if not a grain of truth, at least a stereotypical aspect that people can look to and say, I understand what you’re saying, ha, ha, ha. That does not mean we adopt that women ought to be quiet and that you can beat them up, regardless. That’s not the case. ”

• After fielding a question about racist jokes and racial stereotypes, Eakin — possibly misreading the situation — offered to tell a joke to Kleman:

“The Englishman, the Scotsman, and the Irishman sit at the bar and order a pint of beer, and simultaneously a fly lands in each one. The Englishman, being very proper, picks the fly out and flicks it aside, but pushes the pint away and asks for a new one. The Scotsman, being more frugal, picks the fly out and keeps the pint; and the Irishman picks the fly up and pounds his back and says, spit it out, you little bastard,” Eakin said.

“I suppose I have made stereotypes of the Englishman, the Scotsman, and the Irishman. But, again, they’re funny because there is that stereotypical sense that makes them funny. It is not a reflection that all Englishmen are stuck up, all Scotsmen are cheap, and all Irishmen are drunks. They’re not. And I know that, and it would insult me if someone said that to my face, all Irishmen are drunks. That’s an insult. You tell an Irish joke, you laugh at yourself, and it moves on, so … ”

Remember to tip your waitress, folks.

Follow @dgambacorta on Twitter.