Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal appeared on Duck Dynasty last night, guest starring on the A&E show’s season six premiere.
The Wednesday night episode shows Jindal giving the family the Governor’s Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence—an award he created expressly for the family. The governor is given a surprising amount of face-time, the Times Picayune reported.
The award, which Willie Robertson — family patriarch Phil Robertson’s son — accepts on behalf of the family and business, was actually given to the family in February.
Duck Dynasty follows the Robertson family’s hunting business Duck Commander. The show made headlines in December when Phil Robertson made controversial statements about homosexuality, which he aligned with bestiality, and black people, in an interview with GQ magazine.
A&E suspended Robertson initially, but the network reversed the suspension just before the new year and before Robertson had missed any shooting at all, so the fifth season, which aired from January to March of this year, was unaffected.
At the time, Jindal defended Robertson publicly, praising the family as “great citizens” of the state and slamming the “politically correct crowd” for being offended by the statements. “I don’t agree with quite a bit of stuff I read in magazine interviews or see on TV. In fact, come to think of it, I find a good bit of it offensive,” Jindal said at the time. “But I also acknowledge that this is a free country and everyone is entitled to express their views. In fact, I remember when TV networks believed in the First Amendment. It is a messed up situation when Miley Cyrus gets a laugh, and Phil Robertson gets suspended.” With such an emphatic defense, it may be surprising that Phil Robertson claimed on the show to have “never heard of” the governor, according to HollywoodLife.com Jindal appears midway through the episode and plays basketball with the guys in the warehouse. One employee wagers a ride on Air Force One if Jindal doesn’t make a free throw shot. (Jindal makes the shot, saving everyone from having to explain that as the governor of Louisiana, Jindal does not have free access to the president’s airplane.)
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