‘Duck Dynasty’s’ Phil Robertson creates more controversy courtesy of marriage comments in old video

Whenever you are the subject of controversy, this is pretty much what happens to you: A bunch of old videos are brought out from your past, which the media then analyzes and then tries to subject their brand of judgment on to.

When it comes to “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson, the latest controversy that he is a target of comes courtesy of a just-released video supposedly from a 2009 Georgia Sportsmen’s Ministry event, where he makes a claim about underage marriage that at first glance is fairly eye-opening:

“Look, you wait ’til they get to be 20 years old, the only picking that’s going to take place is your pocket. You got to marry these girls when they are about 15 or 16. They’ll pick your ducks. You need to check with mom and dad about that, of course.” 

The latter statement here is a reference to the fact that many states require consent for children under 18 to be married from their parents, and the entire quote stems mostly from the fact that he was 16 and Miss Kay was 15 at the time that the two were married. He makes a similar comment in his book Happy, Happy, Happy: My Life and Legacy as the Duck Commander, and claims that the comment about “picking ducks” vs. “picking pockets” to be at least in part a joke.

In the end, this comment seems to be best described as one of those examples of someone doing something 50 years ago that feels normal to them and accepted by them, and then projected onto others. A good comparison would be if you had a friend who told you that the only good relationships are the ones that started out as friendships first, mostly because that worked for them. Is it worthy of such controversy? We’ll leave that for you to decide below, but the one thing that Phil has to prepare himself for now is that every little controversial statement he has ever made is going to be heavily scrutinized.

In case you missed it, Phil’s son Willie and daughter-in-law Korie Robertson will be speaking tonight in their first TV interview since the controversy on Fox News’ New Year’s Eve special.