On Friday, longtime Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran got some attention for claiming to be unaware of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s historic primary loss to tea-party upstart Dave Brat. However, it soon became clear that Cochran — a Republican currently in danger of losing his own seat to a tea partier — was just kidding (or “being crotchety“) when he told Fox News that he “[didn’t] know” about Cantor’s misfortune, since he had previously told local reporters that he was “surprised” by it. It seems important to note the Cantor kerfuffle because Cochran recently made another strange comment in public, and we sincerely hope that it was another case of him saying something he didn’t quite mean.

While addressing the crowd at a Hattiesburg campaign event, Cochran shared some childhood memories of visiting family in the area: “It was fun. It was an adventure, to be out there in the country and seeing what goes on. Picking up pecans — from that to all kinds of indecent things with animals,” he recalled. Uh, listen for yourself:

Cochran’s audience laughed at the remark, and the local Clarion-Ledger suggested that he was just making a little joke about “harassing wildlife or livestock.” Later, a journalist asked the senator about what some interpreted as his casual admission of bestiality. “I think maybe I was misunderstood,” said Cochran. “I don’t remember ever saying [that].” Maybe he should stick to more conventional humor, at least until his race with challenger Chris McDaniel is over.