The Odessa, TX police department got annoyed with all the news outlets contacting them about Pauly Shore getting punched on stage, and put out a press release stating the whole thing was staged. We published the video of the incident here, and Pauly looks genuinely scared. He must be a better actor than everyone thought, because the Odessa police say the incident was a put-on and they were contacted about it beforehand.

The Odessa, Texas Police Department claims that an officer “had met with Mr. Shore prior to his set, and was asked to participate in the skit. The officer stated that the skit went as designed and that Shore was not injured in the designed skit.”

The incident, which took place during a comedy show in Odessa, took the Internet by storm after video was released on the Internet.

It all went down after a female heckler started razzing Shore during the middle of his set. According to witnesses, Shore fired back, “Shut up bitch.” That’s when the woman’s massive boyfriend stepped in.

The man began defending his girlfriend and other people Shore allegedly picked on during the performance, saying “Hey, F*** you, he paid to be here just like the rest of us.” Shore responded, “Well, first off, shut the f*** up f***ing hoss.”

Then, all hell broke loose.

The man rushed onto the stage, despite several desperate pleas from Shore to leave him alone. Shore makes a last ditch effort to apologize before the man reaches back and plants one right on Pauly’s kisser, knocking the comedian to the floor. Clutching his face, Pauly grabs the mic and calls the crowd “white trash,” before walking off the stage.

Pauly wanted to get some press again, and he did. He even threw in a little racism of his own to add to the mix. The police press release states that Pauly signed autographs after the skit and posed for pictures with the guy he arranged to have punch him.

Kudos to commentors like Clarimonde and Gigohead who thought it was fake. We bought it and so did a lot of other bloggers.

Photo from KrIsTi’s myspace.