• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, March 10, 2016

Things took a turn for the gross on Wednesday in Hulk Hogan’s $100 million lawsuit against Gawker, as Hogan’s lawyers played a clip from a taped deposition, recorded in April, in which former Gawker editor A.J. Daulerio appeared to suggest he would be comfortable publishing a sex tape featuring children over the age of four.

Daulerio was probably just kidding, but either way the whole thing is pretty, pretty, pretty gross.

In the clip from the deposition played by Hogan’s lawyer, Douglas Mirell, Mirell asks Daulerio whether there is any circumstance in which he wouldn’t consider a celebrity sex tape newsworthy and fit for publication. Daulerio responds: “Yes, if they were a child.”

Asked how young the specific age cutoff would be, Daulerio responds: “Four.” Yes, that implies that kindergarteners are fair game.

In fairness to Daulerio, it seems extremely likely that the answer was intended sarcastically, as the scenario under contemplation is obviously a criminal matter. Publishing the hypothetical video would put Daulerio and Gawker in a whole other universe of legal hurt, what with distributing child pornography and all.

On that note, a Gawker spokeswoman later explained that Daulerio was saying he wouldn’t post a sex video of any child, adding: “He obviously made the point in a flip way.”

Which is kind of the real point. It’s safe to say that when you’re listening to someone sarcastically disavow their willingness to publish child sex tapes as part of a legal proceeding, you’ve just about reached the bottom of the barrel as a culture and civilization.

Indeed, the Gawker-Hogan trial is so gross I probably won’t be writing about it again until the verdict, if only for my own (possibly misplaced) feelings of dignity.

However, since this is the last time, I’ll just note that Daulerio also said he would have published the sex tape, even if he knew it was recorded without Hogan’s permission.

Gawker’s lawyers are arguing that it was newsworthy because Hogan had previously bragged about the size of his penis in public. The court transcript will forever contain the following third-person statement uttered by Hogan, real name Terry Bollea, which seems almost psychedelic in its alienation of a man from his own genitalia: “Terry Bollea’s penis is not 10 inches.”

And there you have it, whatever “it” may be. Next update will be on the verdict.