NEW YORK -- Raunchy comedian Andrew Dice Clay's controversial appearance on 'Saturday Night Live' drew substantially higher ratings to go with the hecklers and protests it generated, NBC said Sunday.
Dice's presence on Saturday's late-night broadcast had sparked protests from homosexual and women's groups and led cast member Nora Dunn and singer Sinead O'Connor to refuse to appear.
Preliminary ratings figures gave the show a market share of 31 percent, 6 percentage points higher than SNL's usual 25 share, said Rosemary Keenan, an NBC spokeswoman.
NBC logged 234 negative phone calls during the broadcast, with only 13 calls supporting the appearance by the acid-tongued comic, known for his derogatory and graphic put-downs of women and minorities and explicit descriptions of violent sexual encounters.
One NBC affiliate, WETM-TV in Elmira, N.Y., declined to broadcast the show because station officials did not 'trust (Clay) on the air.'
NBC decided moments before the show to broadcast it with a five-second delay -- as it had done in the past during appearances by Richard Pryor and Sam Kinison -- and used it to edit out two potentially offensive words repeatedly used by Clay and other cast members during one sketch, entitled, 'Daddy, what's sex?'
Clay, smoking a cigarette and wearing a black and white leather jacket, lashed out at hecklers who began screaming 'Go away!' during his show-opening monologue.
'All right, snapper head. Sit down, shut your mouth and pay attention,' Clay said. 'Relax, would you? That's the type of guy that hangs out in a men's room to smell other people's crap all day long. ... Just because I didn't want to go out with you, pal, don't mean I don't dig you.'
The heckling subsided when a man and a woman were escorted out of the studio by NBC security. NBC declined to press charges against them.
Clay later commented on the controversy over his appearance, saying: 'I couldn't get more (publicity) if I took out my penis and wrapped it around a microphone stand.'
Clay bantered with a man sitting in the front row of the audience, asking him about his relationship with his girlfriend. When the man said he was going to marry her, Clay made fun of the woman wearing a white dress at her wedding.
Clay said: 'White dress? I broke the bitch when she was 15.'
Many of the skits during the 90-minute show exploited Clay's swaggering stage demeanor and were laced with sexual references.
Clay said in a prepared statement after the show that 'hosting Saturday Night Live was a phenomenal experience that I and the rest of the country will never forget.'
'I appreciate the support of the cast and crew,' he said, adding jokingly that he looked forward to becoming the show's permanent host.
Some of the skits Saturday included references to Dunn's and O'Connor's refusal to appear, including one that featured mock front pages of New York newspapers with screaming banner headlines about the controversy.
Activist groups Saturday afternoon had staged a protest outside the NBC studio.
About 40 people attended the rally, organized by Rock Against Racism, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance against Defamation and the National Organization for Women, to hear invited speakers and participate in an 'open mike' session.
'We don't consider his jokes funny. We consider them hurtful,' GLAAD deputy director Karin Schwartz said of Clay. 'They (listeners) should be cringing at the racism and homophobia in Dice Clay's jokes.'
