Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio dares George Lopez: Say it to my face

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio isn’t laughing at George Lopez’s new one-man show on HBO in which the comedian blasts the Maricopa County lawman for his position on immigration and his “birther” stance.

In fact, Arpaio is daring the comedian, via the media, to stop hiding behind the mike and “meet me face to face.”

The controversial sheriff said he and his wife were flipping through the channels Saturday night when they paused to linger on Lopez’s show, “George: It’s Not Me, It’s You.” Arpaio said he was shocked at the potty-mouthed language coming from the comedian and switched to another channel without realizing the diatribe was aimed at him.

An Arizona reporter helpfully filled Arpaio in on the details. The sheriff’s response?

A dare for Lopez: “Get some guts. Come down here, and meet me face to face,” Arpaio told ABC15 in Arizona. “Let’s see how you act then.”

Arpaio probably isn’t joking. The tough-talking sheriff has long had a reputation as refusing to back down from controversy -- even courting it. He has been accused of being abusive to prisoners, racially profiling Latinos and injecting himself into presidential politics by opening his own inquiry on behalf of those who believe President Obama was born outside the United States, and therefore is in the White House illegally.

You can watch the key snippet of Lopez’s show, “George: It’s Not Me, It’s You,” but be forewarned: F-bombs abound. Lopez also has a few choice words for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. (Lopez makes the claim that Romney is actually Latino but has zero chance of getting the Latino vote come November.) The crowd cheers throughout.

Lopez, however, saves his fiercest wrath for Arpaio. We’d quote from it... if we were allowed to use such foul language in a family newspaper.

But we’re not.

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Join Rene Lynch on Google+ and Twitter. Email: rene.lynch@latimes.com