Commic's Mother-in-law is suing over jokes

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Veteran comic Sunda Crooquist is being sued by her mother-in-law after making her the punchline to too many of her jokes. What do us comedian's have to make fun of, well everything. I think Sunda's jokes were humorus and had me laughing.

Could you imagine if every person offended by a joke made by a comedian sued them? The courts would be full. My favoriate is fat people, stupid people, and elderly people. Wow, I'll be sued by half of the population of America.

I would hope that the judge will dismiss this case. This is a waste of our hard working tax payer's money. Was the mother-in-law offended because it was all true? I'm sure that's the real issue here. Her poor little feelings were hurt cause we all now know she's a MORON.

According to the AP, Croonquist's mother-in-law Ruth Zafrin accuses her of spreading defamatory and racist lies through the many zingers she has used during her lengthy career.

The action seeks unspecified damages and demands that Croonquist remove any offensive statements from her Web site, routines and recordings. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in New Jersey back in April and judge is scheduled to hear a motion to dismiss on Sept. 8.

Croonquist is half-black, half-Swedish, grew up Roman Catholic and married into a Jewish family -- an absolute perfect storm of possible punchlines. She tells the AP that in-law jokes just come natural to her.

"They're nice jokes. There's nothing bad, nothing defamatory," swears Croonquist, who converted to Judaism before she met her husband and keeps a kosher house in Los Angeles.


Attorney Gary L. Bostwick, an expert in First Amendment law who isn't involved in the case, said suing a comedian is often difficult because courts tend to rule that it should be obvious they are joking.

In one of the most prominent such cases, the Rev. Jerry Falwell lost when he sued Hustler magazine in the 1980s for stating in an ad parody that the preacher had lost his virginity to his mother in an outhouse.

"Most people who sue under these kinds of circumstances are way too sensitive," Bostwick said. "If they contact a lawyer like me I would tell them that, without seeing the script and the blog I have no idea who is right and who is wrong, but I do know there is a very strong defense: It's very difficult to prove that it was not just a joke."

The lawsuit was filed by mother-in-law Ruth Zafrin, her daughter, Shelley Edelman, and Shelley's husband, Neil.