JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

No joke: Mother-in-law sues

By Ami Eden · August 26, 2009

The Associated Press reports on a comic who is being sued by her mother-in-law for making her the punchline of too many jokes:

"Take my mother-in-law — please," isn't a joke you're likely to hear often these days from Sunda Croonquist. The veteran comic is being sued by her mother-in-law after making her the punchline of too many jokes.

The mother-in-law is accusing Croonquist of spreading false, defamatory and racist lies with in-law jokes that have become a staple of her routine in nightclubs and on television channels like Comedy Central.

To Croonquist, the in-law jokes seemed like a natural routine after living through one comical culture-clash moment after another: She is half-black, half-Swedish, grew up Roman Catholic and married into a Jewish family.

And she's not shy about making the in-laws the butt of her jokes....

The lawsuit was filed by mother-in-law Ruth Zafrin, her daughter, Shelley Edelman, and Shelley's husband, Neil. Neither Zafrin, the Edelmans nor their attorney, Lawrence H. Wertheim, returned calls for comment.

OK, so Croonquist could certainly be a more respectful daughter-in-law. But, she told the AP, she converted to Judaism and keeps a kosher home.

And, according to The New York Post, the jokes were a big hit at the family seder:

Croonquist said yesterday that there was a time when her in-laws would laugh with everyone else. "They played my tape at Passover one year, and they loved it!" she said.

Judge for yourself.