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Ruth Edelman Zafrin called her biracial daughter-in-law’s jokes false and malicious. “I am a black woman with the Jewish mother-in-law,” Sunda Croonquist countered. “The only thing we have in common is that we don’t want to get our hair wet….”
In another bit, Croonquist recalls Zafrin’s reaction to her becoming pregnant: “Now we don’t want a name that’s difficult to pronounce like Shaniqua. We’re thinking a name short but delicious. Like Hadassah or Goldie.”
U.S. District Judge Mary Cooper tossed the case, calling Croonquist’s quips “colorful, figurative rhetoric.”
In case you’re wondering, the comic’s husband, Mark Zafrin, took her side — of course (rimshot). He’s a lawyer — and his partner defended her (wah-wah). Wouldn’t wanna be known as a mama’s boy (cue the laugh track).
Still, when push-push came to nudge-nudge, the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Trenton found his mom more perturbed at Croonquist’s My Space postings and web site (www.sundalive.com) than her stage show:
How many mother-in-laws does it take to change a lightbulb? One. She just stands there and waits for the world to revolve around her.
Any comedian worth his one-liner will tell you it’s all parody. If it wasn’t, Henny Youngman would’ve had the pants sued off him (“I just got back from a pleasure trip: I took my mother-in-law to the airport“).
For centuries, comedy has been about young’uns taking pot shots at the elder power structure. You even have support groups out there now, including YouTube’s “Mother in Law HELL Channel,” spun off the web site of the same name.
Operated by the “Daughters-in-Law Sisterhood,” the site includes categories like “Crazy Mother in Law Stories,” “Military Wives in MIL Hell,” and “She Said WHAT?”
I’m not sure what to believe here, though: Was the ol’ broad genuine, or was it a stunt? I mean, before this story broke, had you even heard of Sunda Croonquist? She got more mileage out of this than the french fry grease that runs Willie Nelson’s tour bus.
I went car shopping last week and the salesman asked if I wanted an airbag….
OK, I’ll stop. You fill in the rest….
After all: If you can’t beat ’em, goyem.
Good night, Mrs. Zafrin.
(PHOTO COURTESY OF www.sundalive.com)
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