Posts Tagged ‘ comedian lawsuit ’

Take My Mother-in-Law, Please! (Lawsuit vs Comic Tossed)

September 8th, 2010. By janem

 

Well, comedian Sunda Croonquist likely had the last laugh—all the way to the bank! She’s almost a household name these days after being sued by her in-laws for spreading “false, defamatory and racist lies” (see the video above to make your own opinion). I’d never heard of her before Ruth Zafrin, the mother-in-law, demanded a cash settlement for her “pain and suffering.” Anyway, U.S. District Judge Mary L. Cooper threw the suit out of New Jersey’s U.S. District Court April 30^th.

Croonquist alleged that Zafrin joined the action just to keep the issue out of Federal Court (where it landed because Croonquist lives in California and her in-laws live in New York and New Jersey). The stated causes of action included: false light, defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress and unjust enrichment.

Her sister-in-law, Shelley Edelman, and her husband Neil (the brother of Croonquist’s husband, Mark Zafrin) were first to sue over the comedian’s schtick—which revolves around jokes about their heritage and her own–claiming Shelley is a racist. ( In her New Jersey accent: “Oh my God, Neil, look at her. She’s got light eyes and light hair, what kind of black person is she?”) And, “My sister-in-law’s voice sounds like a cat in heat.” (Croonquist is half African-American and half Swedish.)

Fortunately for Croonquist, Judge Mary Cooper had a better sense of humor than the in-laws and found the cat in heat comment to be “mere colorful, figurative rhetoric that reasonable minds would not take to be factual”. Cooper held that Croonquist’s jokes are Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: comedian lawsuit, Sunda Croonquist
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