Mother-in-law sues woman comic for making her a joke

Sunda Croonquist has been taken to court for spreading "false, defamatory and racist lies".

Ruth Zafrin, from New Jersey, wants damages from her daughter-in-law and a court ruling to end the jokes.

Croonquist, who is well known on the US comedy circuit and appears regularly on TV's Comedy Central channel, has refused to pay any damages but has said she will drop jokes about Mrs Zafrin from her stage routine.

Her lawyers have filed a motion with a New Jersey court to have the lawsuit dismissed.

Like many stand-up comics, Croonquist sprinkles her act with mother-in-law jokes. Mrs Zafrin, who is in her seventies, is Jewish and many of the jokes are about the cultural differences, with Croonquist being half Swedish, half black.

Croonquist, who was raised as a Catholic, said she had converted to Judaism on marrying her husband Mark. The couple have two children.

The comic, who lives in Beverly Hills, said: "They're nice jokes. There's nothing bad, nothing defamatory."

One of them goes: "I'm a black woman with a Jewish mother-in-law. The only thing we have in common is that we don't want to get our hair wet."

The lawsuit was filed in April by Mrs Zafrin, her daughter Shelley Edelman, and Shelley's husband, Neil.

Mrs Zafrin and her daughter have refused to comment.