Comedian Sunda Croonquist is being sued by her in-laws for mocking them in her act. Croonquist claims she’s been making in-law jokes for years and that her husband’s family was fine with it and thought it was funny. They’re suing because she supposedly posted information on her website that can be used to reveal their identities. Croonquist is of African-American and Swedish descent and her mother-in-law is Jewish. Her jokes highlight the cultural differences and subtle racism in her husband’s family. In video of her act, above, she recalls an incident in which her mother-in-law loudly told someone to hide her purse the first time she met her, and talks about her sister-in-law questioning her ethnicity within earshot. “She’s got light hair and light eyes. What kind of black person is she?” Croonquist’s imitation of her mother-in-law’s accent is pretty funny, and she also mocks her sister-in-law’s Jersey twang. Her in-laws aren’t happy with the jokes, though, and are trying to get her to stop mentioning them:

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.

Take the one about her mother-in-law’s reaction to news she was pregnant with her first child: “OK, now that we know you’re having a little girl I want to know what you’re naming that little tchotchke. 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.”

Or her first visit to her mother-in-law’s house: “I walk in, I say, ‘Thank you so much for having me here, Ruthie.’ She says, ‘The pleasure’s all mine, have a seat.’” Then, in a loud aside, ‘Harriet, [sic: she says Elliot] put my pocketbook away.’”

Croonquist said there was a time when her in-laws would laugh with everyone else at the black-member-of-a-Jewish-family jokes. “They played my tape at Passover one year, and they loved it!” she said.

But things changed after Croonquist, promoting upcoming gigs in New Jersey, posted information on her Web site that, according to her in-laws, allowed pretty much anyone to figure out the identities of her in-laws.

They sued in April in U.S. District Court in New Jersey, where they live. The action seeks unspecified damages and demands that Croonquist remove any offensive statements from her Web site, Croonquist says she would drop any language her family finds offensive, but refuses to pay any settlement. Her lawyer has filed a motion to have the suit dismissed, and a judge is scheduled to hear it on Sept. 8.

[From ABCNews via Fark]

As a result of this lawsuit, Croonquist’s husband and her two daughters are now estranged from his side of the family. I checked her official website, and Croonquist still has material up about her in-laws. According to ABC News, she’s still making jokes about them in her act, but is no longer using their first names. It doesn’t really matter now though since everyone knows who they are after this lawsuit. I wonder if her mother-in-law thinks that making her point is more important that being able to see her granddaughters. It makes you think that Croonquist’s act must be pretty close to reality if her in-laws have resorted to suing her over it.

Sunda Croonquist, her husband Mark Zafrin and mother-in-law Ruth Zafrin: