They say you can choose your friends, but not your mother-in-law. Sunda Croonquist is being sued by her mother-in-law for defaming her character in nightclubs and on channels like Comedy Central. Another ironic aspect to the story is that her husband's firm (he's an attorney) is defending her in the case. No comment is available from the husband/son.

Croonquist grew up in Paterson, NJ in a strict Roman Catholic upbringing with an interesting half-black, half-Swedish background. Naturally, with such a varied ancestry, she'd marry into a Jewish family.

I'm reminded of a Woody Allen comedy routine in which he goes into business with his family and ends up sending his grandmother to jail for fraud. He'd probably get a kick out of this situation. The lesson is: mothers-in-law hear everything and remember even more.

Here's what I don't understand: why didn't her mother-in-law simply yield the greatest weapon any Jewish mother has in her arsenal and guilt-trip the crap out of Ms. Croonquist? That usually works on me.

Jay Mohr, comedian and sports fan, will be providing twenty-minute video segments for FoxSports.com this month. The series, called The Alternative With Jay Mohr, will mix remote segments, monologues and comedic sketches. Mohr will also pen a weekly column for the sports site.

Sports fans shouldn't be too surprised to see Mohr in this capacity. The comedian/actor, who currently appears on CBS' Ghost Whisperer, hasn't exactly hidden his love of sports, having appeared as a guest host on Jim Rome's Sirius Satellite Radio program, not to mention frequent appearances on The Best Damn Sports Show Period and NFL Sunday Morning.

Do a search for my name on this blog and it becomes clear I have a nerdish obsession with animation. One of the things I love so much about it is that there are no boundaries whatsoever: a character can swallow a fork, get shot in the face, and decapitated by helicopter blades and still bounce back as if nothing happened. The only person in real life who could do that is Jesus Christ, and even He needed to rest for a few days afterward.

Albert Brooks turns 60 today.

Brooks is mostly known for his films (Defending Your Life, Modern Romance), but he was also a favorite guest of folks like Carson and Letterman back in the '80s. He never quite gained the notoriety of some of his contemporaries, but his reputation as a "comedian's comedian" and a little something called "actual talent" has kept him out of obscurity -- and deservedly so, because he's one of the smartest and funniest people working today, even if he is a few steps outside the limelight.

Younger folks know him best for his various guest roles on The Simpsons, one of which I've posted below along with an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman (in two parts).

While we all mourn the demise of the celebrity Roast, I thought this might be a good time to reflect back on a time when the master, Don Rickles, used just the right combination of acerbic wit and what would today be called "political incorrectness" for hilarious results.

All comedians, in their own way, are skilled at keeping an audience engaged, but very few can match the likes of Don Rickles. There are a lot of angry comedians out there, and even some who aren't afraid to take a few shots at the audience, but Rickles' act was only ostensibly about insults. At its core, it was about creating a kind of communal moment in which no one was the butt of the joke because everyone was the butt of the joke.

Question: is it OK to joke about rape when you're talking about insects?

That's what some people are wondering this afternoon as Jerry Seinfeld is getting a little heat from anti-rape groups (hmmm...I would hope that every group is anti-rape, but I digress...) for a remark he made to the New York Daily News promoting his Bee Movie flick:

"Bees have the only perfect society on earth ... They have no crime, they have no drugs, they have no rape. A little rape, but it's not that bad."

Most folks probably know comedian Patton Oswalt as Spence on the recently-departed King of Queens, but us comedy fans have known him for even longer as a very funny man who stands up and does comedy. He was the mastermind behind the Comedians of Comedy tour, and he's done voice work for a few Adult Swim series, including Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Also, he plays the lead role in the upcoming Pixar flick, Ratatouille.