Being Politically Correct : Riordan Pulls Some Punch Lines After Quips Backfire

Sharing the stage with Billy Crystal and other comedians Monday to announce the upcoming Comic Relief television special, Mayor Richard Riordan was all set to tell a joke of his own.

This is a mayor who loves to get off a funny line and enjoys a good laugh. But he stuck to his straight lines after a friend, David Steinberg, who manages Crystal and Robin Williams, advised him to keep his humor to himself lest he be upstaged by the pros.

The mayor’s political advisers have been offering similar counsel, warning him to hold his tongue or risk offending his constituents. Drawing from an extensive repertoire of jokes, Riordan’s past punch lines have jabbed at lawyers, dogs, rabbis and the Irish. Last week one of his jokes did offend and prompted an apology from Riordan.

As chief executive of the nation’s second-largest city, he is learning--some say too slowly--that he must edit his routine a bit.

“I think he’s aware that he doesn’t have the same freedom of speech he had in private life,” said attorney Stan Sanders, a Riordan supporter. “His jokes are displays of his wry sense of humor. I haven’t been in his company when he told an offensive joke. Generally, the jokes I’ve heard have been at his own expense.”

Last Thursday, while touring South-Central Los Angeles with Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas in a van, Riordan told a variation on a Richard Pryor joke that referred to a black man’s penis size.

Later in the day, Deputy Mayor Bill Violante apologized to Carolyn Webb de Macias, Ridley-Thomas’ chief of staff and the only woman in the van.

“Most of us like a good laugh as much as anyone else, but it has to be in good taste,” said Ridley-Thomas, who cracks frequent jokes on the floor of the council. “This one was politically unacceptable for someone in his position. It’s not a matter of anyone being on a moral crusade. It’s a matter of propriety.”

Riordan’s new director of communications, David Novak, said Riordan uses humor to make people feel comfortable, build a rapport, and poke fun at himself. But the mayor’s office Monday apologized for the joke.

“The mayor restated an old, crude Richard Pryor joke,” said Annette Castro, Riordan’s press secretary. “In retrospect, it was inappropriate and may have offended. He apologizes.”

It was not the first time that Riordan’s humor has raised eyebrows.

In front of Councilwoman Rita Walters, he made a risque comment about a dog that he spotted licking itself.

While he was a Recreation and Parks commissioner, Riordan joked during a public meeting that the only difference between an Irish wake and an Irish wedding is one less drunk. When someone later criticized the remark, Riordan said that people ought to lighten up and laugh at themselves.

In that vein, he has been known to make lawyer jokes. Last summer when the head of the California Bar Assn. condemned lawyer jokes because they encouraged violence against attorneys, this attorney-turned-politician offered up one of his own. That one, though, he declared off the record.

At Monday’s news conference outside the Shrine Auditorium to tout this weekend’s sixth-annual Comic Relief telethon for the homeless, Riordan explained his philosophy on jokes.

“Laughter is not inconsistent with dealing with serious problems,” he said. “The truly serious person has a good sense of humor.”

Riordan has said that he learned during the bruising mayoral campaign that every word he utters can be amplified and misconstrued, and he has tried to temper his remarks.

At a dinner to commemorate the opening of the renovated Convention Center last year, comedian Bob Newhart included in his routine some comments about the city’s ethnic diversity. Riordan, who followed Newhart at the podium, told the audience that he had some jokes on the same theme but had learned that as mayor there are things he ought not say.

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Paul Rodriguez, a comedian from Los Angeles’ Eastside who also attended the Comic Relief event, said Riordan has to be cautious with his material.

“What the mayor doesn’t know is that there is an unwritten rule in comedy that if you’re white you cannot tell ethnic jokes,” Rodriguez said. “When I’m 77 and the mayor of Los Angeles is a guy named Juan Lopez, he won’t be able to tell a joke about a white guy.”

Not having an official title also frees up a comedian.

When Bobcat Goldthwait took the microphone, shabbily dressed as usual, he drew laughs when he told Riordan: “Mayor, I’d like to say this: I do live in Los Angeles and if you ever see me being beaten by the police, put down your video camera and help me.”