Readers of The New York Times didn’t find a recent column by comedy writer and Curb Your Enthusiasm star Larry David very funny. In the op-ed “My Son the Terrorist”, David writes a hypothetical conversation between a reporter and his own mom in which she defends him in the same manner that the Tsarnaeva brother’s mother has defended them. Zubeidat Tsarnaeva insists that her sons were not involved in the Boston Marathon bombings, and they were set up, despite the fact that Dzhokhar Tsarnaeva has confessed that he and his brother are responsible. Obviously, many readers didn’t think the joke was in good taste and wrote the newspaper to let them know.

Yesterday, Times editor Margaret Sullivan released this statement, saying, “Larry David’s piece misses the mark.” She said that the piece didn’t work “not only because it was insensitive, but also because it was unfunny.” However, the editorial page editor who oversees the section, defended the piece, saying it was a work of sharp satire: “We believed it was acceptable because a) good political humor is always edgy and sometimes difficult to hear … And b) the object of his satire was the mother and the absurd press conference at which she went on a dramatic tirade” … Discuss