Elayne Boosler embraces the return to smart comedy but laments FCC curbs

She never thought she'd be defending Howard Stern.
By HEATHER SVOKOS
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
As the sanitizing jaws of the Federal Communications Commission clamp down on network nudity, lewd language and not least of all, its crown prince, Howard Stern, comedian Elayne Boosler watches keenly and thinks of a decade gone by.
"I've been in this so long, I just watch everything swing," says Boosler. "It swings to people with arrows in their heads for comedy, then it swings to Mort Sahl and then it swings back to arrows in their heads. It's just the wheel turning -- that we're-back-in-the-'50s thing. And that'll pass. I'm really waiting for the '70s, because that means people will be involved in thinking again."
Back in the actual 1970s, Boosler worked as a singing waitress, where she was noticed by the late Andy Kaufman, who became her mentor. Her career launched in earnest in the 1980s, and she's gone on to helm five Showtime specials and various acting roles and is often called one of America's funniest women (to which she usually adds: "And one of the five funniest men").
Signs of change
There are a few signs that tell her the metaphorical '70s, or at least the '60s, could be around the corner. During Boosler's recently completed monthlong tour of Florida, she noticed that in 2,000-seat theaters up and down the state, the audiences, they were a-changing.
"Finally, after years of not interesting anyone in politics and having to do dating jokes, I would say to them: 'What do you want?' and they'd yell out: 'Politics! Bush! This, that! Ashcroft!' And I thought, this is great!" she says with cheery gusto.
"I thought: 'We're back, we're back to caring, and really trying to get back involved. And if it just means more people get out and vote, that's the best that can happen for now.'"
A surprise force sparked some of America's recent interest in politics: Howard Stern, someone for whom the feminist Boosler never had much love. Clear Channel Communications recently dropped Stern's popular radio show in the wake of FCC obscenity violations.
"I never thought I'd be defending Howard Stern," Boosler says, "but I would never support something that takes him off the air, because of what it takes with it."
If the climate reminds her of the days of Sen. Joseph McCarthy and the Red Scare, Boosler acknowledges there's a big difference now.
Sticking up
"In the '50s, most people didn't get to speak up or say stuff back," she says. "They were called on the carpet by the House Un-American Activities Committee, and they were finished, and they jumped out of windows. The difference here is that someone like Howard Stern will, in all his juvenile whining, even though he's not sticking up for the principle -- because he's not capable -- he is sticking up for himself.
"And that's a beginning, because he will at least get the word out there to some degree," she says. "People will fight back now."