Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans are taking a turn toward comedy as a way for residents of the struggling Hurricane Katrina-ravaged city to cope. A parade Saturday night poked fun at politicians and floats with tongue-in-cheek digs at the slow rebuilding process in the city. Advertisement Keith Twitchell, organizer of the Krewe du Vieux parade, said the levity was an "opportunity to release," the Washington Post reports. The theme of the parade, C'est Levee, is a play on c'est la vie, the French expression "that's life." Floats carried effigies of Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco. They passed through the French Quarter draped in the blue tarps covering many roofs of still damaged houses and carried a fake broken levee and cardboard travel trailers. "If you don't laugh, you're dead. There's a lot to cry about here," Twitchell said.
