Ranveer Allahbadia episode shows the bar for comedy is as low as ever (original) (raw)
A recent clip from the massively popular YouTube comedy show India’s Got Latent, has resulted in literal nationwide outrage — from Maharashtra to Assam. The chief ministers of both states commented on the issue the day it broke out, with Guwahati police even registering an FIR. Mumbai police, presumably not wanting to be one-upped, also said it has launched a probe. Talk about swift action.
At the show hosted by comedian Samay Raina, YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia said something crass, which was not entirely out of place in Latent’s “anything goes” vibe. But its aftermath gave me a strong sense of depressing deja vu, as if I had witnessed all this before.
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Around a decade ago, when I was in school, another set of young internet stars/comedians elicited strong responses in the hearts of offended Indians through a comedy “roast”. Members of the comedy collective AIB invited Bollywood actors Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor, and director Karan Johar to a live event in Mumbai where they insulted one another, in line with the format of comedy roasts. What followed was more or less the same — the FIRs over supposed obscenity, the moral lectures, and the “Can comedy even survive in India anymore?”-type debates.
The same sequence of events replaying years later points to the conclusion that, for one, India is still unable to understand comedy, by and large. That is not to say that Raina or Allahbadia need to be considered funny to show an understanding of comedy. But much worse, Indian comedians are held to a pretty weak standard as a result of not understanding comedy. And that is a problem.
Generally, it is agreed upon that comedy is quite subjective. One person may enjoy sarcastic humour while the other may love santa-banta jokes, for example, or both, or neither. Ultimately, you should be able to let go of what doesn’t make you laugh. But in general, Indians clearly have a hard time doing this. Comedians, cartoonists, and those simply trying to have a bit of fun often see rage unleashed at them not only from governments but ordinary people, too.
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Maybe there is something to be said about our society, which holds cultural identities like our languages, states, religions and castes so sacred. Attempts at jokes touching those categories are seen as an affront and often pushed back against with great force. Or, it could have something to do with a general fear of challenging (or even lightly tickling) an authority figure or institution in what is still a generally conservative nation.
When such a situation is normalised, it indicates that a limited set of things are acceptable as “humour”. This includes basic “this is what men/women do” type jokes, marriage-related WhatsApp humour, slapstick, superficial commentary about how people of a particular state/community behave, etc. No wonder, then, that people holding the mics know they have a limited buffet to choose from. It’s also why the totally ridiculous stuff makes national headlines so easily. But for most comedians, this limited script means they cannot truly explore the full range of comedy — mimicry, improvisational humour where one has to constantly think on one’s feet, satire and poking fun at the world at large, and so on. A form of entertainment that rests on an element of surprise, on what might be said or done next, mostly ends up operating on expected lines.
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For me, a major pet peeve is how, in many Indian stand-up comedians’ performance videos, the audience can be heard laughing even before the punchline is delivered, and the setup lacks any hint of what’s to come. It reveals a lack of discernment and makes comedy seem almost unearned. If nothing else, I am deeply offended by that because to elicit laughter from a roomful of people is undoubtedly a skill. You have to make assumptions about what could be funny to multiple people, alter your speed/volume of speaking as required, build tension, and release it. As many comedians note, the failure to make people laugh is instantly apparent whenever a brutal silence descends upon a room.
Another challenge is that full-throated laughter is largely instinctive. We don’t really get to control what to laugh at or not, but in doing so, we reveal our personalities, sometimes even surprising ourselves with it. Comedy can both help people cope with the daily drudgery of life and make light of ageing, illness, death and whatever else is thrown their way. Even sharing a small sarcastic comment with co-workers, with the right intonation and faked seriousness, can evoke laughter, build a shared perception of a situation and simply lighten things up.
When a meaningless comment (that is barely a joke) is scrutinised, one that doesn’t inflict any real harm on anyone, it shows that just maybe, the collective bar needs to be raised. By not filing an FIR or writing an outraged post online the next time such a situation arises, we’d not only let go of something trivial but also show that we are waiting for a funnier joke.