Will comedy in India never grow?
Being a huge fan of standup comedy, I am distraught to see how the standup video of Agrima Joshua was subject to ridicule, trolling, threats, and whatnot. It became even worse when the Home Minister of Maharashtra joined in. Is this where the new digital “woke” India is moving towards? Hate speech, rape threats, trolling, and hurling abuse is what is left on social media. The patience to pause, look back, and understand the rationale of the standup comic’s satire is lost to our generation.
Breaking down the video to readers who are not aware of it.
In the video, Agrima Joshua speaks about the upcoming Shivaji statue that is to be built by 2021 in the Arabian sea off Mumbai’s coast(Image on the left). She is seen describing the “funny things” she read on Quora about the same statue, “It will also have GPS tracker and it will shoot laser rays out of its eyes to shoot Pakistani terrorists” and “this Shivaji statue is an amazing masterstroke by Prime Minister”, were some of the things she described as what she read on the website. Satire/Sarcasm. Her point, it does not matter whether you agree or disagree, is that the taxpayer’s money could be better utilized instead of it being spent to create the 2500 crore statue. Isn't the foundation of democracy was having the freedom to voice dissent? But certainly, dissent cannot be voiced by threatening to rape someone on the opinion they hold. I think we should educate ourselves on what freedom of speech comprises and what it does not.
Comedy is Subjective
Comedy is subjective; you can find something funny, I may not. But neither of us should find it offensive. Throughout history, Shakespearean or Greek, comedy has been a medium for political satire. But, I think the observational humor is lost on this generation. It is fascinating and traumatizing to witness a generation who could not pay their own bills suddenly became woke with the advent of JIO. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry has an easy medium to express their opinion now and this is what the sorry state of affairs is.
Is this progressive India?
With JIO reaching every nook and corner, and the gravy train on which our news channels and media is riding, does not show facts and figures but drama, showmanship, pointless debates, and hullabaloo. I feel India is not moving forward but backward.
People in India have so much free time to spread hate, that they went back in time to pull out tweets of other comedians where they cracked a joke on topics that hurt their religious sentiments/beliefs. From Neeti Palta, Rohan Joshi(AIB), to members of EIC(East India Comedy), even Vir Das is facing the backlash. We have reached a time where speech is not cheap and it is better to be politically and culturally correct rather than be the victim of hate. It just irks me to see, that even your family is not spared of this hate. Finally, all you can do is apologize and take a step back from social media because, at any point, mental health will always outweigh the cost of speaking out. It is not worth fighting until the end at the cost of rape threats/loss of career/loss of money/death threats.
We want to emulate the WEST in all fields except comedy. The freedom they have to crack political jokes is something I cannot see happening in India even in the next 10 years to come. I still remember how the AIB roast was perceived: people enjoying it in closed quarters and criticizing it out in public. True hypocrisy. I wish Indian Standup could accommodate black comedy and could land jokes about burning babies. Who does not enjoy Richard Pryor, Anthony Jeselnik, or the man himself, George Carlin? I wish Indian comics could put out darker material on Youtube. Imagine the thrill to hear it in Hindi. Alas, but can we? How long can Indian comics do anecdotal, self-deprecating humor and fear that if they enhance their craft or increase their repertoire by touching darker topics, they will be ridiculed to hate because a select few in India were not able to fathom their thoughts?
It is a select few who destroy the art and do not let it grow. But they are the ones, who are the loudest. The meanest. The ones who will throw acid on a girl if they were to reject them. The ones who will rape or kill someone to teach them a lesson. The low lives, who do not have anything better to do but traumatize people who are voicing their opinions in the form of true art and not social media banter.
Why you Intolerance come in our lives?
I look back and wish the word intolerance never entered our peanut vocabulary. Here is the google trend data for the word intolerance.
Notice the spike in the trend. Intolerance as a word enters the mentality of Indians and stays with them. If we never knew intolerance, maybe we would have been able to stomach these harsh observations put out by comics. In hindsight, Ignorance truly is bliss!
