Not ready for nasty digs?
Reactions to the AIB 'roast' reveal a gulf in opinions on what is funny and what is abusive.
ALKA GURHA gives her (inoffensive) views. Pix: Team AIB
During a recent event in Mumbai called the AIB Knockout, Bollywood stars Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor were roasted live on stage by the members of the comedy collective, All India Bakchod. Almost everyone enjoyed the ‘epic’ show where Karan Johar played the ‘Roastmaster’ and the duo deflected funny, nasty, dirty and politically incorrect insults.
The social media was abuzz with how we have learnt to enjoy self-deprecatory humour. In terms of the number of likes and shares, the event rocked the online world with more than four lakh views. According to one, “This was refreshing compared to the Kapil Sharma kind of jokes where even our humour is supposed to be sanskari.”
Given the content of the show, not everyone enjoyed the ‘coming of age video’ on YouTube. On Sunday, 1st February while I was surfing channels, the ticker on a Hindi news channel India News said, "Sabse Bada Kalank -- Hindustan Mein Pehli Baar Gandi Baat". The panelists debated the alleged ‘rape’ of our society by the members of AIB.
Rather predictably, the anchor Anurag Muskaan acted as a participant, egging the panelists to express outrage over an outrageous show that had outraged the modesty of our society. He wondered why the adult content was telecast without any filters. To be fair, there was a disclaimer in the official video. However, I am not sure how a disclaimer works because when teenagers read ‘For 18 and above’, they are most likely to watch it.
During the television debate Ashok Pandit, the newly appointed member of the Censor Board, felt that such events should not be allowed in the name of freedom of expression. Akhilesh Tiwari of the Brahmin Ekta Seva, felt that the show had insulted ‘Bhartiya Sanskriti’.
Another panelist, Shyam Dewani, a lawyer, said the police should arrest the AIB members involved. Funnily enough, a panelist, Manish Awasthi, asked Prem Shukla, the political editor of Dopahar, “When you can act against couples who celebrate Valentine’s Day, why don’t you act against AIB? What happened to your moral policing?” It appeared that the AIB Knockout had ruffled some feathers so badly that people were actually missing the moral police.
On 2nd February, Akhilesh Tiwari filed a written complaint at Sakinaka police station alleging that the trio, along with other performers, had passed abusive and offensive remarks during a live event of AIB Knockout. I am not sure how the police will act if the organizers had the necessary permissions and the licence to hold the event.
Not to mention that, apart from a crowd of 4,000 people, Deepika Padukone, Alia Bhatt, Karan Johar’s mother and Sonakshi Sinha were seen enjoying the show. That Sonakshi Sinha, daughter of Shatrughan Sinha (a BJP member) was part of an event that outraged the moral guardians makes for an interesting story.
In a country where we construct temples of movie stars, the event was pathbreaking, if not refreshing. The concept of a ‘roast’ is popular in America where The White House Correspondents’ Association hosts annual dinners to roast politicians and the US President. Having watched a Comedy Central roast of American celebrities, a desi roast was unlikely given our penchant for getting offended at the drop of a hat. Moreover, at a time when the new chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification is preparing a list of offensive cuss words, the deluge of expletives and gay jokes at the AIB event were bound to offend our moral minders.
In many ways, the trend of viral videos started with a self-deprecatory interview of Shah Rukh Khan and Alia Bhatt's spoof video that went viral. Both The Viral Fever, an independent media company and AIB captured the nuances through intellectually stimulating pieces of satire. On a personal note, I have enjoyed watching AIB videos where spoofs can sometimes make a powerful point about Indian social quirks.
However, the roast could have been equally hilarious, if not more, without the jibes about ISIS, 9/11, Ashish Shakya’s skin color or Raghu Ram’s incessant cussing. Does anyone enjoy jokes about 26/11? And after watching Deepika Padukone laughing at the repeated reference to women as ‘holes’, it is unlikely that her detractors will allow her to take the moral high ground in future on the ‘objectification of women.’
As I write, the Maharashtra Nav Nirman Sena has demanded an unconditional apology and threatened to disrupt the screening of the movies of Arjun Kapoor, Ranveer Singh and filmmaker Karan Johar. After the Maharashtra government ban, Twitter was divided between those who supported the event and those who called it a ‘national shame’. Finally on Tuesday night, amid political protests, AIB decided to take down the video of AIB Knockout.
Whatever we may make of this new trend in standup comedy, the fact is that humour and satire are bound to ruffle the feathers of some religion, some gender or some political party. Even if misogynist, feminist and racial jokes are to be seen in the context of the show -- which is meant to be rude and offensive - the thin line dividing abuse and humour is likely to land us on a slippery slope. Comedy is subjective. What is funny for one can be ‘sabse bada kalank’ for another.
In a country where politicians get away with divisive hate speeches, targeting comedians is bit unfair. This is, of course, not to say that two wrongs make a right. Nonetheless, the ideal situation would be for society to be mature enough to say, “Don’t watch it if you don’t like it.” Instead, given the comments coming from a new censor board, we may well be headed for a society that is encouraged to take offence on the slightest pretext.
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