Let’s face it—comedy is hard. Making people with different sensibilities laugh in a country as diverse as India is incredibly difficult. Creating good humor, which comes from making witty observations about daily life, is a rare talent. Delivering it well, with good timing and style, is even rarer. The best in the world at this art have become global celebrities. Stand-up comedy is still a relatively new field in India. Here at home, a few comics have become nationally recognized, built lucrative careers, and amassed millions of views on social media.
Of course, for every successful comedian, hundreds of others try as well. However, true talent in pure observational humor, delivered with panache, is rare. There are two other ways—shortcuts, really—to make people laugh even with relatively less talent: (1) using taboo sexual topics and (2) insulting or mocking prominent figures. The latter is often called roasting, where the intention isn’t necessarily to insult but to entertain. These shortcuts tend to work, at least in the short term. They help a comedian get noticed, earn views, and generate buzz. Sexual topics are rarely discussed publicly, so when someone on stage cracks jokes about blowjobs or vibrators, it naturally grabs attention. Similarly, roasting celebrities, sports stars, politicians (more on this later), industrialists, or media anchors also draws laughs. Seeing normally pedestalized figures cut down to size can be hilarious—at least in the moment.
However, these shortcuts can only take a comedian so far. To have longevity in the business and be considered one of the greats, raw talent for pure, unadulterated observational comedy is necessary.
There’s another major problem with these shortcuts: they come with risks. Both discussing sex and bringing down the rich, famous, and powerful can go too far—so far that a significant portion of society takes massive offense. What was meant to be a joke for cheap laughs stops being funny. Sexual references begin to feel vulgar. A funny roast starts to seem like an outright insult to the person targeted and their fans. Tensions rise, internet outrage follows, and soon enough, we see cancellations, legal cases, threats, studio vandalism, and all kinds of nasty consequences. Come on, the poor guy or girl was just trying to make people laugh. And suddenly, nothing seems funny anymore.
This is exactly what happened in the Samay Raina–India’s Got Latent–Ranveer Allahabadia controversy, where an attempt at humor involving a sexually taboo topic misfired badly. That entire show’s premise revolves around low-end humor, and plenty of people in our great country choose to watch such content. But this time, it went too far. A similar situation arose recently in the Kunal Kamra show, where he chose the second shortcut—roasting someone important. In this case, it was a politician from a rather emotional and feisty party. Kamra thrives on this kind of comedy, and usually, it’s all okay, but this time, some people felt he had crossed the line. While a roast typically involves making fun of someone’s looks, personality, mannerisms, or work, it usually doesn’t include labeling people as ‘Gaddar’ (traitor). At the very least, such a label falls into the category of political opinion. One could even debate whether the ‘Gaddar’ tag was justified, especially considering the original Shiv Sena broke away from their BJP alliance after winning the election together. If a majority of Shiv Sena MLAs then split and rejoined the BJP, can we really call them traitors?
However, that turns into a never-ending political debate, and that’s not the point here. The point is this: Was it funny? Some people did laugh. But it also offended many others.
The real question is, should this kind of lowbrow, risky comedy be allowed? Should we be okay with a prominent person being insulted, attacked, or labeled in the name of ‘roasting’? Can a comedian escape the backlash by simply saying, “It was just a joke”? And what if the intent wasn’t really humor but to push a certain narrative under the guise of a joke?
Similarly, when it comes to sexual jokes—how much is too much? Should we be okay with disgusting, sex-related remarks just because they’re framed as jokes? Essentially, is sexual and roast comedy acceptable?
There’s no easy answer to these questions. However, given the nature of our society, the democratic structure of our nation, and the rights guaranteed by our Constitution, the answer is largely yes. We’re all familiar with the standard arguments about the limits of free speech (threats, incitement, defamation), and we agree there must be some boundaries. However, in a real democracy, free speech cannot be so restricted that we start limiting the types of jokes people can tell. We can ignore these jokes, criticize the comedians who make them, or consider them less talented than real comics (which I do), but for heaven’s sake, we don’t need to involve the legal system.
Ask yourself: Do we want to be a country that jails comedians? Yes, some nations do it, but is that who we want to be? Is that what our forefathers fought for? Yes, we may get upset by what comedians say sometimes, but locking them up is not the solution. In fact, doing so creates a bigger problem—it sets a precedent that it’s okay to use state power to suppress opinions and criticism. Is that the India you want? An India where no one feels safe expressing an opinion?
Comedians can be annoying, especially when they mock someone you admire. But life is full of irritants. We don’t imprison people for chewing gutkha, honking unnecessarily, or watching loud videos on airplanes. We learn to live with these annoyances. Likewise, we should learn to tolerate comedians.
A word of advice for those being roasted: Even when a joke crosses the line, try not to overreact. Showing that you’re upset only fuels the controversy. The best response is no response—or, better yet, going along with the joke. If people are making jokes about you publicly, it means you’ve made it.
As a personal anecdote, Kunal Kamra has made fun of me and tried to provoke me several times on Twitter, as he does with many others. Once, while I was being trolled, he wrote, “Even I don’t get insulted this frequently and badly.” I replied, “You have to be someone to get insulted, bro.”
Let’s not forget—whether a joke is stupid, boring, obnoxious, or provocative, it’s still just a joke. And a joke, by definition, is not meant to be taken seriously.