A Nation Without Humour: Why Is India Afraid Of Stand-up Comics?

A couple of years back, I was invited to speak at the Karachi Literature Festival. During a conversation with a celebrated Pakistani satirist, I had said, “A society that stops laughing at itself is as good as dead.” I had no idea then that it would turn out to be a prophecy. Not only are Indians today forgetting to laugh, they have also developed an abhorrence to humour. So much so that any joke can be a crime, and we are not even living in North Korea yet. Let it be said though that North Korea and its megalomaniac leader are a delight for satirists and memers across the globe.

Comedy shows are getting cancelled left, right and centre, comics are being booked, threatened, while elections are being fought with religious fervour, pandemic notwithstanding. One extremely well-known Indian comic was booked when he spoke about two Indias. And he was not even speaking in India. He was speaking in the US. In one of his shows, a few long-distance deshbhakts, who live in the US, came to his show and shouted slogans against him. Now, here is what common sense would tell anyone. If you don’t like a show, a book or a film, why bother spending money and going for it. Unless you want to showcase your intellectual depravity in front of an audience. The good thing about this lot is that they don’t even realise how much fodder they provide to a comic. One woman had messaged me on social media saying, “You have no shame, you make fun of gods.” I checked out her bio and it said, “If my husband dies, I will marry another millionaire.” In the mood for some fun, I politely replied saying, “Ma’am you have no shame, wishing for your husband’s death and marrying a millionaire?”, to which she replied, “One can joke about relationships but not god.” I was dumbfounded but could not control my laugh.

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So, is it fair to say that it is the end of humour for the world’s largest democracy? I don’t think so. On the contrary, this is just the beginning of the most hilarious times of our lives. For, nothing amuses more than stupidity trying very hard to masquerade as a thought leader. Picture this: the rupee is the worst-performing currency in Asia, fuel prices are competing with the Statue of Unity, GDP has fallen through a hole in the soul, lynching is a video-worthy sport, history is distorted, pan-India DNA is the talk of the town, Akshay Kumar is a journalist, so are Deepak Chaurasia, Amish Devgan and Navika Kumar. Arnab Goswami chooses to name his channel ‘Republic’, black money sits comfortably in its abode and the emperor has no clothes. Yet, there is no dearth of WhatsApp uncles who are in a trance. And it’s hilarious. A friend showed me a WhatsApp message from his family group. The message was sent to the group by a family member who happened to be a math teacher. The message claimed that the number 2,520 was the only number that’s divisible by every number from 1 to 10, and that this magical number was discovered by ancient Hindu mathematicians. And mathematicians all over the world were in awe of the ancient sanatani Hindu genius. Of course, the message was followed by the usual “Jai Shri Ram”. It’s primary school mathematics, that 2,520 is the LCM (lowest common multiple) of the numbers from 1 to 10 but somehow the mathematics teacher missed it. How can a comic miss the opportunity of calling out this teacher?

This indeed is a fertile ground for comedy. When a huge chunk of the population is delusional and those in power are arrogant, comedy will prosper. If anything, it becomes more biting and, on occasions, even spectacular. Serious comedy is an intellectual exercise. Like any intellect, a serious comic exposes the fault lines in a society using her craft. Serious comedy comes from keen observation, sharp politics and a deep sense of empathy. As long as she is punching up, a comic is doing a great service to society.

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It’s understandable though why there is so much pushback against serious—political, if you may—comedy. Consider for example a recent video of a doctor, somewhere in Haryana, drinking cow urine, or a bunch of men dabbing cow dung over their bodies to keep away the coronavirus. Those visuals are offensive to any rational mind, but to a comic this is material. When a comic tells this story, the rational mind would love it but the said doctor and the said bunch of men would want to shut the comic down. As it turns out, the likes of this doctor, these men and the above-mentioned mathematics teacher find their shenanigans legitimised by a deceitful web of power, religion, inferiority complex, corruption, hatred and generous helping of fake news. And they don’t like the mirror a comic shows them. But frankly speaking their efforts in muzzling a comic’s voice are futile. A good comic is a cheeky bugger. She finds a way and language to still do what she does. In that sense, stand-up comedy is an act of subversion, an act of dissent. Like water it will find a way. A scared State can try and crush all dissent, but it cannot succeed. The State can use usual scare tactics on activists, students, teachers, farmers but they don’t have a blueprint of how to deal with a comic. Satire produced in Pakistan, for example, during the Zia era is not just hilarious, it is sharp, biting and extremely progressive. Even the notorious Zia did not have a blueprint to deal with humour. I am no expert on satire or comedy but I know one thing for sure. The more difficult the times, the sharper the humour it produces.

We are perhaps living in the most hilarious times of our lives. And stand-up comics are the auditors of these times. Silence them and we will soon be living in a ghost town. Thankfully, good comics have a thick skin. One can try and corner them but they soon find a way and language to bounce back with sharper jibes. If the powers and its followers want to disarm comics, they perhaps should try and not give them so much material. They should try and bring down the absurdity quotient. Perhaps, that mathematics teacher can do some justice to the subject and not make a joke of himself. A doctor can try and not flaunt his cow urine-drinking skills and make a joke of himself, or those men who adorn their bodies with cow dung to fight corona, can try and not make a joke of themselves. Frankly, it’s they who are making a fool of themselves, not the comic. A comic is just telling the story of her time. Having said that, even in the best of times, a comic will find a way to crack a joke. Comics and cockroaches will survive even a nuclear war. Make no mistake, these are the best times for comedy, humour and satire. A comic will speak till the cows come home. Try stopping and you shall be the next joke.

(Views expressed are personal)