Not quite funny

Last week, I tweeted against a not-so-funny clip made by a bored Indian self-proclaimed comedian at 3am, lampooning Sachin Tendulkar, and even more, Lata Mangeshkar. Following my social media post, swathes of followers, including celebrities, concurred with my view and expressed acute displeasure at what was nothing more than pointless hatred and insensitivity towards an eighty-plus icon. Not surprisingly, this flared up into a national controversy, with people mostly lambasting the comedian’s pedestrian hack job. So the state over-reacted and almost bordered on the silly by demanding his arrest, but I’d rather that than this. The minority that supported him espoused the usual drivel about free speech and the need for Indians to loosen up and develop a sense of humour. Just for the record, free speech does not provide a licence to shame and demean someone on a public platform. And those who want us to stop taking matters of the ilk seriously should ask themselves how serious they’d be about the joke being poked at one of their own family members. Criticise/spoof someone’s work, a concept, an idea or performance if you must but why pass personal comments?

In any case, taking off on a famous name can be done smartly and tastefully, without having to resort to hurtful statements based on age, physicality and gender, the lowest hanging fruit. Watch Bea Arthur make fun of Pamela Anderson. No abuse, insults or name calling, but still classy, artful, and above all, entertaining. The AIB Roast with Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh was mostly scripted and planned, and most importantly, the two had signed up for it. They knew exactly what they were getting themselves into. I had enjoyed it. It was a bunch of youngsters of today knowingly having fun at each other’s expense.

But I’m afraid that in my world, making disparaging remarks about old age, and worst of all, suggesting death is nothing short of tacky and guttural. I’m no prude; I hail from an educated south Mumbai milieu and enjoy catty humour more than anyone else. But those in the business of telling jokes need to make an effort to think hard and come up with a point of view that’s witty and funny. Just heaping hateful anathemas on someone for the sake of it, in the garb of humour, to draw page views and cheap giggles is a gross abuse of a comedian’s profession. A mature comedian who spoke to me shortly after the controversy erupted, made a pertinent comment: “Some of these comedians lower the standard of what it’s like to fight for the freedom of speech.” If I may add, this one hit rock bottom.

Tailpieces

1) Facebook has apologised for banning images of ‘fat-and-fit’, plus-sized model Tess Holliday on the grounds that her proportions “depict a body in an undesirable manner”. Considering we kneel at the altar of Kim Kardashian’s ginormous derriere!

2) The Council of Islamic Ideology made news (for the wrong reasons) the world over when it recommended that a Muslim husband, when needed, be allowed to beat his wife lightly if she defies his commands. The decree is nothing short of death in a country which has been placed by the Global Gender Gap of 2014 as the second lowest performing country in the world in terms of gender equality. How light is ‘light’? Hurling a plate? A smack on the cheek? A kick up the bottom? How will one prevent the country’s largely uneducated husbands from misusing the misogynistic recommendation to validate their misbehaviour? What does one even say to such a sickeningly regressive and insulting perspective from the Stone Age? It does no favours for the global image of a country that’s been long struggling for a whitewash.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 2^nd, 2016.

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