Humour has never been easy. It takes courage to make people laugh and more courage to stand up with a huge mic in a gigantic hall as a comedian with a compact audience that paid a decent amount to relish entertainment. But what makes humour? According to the Benign Violation Theory (BVT) tested and devised by Peter McGraw, American professor of marketing and psychology at the University of Colorado Boulder, with another scholar Caleb Warren humour occurs when violation (something that goes against our sense of perception; how things should normally look like; something that disrupts social norms, expectations or guidelines; getting out of the belief system of how things/world should be) and benign (non-threatening/harmless) happened at the same time.
A deeper level of understanding of the theory says that laughter occurs under three conditions (1) a circumstance is a violation, (2) the circumstance is benign, and (3) together happen simultaneously. Comedians in India have in the past touched upon subjects that generally are difficult to talk about, perhaps controversial, taboo or simply something avoidable to shield ourselves.
A few Indian stand-up comedians dared to do so, however, they faced political uproar, online hate speech and threats. Kunal Kamra, a prominent stand-up comedian from Mumbai is one of them who is currently fighting a defamation case and facing political disgrace for a wisecrack that did not even mention a political leader, however, implicitly was a funny jibe at Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. Here are a few of them who witnessed the same unfortunate pitfall.
1. Munawar Faruqui
In January 2021, young and relatively less prominent stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui’s show was halted by a local Hindu extremist group at Indore’s Munro Cafe, Madhya Pradesh, claiming that the comedian “insulted” Hindu religious sentiments. The packed audience was waiting for the show to begin and Faruqui pleaded with the group to let the show start saying, ‘I am just here to make people laugh.’
The packed audience was waiting for the show to begin and Faruqui pleaded with the group to let the show start saying, ‘I am just here to make people laugh.’
According to a BBC report, the show was stopped by Eklavya Gaud, the son of a ruling BJP leader. At that time, the ruling party in Madhya Pradesh was BJP.
At the same time, Faruqui was arrested under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 295-A (planned and malicious acts, intended to provocating religious feelings, insulting a particular religion or its religious belief systems), section 269 (unlawful or negligence to spread the contraction of any disease citing danger to life; amid COVID protocols in 2021).
Faruqui along with four others were apprehended even before the show began. According to Anshumaan Shrivastav, the comedian’s lawyer, Faruqui was arrested without any verification or interrogation. The comedian spent 28 days in jail for a joke he did not even crack.
2. Vir Das
In the same year, 2021, India’s most famous satirist and comedian known for his sharp stance – artistically – on hardline Hindu supremacists, Vir Das was under the radar for his show at Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, United States of America, where he recited a six-minute poem named ‘I come from two Indias‘.
The poem highlighted the lack of safety of Indian women at the same time mocked a culture that worships women. In his poem, he said, ‘I come from an India where we worship women during the day and gang-rape them at night.‘
In his poem, he said, ‘I come from an India where we worship women during the day and gang-rape them at night.‘
In the same performance, the actor also touched upon critical subjects like Indian media/ journalism, air pollution, farmers’ protests, repression on Indian stand-up comedians and hiked fuel prices. The immediate intolerant response came from BJP spokesperson Aditya Jha who registered a police complaint against Das demanding apprehension.
3. Agrima Joshua
In 2020, the Habitat Comedy Club in Mumbai was damaged by goons of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and later uploaded the video of vandalism on YouTube after showing intolerance to a wisecrack on Shivaji statue in the Arabstand-up by stand-up comedian Agrima Joshua. In Maharashtra, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, an Indian ruler and member of the Bhonsale dynasty, is symbolically recognised as the great Indian leader who fought against oppression.
He was also the founder of the Maratha empire. Joshua’s joke was inspired by a Quora answer that was emphasised on Shivaji’s statue. It said the statue would possibly provide power to everyone in Maharashtra. A report by the Frontline claimed the stand-up comedian also received rape threats on online media. The report also added Joshua was persuaded to make a video to issue an apology to various parties in Maharashtra including MNS, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Shiv Sena and Congress.
‘The apology was not meant for my safety. It was meant to continue my humiliation. More hate came after the apology,’ the stand-up comedian said.
‘The apology was not meant for my safety. It was meant to continue my humiliation. More hate came after the apology,’ the stand-up comedian said.
4. Samay Raina
The YouTube show ‘India’s Got Latent‘ pioneered by stand-up comedian Samay Raina is currently facing extreme political backlash after an episode – of the show – joked about parents and sex. The show has mostly comic material. According to the latest reports, its “controversial” episode has now been deleted, citing political uproar reaching the Supreme Court.
Right after the intolerance towards a joke, an FIR was filed in Assam, Guwahati, against Samay Raina and his co-worker Ranveer Allahbadia for ‘inciting obscenity and engaging in sexually explicit and vulgar discussion.’
Additionally, the Maharashtra Cyber Cell has denied Samay Raina’s plea that sought an online recording of his statement in his defense as the comedian is currently in the USA.
Samay has also canceled his tour to India issuing an apology on Instagram to all his fans who bought his show tickets in advance. The comic artist, in another statement, claimed his mental well-being is being affected by this whole controversy.
5. Anirban Dasgupta
In 2017, stand-up comedian Anirban Dasgupta in Kolkata, West Bengal, received multiple threat calls from various political parties including Trinamool Congress and BJP for cracking a joke on Subhas Chandra Bose, was an Indian freedom fighter who fought against British rule during India’s independence movement and is known for pioneering the Indian National Army (INA) and the Azad Hind Government to combat British raj.
In a report by Frontline, there is no direct name of the political parties that threatened the comedian, however, he said, ‘The Left might not have the same outrage machinery the Right does, but they follow the same pattern. Your number is leaked, and people start making threatening calls.‘ The comedian told the Frontline magazine that it does not matter which political party is in power, they all have similar intolerant and extremist patterns.
The comedian told the Frontline magazine that it does not matter which political party is in power, they all have similar intolerant and extremist patterns.
They suppress comedy, and that is why political comedy is dying and will possibly lose its essence in India.
Right to comedy as resistance denied to Indian comic artists
Varun Grover, a political satirist and comedian from Himachal Pradesh whose show on Indian elections has garnered the attention of more than 15 million people once said, ‘The worst time to do comedy is also the best time to do it.‘ However, putting comic artists behind bars, vandalising their performative workspaces, giving them threatening calls – rape and sexually abusive threats to women, jeopardising their public image and not letting them choose comedy as a way of resistance is a blatant infringement on the right to dissent, thereby bringing fear and anxiety in them.
But they are just being funny so that we have a little less anxious world! How can the political parties take away the right to be funny? No comic artist deserves this!
