All of us like to laugh, dont we? Humour keeps us going and adds that layer of lightness to our lives. When we look at comedy as a genre, there are various forms of it. But very often, we notice that jokes are gendered, in the sense that most of them are made at the expense of women or gender minorities, and contain sexist, racist, casteist underpinnings. Comedy is an arena where dominant narratives can be re-negotiated, spoofed, questined, and critiqued. But do we do that? Is our humour convenient and lazy for the most part? And as for comedy as a career, how does this affect women stand up comics, and what does it mean to be a female comic in todays context in India?
Kicking off the third season of our podcast, our hosts Shriya and Sukanya are joined this week by the charismatic, quirky, and charming Radhika Vaz! Radhika is a comic, writer, and feminist. Over the years, through her performances, Radhika has openly talked about sexism and misogyny prevalent in society. She is also the winner of the Gotham Award. Tune in to this episode as we share some laughs, discuss women in comedy, navigating the patriarchal society, re-negotiating dominant gender narratives through creative performances, and much more!
This podcast is available on Spotify, Apple, Google, and many other streaming platforms via Anchor. Listen to this episode on any of your favourite streaming platforms and tell us what you think in the comments section!
Also read: Radhika Vaz, The Feminist Comedian, Talks About Her All Time Favourite Pet Peeve: Patriarchy
