Afew years ago, Indian comedy on YouTube boiled down to a few elements: Recaps of Raju Shrivastava and company’s competitive acts from TV, movie scenes dubbed with profanity, and amateur parodies of popular songs. The artfully edited sketches we see today produced and circulated for the Indian millennial audience on the video-sharing website are a recent phenomenon.
Over the past couple of years, we have gone from watching compilations of “stuff people say” to some biting and thought-provoking satire. Most importantly, it’s being driven by Gen Y.
True wit
Millennial comic artists have something to say and they say it in the language of their contemporaries. There are comedians galore, but some names stand out for originality and wit. Take Kanan Gill and Biswa Kalyan Rath, for example. The independent comedians have amassed an online following of thousands of people with their Pretentious Movie Reviews, which make fun of clichéd Bollywood films.
For 22-year-old humanities student Zaib Kirkire from Mumbai, the two vocalise what the typical Indian millennial moviegoer thinks with perfect comic timing. “They are pretty on fleek with what Bollywood has been dishing out and how we see it,” he says. “I’m glad they don’t spare the likes of DDLJ [Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge] either. I mean, you’ve got idiocy in B-grade movies and you’ve got idiocy in mainstream movies. Kanan and Biswa bring it all out for your entertainment.
“What they do is unlike any movie reviewer you would see on TV.”
However, it’s the guys of All India Bakchod (AIB) — Gursimran Khamba, Tanmay Bhat, Rohan Joshi and Ashish Shakya — who remain the kings of India’s YouTube comedy, treating all topics with irreverence. One of their latest offerings features man’s best friend and their relationship — and of course they aren’t talking about dogs.
It is remarkable that AIB has remained as brazen, following the controversial roast of Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor with Karan Johar earlier this year. Police complaints were lodged for its high-octane vulgar verbiage but AIB remained unruffled and continues to produce videos. Still, the unbound freedom the internet offers is hard to match even on India’s most liberal stages.
Moreover, the buzz surrounding the recent banning of pornographic websites has many concerned comedy will suffer as collateral damage.
The stage is ours
The comic group East India Comedy (EIC), which has made a scathing attack on sex education in Indian schools, holds on to the idea of not only a free internet but also a mature Indian audience. “Self-censorship will never creep in,” says Sahil Shah of EIC.
“That’s the beauty of YouTube. If you’ve seen The Ghanta Awards, which is our Bollywood-based live show, we have done a lot of jokes that could shock people but this is only because it’s our opinion and opinions should never be censored. That’s the beauty of the online space. You can say what you want — as long as you don’t put up nude pics.”
Spurred on by this freedom, AIB and EIC, along with other comedians, have started a Comedy Hunt for fresh talent. “YouTube is a baby taking steps to becoming a man, and we need a lot more people to help raise it,” says Shah.
