Comedy is serious business for these video bloggers

MUMBAI: Two years ago, an 18-year-old girl calling herself ‘That Indian Chick’ donned a blue kurta, stuck a pencil into her hairbun, turned her cellphone camera on and recorded herself imitating disgruntled Indian teachers: “Is this a class or a fish market? Why are you laughing? Why are you getting up? Put your head down.” She uploaded the video on YouTube just before Teachers’ Day, attracting many young viewers and even her Std XII teacher’s laughter.“Even people from Pakistan commented, saying they could relate to it,” said the Sophia College student.
Since then, ‘That Indian Chick’ (TIC) has put out 60 videos and won over 4,000 subscribers.
TIC is part of a growing tribe of city-based collegians trying out comedy on the the video-sharing website. The trend has less to do with successful Indian comedy groups like ‘All India Bakchod’ (AIB) and ‘TVF’ and more to do with the popularity of US YouTube comedians such as Ryan Higa, Jenna Marbles and, of course, ‘Lilly Singh aka Superwoman’, an immensely popular guest at local YouTube fanfests.
Through them, Mumbai teens have discovered that exams, existentialist rants, body-image and even life on campus are all YouTube currency. This discovery, coupled with this generation’s 'YOLO' (You Only Live Once) attitude, has led to an explosion of five-minute YouTube videos where these self-styled pundits address important questions like: “How would Honey Singh sound in English?”

While some of these teen vloggers, or video bloggers, do mine current affairs for material, most scan their own lives for viral value. “The videos must be relatable,” says Rachit Singh, a commerce student from Mithibai college whose vlogs, ‘Why popular TV shows are annoying’ and ‘Things I don't understand about girls’, are a hit with his young subscribers. Singh said he started his video-sharing channel last year “to make my Facebook friends happy”.
“Vlogging” is hard work, he said, but has its rewards. A college recently invited him to speak at a festival on digital storytelling. And with 65% female followers, he repeatedly gets asked if he is single. Part of Singh’s success is due to his willingness to interact with viewers. “A good YouTuber is one who respects the existence of an audience by replying to comments,” he said.
But not all comments are flattering. Female comedians especially have to deal with a lot of hate. That Indian Chick, for instance, has been called a “feminazi” for taking a stand on women’s issues. “There is a lot of sexism on YouTube,” said the 20-year-old. “Just because I have short hair and use cuss words, I am a red dot popping on a map.” TIC often gets personal remarks about her appearance but constructive criticism is rare. “I would really appreciate if someone tells me that your lighting is bad instead of how ugly I am,” she said.
While content often trumps technical quality, these YouTubers have long moved on from phone cameras and Windows MovieMaker to DSLRs and Power Director. Sandip Mondal (17), whose video ‘What if Interstellar was directed by Sajid Khan?’ has got over 1.5 lakh views, now uses a Sony Vegas Pro 12. “My brother is an animator, so he helps with the editing,” said the Bhandup resident.
Mondal was 14 when an encouraging remark by AIB on one of his videos pushed him to start a channel called ‘Silly Stuffs’. The channel now has over 4,000 subscribers, but it took him three failed channels to get here. “Initially, I only made videos of stuff I would find funny but now, I do things that others would find funny,” said the teenager.
That audience consideration may be one reason why these young Indian YouTubers aren’t as edgy as their American role models or even AIB. Mondal, for example, is careful not to use cuss words because his dad watches his videos. And he’s not the only one to self-censor. “Many are scared their relatives would not approve,” said Mondal. By comparison, 25-year-old American Youtube comedian Ryan Higa, with over 15 million subscribers, is much more coarse with toilet-humour videos.
Mondal tries to sneak in a bit of the American’s insouciance. Whenever he gets negative comments, he shoots back: “Welcome to my channel.” Despite their ambition, these vloggers haven’t been able to convert their YouTube currency into cold cash. But most say they would consider going professional if their channels became big. TIC participated in the recent YouTube Comedy Hunt event and hopes to make vlogging a career. She believes the secret to success is to Indianize content and “post often even when you are not inspired”. This is how TIC went from adding one or two subscribers a day to five or six. Her best friend, however, does not watch her videos. “She says she has to suffer me every day anyway.”