Social media not tickled by the joke but defends right to 'lousy humour'

Mumbai: There was a sense of deja vu when an instance of extreme insult comedy backfired and landed Tanmay Bhat in the spot once more. A slew of painful barbs lobbed by the stand-up comic and co-founder of AIB at Lata Mangeshkar and Sachin Tendulkar in a two-minute comic video earned him threats from the MNS and cost him more than a few fans.
The fracas carries refrains from last year when a 23-minute video of insult comedy at a live stage show in a Mumbai stadium led to a huge uproar and landed them five PILs.
People may enjoy an irreverent laugh at another's expense but not a laughing matter when it happens to be at the expense of national figures that the country loves to idolise. So when Bhat swapped faces with the music and cricketing icons to indulge in a mock conversation, he stepped into a realm that did not bring in the laughs.
Social media exploded with dissenters that included the likes of Suhel Seth, scathing in their reaction. Seth wrote, "Just saw @thetanmay 's video. @sachin_rt and LATA Mangeshkar are too legendary to be tainted by this. He's a comedian not an oracle! And by the way, my unsolicited advice to @thetanmay : comedy is not about insulting people. Better your craft by using satire not abuse."
Then there were others like singer Anushka Manchanda who may not have been tickled by the video but wondered why one would want to punish humour. "You can dislike his joke, call him names, unfollow him, but don't penalise the guy for doing what he does..his job as a comedian!" she wrote on Twitter.
Comedian Tanmay Bhat may face FIR for `insulting' Sachin-Lata video
Columnist and writer Anil Dharker expressed that the video was "offensive and in the worst possible taste" but not reason enough for stringent action. "It's okay to make fun of people but not the kind of disgusting attacks that Tanmay made. And you cannot put someone in jail for that. There's bad taste in writing, art, films. You don't threaten to beat them up for it. Comedians thrive on attention and people are playing into his hands. The best thing is to ignore," he told TOI. Author Shobhaa De agreed. "We are creating a national issue out of something that is best ignored," she said adding: "Lousy humour is still not a crime in India. The video is in exceedingly bad taste but it doesn't warrant arrest. There are far too many offenses and utterances in the public space that go unnoticed and unpunished."
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