Just the other day, I came across this man who expressed his dream of becoming a comic, someday. This is just so rare of any Indian to say, where living in a democracy like India is a mere paradox. Despite subscribing to the right to speech, we consider taking offence to anything and everything that's being discussed as a mandate. Be it discussing religion and its fundamentals, talking about political leaders and the corruption that goes around or something as basic as voicing an opinion, with a twinge of satire, if something is not consistent with our thinking, it automatically becomes offence worthy. Again, this does not apply to everybody or I shall rather put it this way, there are fewer people who actually understand the concept of democracy than those who just co-exist in a democracy.
A few days back, I re-watched the episode of AIB knockout. This was just to gauge why so many people reacted the way they did to the roast. I felt ashamed of our poor mentality and how we lacked the ability to take comedy in the right spirit. I felt all the more appalled at how people were outraged and filed an FIR against AIB and how its members received death threats from some political parties and religious groups. They were eventually asked to take down the video. A lot of the things spoken during the show were provoking. But, that's insult comedy, my friends! What else do you expect of it? Thousands of people who went to watch the show, paid a bomb for the tickets and willingly sat through the show as the jokes kept getting darker. The reason being, we have barely known satire and this was a one of a kind event that attempted something in the genre of satire. A lot of the people who cheered during the roast and went home and started complaining about how these gigs were not conducive for the Indian population and that they should be banned, just had another reason to display their double standards. In the first place, they knew what the show consisted. Secondly, nobody forced them to attend the show. If we feel so offensive about everything that transpires in our surroundings, we might as well lock ourselves up in a room.
For all those who advocate the freedom of speech, dissent is the cornerstone of any democracy. Retaining your perspective and respecting and co-existing with others' views and ideologies is the true nature of democracy. To give more perspective, democracy is not about taking offence to jokes pertaining to your religion while laughing and cracking a joke about other religions. Democracy would have been truly implemented when despite our overbearing presence, we give others a chance to speak and give them the freedom to make their choices. What we are doing is calling ourselves a democracy while subtracting objectivity. This is like asking for aloo bhaji (potato curry) without aloo to be still called aloo bhaji. Satire and humor are a reflection of our culture and practices. They are not born out of one's dreams and imagination. And hence, no matter how small an issue is, giving it a humorous twist will make it look provoking. And since, we are not used to listening to the truth that is right in the face, we have nothing to do but to take offence. And when one is in power, the right to take offence increases tenfold.
Satire has been existent since centuries in many western countries and has been dealt with sportingly. Because, it is bound to exist when there are multiple forces and cultures to reckon with. So, we might as well make peace with it. Infact, looking at the pros of comedy/satire, this genre is helping people channel their frustration by laughing it out. And doing that makes the atmosphere more cathartic and vibrant. And of course what could be better than making someone laugh and taking away their ownership of sorrow and frustration, be it only for a little while. And the best thing is that laughter disarms people. Like, you would easily win an argument by making the opposite person laugh which will ultimately force him to let his defences down and disarm himself. You can try this. We seriously wouldn't need any wars if only there was more humor around. Because, a little humor does not harm!
A few days back, I re-watched the episode of AIB knockout. This was just to gauge why so many people reacted the way they did to the roast. I felt ashamed of our poor mentality and how we lacked the ability to take comedy in the right spirit. I felt all the more appalled at how people were outraged and filed an FIR against AIB and how its members received death threats from some political parties and religious groups. They were eventually asked to take down the video. A lot of the things spoken during the show were provoking. But, that's insult comedy, my friends! What else do you expect of it? Thousands of people who went to watch the show, paid a bomb for the tickets and willingly sat through the show as the jokes kept getting darker. The reason being, we have barely known satire and this was a one of a kind event that attempted something in the genre of satire. A lot of the people who cheered during the roast and went home and started complaining about how these gigs were not conducive for the Indian population and that they should be banned, just had another reason to display their double standards. In the first place, they knew what the show consisted. Secondly, nobody forced them to attend the show. If we feel so offensive about everything that transpires in our surroundings, we might as well lock ourselves up in a room.
For all those who advocate the freedom of speech, dissent is the cornerstone of any democracy. Retaining your perspective and respecting and co-existing with others' views and ideologies is the true nature of democracy. To give more perspective, democracy is not about taking offence to jokes pertaining to your religion while laughing and cracking a joke about other religions. Democracy would have been truly implemented when despite our overbearing presence, we give others a chance to speak and give them the freedom to make their choices. What we are doing is calling ourselves a democracy while subtracting objectivity. This is like asking for aloo bhaji (potato curry) without aloo to be still called aloo bhaji. Satire and humor are a reflection of our culture and practices. They are not born out of one's dreams and imagination. And hence, no matter how small an issue is, giving it a humorous twist will make it look provoking. And since, we are not used to listening to the truth that is right in the face, we have nothing to do but to take offence. And when one is in power, the right to take offence increases tenfold.
Satire has been existent since centuries in many western countries and has been dealt with sportingly. Because, it is bound to exist when there are multiple forces and cultures to reckon with. So, we might as well make peace with it. Infact, looking at the pros of comedy/satire, this genre is helping people channel their frustration by laughing it out. And doing that makes the atmosphere more cathartic and vibrant. And of course what could be better than making someone laugh and taking away their ownership of sorrow and frustration, be it only for a little while. And the best thing is that laughter disarms people. Like, you would easily win an argument by making the opposite person laugh which will ultimately force him to let his defences down and disarm himself. You can try this. We seriously wouldn't need any wars if only there was more humor around. Because, a little humor does not harm!
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