Opinion A jolly good show
AIB roast has opened up space for our comic industry.
AIB tried ‘roasting’ Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor and literally ‘burning’ filmmaker Karan Johar in front of as many as 4000 people at a Mumbai stadium.By: Dhruv Mookerji
The AIB might as well become an orphan acronym, like WWE and KFC, entities that have stopped using the full form of their acronyms. The more people hear about them, the more the curiosity about the name, and the more occasion for naysayers to spite them for it. Not that the AIB worries. They might have more people listening to them now than Rahul Gandhi does. They’re big now. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be facing this ire. And they’ve won over a lot of hearts and a lot of respect for their art — no other word will do; it’s the art of comedy. Sadly, they have to answer to those who cannot merely stay off the bandwagon, but must throw a pipe bomb into it.
The culture of roast comedy is new to India, at least at this level. Insult comedy is, expectedly, big in the US, where free speech has more latitude than it does here. Anyone logging in, clicking on, and going beyond the opening warnings cannot claim to be exposed to a shocking experience. There is nothing more that the AIB could have done to forewarn sensitive souls. To trivialise their magnificent show by calling it an abuse-fest is to dole out an injustice. Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh went out there, put themselves out for a solid session of insults, laughed through it all, and stepped up and had their comeback.
Of course, no amount of superb humour can justify poor taste or downright insensitivity, and to that end, one must at least consider the protesters’ point of view to see whether sentiments have truly been stomped on. The main point of contention has been the abusive language used, and its relevance for the values taught to our youth. Three observations are worth noting.
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First, as mentioned, nothing has been shoved down unsuspecting throats. Hindi films have carried language just as “questionable”, and have duly been rated accordingly upon release, to allow audiences to tread as they please. The language used is a reflection of society, not a corruption of it.
Second, a show setting itself up as insult comedy for adults cannot be tasked with teaching morals to the youth. That’s not its job. They’re a comic outfit, their job being to crack jokes, create funny situations, and let everyone have a good laugh about the very things they joke about all the time.
And third, if memory serves well (unfortunately, the video is no longer available, so memory must serve), all the jokes were directed at and absorbed by individual parties; nothing was a generalisation that could hurt others watching. Sure, as criticism of the comedy itself, the AIB could have made the Ashish Sakya jokes less predictable. And some jokes did repeat themselves; it is a first attempt after all, and “less is more” wouldn’t have been their guiding principle. But the takeaway has to be the absolute masterpieces that were some of the one-liners delivered. They really show the class and quality in intelligent Indian comedy.
No, scratch that. The takeaway is the wonderful grin on Karan Johar’s face each time he was made the target of jokes. And they found a million points to tease him on. Nobody was spared — forget the participants, the onlooking Deepika Padukone, Alia Bhatt, Anurag Kashyap, Sanjay Kapoor, all had their trips taken, and all the while you couldn’t help laughing, and you couldn’t help saluting their good-natured reception of it all.
The AIB has come out saying that they are humbled by the support everyone has extended to their right to speak freely. But the AIB should have no illusions about one thing — the decisive factor in gaining such outright support is not the defence of free speech in itself; the decisive factor is that they were hilarious. A less funny outfit, with a weak show, might still have got people’s sympathy, but it wouldn’t have generated this wave of solidarity. The reason everyone is so angry is that they loved the show, lauded what it meant for our comic industry, and hated that something so brilliant is being given the medieval eye.
The AIB taking down the video is not a white flag in the face of the tirade. They have been very clear that it is out of respect for the celebrities who have supported them, because they would be easier preys. Over time, more roasts will happen; perhaps more groups will come up. With the internet, it will be impossible to rap knuckles as they grow exponentially. Yes, not all the comedy we will get to see will be uniformly classy. There will be the odd roast where a line is crossed and someone feels genuinely insulted. The pattern of jokes might tire itself out. But may we be fortunate to see such days than not.
As Karan Johar would say, “That’s my position.”
The writer is an actor and stand-up comedian based in Mumbai and Kolkata.
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