Agrima Joshua,Shubham Mishra and the Indian Stand up Scene
Welcome back to your weekly dose of what’s wrong with India today. This time its about Agrima Joshua, the comedian who got rape threats over a joke on a statue of Shivaji Maharaj. An influential Hindu ruler during the Mughal era, he’s unique in that he championed ancient Hindu traditions and he’s treated as a god amongst Hindus to this day.
Now, Agrima’s video was posted back in 2018. Back then, it was a seemingly harmless joke which didn’t even feature Maharaj as the main punchline. It was meant to call out and mock Prime Minister Modi’s absurd claims about new printed notes having GPS trackers that could curb future black money transfers.About 2 years later, Shubham Mishra, a typical Hindustani Bhau derivative who sits in a car and hurls abuses on various controversial topics decided to ‘talk’ about her video. She saw his reaction and issued an apology and took the video down as a response. A decent move considering today’s era of cancel culture.
However,Mishra’s followers sent her similar threats along the same line across her social media handles. Then after a tweet and uproar by comics like Kunal Kamra and Gaurav Kapoor,the tide turned and the stream of hate went the other way.
Mishra’s channel had over 298k subscribers, so clearly there’s an audience that laps up his rants. One thing to be noted is that Youtube deleted his channel after the entire fiasco.Even after that however, there are fan clubs and accounts all over social media who peddle his observations and insights on different topics.Some treat him as a god, who has the guts to voice out what the nation really thinks.
Coming to today,the issue has been seemingly resolved. Mishra was apprehended by cops after social media outrage and the reaction was more or less unanimous. However,it does call into question what jokes stand up comedians are allowed to do.Comedians are still playing cat-and-mouse games to find which topics are acceptable and which ones are sin.
India has a flourishing stand up scene. Partly because of Jio, Youtube has become the haven for new names to come up frequently. There’s a large amount of people who scroll through Youtube looking for free stand up material in hopes to find the next big comic. Comedians have the ability to draw eyes and sell tickets. It’s not impossible and they’re posting whatever they can to sell out their next show.I’m not trying to discredit their effort, it’s just in the West it takes about 15+ years to be a household name whereas Indian comics who came up early have been in the industry for about 10 years sell out clubs and make a decent living.
Personally, I still find that most comics play it safe. Maybe it’s a characteristic of my rebellious teenage years bleeding into my early 20’s but I’m tired of hearing jokes about how Rahul Gandhi is XYZ and Air India’s air hostesses are old,fat and ugly.
There are no edgy comedians who are extremely popular on the scene right now. The only one who’s pushed the boundaries to the limit is Kunal Kamra, who’s political stance and debate has received flak from all sides. He’s had to shut down shows because of RSS workers and after the Arnab incident, he’s been banned from flights like Spice Jet and Air India. This isn’t me trying to sound like a typical firang pointing across the pond to U.S comedians who are inherently funnier and have better material. There are extremely funny stand up comics who push the boundaries in their own right. Many female comedians openly talk about marriage,sex and issues that would go unnoticed if it were on any other medium. Comedians have a voice and they use it to bring attention to issues that are nationwide today. As much as we like to say we’re an open democracy, very few of us try to test our free speech laws.
I can’t say having a stand up scene that’s mostly observational is a particularly bad strategy,look at comedians like Seinfeld. It’s non-political, easy to please and most importantly it sells.I personally like stand-up comedy because it’s a breath of fresh air. For an hour or so, you forget about your day and feel relaxed. No one’s looking to get enraged by a comedian talking about Congress,BJP etc.It’s easy to tune in to what’s relatable and consume the same airport food jokes.
Still, we all look for variety. Stand up comedy flourished across the world not just as a source of entertainment but as a way to talk about issues so that people would actually listen. Dave Chappelle, Louis C.K, Richard Pryor, there are many comedians who talks about issues like police brutality, school shootings etc.
Agrima Joshua’s story can’t become a cautionary tale to an up and coming comedian to polish out his bits. To change his entire appearance to talk about issues that don’t pertain to religion,Indian history,politics. As an art form, the boundary always needs to be pushed.
P.S : I’ve never tested out material on a stage before. Writing jokes and trying to illicit a reaction is one of the hardest things a stage act can aim to do. Aiming to take a typical setup-punchline and drive it into something conversational so that it seems off the cuff takes months of dedication and effort.This isn’t a thought piece on a non-comedian telling Indian greats to do better.
P.P.S: If you’ve read this far, here are a couple of my favourite comedians and/or specials in no particular order right now:
- Joe Rogan- Strange Times
- Anthony Jeselnik- Fire In The Maternity Ward
- Nate Bargatze- The Tennessee Kid
- Tom Segura- Mostly Stories,Ball Hog
- Taylor Tomlinson- Quarter-Life Crisis
- Mark Normand- Out To Lunch
- Sam Morill- I Got This
Thanks for reading :)
