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Indian telly€™s not so funny anymore
Not just the audience, even actors are switching over to American sitcoms
PRIYANKA SRIVASTAVA
Channels are terming it as comedy€™s second innings. What with a new stand-up comedy show coming up
everyday, one would think that the Indian audience would be left laughing their guts out. However, youngsters are unanimous in their opinion that the slapstick stand-up acts on TV are distinctly unfunny and they are switching on to sitcoms like Friends, Sienfeld, Full House and others. Who cares if they are into their nth rerun!
As anchor Mini Mathur says, €œI only watch American sitcoms on telly. Indian comedy serials are seriously unfunny and very me-too in their approach. There is such dumbing down of concepts that urban youth can find
nothing in common with them. And one can€™t watch daily soaps with their unidimensional characters and stories that never come to an end.€
Adds TV actor Rajeev Khandelwal, €œComedy may be returning to the small screen but there is still no content for the young urban audience. This, when actors themselves come from that bracket and are raring to go for more.€ Actor Varun Badola feels that the dearth of good scripts and conceptualisation are to be blamed. €œWe cannot have niche serials for the youth until we work on the conceptualisation and scripting aspects. In the West, the script is written six months before shooting starts.€
Comic actor Satish Shah echoes his point of view. €œThe timing, direction, script and team€™s enthusiasm, all are needed to get a comedy serial right.€ Societal and political compulsions are also a factor. €œFor youth-oriented shows, you need to feature what the youth does. I feel not many would follow subtle humour because we are used to in-your-face kind of comedy,€ Varun adds.
Even the quality of
standup comedians leaves much to be desired. As Shekhar Suman, who is a judge on The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, says, €œWe have no knowledge of humour, and the entire concept of stand-up comedy is abused in India. Most of the artistes fail to realise that imitating actors and making fun is not humour. The content needs to have finesse. The presentation should be powerful enough to bring in a punch. Instead, we see extremely moronic concepts and burrowed humour.€ He adds, €œStand-up comedies require good knowledge of people, great observation power and personal analysis, all wrapped in an innovative style.€
NOT SO FUNNY: Rajeev Khandelwal
Ishaani
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