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Humour gets black
Why is our Censor Board so liberal with the banal, adult jokes on the laughter shows?
PRIYANKA DASGUPTA Times News Network
While everyone seems to be too busy taking sides about the adult content in music videos and films that are screened on television, strangely enough nobody is bothered about the Indian comedy shows that have an equal or, if not more, adult content in them. Shows like the Great Indian Laughter Challenge, the Johny Lever Show, The Comedy Show, Ha, Ha, Ha have a liberal dose of vulgar humour in them and yet the culture police in our country seem to be quite lenient with them.
Debasrita Datta, a mother of school going girl, feels quite awkward to watch the comedy shows in front of her daughter. "I have told my daughter, Diya, not to watch these programmes. Sometimes, the jokes can be pretty vulgar and obscene." Equally embarrassed was Tirtha Roy when he watched a comedy show. "A celebrity was asked what he would do if he wasn't a singer. Prompt came the reply: 'I would have opened a grocery shop and sold condoms'. And mind you, this wasn't said in a way to encourage people to accept condoms as regular items. It was just to make fun of the whole thing. Thankfully enough, my son wasn't sitting beside me," said Roy.
Most comedians make fun of the physically challenged and gays. But then, why just talk about comedy shows? Karan Johar makes fun of gays in his films. And strangely enough, while a film like Omkara comes under the adult scanner, such distasteful humour never seems to irk anyone anywhere. Shekhar Suman, who has long been judging such shows, says, "People get away with a lot of ludicrous stuff in the name of humour. A lot of these comedians have no academic background and are stupid. Hence, the kind of jokes that appeal to them are quite dirty." That's perhaps one reason why one doesn't always catch Suman enjoying these jokes when the camera pans on his face. "I do get embarrassed and have even told the director not to allow such indecent comments." But why is it that Sidhu encourages almost every kind of humour? "Sidhu laughs at everything. The director needs to give a brief to the participants saying that if they have such jokes, they will get deleted."
"If we can accept a joke on a person's livelihood, why have problems about a joke on his sexual preferences? After all, haven't we heard of black humour in the West? It's all a question of demand and supply," says Pankaj Saraswat, the director of the Great Indian Laughter Challenge.
Debasrita Datta, a mother of school going girl, feels quite awkward to watch the comedy shows in front of her daughter. "I have told my daughter, Diya, not to watch these programmes. Sometimes, the jokes can be pretty vulgar and obscene." Equally embarrassed was Tirtha Roy when he watched a comedy show. "A celebrity was asked what he would do if he wasn't a singer. Prompt came the reply: 'I would have opened a grocery shop and sold condoms'. And mind you, this wasn't said in a way to encourage people to accept condoms as regular items. It was just to make fun of the whole thing. Thankfully enough, my son wasn't sitting beside me," said Roy.
Most comedians make fun of the physically challenged and gays. But then, why just talk about comedy shows? Karan Johar makes fun of gays in his films. And strangely enough, while a film like Omkara comes under the adult scanner, such distasteful humour never seems to irk anyone anywhere. Shekhar Suman, who has long been judging such shows, says, "People get away with a lot of ludicrous stuff in the name of humour. A lot of these comedians have no academic background and are stupid. Hence, the kind of jokes that appeal to them are quite dirty." That's perhaps one reason why one doesn't always catch Suman enjoying these jokes when the camera pans on his face. "I do get embarrassed and have even told the director not to allow such indecent comments." But why is it that Sidhu encourages almost every kind of humour? "Sidhu laughs at everything. The director needs to give a brief to the participants saying that if they have such jokes, they will get deleted."
"If we can accept a joke on a person's livelihood, why have problems about a joke on his sexual preferences? After all, haven't we heard of black humour in the West? It's all a question of demand and supply," says Pankaj Saraswat, the director of the Great Indian Laughter Challenge.
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