Indian stand-up comedians are now a worried lot.
Their very survival is under threat. The reasons are not far to seek.
Politicians and news channels are rapidly transgressing into their domain and
may soon render them jobless.
“Look, our survival essentially depends on our ability to concoct bizarre situations and come up with funny lines to entertain the public. With politicians and television channels sounding stranger than fiction and thereby providing free and wholesome entertainment to the people, we sense a clear threat to our source of livelihood,” explained a leading professional comedian Rahul Joshi.
To buttress his point, he cited the recent statement of Samajwadi Party leader Mohan Singh that his party was not amenable to lobbying by Walmart because no one in the party could speak English. “Now, with a funny statement like this, do you need any further entertainment? And, on top of it, you have news channels repeating these bytes with special effects throughout the day. Do you think anyone would still feel like coming to our comedy shows?” asked Joshi.
Agreed Rehman Qureshi, another stand-up comedian whose stage performances have been facing dwindling crowds these days, forcing him to narrate jokes about Kim Kardashian’s wardrobe malfunction to hold the audience attention.
“We consider Digvijay Singh as the biggest threat. None of the comedians can ever match his twisted words. The next big threat is from India TV whose investigative crime stories and reality shows have become the main source of entertainment for urban audience,” he lamented.
The affected comedians have created a facebook page “We Hate Politician-Media nexus” and have formed Jaspal Bhatti National Federation of Professional Comedians to counter the emerging threat.
In Andhra Pradesh, the Telangana Congress MPs’ rib-tickling public performances, with unfailing regularity, have sent shivers down the spine of professional comedians. “If the present trend continues, we will soon be out of jobs. We cannot even give vent to our frustration by asking “where we are going?” because that expression has been patented by Chandrababu Naidu,” rued a local humourist Kantipudi Subba Rao.
He disclosed that the state JAC of comedians was in the process of preparing a list of the endangered comedians whose only course of action is to wait for Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy to come out of jail and undertake “Odarpu Yatra” for them.
“Look, our survival essentially depends on our ability to concoct bizarre situations and come up with funny lines to entertain the public. With politicians and television channels sounding stranger than fiction and thereby providing free and wholesome entertainment to the people, we sense a clear threat to our source of livelihood,” explained a leading professional comedian Rahul Joshi.
To buttress his point, he cited the recent statement of Samajwadi Party leader Mohan Singh that his party was not amenable to lobbying by Walmart because no one in the party could speak English. “Now, with a funny statement like this, do you need any further entertainment? And, on top of it, you have news channels repeating these bytes with special effects throughout the day. Do you think anyone would still feel like coming to our comedy shows?” asked Joshi.
Agreed Rehman Qureshi, another stand-up comedian whose stage performances have been facing dwindling crowds these days, forcing him to narrate jokes about Kim Kardashian’s wardrobe malfunction to hold the audience attention.
“We consider Digvijay Singh as the biggest threat. None of the comedians can ever match his twisted words. The next big threat is from India TV whose investigative crime stories and reality shows have become the main source of entertainment for urban audience,” he lamented.
The affected comedians have created a facebook page “We Hate Politician-Media nexus” and have formed Jaspal Bhatti National Federation of Professional Comedians to counter the emerging threat.
In Andhra Pradesh, the Telangana Congress MPs’ rib-tickling public performances, with unfailing regularity, have sent shivers down the spine of professional comedians. “If the present trend continues, we will soon be out of jobs. We cannot even give vent to our frustration by asking “where we are going?” because that expression has been patented by Chandrababu Naidu,” rued a local humourist Kantipudi Subba Rao.
He disclosed that the state JAC of comedians was in the process of preparing a list of the endangered comedians whose only course of action is to wait for Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy to come out of jail and undertake “Odarpu Yatra” for them.
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