Endlessly scrolling through Instagram reels has become a ritual for many of us — a routine that comes to our rescue when we are bored. And my algorithm pops up stand-up comedy videos now and then. Be it Anubhav Bassi or Ravi Gupta, humour is something I love watching. But a recent video from ‘India’s Got Latent’ shocked me to the core. Let me give you a brief context.
‘India’s Got Latent’ is a comedy reality show that brings in stand-up comedians (yes, you guessed it right!) who perform in front of a judges’ panel. The show’s Instagram bio calls itself ‘Your Favourite Pointless Reality Show’, which is its exact description - pointless.
Now the video that took me aback was that of a female comedian who ‘joked’ about Deepika Padukone’s struggle with depression and the entire issue of postpartum depression. She blamed the actress’s depression on a break-up and laughed it off like it was some trivial issue. She ridiculed what postpartum depression would look like for Deepika Padukone, despite she herself being a mother and a woman.
“Well, Sarah, it was just a joke!” some of you’d tell me. And that’s what mental health has become in India–a joke. How many of you can share with your family or friends if you struggle with your mental health? Will it be an empathetic conversation or a condescending one? With your hand on your heart, tell me - how will you respond if your sibling or your best friend tells you s/he is depressed? Will you ask her/him to ‘take a chill pill’ or will you empathise with the person?
As per a report by the World Health Organization (WHO), 4.5% of Indians have depression. That accounts to 56 million Indians! Depression is not some regular mood changes. WHO defines it as the ‘loss of pleasure or interest in activities for long periods of time.’ And with postpartum depression, worldwide about 10% of pregnant women and 13% of women who have just given birth experience depression. And this is just one of the many issues under the spectrum of mental health.
Comedy or humour was always supposed to be on a lighter note, to make people forget their worries as escapism from their everyday realities. Even dark humour brings attention to subjects that are taboo or are considered serious. But when did someone’s personal struggle become a topic for stand-up comedy? I would gladly classify it as a tasteless attempt at comedy.
And what do you expect from this show whose founder Samay Raina has been in hot soup several times for his tasteless jokes on women? His roast on Kusha Kapila – a social media influencer – targeting her divorce brought him to the limelight. And yet he has 4.3 million followers on Instagram! His reality show has 204K YouTube subscribers. This shows something is seriously wrong with our generation when we are fine with someone whose jokes demean others’ personal struggles.
Gone are the days of ‘Tu Tu Main Main’, ‘Sarabhai V/S Sarabhai’ or ‘Shararat’ when humour was at its finest. I can share some Malayalam movies that made me laugh till my stomach hurt. And yet, degrading someone’s struggle was a big no-no.
Well, I can only hope comedy’s achhe din arrive soon. Till then, I’ll follow those who still create good comedy shows and write good jokes.