Comedians Vir Das, Munawar Faruqui, Kunal Kamra, Utsav Chakraborty and others were involved in controversies in recent years. Even the comic industry was accused of body shaming and passing sexist comments.
Stand-up comedy has seen a significant rise in recent years. From opening comedy clubs to inviting stand-up comedians to various shows, stand-up comedy attracts many eyes. Comedy clubs are inaugurated, which have served as profit for both male and female comedians.
Many new venues have opened up across India where different comedians are invited to perform.
However, behind all these glitters lies controversies that various comedians garnered in the past year. Vir Das, Munawar Faruqi, Kunal Kamra, Kiku Sharda, Tanmay Bhatt etc., were caught in multiple discussions.
Controversies involving stand-up comedians
Famous Indian comedian Vir Das stirred controversy after his performance in John F. Kennedy Centre, Washington DC. During his performance, he said, “I come from two India’s”, as he spoke about the two dark sides of the country.
He talked about how India battled the COVID-19 pandemic, incidents of rapes, hikes in petrol prices and farmers’ protests, which angered numerous citizens and politicians.
After the video of his performance in Washington went viral, several people demanded action against Vir Das and FIRs were reported against him in Delhi and Mumbai. However, TMC member Mahua Moitra, Congress leaders Kapil Sibal and Shashi Tharoor supported him.
Earlier in 2020, Vir Das revealed that 45 police officials interrupted his performance for his inappropriate comment about Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam a few years ago. When he told them about the joke, cops left the location without making any arrests.
On January 1, 2021, Munawar Faruqui was arrested for offensive remarks regarding Hindu deities in his comedy show in Indore on New Year’s Eve. Complaints were filed against him by Amit Shah and son of a BJP MLA, and Faruqui was then taken to Indore Central Jail.
He was released from jail after a month.
Comedian Kunal Kamra too, faced trouble after his tweets against courts and judges. Pleas demanding contempt of court action were filed against him. In November 2020, Attorney General, KK Venugopal, agreed to initiate criminal proceedings against Kunal because of a series of tweets.
Comedian Utsav Chakraborty landed into controversy after many women accused him of sending offensive messages on social media. However, Utsav declined the allegations and stated that four women were lying.
Recent on Stand-up Comedians
Recently, comedian Sanjay Rajoura was accused of sexual harassment by a young woman. The woman took to her Instagram handle to accuse Sanjay.
Agrima Joshua received rape threats and hate speech after an old video of her performance from 2019 went viral. In the video, she made fun of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaja’s statue situated in the Arabian Sea, which angered several people. Later, Agrima apologized for her comments.
In 2016, the “Comedy Nights with Kapil” show’s famous star Kiku Sharda was also taken into custody after he mimicked Gurmeet Ram Rahim, Dera Chief. He was arrested under section 295 A of the Indian Penal Code.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) filed an FIR against All India Bakchod’s co-founder, Tanmay Bhatt, after posting a video on Snapchat, a social media application, mimicking cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and singer Lata Mangeshkar.
Before this, one of his tweets angered many people where he shared that he gets happy after seeing the breasts of naked baby girls.
Company All India Bakchod was detained in 2015 over a programme where they roasted Bollywood celebrities. In 2017, the company again landed in trouble as a defamation case was filed against it to post offensive pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Twitter.
In the picture posted by AIB on Twitter, Modi’s look-alike can be seen who is looking in his phone and alongside that is PM’s original photograph which had dog ears, made using a Snapchat filter.
Not just this, but the entire comic industry has been accused repeatedly of body shaming and passing sexist comments regarding women.
