What is funny?’ This is a question that plagues everyone. In everyday conversations, text messages and WhatsApp chats, we are always on a mission to bring laughter to people around us. But what happens when the joke ceases to be funny, and the convex smiles on faces transform into a concave frown? Comedies can turn tragic in a moment, and the brunt is borne solely by the comedian. The documentary “I am offended”, directed by Jaideep Verma (who also made the seminal Leaving Home – the Life & Music of Indian Ocean and Baavra Mann – a Film on Sudhir Mishra & Other Indian Realities) brings forth the plight of the ones who spend their lives walking the tight rope of making people laugh, knowing very well that they might be toppled by the same laughing crowd.
Different perspectives
At a length of an hour and forty two minutes, “I am offended” offers the perspectives of cartoonists, stand-up comedians, satirists and film actors, representing the genre of comedy in India. The film begins with Sanjay Rajoura’s categorical declaration that India, as a country, doesn’t have a sense of humour. Stand-up comic Gursimran Khamba adds to the narrative a few scenes later by stating that “The state will never directly assault you, the state will find people through which it will assault you.” The reason that these comedians fear assault is due to the nature of their brand of comedy, where harsh truths are spoken with ease. Comedy for many of them is a release of their anger, it is therapy for some. In their profession, puns and word play aren’t funny, but the truth is.
“I am offended” goes into arguments about the presentation of comedy. For some, comedy is only a medium, the real appreciation of their art comes in their stories. Many of these stories are highly personal, they arise from incidents that the comedian has experienced first-hand. Vir Das explains that when he produced the show Walking on broken Das, it wasn’t the structure of the narrative that was broken, but it was he who was broken, and he themed the show around the worst period of his own life. The stage was a place to release his anger and frustration.
The film also presents the divide between Hindi speaking and English speaking comics, and the said divide isn’t just about the language. Aditi Mittal deems English speaking comedy as ‘Polemic’, whereas Rajneesh Kapoor doesn’t consider Hindi comedy as stand-up comedy at all. This is because Hindi comedians delve only in jokes, but don’t commit to sharing their ideas. Vikram Sathaye counters this argument by stating that India as a country has a lot of satirical regional artists, but since the elite speak English as their first language, people tend to believe that good work happens in English. He states the example of Pu. La. Deshpande, a Marathi humourist and writer, whose work he describes as ‘literature in humour.’
While stand-up comedy has found its ground in India due to television shows like the Great Indian Laughter Challenge, there is a definitive dearth of cartoonists in India. But the Internet on the other hand has been revolutionised by shows like Jai Hind. The internet presented itself as an unregulated space where no writer is silenced, and no thought is repressed. But that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t face attacks from the offended. On one episode of Jai Hind, a joke on the Sikh community caused problems. The artists of the show received death threats every minute for 72 hours just because they had quoted 1984. The sensitivity of the community was so offended that the producers and the artists had to provide an apology for their ‘joke’.
The film’s intentions are clear from the word go; it tries to establish the helplessness of the comic artists and the lack of acceptance to dissent in the country. It establishes the premise quite well and also educates the audience about the way comedians perform, the processes they undergo to keep tickling the funny bone. It does establish the fact that the layman doesn’t accept jibes on their religion and places the conflict clearly. But is India the only country in the world where such tensions occur? Is India the only country where people are sensitive to jibes at their religion? Or is something else at play?
The French satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo was the target of terrorist attacks for its controversial Muhammad cartoons. Twelve people were killed which included Publishing Director Charb in the attacks. The controversy arose when Charlie Hebdo caricatured Prophet Muhammad. The terrorist attacks on the magazine were condemned and rightly so for their level of brutality, those attacks can never be justified and are shameful. But the question that arises from the controversy is, ‘What is the limit of freedom in the public domain?’ Is ‘Charlie Hebdo’s act of trivialising a religious figure, using cuss words and expletives not meant primarily to offend? The comedians do target the most vulnerable aspects first, don’t they? What is funny is the religious belief, the race, the caste and the social status of the individual. Comments are passed on the gender of the individual. Can one expect nobody to get offended while the joke targets the vulnerable beliefs of people? Isn’t the joke meant to offend in the first place? If it doesn’t offend has it achieved anything? Many audiences laugh because they can’t believe the comedian said something so offensive, explicitly in a public forum. But what the comedians fear is the reactions their offence creates. The multiple death threats that the organisers of Jai Hind had to endure and in more recent memory, the arrest of comedian Kiku Sharda for mimicking Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, are examples of harsh reactions to jokes. The question that the comic artists raise is simple, when does the pressure cooker of the Indian sensibility blow? It seems, many a time, it blows quite quickly.
Humour as a bedrock of democracy
The other principal argument “I am offended” makes is that comedy is the test of a real democracy. Jug Suraiya quotes, “Anger is building up in people. Humour is that valve that lets out all this built up pressure. Humour is an essential element in democracy. You rule out humour, you don’t have a democracy.” This discussion is not only applicable for humour, but it is applicable for any kind of free speech. If we analyse our recent past, we will find many examples of book-banning, curtailing of speeches, and even Facebook posts being treated harshly. The murder of rationalist, Narendra Dabholkar was a shock to the entire nation, and though he was no comedian, his cause had offended enough people. The only reason why Dabholkar was murdered was because he used his reason to publicly create awareness against superstition and black magic, trying to bring a ban on such activities. The public sphere where rationalists, comedians and cartoonists bring forth their ‘reason’ is the place where a nation matures. According to philosopher Immanuel Kant “the public use of one’s reason must always be free.” It is in the public sphere that a nation gets enlightened. The comedians and the rationalists get targeted because they utilise the public sphere to reason with the people. When comedian Varun Grover’s act gets disrupted for a joke, when Kiku Sharda lands up in jail for mimicry, and when rationalist Narendra Dabholkar gets murdered for spreading awareness, one commonality is the attempt to subdue their voice in the public sphere. Just because one disagrees with a certain view or an idea, should one destroy it? Or should one reason with it?
Conclusion
Though India gets offended easily, where is it in the global context? Is India’s sense of humour maturing overtime, or is it not? And how free can freedom of expression be? There are examples of gross abuse of free speech in the public sphere, where hate speeches are made targeting caste, race and the social status of individuals. Should the state allow this kind of offence too? These are questions that “I am offended” fails to address.
This is an interesting documentary which asks the right questions about India’s sense of humour. That India has a flourishing comedy industry cannot be denied. But can the country allow this industry to graduate from making simple jokes, to making poignant points that not only challenge our prejudices but also make an ever so slight shift in the way our thoughts move forward? India is in a very dynamic phase in the genre of comedy. Every year some of the comedians push the bar a little further. Sometimes they fail and sometimes they succeed, and sometimes their offence brings forth important questions which the community discusses in general. The answers are not simple because when people get offended, all rationality gets thrown out of the window, and the comedians have to take a step back; and the society awakens to ask itself – What is freedom?