How Indian comedy groups are rewriting the internet for themselves and social change
It is difficult to imagine now, but it has been only around two years since online video publishing changed the scene of comedy in India.
The game changer for this content wasAll India Bakchod. The group first ventured into the public space with relatively popular podcasts in the year before. It began shooting videos only on in February 2013, to promote a new live show The Royal Turds, which mocked bad Indian films.
The group soon began to change the tone of these videos from standalone sketches to more elaborate scenarios that were produced exclusively for the online space. In 2015, they shifted to overt social campaigns, notably in their call to support net neutrality.
YouTube has now become a space for everything from social experiments to plain humour – and it’s also a vital space for any group that wants to build an audience and visibility without having to rely on the far more closed space of the offline comedy circuit.
Soon after AIB’s successful launch, for instance, others in the stand-up industry such as Vir Das (of Weirdass Comedy) and Sorabh Pant (of East India Company) followed.
That said, there is a very clear difference between the videos comedians upload and their live stand-up acts. The videos are scripted set pieces that contain jokes, but naturally, not the element of improvisation that marks live sets.
There is now a flip side. The online world is not only a thrashing ground for existing groups, it now encourages web-only collectives as well. The Viral Fever, for instance, among the most visible humour producers online, describes itself as a content production company. In 2014, it launched its first online drama series Permanent Roommates. Unlike other similar channels that still maintain an offline presence, The Viral Fever is oriented entirely towards content production.
Social messages, where comedy groups attempt to bring awareness to issues in the media, is the latest genre. Topics tend to appeal to the middle-class urban youth, ranging from gender discrimination (men are oppressed! women are oppressed!) and moral policing, to the pointlessness of exams.
There is also solidarity. Soon after obscenity cases were filed against AIB after its offline roast of Bollywood stars, a host of comedy channels recorded content speaking out against censorship and expressing their support for the beleaguered group.
After lurking for a few months under the radar, AIB eventually returned, with yet another game-changing batch of content. In April, the group released the first of two videos on net neutrality. Unlike others that addressed social issues, this video gave a tangible call for action. And like many of its previous ones, this too went viral.
