The Politics of Comedy

Varun Grover rates himself on our liberal-conservative scale

In a country like India, where taking offence is a national pastime, how political can the comic scene be? Is it okay to make jokes on politicians and their politics, or is everyone too scared of Jaya Bachchan?

We sent email questionnaires to India’s leading comics and satirist to get answers to these questions. We also asked them to rate themselves on our liberal-conservative scale.

We start this series with Varun Grover, who is an Indian stand-up artiste, satirist and screenwriter. He was one of the writers of The Great Indian Comedy Show. Having written lyrics for films like Gangs of Wasseypur, That Girl in Yellow Boots, Dum Laga Ke Haisha and, recently, the script for Masaan, he has become one of Bollywood’s “Indie-film” favourites.

  1. How political is stand-up comedy in India?

I think it’s quite political. Given that we have had stable governments at the Centre for the last two decades, expecting too much politics from urban comics is a little unfair. How original or thought-provoking the comedy is, is what we should be asking.

  1. How important is it for comedy to be political?

As important as for a comic to be aware of his/her surroundings. The politics may or may not show in one’s material, but I can’t imagine a person with low GK, IQ, EQ, and political awareness becoming a successful comic.

  1. We know there is a large number of liberal stand-up comics in India. According to you, are there any conservative comics in the country? If yes, please name a few.

There are some who are conservative and are aware of it (like the Faking News website or Nitin Gupta Rivaldo) and then there are some who are not even aware of how regressive (or euphemistically conservative) they sound when a lot of their material revolves around their girlfriend’s quirks (Kunal Rao).

  1. Where would you place yourself on our liberal-conservative comic scale?

This scale is a dangerous thing because comedy and mind-sets are way more layered than these cold numbers. I always aspire to be a liberal but conservative conditioning has been within us for so long that I don’t really know how liberal I am actually.

For example, I used a lot of cuss words (MC, BC) earlier on but have now removed them or replaced them with gender-neutral gaalis like gaandu. I don’t know if that’s a liberal attitude or conservative one.

I’d say I’m a 3.

The author can be contacted on Twitter @amiham_singh
Also Read