Humour: The first line of defence and offence

Is a joke just a joke or is there a message or a reason? Bringing up the end of a hectic and brainstorming day of sessions on internet news engagement, revenue, bias and what not, five stand-up comics brought the curtains down on the day with a serious session on humour. Not all is ha-ha-hee-hee. As moderator Abhinandan Sekhri said, humour is serious business.

The session, Humour: The First Line of Defence and Offence, had stand-up comedian Anuvab Pal, All India Bakchod’s Ashish Shakya, comedian, filmmaker and author Radhika Vaz, stand-up artist Sanjay Rajoura and actor Vir Das.

Discussing the freedom enjoyed by comedians and journalists, Radhika Vaz said, “Comedians don’t have freedom of speech,” while commenting on the relation between comedians and journalists, moderator Sekhri said, “The comic can cross the line which then journalists can occupy and fight for.”

While Anuvab Pal, talking about news content, said, “Nowadays, it takes five minutes to figure what the news is. For the first few minutes it is someone screaming about something,” Vir Das spoke about the line that needs to be drawn. “You can say some offensive shit but live to fight another day,” Das said, adding, “It shouldn’t be problematic to make fun of anyone.”