Social media personality Ranveer Allahbadia, popularly known as ‘Beer Biceps’, apologised for his remarks on ‘Indias Got Latent’ in a video posted on his social media profiles. (PTI)
Feb 10, 2025 19:20 IST First published on: Feb 10, 2025 at 19:20 IST
Ranveer Allahbadia, has cracked a joke and the nation is fuming. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has warned that anyone who crosses the limits of decency will face action. Two Mumbai lawyers have already filed a police complaint against him. Allahbadia, who is known for his podcast interviews where he quizzes renowned politicians about their thoughts on after life and aliens, has already issued an almost tearful apology on X. He is probably ruing the day he said yes to be part of a panel of a comedy show called ‘India’s Got Latent’. His co-panelist and the main judge of the show, Samay Raina, has also been named in the complaint. Priyanka Chaturvedi, Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra, will be raising the “issue” at the Parliament. In her tweet, she stated that there is a “need to set boundaries since these platforms influence young minds and they are passing off absolute rubbish as content”.
A clip from the show, which is now viral, shows Allahbadia asking a contestant, “Would you rather watch your parents have sex every day for the rest of your life or join in once and stop it forever.”
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“Parents” and “sex”, two words that should never feature in the same sentence in India. At least not in public. The thing is, we Indians don’t discuss the sex lives of our parents and that’s why the joke can be deemed as funny. We are , quite legitimately, worried about such jokes shaping the minds of our young, but we will not monitor the kind of content they consume.
The question that Allahbadia asked, apart from being tone deaf, is also unoriginal. It is a commonly asked one in party games. Would-you-rather games pushes the limits of decency, they include incest jokes, nazi jokes and dead babies joke. Netizens have pointed out that the joke in question had been posted on YouTube by the OG Crew two weeks earlier. The clip unearthed by netizens features group members Sammy Walsh and Alan Fang laughing over the exact same joke cracked by Allahbadia.
Can it be termed offensive, yes. But do they deserve to be banned? No. Does it warrant a discussion in Parliament, where there are already scores of bills pending? The answer will be an empathic no.
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Interestingly, Samay Raina, who is also facing flak and scrutiny for the statement, was in the news last year for roasting popular social media influencer, Kusha Kapila. The comedian called Kusha a “gold-digger” and talked about her divorce disparagingly. “Kusha has a female dog, who stays with her half the time, and during the other half, remains happy. Just give the dog to Zorawar. Let him have at least one b**ch in his life,” he said. We didn’t discuss the misogynist joke in Parliament then. And that’s not a bad thing. In the US, sentiments are sacrificed at the altar of stand-up comedy every day and no one is complaining. Trevor Noah, who is in the news for cracking jokes on immigrants at the Grammy awards recently, ruffled a lot of feathers when tweets emerged from several years ago that contained eyebrow-raising jokes about Jewish people and women. No police complaints were filed against him.
Many believe comedy is the last bastion of free speech. And if we want to preserve the sanctity of that bastion, nothing should be sacrosanct in comedy. A comedian risks offending sentiments whenever they crack jokes. It’s a part and parcel of their job. They can’t be threatened with legal repercussions for the same.
premankur.biswas@indianexpress.com
