Roasting the 'Roast'

New Wave

It was offensive to some and humourous to others. The ‘All India Bakchod (AIB) Knockout — The Roast of Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh’ that went viral on social media sites seems to have gained even more popularity after the Censor Board came into the picture.

The host of the event, Karan Johar, along with Arjun Kapoor, Ranveer Singh and the AIB crew have been receiving a lot of criticism for their use of abusive language in ‘roast’, an unexplored concept in India.

While the country debates about the so-called ‘ethics’ in question, ‘Metrolife’ spoke to a few youngsters in the City on what they thought about the controversial videos. Freedom    taken for granted

Riffath Sulthana, a third-year B.Com student of The Oxford College of Business Management, says, “There is an absolute need for censorship of such videos that use vulgar and abusive language. These videos are a national shame.

AIB is raising funds for women’s safety but the show is cracking below-the-waist jokes on women. How can this be justified? There is freedom of speech in our country but that freedom has been taken for granted in these kinds of shows.”
Hypocritical approach

Jude Jacob, a first-year MBA student of St Joseph’s College of Business Administration, says, “A joke should always be taken as a joke. I don’t think these videos need any censorship. The people they are mocking don’t seem to have any problem, so why censor it? They are entertaining people and raising funds for charity.

In fact they had a statutory warning before the video and only the people who can take jokes without being offended were asked to watch. It is unnecessary for the government to come into the picture when there is a lot more important stuff that needs attention.”  Mimicking the West

Pravan, a second-year BA student of The Oxford College of Arts, says, “The freedom of speech is influenced by Western countries and we have no problem in degrading ourselves. This is not how Indians are. Comedians can be humorous without getting vulgar.

These videos definitely need to be censored as they are showing the culture of India in a bad light. There were jokes on women, sexuality and even religion. They got publicity not because of humour but because of vulgarity and the use of abusive language.”

More humour

Guru Prasad Basavaraj, a pre-university student of Jyothi Kendriya Vidyalaya, says, “The show could have been less vulgar and more humorous. It would have been pure entertainment if not for the use of abusive and vulgar language.

The use of abusive language is highly influential on youngsters and this video promotes vulgarity which is not right. Comedians can be humourous without getting personal and vulgar. The Western comedians are known to be witty and purely humourous, while the Indian comedians need abusive language and vulgarity to be funny.”

Playing it smart

Mohammed Farhan, a first-year MCA student of CMRIT, says, “AIB has played smart by attracting the crowd with the usage abusive language. Abusive language is taken to be a cool and is trending amongst youngsters.

AIB has used this as their weapon to attract support. It was okay for them to offend the young actors who were present at their show but they should have spared senior actors like Farida Jalal. There is a very thin line between humour and
hostility.”