Jokes can spark threats

When comedienne Sneha Suhas did a show in early August, she never expected it to lead to a slew of insults and threats a few months later. In the video, she talks about how Kannadigas don’t speak in Kannada when they meet and goes on to say how a man she met shortened his name because he felt his South Indian name would be too big to fit in her mouth.

“The video in question was picked up by a Chennai-based Facebook page which said that this was a self-troll by Kannadigas. Soon people saw this, thought that I was making fun of them and started tagging each other. They didn’t get the joke and started making lewd and vulgar remarks on my Facebook page. I started receiving explicit and violent threats, including warnings of rape and death,” says the young comic.

Sneha tried ignoring the comments at first but when people used her pictures in memes, she was disturbed. “I went through some profiles of the people who were threatening me — youngsters who looked like they might just do a wheelie on the road. I felt there was no point in reasoning with them.”

She then reached out to friends and told them what was happening. All of them together reported a few pages and Sneha has also started blocking profiles that send her abusive messages, “I don’t know what else to do about it,” she says.

SAADIYA ALI
I feel that as a woman, people will give you hell just because they can. If it is very nasty, I tend to ignore it. Somedays, when I am in a really bad mood, I may give it back to them in the same vein though. When asked which video of hers received a lot of flak, Saadiya recounts, “There was a video of mine on Muslims; nothing derogatory, I was just making fun of my own people. That ticked off a lot of Muslims. I also speak of topics that are hardcore feministic and this doesn’t go down well with a lot of people.

“The threats range from I should get raped or killed to asking me to put out my address if I was that brave because they wanted to teach me a lesson. A lot of these people don’t even understand jokes, sarcasm or satire. They pick some words, form their own ideas and get offended. Now how is this my fault?”

SHRIRUPA SENGUPTA
“In generic terms I have always followed an approach that is authentic, observational, personal and steers clear of any extreme stereotypes,” says Shrirupa. She adds, “For shows that are edgy, like ‘Uterus & I’ which deals entirely with women’s experiences including menstruation, no videos are available online and every show narrative has a caution saying that it is not for the fainthearted.”

“If anyone still takes it out of context, I go through the comments to see if there are changes I need to make. People will be people and they will see your work from their lens and what fits their narrative. In any work of art, once we put it out, we no longer control how it is perceived.”

APPURV GUPTA
“In live shows, I can set up the context through which audience can understand my opinion and jokes. When we say something online or upload videos on internet, then it will be a one-way medium and we can’t explain the context. So I always prefer the ‘80-20’ rule. If 80 percent of the audience is able to get what I wanted to say then I don't care about the rest. But if the number of people, who are trolling me or have taken my jokes/comments in different way, is more than this percentage then I explain my views to avoid any misunderstanding. However, there will always be people who will never be satisfied with any explanation that you might put out.