The controversial episode of India's Got Latent featuring Ranveer Allahbadia (aka BeerBiceps), Apoorva Mukhija, Samay Raina, and Ashish Chanchlani has got many voicing their thoughts, negatively and positively. The reactions have been predominantly the former, ranging from calling for a ban on them and complaints registered, following which the Mumbai police filed an FIR against them.
Indian standup comedian Vir Das has opened up on the debate around comedy, without mentioning Allahbadia, in his Instagram stories. Das wrote that the consequences of one's comedy on one's career and audience are "pretty instant" and that a "good artist will take their feedback head down, mouth shut, and maybe evolve."
Das feels this is a case of "irrelevant mainstream media anchors bordering extinction coming together to take down new media that gets millions more viewers, longer interviews, and far more impact than their bloated studios and fat salary at 1% of the cost."
"Whether you like the new media or not is irrelevant," he added while suggesting that everyone should also debate what "good journalism" is — "the news that they SHOULD be doing, the questions they SHOULD be asking, and who they should be asking them to."
Das is no stranger to backlash. In 2021, he performed a monologue called "I come from two Indias" at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., in which he said, “I come from an India where we worship women during the day, but gang rape them at night” and “I come from an India where we take pride in being vegetarian, and yet run over the farmers who grow our vegetables.”
This was met with strong reactions from certain corners, especially right-wing groups who called for his arrest, and some even going to the extent of labelling him a "terrorist".
