Will the popularity of stand-up comedians CLASH with the TV comedians' monotony?

Now that Abhijeet Ganguly is on the same platform with Kapil Sharma who plagiarized his joke...

Published: Saturday,Aug 05, 2017 13:16 PM GMT-06:00

Tanzim Pardiwalla

View Profile

Comments ⋮

We navigated through Comedy Dangal's launch and were delighted with the mix of daily soap actors, familiar comedians and popular stand-up comedians who have a massive fan-following on digital platforms and their live shows as well.

The show also features Debina Bonnerjee Choudhary, Surbhi Jyoti, Lavina Tandon and Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai's Rajesh Kumar. With TV pitting so much talent together we wondered if the new faces come as a remedy or a threat to the monotony that on screen comedy is. Let's do a little run-through and contemplate-

Abhishek Ganguly was in the news a while ago when Kapil Sharma plagiarized his joke. We aren't going to dwell on how things went down but on how things will look for the TV comedian now that the stand-up artist enters the broadcasting medium.

We asked him what he thinks of the new medium. "TV comedy is new to me. Stand-Up is anti-establishment, there's a lot of restrictions in TV comedy and it comes as a challenge to dig deeper and work without touching upon restricted topics," he says.

About the difference between TV and stand-up comedy he says- "Stand-Up comedians take pride in the fact that we write our own stuff, unlike TV comedy so I'm both apprehensive and excited".

When asked if he thinks comedy on TV is less evolved, he said, "I certainly shouldn't be saying it (laughs) but there's a different audience for TV and with Indian audience being the way it is, there's a lot of restrictions on the comedians."

Addressing the tryst with Kapil Sharma he told us that plagiarism is a huge issue in India even in music and film, its not right at all. And, he vented out about it and is trying to move on.

Jamie Lever would find it relatively easy to get into comedy given the fact that she is Johny Lever's daughter. She has had her fair share of screen time before as a host and a comedian and now Comedy Dangal is all set to feature her and her uncle Jimmy Moses.

Not mentioning the 'N' word, we asked her if good genes give her an edge. To this she replied, "I wouldn't say I have an advantage. I think I'm gifted with this talent of being funny and I feel blessed and I do my best to entertain. The web is a growing market and its an amazing medium that everything is moving towards." She signs off with a mention to her uncle Jimmy who's going to be on the same team with her.

Mubeen Saudagar has been on Comedy Nights Bachao and his face can be easily associated to a typical TV comedian. He plans on experimenting quite a bit this time, he said, "This time around we have a music composer as a mentor and you'll see quite a few funny exchanges between us".

Mubeen talks about the reliability factor that gives Indie comedians their massive popularity. "The guys who've come over from the digital platform have a different style, ours revolves around punches but their's is pretty good too. They have amazing observational skills and I think the audience will enjoy their content"

We think the introduction of new faces gives TV something to observe and catch up to. However, with the familiar faces outnumbering the new, we still have comedy that has been dwarfed with mimicry and filmy scripts we've all seen before.

Furthering that point, we have VIP who has returned to TV after a pretty long break. The comedian is pretty good with mimicry and we can imagine him fitting right into the typical skit comedy TV is used to seeing.

We don't know if having Anu Malik judge the show furthers the case of boosting the talent of comedians. With every interaction ending in a rhyme and beat that doesn't quite fit we aren't sure how much it eats into the screen time. Given the things that each comedian has said one thing is sure- TV comedians and writers have made shows all about silly tricks, dated lines and cross-dressing. Comedy Dangal will hopefully be a sight for sore eyes.

The new entrants bring with them their own fan-base and the novelty TV has been starved for. The question is whether this entry will make content on TV better or eat away from their viewership. And, we hope the answer is witty!