It’s not vulgarity, it’s sick. It’s not humour by any description, it’s perversion of the mind. Forget dark comedy, it’s not comedy by any stretch of imagination. “Would you watch your parents have sex every day for the rest of your life or join once to stop it forever?” Who would think of a question like that? Surely not even someone who has a great tolerance for the obscene or open-minded enough to accept the shocking as normal. Ranveer Allahbadia, founder at Beer Biceps, crossed all limits by stomping on the sanctity of certain relations.
The criticism he has received from all quarters is well-deserved, but his apology should have us worried. It’s to distract people, make them judge the whole episode as a matter of indiscretion or a bad choice of words, nothing more. His act was deliberate, and it perhaps achieved what it intended to – get views for Samay Raina’s YouTube show India’s Got Latent. An apology after a deliberate act makes little sense. It offers no guarantee of a non-recurrence, if it’s not him, it would be someone else.
But let’s step back a little. The show has millions of viewers. Such sexual banter is routine as is roasting which would appear crass to a sober person. The viewership makes it obvious that such content has huge demand, particularly among the young. It is almost a necessity to up the crassness and vulgarity quotient constantly to keep them hooked. Taboo areas have to be stepped on and self-censorship dropped. Controversies would erupt out of excesses on occasions, and there would be apologies. The show would go on.
Let’s face it. The current generation is much less inhibited about sex and obscenity than the previous ones. Notice the quantity of sexual content on social media, the lifeline of communication these days, and ponder how much exposed the younger lot are to ‘forbidden’ knowledge. From sexually-laced innuendos to pornography to taste, titilation comes in all forms, round-the-clock. What used to be topics whispered among close friends and rarely with members of the other sex is public now. It’s hardly a male-centric affair; women are equal participants in the new rage. Just watch women stand-up comics, you get the point.
In such a scenario, how bad is bad? Surely it can have no limit. Because limits would be breached and new ones set continuously. Someone would spew something worse than Allahbadia. It would be accepted as nothing out of place. The participants on the show are game for it, as are the viewers. The morality crowd outside can be damned.
But outrage against such vulgarity is necessary. It cannot be allowed to pass off as comedy, even bad comedy. There’s perverted thought involved here. Outrage can act as a brake, if not a full stop.
(By arrangement with Perspective Bytes)
