The dark side of comedy

While the comedian accused of sexual harassment apologises in a Twitter thread, women continue to call out other popular comics for having crossed boundaries.

Indian Twitter has been filled with rage over the last 24 hours and rightly so. Popular comedian Utsav Chakraborty has been called out by several women for sending unsolicited pictures of his genitals and indulging in perverted behaviour. Writer and comic Mahima Kukreja opened up about how Utsav sent her a picture of his private parts and later cried that his career would be ruined if she spoke up about it. Post this, several women opened up to Mahima about being subjected to harrassment by Utsav who asked them for 'nudes' and topless photos, both on Snapchat and Twitter. Utsav, on the other hand, wrote a rather rambling Twitter thread that alternated between justification and admissions of guilt. “It’s a little too late now but I am sorry. The past 24 hours were a crucible. I faced a very scary personal truth. I can't think of myself as a victim anymore. Please tell me what to do now. How to make things right? I don't want anyone to be hurt anymore." he tweeted.

The can of worms was opened with a Twitter thread about a group of Indian men’s obnoxious behaviour on a cruise, which Utsav condemned. When a Twitter user got on to the thread to talk about sexual harassment at the hands of  male comics, it all came tumbling out as she brought out Utsav’s past sexual misconduct with women, including minor girls.

Sorabh Pant

Reacting to this, comedian Seema Rao says, "Any picture sent has to be consensual, even if it's the man's own selfie. I'm glad girls are raising their voices. Men need to understand their boundaries. So many Indian men learn from what movies have taught them - no means keep hitting on a woman until she likes you! Also, coming to the comedy circuit, just because a female comic has adult jokes in her set, it doesn't mean a fellow male comedian can make such advances towards her."

As for All India Bakchod, the comedy collective that Utsav was once part of, it issued an immediate statement stating that they would be removing the comedian's videos from their channel. “The accusations describe a pattern of behaviour that is unacceptable, and we at AIB [All India Bakchod] condemn Utsav’s alleged behaviour,” the statement said.

When the news of Utsav's misbehavior broke, another Twitter user came forward accusing social media celebrity Anurag Verma (knows for his vines and rib-tickling tweets) of behaving inappropriately and asking for nudes. Anurag later apologised and ridiculously stated that he saw 'asking for nudes' as a meme. A Bangalore-based comic who was supposed to work with Utsav on a comedy tour reveals, "We removed him from our line-up after we heard of his untoward behaviour towards women."

Anuradha Menon

Anuradha Menon who has worked with Utsav for a TLC show says, “The unfortunate thing is that I don’t know any woman, in any line of work who doesn’t have some story of being hugged, touched or kissed against her will. Unfortunately, that’s just the malaise that’s pervading any workplace. Men who pretend to be very feminist and woke are actually not. Because it has taken an entire generation to change many generations’ of a mindset, because it is so instilled, whether it is entitlement, or bad upbringing, or the brazenness with which you think you can get away with it. I don’t know what exactly it is that makes one think that it’s okay to send pictures of your genitals to someone. You work with these people, and then it just comes down to fact that you never really know people. It’s a misconception as well, that if you are a comedian, you’d be a feminist, it’s not necessarily the case. Doesn’t mean that you won’t be creepy, just because you are funny on the stage. It’s not surprising that something like this has happened in comedy because it is like any other industry, any other work, there are creepy people everywhere.”

Talking about the dilemma women face when opening up about harassment, stand-up comic Sneha Suhas, who was recently subjected to vile sexual threats online says, “I was shaken and had to think before speaking up - what if I get harassed/victim-shamed for it. I was wary of people blaming me for being a public figure and making edgy jokes when men are around.” To this Anuradha adds, “The heartbreaking thing is that everyone has such terrible stories to tell. Men walk around with a huge chip on their shoulder saying that we are so afraid, we don’t know how to talk to women, behaving as if they are the victim with the whole MeToo thing. I think there is more good than bad that has come out of it, at least women are calling out people. It's like what people are doing to Tanushree Datta, she spoke about what happened to her, and there are so many FIRs against her now. And then people say why women don’t speak up? Women don’t speak up because of this backlash. You can’t blame people for also not speaking up.”