During a show by comedian Pranit More in Gurugram earlier this month, a 22-year-old audience member named Himanshu Jangra quipped that having spent Rs 370 on a biryani during a date with a woman, he ought to have received more value for money in the form of sexual favours. The clip went viral, and Jangra was rightfully called out. The reason that rape jokes are almost always in poor taste is because of rape culture. The entitlement behind the idea that if physical intimacy does not materialise from a date, it is money wasted, is one of many highly normalised manifestations of the same.
Jangra was fired from his job. More has apologised, taking responsibility for the fact that this remark occurred at his show, during crowdwork sections that he steered. Meanwhile, a clip from another show by More from three months ago has also surfaced: audience member and MBBS student Sejal Pawar shared that she and her classmates discuss the penis sizes of medical cadavers. Her comments were condemned both by the All-India Medical Association and Mumbai’s KEM Hospital, where she is undergoing training. She has apologised, has been suspended for a fortnight and a probe has been initiated. Mumbai’s Mayor Ritu Tawde has called for banning stand-up comedy altogether, taking an extreme position that will punish both the artistic industry and audiences.
Both remarks were quite probably cases of problematic thoughts being said out loud. We all have them in some form or the other, because we carry our own conditioning, blindspots, and stress. But acting on them, which includes verbalising them in a context where others could be hurt or harmed, is where a line is crossed. Both audience members crossed that line.
One can read all this in the context of the increased recent anti-feminist backlash in India, after several years of more progressive discourse both online and off. This is natural within a cycle of trends, but it is also concerning. The twist is that it is not Jangra’s statement alone that is offensive. Pawar’s is as much an example of an egregious consent violation, or arguably worse. We can take neither in isolation: both speak poorly about the overall state of the nation. This isn’t about comedy. It’s about culture.
Pawar’s infraction is especially shocking because her profession demands oaths about ethical behaviours. With the controversial NEET exam upcoming, it is also disappointing that someone so disrespectful is receiving an education that so many aspirants won’t. The excuse that people in high-pressure jobs or studies need to vent does not fly. Inside jokes also reveal mindsets, and even the most gracious interpretation of them rests on what is incidentally a keystone of medical practice: confidentiality.
Both Jangra and Pawar are young, in their early to mid-20s, and their horrific remarks — provided that they have not perpetrated any acts of violence — should not cast a long shadow on their lives. That does not mean that they don’t deserve to experience the consequences today, including immediate career setbacks. For the rest of us, our disgust can be productive, by reflecting on what lies, collectively, behind the impunity with which such lapses occur.