It's been over a month since AIB Knockout has been pulled down from Youtube.
The problem is that ministers can threaten rape on a public forum with seemingly no repercussions but we can't even laugh at ourselves freely.
This article is a tribute to AIB.
All India Bakchod is a comedy group co-founded by Gursimran Khamba and Tanmay Bhat. Later joined in by Ashish Shakiya and Rohan Joshi.
From It's your fault to the infamous AIB knockout these guys have come a long long way.
Gursimran Khamba was a part of United Students - an initiative by some Delhi University students to change the state of politics and governance at DU. Khamba studied journalism from Delhi College of Arts & Commerce. He also completed his M.A. in Media & Cultural Studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai a year back. Khamba was an active member of AIESEC during his under-graduate years. After graduation, Khamba was all set to move to Europe for his Master's degree. But, life had different plans for him. He contracted Tuberculosis that led to him being bed-ridden for around 6 months. Sick, bed-and-angst-ridden, and heart-broken, he amused himself by watching stand-up comedy on YouTube. He soon started a blog that was called Khamba's Blog- My thoughts and opinions on all that is ridiculous in India. He presented a witty and quirky take on social and political issues.
The blog became hugely popular and earned him thousands of followers on Twitter. Rajneesh Kapoor, a popular stand-up comedian in Delhi, stumbled upon his blog one day and found it really funny. Impressed, he contacted Khamba and invited him for an open mic night (stand-up comedy by amateurs). And that is how his journey in this space started!
Tanmay Bhat was one of the writers of the show Oye, It's Friday that was hosted by Farhan Akhtar. He also wrote for Filmfare Awards in 2012 that were hosted by Shahrukh Khan and Ranbir Kapoor. Also he was a journalist with FOX News.
Ashish Shakiya is a humour columnist for the Hindustan Times. He was an engineer before he found his calling in comedy. He is a co-writer on the show The Week That Wasn't with Cyrus Broacha on CNN IBN.
Before Rohan Joshi became a stand-up comedian, he was a journalist with CNBC. He still writes a weekly column for Mid-Day. He was also dating Alia Bhatt's sister Shaheen Bhatt.
I specifically have written about their previous jobs so that all those bunch of idiots who think these guys are uncouth and illiterate enough to use foul language in front of millions of people, see that they are in fact way educated than most people.
If at all you want to know how noble their thoughts are just watch this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHCN8FZ1tO8
They are just a group of 20 year olds wanting to change the face of comedy in India. Who want to open comedy schools in India. Is it that bad? Wanting to uplift a vocational career in India?
Or this, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHmHXb3Jzkc
Or this, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prigmCL61fk
Classless idiots get called to India Today Conclave 2015 or for an interview with Brand Equity or to converse with Anupama Chopra.
And as a matter of fact they are mobbed at airports, treated as celebs by their fans and asked to pose for pictures even by the celebrities.
What I'm trying to say is that we all give 'gaalis' or exchange sex jokes on a daily basis but the minute it's done on a public forum it becomes a matter of scrutiny. We Indians are a strange breed of people. There are far more greater things we need to take offence for like Honey Singh's songs which objectify women. Or politicians justifying rapes. Or the saas-bahu serials. Or typecasting Muslims as terrorists. No one cares beyond the
four walls of their house. As long as you are safe, as long as you are not harmed,
let things be as it is. But if it's beyond them you are going to be threatened and that's what happened with AIB. Change, you say? We're
blissfully stuck where we are.
The roast had over a million views in it's first 24 hours. And it's pirated version which are still doing rounds on YouTube(wait for it) have over a million views.
In all their videos it is mentioned very clearly that they contain explicit content. If you don't like it, then do NOT watch it. There is something called "freedom of speech". All those people who found that roast offensive, should have watched it till the end. All the revenue earned from it was given away for charity.
Ideally: If you make people laugh,they'll love you.
In India: If you make people laugh, they'll file FIRs against you.
The problem with our nation is that we are more interested in an "offensive" comedy show than matters that really require national importance.
There is a classic failure in our legal system.
For me, AIB guys are real heros who stood up for what they believed in and
weren't scared about the consequences.
Way to go guys.
Cheers to the AIB team.
P.S.: The information about them is all derivative from Wikipedia, Google, Quora and their website.
