By Ila Ananya
“Is there sexism in the comedy industry as well?”
Anupama Chopra probably knew the answer to this question before she asked the six comedians sitting with her, in an episode for Film Companion. Perhaps, Chopra expected what followed as well — five male comics talking over the only woman comic at the table, discussing with irritating obliviousness the details of this problem that made their work (and lives) a lot easier. The problem that most of them — to be clear — didn’t think existed.
It’s been a few days since a clip of this almost-manel conversation between comics Aditi Mittal, Tanmay Bhat, Biswa Kalyan Rath, Kanan Gill, Vipul Goyal and Zakir Khan started doing the rounds. Unsurprisingly, women sharing the almost 10-minute-long video are a lot more outraged and cringing at its heavy irony, while men the around hissed feminazi in a sustained monotone. After all, it was a straight enough question, with a straight enough answer. So straight that you think these relatively successful, relatively young men would have some neat enough public spiel.
But no, this is what the scene looked like instead.
“Is this comedy space more sexist than other fields in this country?” Chopra first asked Mittal. She’d just made a reference to Amazon Prime’s unbelievable decision in January this year to sign up 14 male Indian comics and stream their content.
In case anyone had any doubts about sexism, you just had to see what happened next. Just when Mittal was about to speak, superman Vipul Goyal jumped right in to defend Amazon Prime’s decision. He was then followed by Tanmay Bhat (“Speak, sir,” Chopra irritatingly said to him), and then Biswa, all of whom, in their most roundabout fashion, said nothing in particular. At the end of the painful 10 minutes that this video lasted, Mittal had spoken for a little more than four. She was miraculously calm, sarcastically ripping into everything the men around her had said (“Oh, can I speak now, is it okay?” she began), while they remained stone-faced and passive.
If this conversation annoyed you for its predictable turn, then I suggest you don’t read the infuriating comments under Biswa’s Facebook post (from back in January) about being one of the 14 chosen comedians. Some men claimed women were just not funny, and their comments were liked. But the first woman commenter to accurately say that Amazon had played straight into “dudes privileging dudes to sustain dude-dom” was attacked. Men began to screech reverse sexism (I’m not sure how), arguing that it was “purely business”, while someone else claimed that “Akhilesh Yadav should make reservations in stand-ups his election plank”. (Actually a good point because, of course, you don’t see gender or caste in an establishment that favours you, the dudes.) The men commenting seemed convinced by the ‘truth’ of their argument — what did it matter that the sexism was present in large companies choosing not to invest in women comedians?
What’s really on display at the end of Film Companion’s video is this same ease and obliviousness with which male comedians seem to rattle off answers about sexism as though they’re on autopilot.
There’s no recognition of any kind of privilege. At the most, Bhat says he thinks there needs to be more representation. Oh, really? By this point you’re wondering why you’re even watching male comedians discuss rampant sexism in their industry when their first response is either to mansplain, or to conveniently wash their hands off it. So when Mittal sarcastically said, “Nahi nahi, tum sabke opinion bohot important hain [No, all your opinions are very important]; I’m listening and learning a lot about what it’s like to be a woman in comedy from this table,” Goyal continued right on with his so-important comments.
Like all the men on Biswa’s Facebook post, Goyal also conveniently blamed Amazon’s decision on a deal between them and Only Much Louder, an easy cop out, as one Twitter user pointed out. In all his wisdom, Biswa attributed the Amazon screw-up to “situational” outcomes: “The deal happened because these 14 people happened to have the same manager. And the female comics didn’t have an hour of material. It’s just a situational outcome, and it’s unfortunate,” he said. Perhaps, if they’d just let Mittal tell her side of the story before rattling off their responses, they’d see, as she pointed out, that it’s tougher for women comedians to get any kind of investment in what she called the “comedy brotherhood” — the “boy gang” that was always going to help “elevate” each other.
While this is one end of the problem, there’s also Mittal’s explanation of why she puts up very few videos of herself doing stand-up on YouTube. “I can’t see another 100 comments about how my camel toe is showing when there’s no camel in the frame. I can’t hear about how I’m shouting and being bitchy,” she said, and her description was met with uncomfortable silence from the men at the table.
It reminded me of Mittal’s interview with Times of India, where she described how she’s expected to be cool with sexist ‘jokes’ because she’s a comedian, like the time a host at the open mic made a vulgar comment about her breasts when her show wasn’t going well. Or how she was told she only got her opportunities because she was a woman.
In another interview, comedian Neeti Palta also said that there was once a man in the audience who thought it important to say that he could sleep with her 50 times in under two minutes. Essentially, everyone seemed out to prove that we are uncomfortable with women on stage, using a mic to take control of their narrative in the way that they choose.
After the first time Mittal got a chance to speak in this discussion, Biswa graciously said that it’s true that there are much fewer women comedians than men in the industry. Patronisingly, he followed this with, “I don’t know how to solve it because I can’t figure out why!” “Yes, why?” Chopra asked, and all the men at the table giggled in agreement. It’s what’s going to happen if you ask a boys’ club why it’s a boys’ club.
Co-published with Firstpost
May 31, 2017 at 6:37 pm
From the start of the video it is obvious Aditi is uncomfortable by the way she is sipping her glass of water.
Tanmay probably acknowledges the problem to an extent, but he makes the same mistake men make when discussing sexism…. which is to not talk and just shut up and listen.
June 1, 2017 at 3:03 pm
may i know which woman comedians are better than the ones signed up by amazon? well the guys did wrong by jumping in when mittal was supposed to answer. but my point is are we seeing the link between talent and deals
June 1, 2017 at 5:59 pm
vipul goyal was right ,the screw up was from amazon’s part ,they should have been asked this question by anupama not these comics.if the comedians were the ones who took this decision then this question would have been valid.i have always seen aditi hanging out with these comics mostly in their videos.so if they were sexist then that would happen right.
June 2, 2017 at 10:25 am
From the moment the video started I could see Aditi was an outcast. Even the host was not addressing her. It was an all-an-all boys club and not nobody not even Tanmay who advocates ‘feminism’ make her feel comfortable. Of course she is stronger than most guys at the table in terms of her comedy and sense of humour and she doesn’t owe anybody anything but a addressing her a little to atleast get her involved or listeno g quietly when she speaks would be respectful! What is it your personal club! Why invite her in the first place then! It just smashed my high opinions of everybody on the table. They still profess the men-would-be-men attitude! It was really uncomfortable and hurtful to watch. Even in the photo you can see she’s at the extreme end not to mention her eating position at the table!!
June 2, 2017 at 10:29 am
From the moment the video started I could see Aditi was an outcast. Even the host was not addressing her a lot. It was an all-an-all boys club and nobody not even Tanmay who advocates ‘feminism’ made her feel comfortable. Of course she is stronger than most guys at the table in terms of her comedy and sense of humour and she doesn’t owe anybody anything but a addressing her a little to atleast get her involved or listening quietly when she speaks would be respectful! What is it, your personal club! Why invite her in the first place then! It just smashed my high opinions of everybody at the table. They still profess the men-would-be-men attitude! It was really uncomfortable and hurtful to watch. Even in the photo you can see she’s at the extreme end not to mention her seating position at the table!! I was fuming and furious by the time it ended!
June 2, 2017 at 3:49 pm
Andddd….. men defending men. Isn’t it obvious why Amazon signed on only dicks? Because when a survey is done by men, they’re only going to pick men. I do not know any man who’s comfortable with a woman’s sense of humour, unless she’s laughing at HIS jokes.
June 6, 2017 at 2:21 am
I wonder what would the right thing to do be as a boy when you are posed such a question? Leaving it to Aditi only would be again just escaping from the topic. Just saying that we agree there is sexism also would just mean you are patronizing and just again escaping. I understood the few problems that Aditi mentioned 1) it is a Boy’s gang currently, hence she not feeling any reason to associate with them and 2) that there is hardly any support during the hardest phase when you are still trying to make a name for yourself and may decide to drop the idea, 3) public abuse during the show and in social media channels. I am wondering what can the existing popular male comedians do to support this.
June 10, 2017 at 1:51 am
Hello, these are the comedians currently who get the most traction and following….people in India don’t laugh based on the sex of a comedian….if you are funny and you are good, then you get to be successful as a comedian…..at present, if I was to filter out the gender of a comedian when I watch comedy (as stupid as it sounds), I would say only Kaneez Surka, Mallika Dua and Sumukhi Suresh are truly funny….but my point is, they are comparatively new and have lesser traction as compared to the 14 above