Sunday, January 11, 2009

My Loony Bun Is Fine Benny Lava

I am a big fan of no brainer comedy ads and random videos like this one called Benny Lava.

There are times when one is tired and a few minutes of hilarious non sense is good relief. And Youtube is an infinite source for such things, be it "The AXE Effect" advertisements or just some random videos like the Benny Lava video. Good fun once in a while.

And of course with all good things in life come those who oppose such things. As far as censoring stuff is concerned my formula is simple, don't watch it if you don't like it. If you really really dont like it, tell others that you didn't like it, but by no means should you try and stop others from viewing or listening or reading that content, its not fair.

Here's one excerpt from Wikipedia about the Benny Lava video -

"Benny Lava" inspired others and resulted in similar videos being created with phonetic translations. The viral video quickly spread and as of January 2009 the original video had 10,202,647 views. Reception to the video was mixed; Some felt that the video was done in "good fun" while others worried that their culture was being mocked.

Obviously some jokes are indeed offensive and as far as possible humorists should try to avoid hurting people's sentiments. During a conversation with friends we discussed this topic about how there are so many awesome comedy shows on Star World and other foreign channels but we find the same ghisa pita pehchaan kaun and Raju Srivastav with his Gajodhar and Gabbar jokes being repeated since the start of The Great Indian Laughter Challenge way back in 2006. And there is a reason for it, in India we take offense to too many things. Politicians can't be made fun of, religious groups are almost waiting to come on the streets and burn effigies, woman's lib groups are working so hard to keep women away from harm. I've yet to see a protest rally by any "Naari Sanghathan" after a rape or dowry death. But crack a joke related to boobs and there they are. I think time has come that even men should form an organization to protect them from being mocked at. All the 'lazy husband' jokes could come under the scanner.

We have yet to find a comedian of the caliber of Peter Sellers, the man's work in Dr. Strangelove was phenomenal. There's no replacement for Johnny Walker of the 60's or Mehmood and Kishore Kumar. Our comedy today is a mix of repetitive gags, and at times the same gag is repeated in the same movie [the guy hurting his groin in Golmaal Returns is done by Vrijesh Hirjee twice]. The argument is, people like it. Well, it's what they're seeing and they're bound to like it if there's nothing better on offer. India needs some sitcoms, because in the current scenario I don't see Stand Up Comedy making any innovations. We have Pakistani's on a show called The Great INDIAN Laughter Challenge, that's how bad it is.

It's time someone actually stands up and gets counted. We need some quality laughter. Andaaz Apna Apna and Hera Pheri were separated by many years, we need such movies to be released every year, not once or twice a decade.

This post went from being stupid to semi-serious. I better stop now!

1 comment:

Shantanu said...

love it! my loony bun is indeed fine, benny lava :D