Performative retrieving of humour for socio-political subversion: stand-up comedy as a form of creative resilience

Abstract

With the particular focus on the Indian context, this paper attempts to study the genre of stand-up comedy as a form of creative resilience, by applying the theory of Fiske’s popular culture. Through the case study of select stand-up acts of comics like Rahul Dua, Saurav Mehta, Munawar Faruqui and Kunal Kamra, this paper analyzes English and Hindi satirical stand-up comedy in India. The papers also trace the evolution and differences between both the Indian English and the Hindi satirical stand-up comedy. It explores the elements of resistance put forward by the comics with the help of the new media laughscape that has provided them with a radical space, through which they direct their process of social transformation. The paper foregrounds the radical reimagining of humour wielded as a weapon for socio-political subversion.