We The People: Addressing Disability With Humour

One of few stand-up comedians with disability, Sweta Mantrii, a Pune-based writer and funny woman, took up stand-up comedy in 2017. Although her skits deal with an array of themes, she mostly aims to use the art to talk about disability. “People often ask me ‘Why don’t you do regular jokes?’,” says Mantrii. “I have no problem doing those, but right now, I want to talk about disability because it is what I am facing, and it is what comes to mind.”

For Mantrii, comedy is a medium to start discussing disab­ility, and help people address their biases. “I am in my 30s, and my parents serve me tea in my room—I make jokes on such things. When people see a disabled person, they rush to help them cross the road. I say, first ask the person if they need your help,” she says. Mantrii believes she needs to learn a lot more to master her craft. “Comedy is not easy,” says the artist, adding, “it takes time to learn the basics. And in my case, there are more layers, because I would go to the stage with my crutches, and my humour features disability.”

Mantrii thinks speaking about disability with humour attacks people’s biases. She recalls when one evening after her show, a girl walked up to her and told her she did not want to laugh at the jokes about the disability as she felt uncomfortable. “‘You should not joke about the disability’, she told me,” says Mantrii. “When people realise that laughing at disability is not right, I feel my objective is achieved.” She has been writing about disability since 2011. In 2015, she also released a documentary on YouTube called Disability-A State of Mind, which revolved aro­und barriers like infrastructure, mainstream education, and jobs.

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