Theatre Of The Absurd: Reeling In The Droll

“I can do anything to make my followers laugh,” says Puneet Kumar aka Puneet Superstar, about the time he got three stitches on his forehead after he broke a matka (clay pot) on his head while making a video.

Meet the Delhi-based TikTok sensation, who­se style of comedy is strange—absurd, perhaps? His videos are profane. They seem to revolt aga­inst the strictures of daily life. Like the mat­ka he bro­ke on his head, in other videos, he sme­ars his face with toothpaste, with the sou­n­d­track sometimes carrying 1990s indie pop, sometimes just his “eer­ie voice”. Unlike other content creators, he doesn’t intend any meaning in his videos, though his content is consistent in its absurdity. For ins­tance, he makes videos wishing birthdays.

Kumar’s unique style, dialogues, attire, unca­nny mannerism and fast-paced delivery has struck a chord with his viewers. His TikTok stardom was achieved with dialogues like “nalle berozgar log (these unemployed people)”, “kothi-bangle wale log (people with big houses)” and “iss se mera kya faida? (what do I gain from it?)”. With over one lakh followers on Instagram Reels, and over three million on MX TakaTak, he is famous for posting birthday wishes on his channel for money.

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A lot of content creators from other countries also make videos similar to Kumar. Anurag Minus Verma, a columnist and a podcaster who is known for making absurd interpretations of current affair events, says, “Life doesn’t go in a ratio­nal manner. To make sense from nonse­nse is the essence of our absurd themes.” He adds, “I’m dra­wn towards absurd content as our minds are mes­sed up, and this form of storytelling is close to that human essence.”

On his new Insta­g­r­am account, called “Intl­l­e­c­tual (sic) Puneet”, Verma posts old videos of Kumar with “acade­mic references” in his voice. One of the most popular videos is on Gaya­tri Chakravorty Spivak, in which Verma’s voice can be heard saying, “Mummy mujhe subaltern ki awaz sun ni hai (Mother I want to listen to the subalt­ern voice),” riffing on the scholar’s famous treatise—over an old video of Kumar lying in bed in drag.

Verma claims his audience includes journalists, students, lawyers and academicians, bec­a­use, he says, of the “philosophical terminology” he often uses, basically a lot of name-dropping and refere­nces to European philosophy. In a podcast where Verma hosted Kumar, the latter spoke of one of his popular videos, in which he yel­ls into nothingness under a flyover in Gurg­aon. “I just want to go viral and make people laugh,” Kumar says.

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Verma says, “Overall, there’s a rise in absurd content on the internet, as a lot of marginalised voices, who never used the internet before, are finding ways to get noticed on it.”

Then there is Ghanshyam Sharma, whose pers­ona is that of an aspirant for competitive exams like Bihar Public Service Comm­ission and Bihar sub-inspector (pol­ice). Fans call his videos—in which he uses simple household objects like ute­nsils, flip flops and containers as props—funny and weird.

He once lip synched to Himesh Res­h­a­m­m­iya’s song “Kitne arman jage tere vastey” using a bucket and a desktop keyboard, which went vir­al on TikTok. Before TikTok was banned, he had over 3 lakh followers. Now, he has the same number of foll­owers on YouTube, where the content is varied, and inclu­des “sane stuff”, where he tal­ks about “things in general”.

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Verma believes people who are mystified by the popularity of these absurd videos actually don’t understand the idea. “A lot of things we see around us appear normal to us because we’ve bec­ome accustomed to these, but are actually absurd.” Like the 9-5 jobs we do. Verma says today’s generat­ion instinctively grasps this absurdity and likes pointing it out.

Still, unlike in the West, most desi purveyors of the absurd don’t feel comfortable with the aesthetics of Reels and find it difficult to market their content. On Verma’s pod­cast, Kum­ar had said, “Instagram has recently opened the possibility of doing a duet like on Tik­Tok, which did not exist earlier,” describing how Instagram is trying to accommodate TikTok stars on its platform after the Chinese app was ban­ned. Kumar believes Reels is the future, so they have to tailor their content for it.

With absurd the flavour of the season, there are many others on Instagram making aligned cont­ent. But the likes of Deepak Kalal and Tha­ra Bhai Joginder differ fundam­e­ntally from Kumar and Verma. With high def­i­nition cameras, boastful show of wealth, sleazy themes and abusive language, their videos are a world apart from the quaint shoddiness of the latter, shot on cheap phones with no post-production gloss.

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The global popularity of Khabane Lame, the 21-year-old Senegalese-born Italian citizen, is an interesting example showcasing the interest of new gen internet users in day-to-day absurdity. In most of his videos, he can be seen wearing a sardo­nic expression as he displays a “hack” of an overtly complicated task, silently. With over 134 million followers, the world’s second most popular Tik­Tok­er’s mute videos seem to be a meta-commentary on his on-screen activities.

There are umpteen videos, coming especially from South-East Asia and Africa, containing wei­rd plots and surreal settings that suggest the rising popularity of the weird.

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So what excites the Gen Z? Why comedy, and why absurdist comedy? Outlook asked students of Delhi University why such humour goes viral among them. Most students concurred that it is “relatable”. “I like this type of humour, as I don’t know much about life and am anxious of what the future has in store for me. Making fun of these things helps me assimilate them,” says Prateek, a 25-year-old student.

In one of his most popular videos, comedian Karunesh Talwar mocks an Indian contestant on MasterChef Australia, who surprised the judges by making bhajiya (vegetable fritters). The joke is on how the humble bhajiya, when taken to a foreign audience, becomes exotic. It is self-deprecating, as are most of his jokes and much of the stand-up scene. Quite like Mohd Suhel, most of whose jokes are self-deprecating and absurdist.

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They offer a clue into the psyche of Gen Z (those born between 1995 and 2012, and constituting the largest consumers of droll). Bored by easy availability of products and faced with “a lot of hustle for not putting enough effort” or “for being lazy” from parents, they find refuge in those weird, chaotic, self-deprecating videos that leave older generations irritated and confused.  

A pivotal influence appears to be the internet meme, into whose hollowed-out templates Gen Z can insert their theme du jour. Think of some of the famous memes: “Nagarpalika ko bulao”, “Gor­mint aunty”, “Mai mad*** hu jo isme aya”, “cooker se chane nikal diye”.

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Aditi Vashishtha, a PhD scholar in Delhi School of Economics, says, “Humour is in itself somewhat absurd. You laugh when you stumble, or at people with weird faces. Our generation appears to get the kicks by challenging existing social structures with humour.”

(This appeared in the print edition as "Reeling in the Droll")

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