“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.
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.
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”.
ALSO READ: Love: Man, Women And A Viral Story
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.
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.
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.
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”.
ALSO READ: Punjabi Tadka: Vlogging Their Way To Success
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")
ALSO READ
