Dearth of worthwhile television comedy programmes in India

I don’t remember when I last saw a real comedy programme on Indian television. What you have are slapstick, stand up vulgar programmes that makes only the people in the studio laugh. I have not seen none of the viewers differentiating Comedy Circle in Sony with that of Crime Patrol in terms of expressions. 

Let’s take the case of Comedy Circus in Sony. Many believe it is a success. This can be gauged from Colours channel which copied both Comedy Circus and Crime Patrol theme from Sony. But the levels of comedy in these shows are so floundered sometimes you wonder why are these shows produced? In Comedy Circus, the stand up comedians copy the two judges, script writers, producers and directors of the show so frequently that you get completely bored of it. And who are these people who get spoofed? They are not known to any viewers, they don’t have any standing in the entertainment industry. To make sure the audience doesn’t disconnect from the show, these unknown people are invited to the stage after the show is over. The way Bharati Singh, Krishna, Sudesh and others perform, it seems, we have dearth of good script, good humour, good satire in our country. What remains is mimicry.

But this also brings to the core issue of quality of our own viewership? Are we destined to view these third rated shows? Do we have a choice? In the west, you switch on a genre and choose comedy and you have a lot to choose from. A majority of Indians, despite having hundreds of channels, have to depend on Comedy Central, Just for Laughs etc even today. Sure, some enterprising producers tried making copy of these successful series but failed miserably.

The matter of fact is television is a one way communication. What the TV produces, we have to see. I have no other choice to express my discontent other than switching off. But then the TRP meters are so tampered that you will end up high on rankings. Is there anyway, we can immediately protest a bad programme so that it is booted out before its scheduled end? I am sure technology will bring some solutions.