Whoever said that sexism didn’t exist in the Indian comic industry should have another think coming.The only drawback is that they don’t sell as much as their male counterparts. From Aditi Mittal’s hilarious enactment of the predicament of a woman who goes bra shopping to Mallika Dua’s portrayal of a girl on a shopping spree in Sarojini Nagar market, you have laughed with them and laughed at their antics. The female stand-up comedians, however, falls slightly short of the spotlight whether it is their social media followers or the number of seats filled at their shows.
“First they banned Maggi, then they banned porn, now Indian men can’t do anything in under two minutes,” quips Neeti Palta and she is not alone in bashing the male gender. Because like Kaneez Surka rightly puts it, “If I do a joke about a guy sucking my breasts the audience doesn’t approve, but if a male counterpart does a penis joke the audience accepts it comfortably.” This gap is quite evident by the sheer number of views or the revenue these female comedians are making.
Women are not funny, someone one said. There are no women in stand-up comedy, observed another. And, now these women are here to make them eat their own words. Why are female Indian comedians being left out of the spotlight? From featuring just as side-kicks or doing brief cameos in the shows by male comedians, why are they still lagging behind, hovering in the wings?
Hesitant to enter the world dominated by men, these women have come in nonetheless, shields up. Here are 9 amazing female stand-up comics who are killing it with their humour.
- Vasu Primlani
Vasu Primlani
You can follow her @greencomedian
2. Aditi Mittal
Aditi Mittal
You can follow her @awryaditi
3.Mallika Dua
Mallika Dua
You can follow her @mallikadua
4. Sumukhi Suresh
Sumukhi Suresh
You can follow her @sumukhisuresh
5. Kaneez Surka
Kaneez Surka
You can follow her @kaneezsurka
6. Neeti Palta
Neeti Palta
You can follow her @neetipalta
7. Radhika Vaz
Radhika Vaz
You can follow her @radvaz
8. Punya Arora
Punya Arora
You can follow her @clickmadness
9. Aparna Nacherla
Aparna Nacherla
You can follow her at @aparnapkin
Also Read: Biswa Kalyan Rath explaining House of Cards to Alok Nath is the best thing on the internet today
Film critic Anupama Chopra recently had a discussion on ‘sexism in the comedy industry’ after Amazon Prime signed 14 comedians as part of a special comedy segment and not one of them was a woman.When the video of a round-table of stand-up comedians discussed the comedy scene’s gender bias in the country, it was quite evident that the space for female stand-up comics is shrinking.
The fact that Aditi Mittal was hardly allowed to speak during the show, especially when she was asked about sexism in the industry, really drives the point home. Not to forget that Anupama Chopra thought the 1 woman to 5 men ratio was an appropriate arrangement to have a chat on sexism (Captain Obvious Alert!).
No never we have no sexism in comedy we ain’t got time for that. What? Just one woman comic on this panel – so? SO?! https://t.co/2djIgfgrsr
— radhika vaz (@radvaz) May 29, 2017
Aditi Mittal: “I’m learning a lot from this table about being a female in comedy”
SNARK AS NEVER SEEN BEFORE ON PLANET COMEDY https://t.co/dTkEErGoTc— Cathartic Screams (@Just_Screams) May 29, 2017
If you want to know if there is sexism in an industry, start by having more than one female from that industry on your regular panel.
— Kaneez Surka (@kaneezsurka) May 29, 2017
They aren’t just angry feminists, these women are fabulously putting forth woman issues and they have taken the stand-up comedy world by storm. They’ve conquered the stage in their own ‘funny’ way and they aren’t going to shy away from speaking their heart out. So if you haven’t watched these amazingly witty souls, give the women a chance.
For more interesting content, visit YouTube.com/InUthdotcom
