The controversy over the lampooning of Sachin Tendulkar and Lata Mangeshkar in a comedy video show is not so much about the right to laugh about something but about good taste. Fun can be poked even at icons provided the comedian knows humour is not about verbal abuse. The grotesque manner in which Tanmay Bhat has approached the subject of taking down two legends has little to do with humour, which should anyway have nothing to do with negative perceptions of people’s age or their appearance.
The barbs of humour are aimed with dignity, taste and sophistication, and not with jealousy, or hate, or sheer racism springing from nothing but prejudice. The two legends have achieved so much that Bhat’s crass humour can do little to destroy their image. The huge backlash to the video is sufficient to show how venerated the subjects are and what they have achieved in their time, besides how they have achieved all that while upholding the highest standards of behaviour in the most competitive fields of endeavour.
To ask the guardians of social media to take down something that is in such bad taste as to spread disaffection is justifiable. The freedom of speech and expression cannot be extended to a crackpot act masquerading as comedy. Reluctant as we are to recommend censorship, particularly when governments act more to shield politicians from deprecatory humour, this can be seen as a fit case to be excised just for poor taste. This might stand up as a classic reason why the freedom of speech and expression cannot be limitless.
