Hero-worshipers are not good or even mildly mature at handling jokes.
In the recent episode of who-got-offended-at-the-least-offensive-thing, we have a winner and a loser.
Who lost?
The guys at AIB, again.
An image of a senior citizen standing at a railway station looking keenly into a cell phone was floating on the internet. The unique thing about the guy was that his face and physique resembled Shri Shri Narendra Damodardas Modi a.k.a the PM.
While others were trying to make memes out of it quoting Modi to be a wanderlust and middle-class traveller, AIB too slipped in. And they made this:
More on ED: AIB Unoffended – A Scientific Study
This was a cute meme.
Now, the dog filter is nothing new to this generation. Snapchat has created a generation of dog filtered youth, which is widely used by all of us, and in a very good way.
To be precise, Dog Filter is one of the most famous and most used face filters of Snapchat. It does not intend or aim to denigrate any person, whether a PM or not.
But after Bhakt attack, they had to delete it fearing lawful and unlawful actions against them.
This tweet of Tanmay Bhatt says a thousand things:
Become a household name, spend 1 cr plus on existing cases, phir gyaan dena, thanks :)
— Tanmay Bhat (@thetanmay) July 12, 2017
And this one:
PS: Will continue making jokes. And deleting if necessary. And making jokes again. And Apologizing if necessary. Don't care what you think.
— Tanmay Bhat (@thetanmay) July 13, 2017
[UPDATE: Cyber cell of Mumbai Police has registered a complaint (FIR) against AIB & Tanmay Bhatt for using Snapchat dog filter on PM Modi]
Mumbai Police Cyber Cell registered an FIR against comedy group AIB after they tweeted a meme about PM Modi by using the Snapchat dog filter pic.twitter.com/n2Wyym3wOQ
— ANI (@ANI) July 14, 2017
Shit just got real.
Let’s get serious for a while now.
How far has our leader worship gone? There’s no doubt that the Prime Minister should be respected and given due regard but is the Prime Minister’s office so weak that it cannot tolerate or survive a meme made by a bunch of funny guys who don’t support violence?
The prime minister can, but his followers certainly can’t.
This bunch of hate mongers do not only obliterate the government but also bring shame to their own party. Their actions achieve nothing but decrease the following towards a leader or his party, thus, causing loss to their own hero, or imaginary boyfriend.
I might make this a bit far fetched but let me compare this to Charlie Hebdo thing. You forgot Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack where a magazine office was attacked by suicide bombers because they made cartoons of Prophet in controversial situations?
Something similar is happening here.
Photoshopping Modi’s face makes people outraged. In no time there will be another Charlie Hebdo incident but here there will be morphed images of the Indian Prophet Modi.
I’m certain that Modi won’t have a problem with it, his followers or rather blind, dumb and deaf followers have a problem. Exactly that is the case with every God or the one God.
In fact, Modi likes comedy. He is always seen comforting world leaders with a laugh. His jokes may be lame, but that’s fine. We all have one such friend.
To quote our Prime Minister, “I think we need more satire and humour. Humour brings happiness in our lives. Humour is the best healer. The power of a smile or the power of laughter is more than the power of abuse or any other weapon”
Suppressing those who are already suppressed by the laws against free speech is absurdly and ironically stupid.
Let’s not forget that in North Korea, making fun of their leader is a crime. You can be hanged, killed, shot at, or worse, fat-shamed. In fact, Kim Jong Un doesn’t like fat jokes on him and can go to lengths to prove this. Such lengths as to threaten to declare a war.
But we don’t live in North Korea, right?
Or do we secretly want to?
More on ED:
http://edtimes.in/2017/07/zakir-khans-haq-se-single-review/
http://edtimes.in/2017/06/right-wing-celebrities-who-lost-credibility-as-they-were-buttering-the-govt-video/
