Yes, I am definitely talking about the same Mallika Dua who has been an internet sensashyun recently.
I did find her funny when I started browsing through her videos for the first time, but soon I realized how her brand of comedy thrives on the stereotypes we rapaciously consume without a second thought.
So, I came up with some concrete reasons why my love for Mallika Dua has reduced over time:
Colonial hangover
Give me something newer than making fun of people who cannot speak “proper” English (whatever that means).
There is a generation of people aspiring to fit into the “English” circle and privileged people like us have been denying them that space by constantly discouraging them. Just because someone amalgamates their prosodies with the colonial language, does not mean they should be denied a space to breathe in a vacuum.
There is no standard English, let’s get rid of that sick assumption, and that should be fine, shouldn’t it? Shouldn’t it be fine to “liberals”?
Class, and creeping out from it
For this, you have to accept that comedy in itself is a profession which comes with its own weighted risks even today. Try telling your parents that you want to pursue comedy as a profession, and try escaping the chappals and jootas flying at you later. You have to be able to AFFORD comedy as your profession unless and until you are that level of crazy where you can sacrifice anything.
Naturally, most comedians do come from elite backgrounds.
Mallika Dua’s humour reeks of jibes at lower income groups, and I am certainly not comfortable with it. Not only as a person who belongs to that particular income group but also as a woman.
The personas that she assumes – Makeup didi, Shaggun (Shaggy Didi), etc., do deny women from lower income groups certain intellectual scope. We are not just aunties or parlour waali didis or women who talk funny. Get out of that trope.
The Trash Talk
I hate minions on the same basis.
The craze over minions was mostly because of their stupid antics and gibberish language which apparently made them cute for whatever reason I cannot comprehend. But the love for minions only made me realize how much we as people embrace nonsense. And it is absolutely because of this highly consumerist culture that we live in.
We need things to devour, and the only things that can be devoured are things where you don’t have to apply much sense. Just go on fecklessly till you don’t reach a point.
I find that Dua’s comedy is an offspring of that culture.
Of course, I can be wrong but this is what I largely feel.
Image Credits: Google Images
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http://edtimes.in/2017/06/female-comedians-india-undervalued/
FINALLY someone said it!
I thought only I was the one who found her irritating. Especially the english accent she uses in her videos. Its hell irritating.