BHUBANESWAR: From Dumb and Dumber in 1994 to Mirzapur in 2018, modern comedy has evolved with time. Comedy shows are quite accessible these days as comedians prefer to launch a web series in social media platforms than plying their trade in movies.
BB KI VINES by Bhuvan Bam, Ashish Chanchalani’s VINES, Amit Bhadana’s shows and Ozzy Raja’s videos among others have catered to the fun appetite of youths for some time now. These unique and intuitive shows have put conventional comedy in movies to the sword with their rib-tickling punch lines.
One of India’s most popular YouTuber Bhuvan Bam said, “I play around 16 characters in a 7-minute video which I shoot in my terrace room through the camera of my mobile phone.”
Pratuyasha Mishra, an IITian has even played his character in her annual day function. Interacting with Orissa Post she said, “With 11 million followers, he is the ultimate heartthrob in comedy. Conventional comedians like Kapil Sharma or Raju Srivastav can do little to offer any competition to these viral YouTubers.
Plying his trade on similarly lines, comedian Amit Bhadana has more than five million subscribers on YouTube and over four million likes on Facebook. His brilliant sense of humour has brought him several offers to work in Bollywood movies. However, he has refused many such offers as he seems to do justice to his own variety of comedy.
Pawan Awasthi, an engineering student and ardent YouTuber said, “Whenever I miss even a single Bhadana video, I become irritated. I make it a point to watch it with my friends while chilling out.”
Divya Amarajeet Singh, a KIIT student, said “These YouTubers use slangs and often abuse parents, especially Ashish Chanchalani. I personally find him quite abusive. I prefer watching Ozzy Raja, a Pakistani comedian, who along with his wife Neeli Raja makes great videos which are appropriate for people of all age groups.”
Famed Odia comedian Papu Pom Pom said, “Today’s world has become quite small. One can watch every kind of programme from his cell phone. This vines and comedy shows seem to have captured the imagination of the younger generation. These YouTubers will surely give a fillip to the comic industry.”
Ozzy Raja’s YouTube channel has over 400,000 subscribers as of 2018 and has accumulated over 100 million views so far. It is able to get an average of 200,000 views per day from different sources. His content is based on daily household problems, funny situations between husband and wife and youth-centric situations among others. Not only he is popular in his home country Pakistan and UK (where he resides), but has a strong fan following in India as well.”
The main paradigm of these comedians and YouTubers is to capture the attention of young people without hurting their sentiments. Bhuban Bam said, “Make sure your content is good. Quantity doesn’t matter but quality does. Always try to be original.” Be it with the use of slangs or original humorous content, online comedians have surely struck a chord with youngsters.