“Utna dimaag hota to comedian kyun banta”: Netizens roast comedian Vir Das for asking critics to not criticise comics unless they have written joke themselves

In what came across as the ‘woke’ version of asking people to walk a mile in someone’s shoes before criticising them, standup comic Vir Das on Tuesday took to Twitter to ask people who don’t like jokes to not tell the comedians tha their jokes are lame unless they have written jokes themselves.

If you liked a joke or didn’t…that’s valuable feedback.
But I’m pretty sure I speak for many comics when I say: If you’ve never written a joke, stood on a stage, or made a career out of this…spare us your long sanctimonious thesis on what comedy should or shouldn’t be about.

— Vir Das (@thevirdas) June 2, 2020

“If you’ve never written a joke, stood on a stage, or made a career out of this…spare us your long sanctimonious thesis on what comedy should or shouldn’t be about,” he tweeted suggesting the ones who sometimes pay to watch the comedy shows or even watch them by investing their time and energy in it cannot be critical of their jokes if they have not been a comic themselves.

This comes from a man, who has never contested elections and likes to give sermons on how the government should function and country should be run. Netizens were quite quick to point out the irony.

And what’s this bullshit “if you’ve never done standup, don’t teach us what if should be about”? These jokers are providing a service, just like any other service. If consumers don’t like it, they will make it known. If you can’t handle it, quit the business.

— Strategic Spaminder Bharti (@attomeybharti) June 2, 2020

Some pointed out the basics of how criticism works. It is usually the audience who criticise and not the creators themselves.

A “joke” is funny or not is decided by the audience, not by the “comedian”. Audience doesn’t need to fulfill any of the criteria you mentioned above to be a judge for a comic.

It’s you who should be humble enough to acknowledge the feedback and improvise instead of whining.

— THE SKIN DOCTOR 🇮🇳 (@theskindoctor13) June 2, 2020

Let alone the hot seat, let him even be the head of a housing association and then comment

— nmunique (@propagandead) June 2, 2020

Some replies were funnier than entire career of some of these comics put together.

I completely agree…. Pls spare us common folks with your high standards of comedy as we clearly don’t know what comedy is…..

Pls make a group of comedians and just keep the precious craft within the learned scholars….

Urs truly
Sea farer
Representing common folks

— Sea farer (@World_neptuner) June 2, 2020

Prabhat Kumar and Chandan have no chill.

utna dimag hota toh comedian kyun banta yeh !!

— Chandan 🇮🇳 (@ckumar253) June 2, 2020

OpIndia does not endorse such criticism.

लवड़े का कॉमेडियन

— ரோஹன் 🦁 (@iam_shimorekato) June 2, 2020

And there were the ones who politely disagreed and gave him a lesson on being a performer.

Allow me to disagree. I can never say: “If you’ve never narrated a story, stood on a stage, or made a career out of this … spare us your long sanctimonious thesis on what storytelling should or shouldn’t be about.” If we perform for ourselves we can perform in our living rooms. https://t.co/RUoBmSHTgc

— Neelesh Misra (@neeleshmisra) June 2, 2020

Ouch.