I. INTRODUCTION:

Politics has often been considered to be a vital part of the realm of Comedy. From the very outset, even if we were to look centuries back, court jesters were the people that usually entertained the court with their various comic acts but also gave the King valuable advice when he needed it the most. We even have the popular book series Amar Chitra Katha that often shows Anbar and Birbal's relation where the cunning yet smart Birbal solves the Kings dilemma in a rather comical way but yet very effectively.

Well, keeping the olden days aside, in the 21^st century, we see that politics has become the main pivot for content for stand up comedians. They use their wit to explain complex problems and often solve it for the people as well. With the advent of stand-up comedy and political satire on YouTube the Indian audiences are being shown politics and social issues as something in which they have a say. Some of the vexed comedians take up issues like Marital Rape, Sexism, Beef Ban, Student Suicide etc. in order to voice out their suppressed opinions and judgments.

Comics also openly talk about Indian politics and politicians which most of the times lands them into unpredictable and unwanted problematic scenarios.

Comedy and comedians are becoming are becoming the mirror that is catering to the numerous issues in the society in its raw and most original form. Addressing such issues with humor and wit is one of the most creative and affordable fashion for all these comics who have been looking for a platform to showcase their anger, emotions and opinions about certain scenarios. There is no way to stop these upcoming comics in calling the politicians out, despite of the funny fact that they have been already keeping parts of their salaries to resolve the pending ‘cases’. This again is rather controversial as the very same politicians we look up to claim that we live in a free country where our freedoms can be exercised and not dispossessed.

India is still a tough place to survive as a comedian, with low incomes and high risk of being targeted by politicians, political parties and fringe groups. It’s very important for us to learn to take a joke on ourselves. Indians often in that way seem too patriotic to to let it sink in and understand that often these jokes are way more than just humour; could be many reasons as to why so. Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently tweeted, “We surely need more humor in our public life.” This is ironic as BJP and RSS leaders both have threatened to harm a lot of comedians suppressing them, keeping them in the dark for the fear of their lives. When the ruling party which is also the largest political party in the world gives death threats to comedians democracy and freedom of expression holds very little value in our country. Amidst all this anger, vitriol and distrust there is a lot of room for laughter.Well, atleast that is the way it should be. We are a growing “to be superpower”.

It is an easier way to accept the harsh reality, and there is a lot of harsh reality we need to accept. In the political environment that we currently live in, political humour which has an opposing belief than ours, can be considered as antagonistic rather than amusing. This makes the joke to never actually be a joke, but an attack perpetrated by the attacker.It is also critical for giving the disadvantaged a voice in the formulation of local decisions that affect their lives (Anil Kumar Pathlavath, 2016).

Prophet Muhammad has said that "humour is to speech what salt is to food." Adding to that Abdul Halim the brilliant Urdu essayist-novelist said "it is true that without wit and humour speech is insipid and the company dull. The more advanced a language, the greater its ability to express wit and humour." This is the reason why Urdu has produced its fair share of humour, wit, and satire that was expressed in witty jibes, sarcasm and jokes. Ghalib, Urdu's greatest poet, mastered the art of humour both in his written material and ghazals.India often has dented its image of a country that enjoys and accepts political humour after the anticorruption activist Aseem Trivedi was arrested in September for criticizing the Parliament in a cartoon. In October last year, a stand up comedian ShyamRangeela, competing in a television show on Star Plus, was told that his act mimicking PM Modi would be eliminated. It had already been recorded and the video, which became viral on social media, showed that the judges of the show were quite amused. But the segment was never broadcasted, and another segment, where he mimicked Congress president Rahul Gandhi was stopped from airing too.

No conversation on the funny side of Indian political system can begin without talking about R.K. Laxman’s common man. His common man is witness to the absurdities of politics in India. His political cartoons were absolutely world-class, and said a lot more about Indian politics than the media ever did. Even though, he too didn’t have it easy.

So, the question we often fail to ask ourselves. Where do we draw the line?

Humour is an effective medium to convey ones thoughts, group AisiTaisi Democracy uses Stand up comedy, music and stories of our complicated and very funny country to send out a message to the public and create awareness. With their po-faced sincerity, the three have not just become popular on stages all over the country, but have scored big hits with some of their songs. The group consists of comedian Varun Grover, Indian ocean band member Rahul Ram and stand up artist Sanjay Rajoura. The three have made a 36 minute show called AisiTaisi Democracy which talks about the issues plaguing our country and pseudo nationalism.. They have had live shows in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and many other cities. Their YouTube video have more than 7 lakh views. Their new video is a political song called ‘History Song’, where they talk about the brazen attempts to change established Indian history. It is a peppy song, but nowhere as catchy as their previous song ‘Ode to Demonetisation’, that came out in January 2016, which was based on a popular 1960s bollywood song. The song talks of how the poor were badly affected by the government’s sudden decision to demonetise the 500 and 1000 rupee notes which comprised of 86% of the country’s currency.

Free speech and its limitations in India:

Our Indian Constitution guarantees its citizens free speech but not the right to hurt somebody's feelings and sentiments of any nature, be it political or religious. In the first subpart of this research, we will take a look at what qualifies this right.

French weekly Charlie Hebdo’s boldness in publishing a cartoon depicting the prophet following the terrorist attack in Paris by radicals went on to be a worldwide debate about free speech being a fundamental right in all the countries and how there has to be regulations brought into it to make sure that no sentiment is hurt and thereby avoiding collateral damage. Back home in India, several comics have been facing the heat for provoking fun at religious heads and political leaders. There have been lives lost, at the cost of performing an art, to sustain one’s livelihood.

Now at such instances, societies and the people in them have to understand who stand up comedians really are. Stand up comedy is a form of art just like music, painting and dance is considered so. There by this makes the performers the artists. Artists all around the world are the one's that portray and bring to us what is new. Let’s take an example. In the 18^th century, paintings that comprised of nudity were considered to be the then trend and fetched painters a lot of money. People in the then European countries made it a point to have a painting of such in their house to keep moving with times. Eventually down the line, abstract art became a popular norm, to an extent where we see a single black line on a white paper earning millions. But we know that abstract art is the present trend we are living through in terms of art. Similarly, comedians use their constitutional right and try and bring forward different angles of the reality and happenings in our society that we often are blinded about. They bring to us the current trends and give us an understanding. In a stand up set by comedian Rahul Subramaniam, he talks about the mono rail which is probably at a distance if 7 to 8 kms a but was told by the politicians on its introduction that it would change the way people see Chembur. What’s even bothering was the fact that the project was a billion dollar investment. Now this was absolutely absurd when put into context because it was way too much money for something as small as this. This opened up a perspective on people where they started questioning eventually. Until then people barely knew. Dialogue process of various stakeholders in the process makes more evident (Anil Kumar Pathlavath, 2018).

To school some basics at the first go, Article 19 (1)(a) of the Indian Constitution makes the right to freedom of speech and expression a fundamental right, but then again, it is not an absolute right, there are several qualifiers. The First Amendment to the Constitution, made on June 18, 1951, states that “interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state, friendly relations with Foreign States, public order, decency or morality or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence” will be paramount and freedom of expression, therefore, will not be unconditional.

To sustain the aforementioned, the Indian Penal Code has several clauses that make it contingent upon the person expressing himself or herself not to hurt sentiments or cause public discord, something that has been open to interpretation so far, and does not hold a definition. Section 153 A, Section 292, Section 295 A and Section 298 deal with cases in the nature that has been earlier stated in the research.

Similarly, the IT (Information Technology) Act of 2000 has been the subject of much debate. Its Section 66A punishment for sending offensive messages through a computer or any other communication device such as a mobile phone or a tablet, a conviction fetching a maximum of three years in jail and a fine is imposed. What is offensive, however, is subject to interpretation. The Supreme Court has been looking at the section’s constitutional validity for nearly a year now and said last month that it lacks clarity and is open to misuse. Cases under this recently include the arrest of two girls by Thane police in 2012 over a Facebook post, the arrest of Jadavpur University professor AmbikeshMahapatra for forwarding a caricature on Mamata Banerjee on social media, and the arrest of Aseem Trivedi for drawing cartoons lampooning Parliament and the Constitution to depict their ineffectiveness.

There is a thin lining boundary between positive and negative interpretation of freedom of expression. If laws will be disposed to be used against the media and artists’ fraternity, then we will land in stagnation. There should be debate upon right and wrongness about the subject matter. If intention behind the given expression is malicious, in that case the government and other regulatory authorities such as the courts should lash harder and strike upon the offenders.

Something which people haven’t realised is the fact that, Indian’s usually live in a closed she’ll, where they often love to be with their families, do their work, reap the benefits and move on. However, when we look at the super powers of our world, they live in a rather open environment (with the exception of China) where the truth, however blunt and honest is put out on the table for people to understand and incorporate. But it is again upto the people whether they want to accept it or not. But in India, not denying that we are growing to become a superpower, people live in their enclosed shell that we fail to have a sense of moral responsibility in our society. Then how are we a growing super power, you may ask? We work for ourselves, our families and care for our own well being. The very fact that a woman raped by a group of men seeking for help on the road fails to get any but eyeballs is the very reason because they fear to get in trouble. Hence when someone is hit hard in their set of believes and ideology suddenly is mocked by a group of artists, they tend to take it the wrong way.Then how is China where they are you may ask? Well they aren’t a democracy, we are. And despite all the freedoms granted to us, we fail to surpass. “Killing the messenger is just as cowardly as not going to a war. Your people will despise you” says Shakespeare.

Freedom of speech is guaranteed not only by the Constitution or statutes of various states, but also by various International conventions like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights etc. These declarations avidly talk about the protection of free speech and expression.

In the context of artistic expression, especially that of the comics who poke fun at political and religious matters, which in certain cases includes material that holds good to be qualified for obscenity, the Supreme Court held that “the art must be so preponderating as to throw obscenity into a shadow or the obscenity so trivial and insignificant that it can have no effect and may be overlooked.” The court concluded that the test to adopt in India, emphasizing community mores, is that obscenity without a preponderating social purpose or profit cannot have the constitutional protection of free speech.

However, one needs to understand that ‘freedom’ and ‘regulation’ are contradictory and ‘regulated free speech’ is an oxymoron by itself! In 1951, the section of the Constitution that dealt with restrictions on free speech was expanded to include threats to public order as a possible restriction. The state’s control was extended to “reasonable restrictions”, a vague provision that would be debated for decades to come. This was also the decade when the state set a certain direction for book bans.

The 1940s carry the stamp of British prudery and paranoia. Among the books banned by Raj government in its final years were “The Perfumed Garden”, an erotic manual; incendiary pamphlets on Kashmir; and a potentially inflammatory article that dealt with the life of “Codijah, First and Devoted Wife of Mahomet.” The blanket protection that the US Constitution allotted to free speech- “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press”- had little counterpart in India.

Influence of comedians:

The stand up comedy scene has picked up in the last few years. Before this political humour on the web or on Tv was limited to mimicry and impersonations. After the internet became more accessible to a wide number of people, the stand up comedy scene in the country grew with it. Political humour also found various branches like sketch comedy and memes. The millennials look up to comedians and respect their opnion. Moreover new age comedians have become social media influencers. Their influence isn’t restricted to brand collaborations but also goes into politics.

Comedians like Vir Das have a show online called Pot Cast, Kunal Kamra has a show called Shut up ya Kunal and AIB has a show called on air with AIB. These are a few shows where comedians have taken initiative to talk about the political situation of our country. Comedians also use Instagram and Snapchat to vocalize their opinions.

Literature Review:

Recently, shows on political satire have been going through some big changes. The underrated Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore has replaced The Colbert Report, former Daily Show correspondent John Oliver is the host of an incredible HBO news program called Last Week Tonight, Jon Stewart, will soon be leaving the program he has hosted since 1999. But why are these shows so important? To some, they just make a playful mockery of politics in the U.S. and around the world. To be honest, they are a source of insight, master works of comedic art, and most importantly, a testament to the cherished freedom of speech.

A growing body of scholarly literature examines the implications of entertainment-oriented ‘soft news’ television programs for democratic politics. Much of this research suggests that exposure to such programs can, under certain conditions, influence public attention to politics (Baum, 2002), public knowledge about politics (Baum, 2003; Prior, 2003), public opinion (Baum, 2003)

The comedians and political analysts who write for these shows do amazing work. They are able to package local, national, and global politics into an easily comprehensive and appealing package to all demographics with the main one being a typically younger audience. Using their presence on the Internet and their social media clout, they are able to bring attention to issues that would typically go unnoticed.The youth are tomorrow’s policy makers and hence conditioning from the very outset is required considering the political trajectory.

“As viewers’ political attentiveness increased, however, the magnitude of the positive relationship decreased.” (Cao, pp. 29)

Amy Becker in her article offers points of intersection and difference across communication research on political comedy. Based on our findings, she argues that political comedy scholarship can be usefully divided into two areas: (1) features and (2) effects. Under features, she finds three overlapping but distinct areas of emphasis: political comedy's rhetorical devices and conventions, its ideological and ethical functions, and its contributions to public culture.

Satire is a fantastic tool in that it allows educated comics to assist the uneducated or uninformed audience to accomplish the mental journey necessary to understand the flaws of, say, a Presidential Candidate.

The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, AisiTaisi Democracy and even more immature Shows like South Park or Family Guy exemplify this perfectly. Varun Grover in AisiTaisi Democracy affects his audience in a similar way - He opens their eyes so that they may see the blatant errors our society makes.

Exposure to news media increases viewers’ concerns about national security, as well as their mistrust of politicians and government. However, the contribution of entertainment media to security concerns and trust in government has received only scant attention in previous times.

Tsfati and Peri’s article demonstrates that exposure to entertainment talk shows was related to greater concern about security and high levels of political trust, while exposure to political comedy was related to reduced concerns about security and lower levels of political trust. (Tsfati and Peri, 2009)

Satire is meant to expose and criticize injustices, shortcomings and even ideological differences in a way that is humorous, ironic or exaggerated.it is worthwhile to examine various components of its interface with payment systems, technology, security, regulatory aspects and functionality (Anil Kumar Pathlavath, 2013).

Among the many benefits of a free society is the right to criticize our leaders. Late-night talk-show hosts and sketch comedy programs like “Saturday Night Live” have made poking comments or made use of sharp sarcasm at presidents and their flaws for decades, with recipients of perhaps the harshest ire being presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.

A number of authors and scholars have made a serious case humor as a critical tool in improving pedagogy. Norton (2001) states that “humor can deliver a jolt of insight and excitement a class of disconnected young people" and provide the "hooks" that will capture the audience's interest. Scholars from a number of disciplines share this view of humor's power as a motivating force in the learning process (Kher, Molstad, and Donahue 1999; Baumgartner and Morris 2008). Humor is also touted as a force for building constructive classroom relationships that facilitate learning (Kher, Molstad, and Donahue 1999; Pollak and Freida, 1997)

Hence, not just education or any other doctrine , even in newspapers, editorial and opinion pages carry on a tradition of public satire that dates back thousands of years — at least to the time of Aristophanes’ plays in ancient Athens. It has been said that as long as there has been organized politics, there has also been satire.

Now this leads us to the very important question we are going to try and answer in this paper, “What exactly are the effects of artistic expressions on the Indian political system?

METHODOLOGY:

The research focuses on how political satire has been used in AisiTaisi Democracy to highlight the social issues in India. This is in relation to the use of humour as a tool to make people aware of serious socio political issues that prevail in the country. The paper will use qualitative sampling for the collection of data. The theoretical framework will be used in the form of content analysis of the video. The themes of humor, political leanings, public reception and the jibe at real life issues from which the comedy origins.

Through this paper, the researcher contours the larger idea of citizens being a more involved and proactive part of civic communities. The use of the particular video has been made with the propaganda and the potential impact that various forms of media can have on the Indian population.

The theoretical frame work is based on Young’s (2014) study on the use of political humour Late night comedy shows. From his study Young came up with 3 themes to understand the impact of political satire on contemporary audience. The following themes will be used as parameters for this study:

1. Persuasion

2. Learning, Recall, and Information Seeking from Political Humor

3. Political Participation, Discussion, Engagement, and Trust in Government

Something that is quite intrinsic to the idea of being Indian, the comedy group, is the belief in the concept of the nation's democratic institutions. Their comedy involves criticisms of political candidates and journalists using the tool of satire.

The comedy group is not the only one dealing with satire in their videos. Other groups like AIB and EIC have come under the radar for criticizing government and its policy. The AisiTaisi Democracy video on the other hand is not just critical of a particular ideology but about the functioning of the democracy and its institutions in general. Hence, they target the journalists who form the Press in India and their relations with the current BJP led government and the half cooked information that is passed as news.

The content analysis will give prime importance to the Indian constitution and the right to freedom of speech and expression, with some reasonable restrictions that it enshrines. The following constitutes the Right to speech and expression which will act as a parameter in judging the content of the video:

1. security of the State,

2. friendly relations with foreign States,

3. public order,

4. decency and morality,

5. contempt of court,

6. defamation,

7. incitement to an offence, and

8. Sovereignty and integrity of India.

This fundamental right has been centric to journalists and comedians – and those who combine the two in the form of political satire - during critical times in our history.

We have observed a blurring of the lines that differentiate hard news from the soft news, governmental policies from mainstream culture, and even news from entertainment, however this has existed for a long time now.

The recent saffronisation of the current state of news and journalism in the nation is that it is being subjugated by the larger social spheres of mass communication. This has led to increased competition between news outlets and giving space to narratives that make content for political satire.

With the connectivity of people increasing and the evolution of news media, coupled with the acute economic uncertainty that the nation has faced, traditional news outlets fall out of relevance at a point when Indian citizens would search for a perspective they can count on to object to the institutions that are proven to be failing them.

In the past couple of years, a niche audience for such a voice has grown and the demand has been fulfilled in a wide variety of unique ways, from The Week That Wasn't', with Cyrus Broacha, to The Viral Fever. However, none has filled that role as uniquely as AisiTaisi Democracy, in my opinion.

It is more than a mere commentary on India. It is a comical look at all the issues that plague mankind – right from the extinction of dinosaurs to selfie culture. The Godhra riots, Babri Masjid demolition, Vyapam scam – AisiTaisi Democracy has been brave enough to hold a mirror up to all the ignored aspects of the Indian political system.

AisiTaisi Democracy is a new age comedy show that talks about the issues plaguing this country. The trio brings up issues that are not spoken about in the mainstream media. The musical element of the show is very important as it helps soften the blow. “Music makes it easy to talk about things like the 1984 (Delhi) riots and Godhra.”

There was the occasional far-fetched joke, such as Grover’s observation that toilets in malls with posh fittings and Western classical music being piped through the speakers have a civilising influence on urinating men (apparently men are compelled to aim correctly in fancy surroundings). But on the whole, the show was a riotous, caustic and much-needed send-up of the state of Indian democracy.

The focus of my research for this dissertation, specifically the observations and perceptions about the ways in which most forms of conventional media works, is founded primarily within my own personal and academic experience as a stand up comic and a student of media studies. Additionally, I would be conducting empirical research in the form of questionnaires at stand up comedy events wherein I would question people's perspectives on political satire and the influence of humor on desensitizing issues that are ignored by conventional media.

I would then extrapolate the inferences from those questionnaires to specific examples from AisiTaisi democracy, and two other satirical political shows from India, and two from around the world in order to assess the relevance and compliance of findings to the international views and observations on political satire.

The implication of news media as a whole, be it satirical or serious is established to be far-reaching and influential. This study moves past that aspect of the discussion. My proposal is based on the belief that in spite of the satirical news shows being, there is not really anything exceptional or new with comedians using popular media and satire coupled together to put forward an opposing voice to the powerful governmental institutions, including elected officials of the government, who are often spared any real scrutiny.

Instead, I hope to approach and analyze the growth of political satire and satirical news with the example of AisiTaisi Democracy by questioning and observing nuanced sociopolitical contexts of what is happening in India that is leading to the educated populace to look away from conventional news media to alternate sources that present a more unfiltered narrative.

I hope to examine the possibility that an increasing demand for satirical narratives presented by AisiTaisi Democracy indicates towards a broader transition in the way Indians perceive news media, and how they go about obtaining news- moving away from institutionalized and filtered journalism and its supposed ethical considerations of objectivity and its unobjectible nature and toward voices that demonstrate more independence, quintessentially returning to the original idea of the media being a utilitarian tool to build and develop the community and facilitate discourse between the citizens and the leaders of the nation, instead of being a the mass medium for controlled information that it is increasingly moving towards.

Data Analysis:

77.3% of the audience found it to be funny. This proves that political satire and humour is considered funny by a vast majority. The 22.7% who didn’t find it funny are a reality in our country. The numbers may increase in smaller towns especially in rural areas where a lot are deprived of education. India is going through very tough times when it comes to dissent. Comedy is sometimes used as dissent. Dissenting opnion in our country recently is equal to being an anti national, and more often than not, the historic sedition laws have been used as a weapon to silence those who even think of dissenting.

Though only a small group of people a responsible for branding people anti national or all the other fancy terms branded, they have a huge impact due to their drastic measures. The administration need to take charge of such a situation which puts our democracy at risk. A reformed administration that is. Satire often tells the world the truth the media can’t and when satire is curbed it is a violation of our Right to Free Speech. Fundamental rights have been suspended several times in modern India’s history. This pushes democracy and its founding principles to the brink of extinction. Anything that puts economic and political power in the bad light is received in a rather unwelcoming way.

For example, recently, a popular Tamil film starring Tamil sensation Vijay, was asked to remove a monologue that criticized the Modi government of its wrong doings. The important question this arises is, how long would it be until India would be re branded from being a democracy to a Monarchy or even a Dictatorship? Is there a considerable amount of propaganda as to why people’s opinion seem to be different in different backgrounds and demographics?

People who belong to the 22.7% of the sample size have a lot of arguments. The first argument they give is about the comedians crossing the limit with certain issues. Second they argue that it hurts their religious sentiments. It is very difficult to assess and regulate sentiments, especially when it comes to religion and otherwise. It is rather a psychological perspective that comes into play when a work of satire is viewed by someone who hails from a conservative background. Most of the researcher’s respondents are urban youth, who have been calling for certain limitations in free speech. This context certainly holds a different narrative in a rural and traditional geo-political scenario.

Even lifestyle does matter. Among the 22.7%, we have lower middle class people who hold a rather un appealing sentiment towards political satires. And this has a lit to do with the expectations given by the government which keep the people going hence, luring them to the inevitable. Whereas middle class and even upper middle class, understand the subjugation that exists and laughs it off in such scenario. But yet again, as mentioned earlier, own social well being affects the moral conscience thereby making such comics and satires seem as an act of personal vendetta thereby causing an unexpected pouncing and bopping on artists.

The maximum number of votes suggest viewers found poltical satire funny. The focus group had a large number of millennials and this voting pattern shows that the new age of comedy in India is getting accepted and liked among this audience really quickly. A lot although believe it has to do with relevancy and relatability. In simple terms, when people of the same demohraphics are addressed and are spoken about things that worry them and cater to thjngs that cause popular hinderences, people laugh and also take the underlying deeper meaning rootes within the system that is just partially grazed upon im the form of comedy.

From a total of 22 responses we can see that 22.7% of the sample on a scale of 0-5 with a high of 5 found the content to be funny, 36.4% with a rate of 4, 18.2% with a rate of 3, 9.1% with a rate of 2, 4.5% with the rate of 1 and 9.1% found the show to be unfunny.

With the comedy scene growing exponentially across the country political satire is also on the rise. The recent protest by Karni Sena against the release of Padmavati was met with comedians writing jokes on the issue and the Karni Sena indirectly. The youth are also exponetially affected by memes. Memes are funny pictures or videos with words written on them to make it funnier. Memes are a big tool for creating opnions of audiences. Social media and memes were also used extensively in the last US presidential election. News channels are also implementing comedy and political comedy to cater to this audience. Cyrus Broacha’s satire show the week that wasn’t has been extremly successful in implementing political comedy into the mainstream television show. Sketches are also being made by youtube channels like AIB and East India Comedy. We even see how memes and social media content that are funny are used Now days to cause a public change, like the Bangalore police Facebook page. Even though there has been a co miserable change in the way things have been perceived, small steps as such cause a rift and helps progress and development in the minds of those riveted thereby allowing them appreciate art forms like stand up for what they are and what they truly represent. And, also India is truly knowm for its narrow mindedness that prevent them from achieving many things or even understanding the greater good. Contrary to belief would mean the non existence of caste system.

Getting music into humour and political humour has also increased mass appeal as music has the power to breach the language barrier. Getting known music and working around new lyrics isn’t something that is new in the entertainment industry. A constructive collaboration among music and stand up has been a great initiative. And this is something we have popularly seen ever since 1970's star bollywood interviews where the artist would just change or paraphrase the lyrics to probably something more funny or meaningful, but in turn to just communicate a message. Now though, it is a lot more subtle, impactful and widely used by practically everyone in the stand up industry as it allows to convey a greater depth of meaning. Popular musician Yanni in an interview quotes that “People when told something usually forget. It's alright,, we're human beings. But sing the same thing to them and they won’t forget it in days, months and tears to come.” This usage by stand up comedians is a rather psychological one where they try to embark the message using catchy phrases and lyrics with popular music that will help keep the message in mind for a long time.

Aisi taisi democracy has also used music to enhance it’s presentation. The music compliments the comedy very well.

Even though the comedy is appealing and raises important questions it does not have a strong influence on the political views of the public. People are getting more aware by such videos but they aren’t always enough to change political views. As we can see there are certain people whos political views have been affected due to the inability to find a concrete stand on. The reason for this could be lack of credibility or even, temporary solace hoping for a greater good.

From a total of 22 responses we can see that 4.5% of the sample on a scale of 0-5 with a high of 5 found the content to influence their political views, 9.1% with a rate of 4, 27.3% with a rate of 3, 27.3% with a rate of 2, 18.2% with the rate of 1 and 13.6% found the show to have no influence on their political views.

81.8% of the people thought that it played the role of a catalyst. Videos have a huge impact on us. With facebook and youtube making video viewing easier than ever before we have an audience that consumes large amount of video content on a daily basis. A huge majority believes that political satire videos act as a catalyst for them to think and learn. Political satire helps inform the public of the current political situation. The audience is then alowed to form their own opnions. Contrary to belief, millennials are the major reasons to this. Open mindedness and education on the political scenario of India, allows them to have a greater understanding on the wants and losts. Out of spite, they probably would even recommend the kind of satire to their friends of probably the same age hence allowing such videos to act as a catalyst all around.

Political humor can be something that can bring us together as long as everyone understands that it is just a joke. When we start taking it too seriously it loses its effectiveness and it becomes something else. Taking offence all ever does is shuns down a line of creative work, due to a section of the society would have to shut down a line of art popularly that would be known for keeping the people, residents and citizens well aware. But yet again, stand up comedians, have to know where to draw the line and also must understand the difference between acting as a catalyst and spreading rage and venting thereby being a propogator.

This pie chart also shows how, the millennials taken part in the discussion has rather understood the importance and have given an open opinion. This is something that requires further elaboration and will be done in the latter part of the research.

There is a thin line when it comes to people believeing the show to have a political bias. We can see that there is a 54.5% majority that is determined who claims that the show was biased, while 45.5 % of the sample say otherwise.

A lot of people believe that political satire is biased because the writer of the satire has their own way of understanding different issues. Satire needs to be opnionated for it to make an impact. The satire is done only when a stupid action by someone is made fun of. Majority of satirists are liberals because satire is an anti-establishmentarian art form. It is an outsider art. It’s funny to mock those who are in power. Satire is the weapon of the person out of power against the forces in power. It is the weapon of the underdog. Even though a large section of the society might disagree to the opinionated content, what people fail to understand is that they aren’t journalists exactly to work within the moral ethical conduct. Even when we talk about the content used, in order for them to make fun of an issue, there is always two sides on the spectrum. On analysing, they usually come up with satires on the end that has been the root cause of the controversy. For example, “our PM is a terrorist that’s into black magic” is a statement being made in a stand up set by a comedian, we obviously can conclude that the reason behind the formulation of such a conclusion is the fact that they look back at the wrong doings of the BJP party back in 2002. The fact that despite being proven wrong, he hasn’t ban convicted talks about his so called “magical power” he holds that makes him so powerful.

Satire is also growing because we are in an extremely polarized political environment right now, and this polarization brings a lot of finger pointing, hostility and nastiness. Unfortunately this is not only within India, but outside as Well, and as people of the country we truly are answerable.

In this pie chart we see a close margin, with 56% favouring the fact that India isn’t ready for Political humour yet, while we a 44% that claims that they truly are. Yet again, we see how people’s ideology surpasses moral and social well being. In the United States, political satires in late night shows accounts for 79% of the humour throughout the show. Despite a political dilemma or a disagreement there exist a conscience to accept one's beliefs and ideologies. Whereas in a young democracy like India, people yet haven’t come out of their shells to worry about the moral well being and upbringing of the country yet to understand as to why Political Satire would be understandably the most important form of art in the world.According to The Business Standard, India holds a staggering 31.16% percent Indians living in the rural areas. Of the global total, India holds 37% of uneducated illiterate persons in the world (Oxfam India.org). Lack of education has also been a reason as to why people tend to fail to discern between right and wrong. So to the question as to whether india is ready for Political humour? I think, people’s minds should be made a lot more diluted to think liberally where a sense of conscience decision exists that later would help them to make right desicions when voting. Until that happens, India would continue to remain insensitive to such topics where a great topic of discussion is shunned down due to the claim of being intolerant and an anti national.

As we can see here, a staggering 79.2% said yes to watching political satire shows. Whilst a minimal 20.8 said no. Indians in cities are turning to the west for political satire as there is a void in our own countries political satire. We need more satire and humour in our daily lives and Politics is something that affects everyone in the country. Thus having more shows will help our citizens become more aware.

CONCLUSION:

· After the analysis conducted above following were the findings –

· 77.3% of the audience found Aisi Taisi Democracy to be funny. This proves that political satire and humour is considered funny by a vast majority. The 22.7% who didn’t find it funny are a reality in our country. The numbers may increase in smaller towns especially in rural areas where a lot are deprived of education.

· In terms of the content being funny, a total of 22 responses we can see that 22.7% of the sample on a scale of 0-5 with a high of 5 found the content to be funny, 36.4% with a rate of 4, 18.2% with a rate of 3, 9.1% with a rate of 2, 4.5% with the rate of 1 and 9.1% found the show to be unfunny.

· From a total of 22 responces we can see that 4.5% of the sample on a scale of 0-5 with a high of 5 found the content to influence their political views, 9.1% with a rate of 4, 27.3% with a rate of 3, 27.3% with a rate of 2, 18.2% with the rate of 1 and 13.6% found the show to have no influence on their political views.

· 81.8% of the people thought that it played the role of a catalyst.

· There is a thin line when it comes to people believeing the show to have a political bias. We can see that there is a 54.5% majority that is determined who claims that the show was biased, while 45.5 % of the sample say otherwise.

· Using the data collected we can see how political comedy is starting to get a wider audience. It is helping people become more aware and more involved with the country’s political situation. We need comedy and satire to help this country’s democracy stay intact.

· With the data collected we can understand a lot about satire/comedy’s influence on politics. Comedy and satire are an important tool to shape our society. They can have a huge influence on culture if not curtailed by the political class. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself said that we need more humour in our lives.

· Comedians face a lot of heat and backlash from the political class. The influence comedy has on politics is evident when we see people in power troubling helpless comics. They try to censor the comedians because they do not want people to raise any questions on them.

· We are in desperate need of more political humour and the lack of humour in our politics has caused the audiences look for content overseas. Having more political satire shows will help people take greater interest in politics.

· Political humour in the country is getting biased and needs a neutral stance. On the other hand the audience needs to be educated about not taking offence and learn to respect freedom of speech.

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Received on 09.08.2020 Modified on 11.09.2020

Res. J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2020; 11(4):313-322.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5828.2020.00050.9