Laughter and Liberalization: Cultural Economy of TV Humor in India

Abstract

Indian culture, frequently cast as “oriental” due to its idealism, is not without its native traditions of humor and laughter. Some of these traditions have received critical notice of late. What remains largely neglected by academic critical debates is the sudden explosion of popular humor in Indian television, post-'90s. As economy leaps over national barriers, Indian laughter gains confidence and enters into cultural collaboration with other cultural narratives of humor with a postmodern ease. The laughter during the feudal age was fundamentally different from what it is in the secular and stable days of statist public sector economy. The originality of contemporary Indian TV laughter shows lies in its uncanny power to mix and mash indigenous folk traditions of laughter with the acquired comic culture of British and American gag shows and stand-up comedies.