In 2023, standup comedy found its mojo again after two hard years of pandemic lockdowns. This year has been all about taking that infectious joie de vivre to new heights, reminding us all that, as Milan Kundera put it, “to laugh is to live profoundly”. Whether it was on the world’s biggest stages, or on tiny smartphone screens, 2024 was the year that comedy truly “came a-live”.
The achievements came fast and thick. There were sold-out comedy shows at some of the biggest and most iconic venues, both at home and abroad. We had Indian comedians go from winning international awards to hosting them. They were so in demand that we had the biggest celebrities flocking to their format shows—a few even decided to try out standup themselves.
Not content to just make their mark in film and television, comedians branched out even further in 2024. You had them making waves at fashion shows, on election campaigns and even in court. Nothing was off limits—except, unfortunately, when it came to the jokes. Comedians continued to face online lynch mobs, police complaints and threats of actual violence for their art in 2024, both in India and in other countries.
We cover it all—the good, the bad, and the WTF—in our annual report card for the scene. Get out your merit and demerit stars, and let’s go!
The Highs
Indian Comedy’s Global Takeover Continued
In March, over 6,000 comedy fans assembled at New York’s Madison Square Garden, one of the most recognisable performance venues in the world. It’s where George Harrison held his famous Concert For Bangladesh, where John Lennon made his last-ever concert appearance, and where Led Zeppelin recorded their seminal concert film The Song Remains The Same. But on this spring day, there was a very different type of song playing over the PA. Dressed in a yellow kurta, Zakir Khan walked on stage to the Vishal and Shekhar song India Waale, as if to announce that Indian comedy had finally taken its place on the world stage. And it’s here to stay.
Khan’s MSG set—entirely in Hindi, bee-tee-dubs—was just one of many notable international performances by Indian comedians. Vir Das, Kanan Gill, Urooj Ashfaq, Abhishek Upmanyu, Sumukhi Suresh, Aravind SA and scores of other comedians had extensive international tours this year, planting the tiranga on pretty much every continent other than Antarctica. There were sizable Indian contingents at this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival—where Gill earned a nomination for Most Outstanding Show—and at the Edinburgh Fringe. Sehwag’s mom would be so proud.
Global Comedy Stars Added India To Their Tour Calendar
2024 was a marquee year for Indian tours by popular international comedians. In January, British-Irish comedian Jimmy Carr brought his world-famous brand of shock-jock comedy to India for a three-city tour. March saw Scottish comedian and infamous marriage-destroyer Daniel Sloss return to India, following up his 2023 visit with an eight-city tour for the inaugural edition of The Loop by DeadAnt Live. It was, as far as we know, the biggest tour by an international comedian in India. Go us!
That was just the beginning. In June, we followed that up with Anthony Jeselnik’s three-city Bones And All tour for The Loop. Other global comedy stars who have toured India this year include American-Indian comedy sensation Zarna Garg, Canadian-Indian veteran Russell Peters, Malaysian comedy star Nigel Ng (aka Uncle Roger), Singapore’s Kumar, Lebanese-American comedian Janine Harouni, British comedian Olga Koch, American comedy collective Socially Inept with their popular Tech Roast Show and Iranian comedian and Instagram sensation Max Amini Phew, that was a mouthful.
And there’s more to come. Russell Howard, the British comedian and TV star will be bringing his world tour Russell Howard Live to India in February, again under The Loop by DeadAnt Live banner. And who knows, maybe we’ve got an even bigger surprise in store for the next edition of the Laughing Dead festival? *wink wink nudge nudge*
Comedians and Comedy Content Creators Took To The Big Screen
Boil comedy down to its essence and you have two main skills—writing and performing. Both of which naturally translate to film and television. So it’s no surprise that many Indian comedians have found success on the big and small screen, as actors, writers and directors.
When he was not touring the world, Zakir Khan was on the sets for season 3 of his popular Amazon miniTV series Chacha Vidhayak Hain Humare. The Indore comedian’s star is shining so strongly that Sony Entertainment gave him his own talk-show—the short-lived Aap Ka Apna Zakir—in the same highly coveted time slot that used to be occupied by The Kapil Sharma Show.
Sumukhi Suresh, who signed a deal with Karan Johar’s Dharma Cornerstone Agency this April, has had a stellar run of credits this year—including a role in Netflix’s multi-starrer romance series The Royals, a cameo on Amazon Prime Video series Dil Dosti Dilemma, and dialogue-writing credits for Vikramaditya Motwane’s Ananya Pandey-starrer CTRL. Suresh and her team at her company Motormouth—which includes Sumaira Shaikh and Siddharth Chandel—also have plenty of other film projects in the pipeline, including a film directed by Tushar Hiranandani, so expect to see her on this list again next year.
Varun Grover made his directorial debut with his film All India Rank, which had its theatrical release in February. The film, which made its world premiere at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam last year, earned largely positive reviews from critics. It was also the project that earned Grover his spot in the BAFTA Breakthrough 2024 India programme, which aims to highlight up-and-coming creatives from the country.
Tanmay Bhat, Rohan Joshi, Aaditya Kulshresth, Nishant Tanwar and Vishal Dayama also appear as themselves in CTRL, adding a dash of real-world street cred to the techno-thriller film. Kusha Kapila continued to show off her acting chops, with roles in Hotstar series Life Hill Gayi, Amazon miniTV’s Dehati Ladke, and Nipun Dharmadhikari film Ishq Vishk Rebound.
Comedy content creator Viraj Ghelani went from a cameo (in last year’s Jawan) to the lead role in Gujarati horror-comedy film Jhamkudi, while season two of Bhuvan-Bam starrer Taaza Khabar broke viewership records on Disney+ Hostar, beating out global hit The Rings Of Power to become the most-watched show on the platform in 2024.
Indian comedy’s winning streak on Indian reality TV continued with Munawar Faruqui winning the 17th season of Bigg Boss. Though perhaps the most exciting comedy and reality TV crossover of the year doesn’t even appear on television… but more on that later.
Actors And Celebs Braved The Comedy Stage
A few years ago, it was big news when an Indian comedian made it onto a TV talk-show or got a small role in a web-series. In 2024, it’s the other way around. National-award-winning actor and classic Bollywood villain Ashish Vidyarthi made his debut as a standup comedian in March this year at the ripe young age of 58. He’s been on tour with his show Sit Down Ashish all year, with dates in Hyderabad and Bhubhaneshwar this December.
In August, Aarya Babbar followed in his footsteps with his standup hour Seasonal Actor, which pokes fun at the fact that his acting career never really took off despite the fact that his father is Raj Babbar. Maybe his comedy career will go better?
Internationally, model, actor and former Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi—who has curated the Padma Puts On a Comedy Show lineup gig semi-regularly in Brooklyn since 2018—finally took the plunge and performed her own standup comedy material this year. Even Janhvi Kapoor tried her hand at standup, releasing a seven-minute comedy clip/ public service advertisement that aimed to debunk myths about HPV and cervical cancer.
Which actor or celebrity will make a surprise appearance at your local open-mic in 2025? We’re holding out hope for Rakhi Sawant.
Innovation Was The Name Of The Game
The classic one-hour comedy set has largely remained unchanged for decades. On the one hand, if it ain’t broke, why fix it? On the other hand, why not? In 2024, comedians and comedy promoters all over the globe continued to innovate, both on the stage and off it. Netflix continued to try and turn comedy into a live programming event. The platform’s Roast of Tom Brady, streamed live and unedited, was one of the most talked about comedy events of the year, generating a ton of memes, online discourse and weeks of headlines.
Katt Williams’ live comedy special Woke Foke wasn’t as successful, but did respectable numbers. There was also John Mulaney’s Everybody’s In LA, a zany, experimental talk show with six episodes live-streamed from the Netflix Is A Joke Festival. Combining live conversations and performances with pre-recorded segments, the show earned enough attention and critical acclaim that it’s coming back next year.
Closer home, the roast made a surprise comeback with Ashish Solanki’s Pretty Good Roast Show, which ran for seven episodes, each garnering millions of views on YouTube. More and more comedians also dipped their toes into the live podcast space, particularly The Internet Said So, which marked five years of existence with a live tour. Raunaq Rajani’s Relationsh!t Advice has also been running for five years, but the show upped its game in 2024, with Dhruv Seghal, Imran Khan and Vidya Balan coming on as guests.
And then, of course, there’s India’s Got Latent, Samay Raina’s spin on the popular Kill Tony live podcast. In its first ten episodes, the show has become a national phenomenon, turning budding comedians and performers into household names. The live tapings are so popular that they’ve had to come up with ways to prevent scalpers from buying up the tickets , which—as Coldplay and BookMyShow will tell you—is the true yardstick for whether your live event has the juice.
It’s Giving ‘Main Kuch Bhi Kar Sakta Hai’
Some Indian comedians this year weren’t just happy being entertainers. They used their public followings and voice to try and change things for the better, whether it’s on the political stage or in the court room. In April, Shyam Rangeela followed in the grand old tradition of Jaspal Bhatti by trying to run for political office. In Rangeela’s case, he tried to register as an independent candidate for the Lok Sabha from the Prime Minister’s constituency of Varanasi.
Rangeela’s candidacy was a response to the BJP winning unopposed in Surat and Indore, because there were no opposing candidates willing to put their name on the ballot. “I feel like it shouldn’t be that there is no other candidate to vote for,” he said in the Instagram video announcing his run. “Even if one person wants to vote against a candidate, he or she has that right.”
Rangeela’s efforts would come to naught, because a series of byzantine rules and decisions by the election authorities essentially made it impossible for him to register his candidacy in time. But he did manage to shine a light on just how crazy and undemocratic the democratic process can be, a reality laid bare on Varrun Sukhraj’s documentary Jamoora, which was produced by Kunal Kamra.
Speaking of Kamra, the comedian had a couple of big non-comedy wins this year. In September, the Bombay High Court ruled on a petition he had filed against the amended Information Technology Rules (2021), which empowered the central government to set up a fact-checking unit to identify fake, false, and misleading information about itself on social media. Kamra celebrated this victory for free speech by sharing an image of the Preamble of the Constitution of India, along with the caption: “They may keep trying, but we the people of India will always uphold the constitution to humble those who are drunk on Power.”
Less edifying was Kunal Kamra’s spat with Ola Electric CEO Bhavish Aggarwal, which began with a comment about the poor service record of Ola’s electric scooters. That quickly snowballed into a verbal fight. Kamra again had the last laugh—the Monday after the fight, Ola’s stock price dropped by 9%, and the Indian consumer rights regulator issued a show-cause notice against the company for “violation of consumer rights, deficiencies in services, misleading claims, and unfair trade practices.”
Internationally, you had Donald Trump sitting down with Joe Rogan for an unfiltered three-hour podcast interview before his election, and insult-comedian Tony Hinchcliffe making headlines for a tasteless joke at the Trump rally. Regardless of whether you agree with Rogan or Hinchcliffe’s politics (or indeed, Kamra and Rangeela’s), it’s hard to deny that comedians now matter enough to affect policy, the stock market and even the US presidential elections. We’ve come a long way from “chutkula sunane wale.”
Vir Das Just Kept Winning
In 2023, Vir Das made history by becoming the first Indian comedian to win an International Emmy, for his Netflix special Vir Das: Landing. This year, he made history again as the first Indian to host the prestigious awards ceremony. The comedian and actor opened the 52nd Annual International Emmy Awards with a tongue-in-cheek monologue that took aim at Donald Trump, Will Smith’s #SlapGate, America’s current obsession with immigration, and how Hollywood typecasts international actors. And he looked great doing it, in a black-and-white blazer and kurta outfit designed by up-and-coming Delhi designer Shubhangi Bajpai.
That was just the high water mark in an action-packed year. Das spent much of 2024 on the road with his Mind Fool tour, which he kicked off last year. Billed as the “largest global tour by an Indian comic”, it saw Vir Das perform in 33 countries across six continents, including shows at iconic venues such as Carnegie Hall (New York), The Apollo (London), and The Kennedy Centre (Washington DC). He recently taped the hour at Mumbai’s NSCI SVP Dome—for an upcoming Netflix special—and sold out the venue in under 22 minutes. He also earned praise for his heel-turn performance as a muckraking TV journalist on Amazon Prime Video’s Call Me Bae, and won two awards at the 2024 DeadAnt Comedy Awards. Oh, and he’s also the face of the inaugural DeadAnt cover story. Do you ever get tired of winning, Vir?
The Lows
Comedy Remains A Dangerous Art Form
It’s risky being a comedian, far riskier than it should be. All over the world, comedians and comedy creators continue to face threats, violence and state repression, all for the crime of telling jokes. In April, a Saudi Arabian court sentenced Abdul Aziz Al-Muzaini, the writer and producer behind Netflix animated comedy series Masameer County, to 13 years of prison for tweets that made fun of Arab governments and supported women’s rights. In Indonesia, comedian Aulia Rakhman was jailed for seven months for a “blasphemous” joke.
Russian comedian and blogger Dmitry Gavrilov was arrested for 13 days in Nizhny Novgorod for “discrediting the Russian Army”, something the Russian armed forces have managed to do all on their own during their three-year war in Ukraine. And in Kazakhastan, comedians Aleksandr Merkul and Naruskhan Basquzhaev were sentenced to short jail sentences on charges of “hooliganism”, though their comedy about the Kazakh government and Russian president Vladimir Putin just might have something to do with the arrests.
Closer home, comedians continued to face online and offline threats, as well as police complaints, for making jokes. Daniel Fernandes was forced to cancel his Hyderabad show and issue an apology after certain politicians and activists took issue with a joke about the Jain community. Munawar Faruqui had to apologise yet again, this time for a joke about the Konkani community.
Nalin Yadav, who was arrested alongside Faruqui in Indore in January 2021, shared a video that depicted him and his brother being beaten up by a group of men in Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh. Yadav alleged that the assailants were “affiliates of the ruling party” and accused the police of ignoring his complaints.
And finally, Yash Rathi faced a police FIR for using “profane language” during a show at IIT-Bhilai. Rathi, who has faced police complaints before, refused to issue an apology, stating in a now-deleted post that his team had clearly communicated the type of content and language he uses to the college organisers. Was that brave or foolhardy? Only time will tell.
‘Cancel Culture’ Is The Grift That Keeps On Grifting
Another year, another bunch of rich, successful comedians complaining that they’ve been oppressed, just because they faced minimal consequences for their actions. Usual suspects John Cleese, Dave Chappelle, Ricky Gervais and Bill Maher have been joined this year by Matt Rife, Ellen DeGeneres and—as if anyone cares about her opinion—Joan Rivers’ daughter, among others. Two of those, by the way, had comedy specials on Netflix this year. Need I say more?
Jerry Seinfeld took a break from baiting college students protesting against the Gaza genocide by blaming political correctness for killing sitcoms and comedy. This is particularly ironic coming from a comedian whose work is as edgy as a slab of melted butter, but maybe he was just peeved at the brutal reviews he received for Unfrosted, his satirical Netflix film about… pop tarts?
Seinfeld eventually walked back his comments, to the disappointment of online culture warriors everywhere. But don’t worry, there’s plenty of others happy to jump on the grift. It’s become such an obvious con now that comedians even joke that being ‘cancelled’ is good for business, as Dane Cook did in an interview with Distractify. We’re not far from the point where comedians will pay bot-farms to seed fake outrage about their material, in the hopes of getting a good “cancel” boost to ratings. It’s all self-serving, self-pitying and—worst of all—boring nonsense. Can we just throw it into the rubbish bin where it belongs in 2025?
We’re Facing Four More Years Of Tired Trump Jokes
As the results of the 2024 US presidential elections, you could hear a collective sigh of dejection and despair emerge from talk-show studios all over America. Donald Trump is on his way back to the Oval Office, and that means four more years of trying to make jokes about the horrors of a Trump presidency. His first run as President nearly broke American political comedy—Stephen Colbert still hasn’t rediscovered his sense of humour—and the next four years look even grimmer. Can we just ignore the whole thing? If you want to focus on politics, there’s plenty of ridiculous politicians all over the world—a bumbling Kier Starmer, the South Korean president whose attempted coup lasted all of 2 hours and forty five minutes, even Basher Al Assad. Joke about the Holocaust, for all we care. Anything but four more years of Alec Baldwin dressed up as Donald Trump, we beg you!
Comedy Institutions Tottering On The Edge
Live comedy may be booming business, but some of comedy’s most enduring institutions are still struggling with the aftermath of the COVID-19 lockdowns. Just For Laughs, the biggest comedy festival in the world, had to file for bankruptcy in 2024, which led to the cancellation of its main Montreal fest as well as its global outposts. The festival was eventually bought up by Quebec company ComediHa, who have revived the festival, with one edition just concluded in Sydney, and others scheduled in Bermuda, Vancouver and Montreal in 2025. But the fact that such a massive comedy institution went bankrupt is certainly cause for concern.
The charity that organises the Edinburgh Fringe also announced in August that it was in a “perilous” financial position after reporting a £250,000 loss this year, on top of £650,000 in losses the past year. The outgoing Fringe Society CEO Shona McCarthy wrote in the festival’s annual review that “it takes a cast of thousands to pull this thing off, and collective effort is needed to ensure its future. The Fringe is far too valuable–not just to livelihoods and economically, but on a much more profound, human level–for us to let it decline.”
Bidding Farewell To Comedy Greats
The hardest part of every year is saying goodbye to some of our favourite performers, as they make their way to the great open-mic in the sky. Among the comedians we mourned in 2024 was Marathi actor and comedian Atul Parchure—a regular on The Kapil Sharma Show—who passed away in October at the age of 57. We also said goodbye to Richard Lewis, Bob Newhart and Janey Godley. May their souls rest in peace.
The Whoas
Katt Williams Went Scorched Earth, Predicted Diddy’s Downfall
On January 3, comedian Katt Williams sat down for a three-hour interview with Shannon Sharpe on his podcast, Club Shay Shay. The comedian was in no mood to take prisoners as he took shots at half a dozen other comedians, as well as Kanye West and Harvey Weinstein. He called out “Epstein Island Chris Tucker”, claimed that Cedric The Entertainer stole his jokes, and said that Michael Blackson doesn’t “get booed enough.” He also claimed that Harvey Weinstein once offered to suck his penis in front of a bunch of people, and that’s not even the wildest claim from the interview.
Most importantly, he prophesied the downfall of rap mogul Sean Combs (aka Diddy), whom he called a “big dick deviant” who will “catch hell in 2024.” In September, Diddy—long considered so powerful as to be untouchable—was arrested and indicted on charges of racketeering and sex trafficking. According to the Washington Post, lawyers are prepared to file over 120 additional lawsuits, covering sexual and physical assaults, including against minors.
The interview was a real “breaking the internet” moment, and it remains one of the craziest, out-there happenings in comedy in 2024. Whatever Katt’s been smoking recently, it’s pretty good stuff.
Munawar Faruqui Was On An Underworld Hit List
Comedians are used to being targeted by online haters, politicians, even the police. But in October, central intelligence agencies revealed that a UK-based associate of Lawrence Bishnoi—the gangster accused of orchestrating the murder of Bandra politician Baba Sididique—had commissioned a hit on Munawar Faruqui. Mumbai Police told the Times of India that members of the Bishnoi gang attempted to assassinate Faruqui during a live performance in New Delhi, but the plot was foiled by intelligence agencies. Faruqui has now been provided security cover by the Mumbai police, according to media reports. We truly live in strange, terrifying times.
The Sunil Pal Saga
On 3 December, news broke that the wife of comedian, actor and regular The Kapil Sharma Show cast member Sunil Pal filed a missing persons complaint with the Mumbai police. Three hours later, journalists reported that Pal had been found alive and well. As more details slowly emerged, the story got wilder. Pal alleges that he was lured to Haridwar on the pretext of performing a show, but was abducted on the way to the venue.
Pal claimed that he was blindfolded and taken to a secluded spot, where his kidnappers demanded a Rs. 20 lakh ransom. “They took possession of my phone but allowed me to use it to reach out to friends and arrange for the funds. Once they received approximately Rs 7.5 lakh, they released me the next day and even provided me with Rs 20,000 for my travel expenses,” Pal shared in an audio statement with SCREEN.
The police began investigating the kidnapping, which had a startingly similar modus operandi to the abduction of Bollywood actor Mushtaq Khan just two days earlier. The police had managed to trace the guest house both actors were kept in, and were following the money trail of ransom payments when a leaked audio clip added a twist to the tale. The clip, which featured Pal talking to one of the kidnappers, suggested that Pal was in on the job.
“We did whatever you asked us to do, and now you’ve filed an FIR against us,” the kidnapper reportedly says. “I did not do anything. If the media were after me, I would have said something. I did not complain,” Pal responds, assuring the caller that everything will be “managed.”
Pal has claimed that the audio was recorded under duress and that it’s misleading. Meanwhile, the police investigation continues, with a bounty of Rs. 25,000 each announced on five alleged kidnappers. Will they be caught? Will there be yet more twists in the tale? How many true crime podcast episodes about this incident are currently being written? Stay tuned to Crime Patrol DeadAnt in 2025 to find out.
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