New age stand-up comics of India

The YouTube sensations!

Culture

Lifestyle

March 30, 2020

/ By / New Delhi



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stand-up comics of India

The trend of standup comedy on YouTube has become quite a trend in India in the past few years

With smartphones becoming a way of life, social media has become a powerful tool to reach the audience. Venturing into this, many new age comics from India decided to share their bone-tickling content on YouTube, attracting a great response. Here are some of them.

With a userbase of over 265 million in the country, YouTube is one of the most preferred video streaming platforms in India. From songs and academic videos to piping hot recipes and trending challenges, YouTube has it all. Tapping into the popularity of this platform, over the past few years, several Indian comedians have started sharing their performances as well as videos curated especially for the YouTube. Many including, Zakir Khan, Amit Tandon, Kunal Kamra, Aakash Mehta, Kenny Sebastian and Abhishek Upmanyu became a YouTube sensation with their videos hitting a million views within hours. From jokes narrating the struggles of everyday life to the bold political statements incorporated in the performances, stand-up comedians in today’s times are looked upon as role model by the youth. Here are some of the new age YouTube standup comedians who have become quite a sensation in India recently. 

Anubhav Singh Bassi

Who knew trying his luck with a live microphone three years ago, would open new avenues for a law student from Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut region? Once the 28-year-old Anubhav Singh Bassi sniffed the satisfaction of making his audience laugh, there was no going back. He continued performing at various events. Bassi finally made his YouTube debut in 2019 with a video titled Cheating in which he narrated funny episodes of mass cheating during his college exams. The video hit nearly 33 million views, making him a star overnight. His other two video Waxing and Hostel also narrate his personal experiences in a hilarious manner. The comedian never shies from laughing at himself. His Jaat (an Indian community) accent adds on to his performances. Bassi was recently busy with a performance tour in many metropolitan cities namely Bass Kar Bassi in which he shared humorous episodes of his journey of being an aspirant entrepreneur from a law student who wished to crack the civil services examination. Bassi draws his inspiration from the celebrity comedian Zakir Khan. Like Khan, he also likes to pen down his heart through small couplets. He has 1.55 million subscribers on his channel.

Rajat Chauhan

An engineering graduate, Rajat Chauhan has been into comedy since the last five years. His comedy usually revolves around mundane daily life events, with a special focus on the middle-class section of the society. Chauhan opted for YouTube in 2019 with his first video on struggle of online cab services in India. Soon, the Delhi-based comedian became an internet celebrity with whom the audiences could relate. The video, which made him a viral sensation and a hot trend on social media, was How to become Rich? which made fun of the chain marketing networks that have started mushrooming in India rapidly over the past few years. The sensation has also done a ‘crowd work special’ video, a new format of unscripted performance which involves interacting with and making jokes on the audience, a practice which is quite trending nowadays in the comedy circuit. He currently has 336,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel. Chauhan also like to writes and has a thing for storytelling. 

Urooj Ashfaq

Urooj Ashfaq is one of the youngest stand-up comics in India. The 22-year-old began her journey of stand-up comedy three years ago when one of her friends persuaded her to participate in television channel, TLC’s show Queens of Comedy, in which the talented lady made it to the finals. Since then, it has been no looking back for this psychology graduate. Farooq has been doing shows across India and has also tried her hands as a comedy writer. She is known for her witty punchlines. It was six months ago when Farooq finally decided to put on air her first independent YouTube video, Uber Driver & Grandmother which hit more than 6.7 million views. She didn’t shy away from touching upon the sensitive issue of Hindu-Muslim differences. The witty comedian draws her inspiration from other female comedians in the industry including Supriya Joshi, Neetu Bharadwaj and Sumaira Sheikh. Ashfaq also loves to capture beautiful scenes through her lens and keeps updating them on her Instagram handle.

 Munawar Faruqui 

Munawar Faruqui is one of the latest entrants in the internet stand-up comedy circuits. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that he speaks fluent sarcasm. Faruqui made his way to fame through his bold political stances in his comedy. He made his YouTube debut through his performance titled Politics in India, which took a dig at the present scenario of Indian politics. The video was an instant hit and grabbed nearly 887,000 views. He was released four more videos since then. Having experienced the 2002 Hindu-Muslim riots himself, his works often make subtle references to the episode and the dynamics of Hindu-Muslim dispute in the Indian society. Besides politics, his works often touch upon the subjects of social media, Bollywood and life in Mumbai, the city of dreams. Faruqui keeps updating his social media with witty punchlines on contemporary issues. 

Pratyush Chaubey 

If we were to talk about comedians who know how to laugh upon themselves, the name of Pratyush Chaubey would definitely make it to the list. Though, Chaubey also started performing in open mics much earlier along with his job, it was two years ago that he released his first video JOB nahi chhodhni chahiye thi (I should not have left my job) on YouTube. The video itself is a narrative of Chaubey’s journey from software engineering to a full time stand-up comedy. He spoke of the humorous incidences from the daily routine of corporate sector and the course of his life afterwards. Chaubey is famous for his accent of Uttar Pradesh and would often comment upon it himself. The sensation has released a total of 12 videos until now and has over 188,000 subscribers. Chaubey is currently working on a joint video series along with stand-up comedian Devesh Dixit, in which the two would sit in a car discuss about anything under the sky.

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