Consent, crowd ratification and crassness: Stand-up comedy under scanner again

New Delhi: One comedy show where an audience member says Rs 370 spent on biryani entitles him to sexual intimacy and describes in graphic detail his advances on an unwilling woman. Another where a stand-up comic centres his jokes on “cuddling after rape”, necrophilia and rapist-murderers. All of this plays out to raucous laughter.

The audience is predominantly male. The subtext misogyny. The issues those of consent, normalising rape culture and trivialising sexual assault and murder.