Language: Tamil
The Tamil nation is at an unfortunate time in its history — its popular culture and commercial ventures are living through a horrific drought of humour.
2021 Tamil nation is filled with Vadivelu memes and Vivek nostalgia, both of whom were past their prime at least a decade ago. The casual comedy of reality television — I'm looking at you, Vijay TV — is firmly built on insulting the women in the room. Self-deprecation of anchors like DD, Priyanka and Archana only adds fuel to the fire. Netflix's Navarasa interprets the rasa of humour through a body-shaming, casteist, classist, and arguably unfunny, film. The independent comedy scene including stand-up comedy, sketch comedy etc. is primarily populated by urban, Brahmin men.
The latest entry into this universe, Amazon Prime's latest release, LOL: Enge Siri Paappom brings together the worst of all this. LOL is a reality show, where comedians are locked in a room for six hours. They need to make their competitors laugh, without themselves ever laughing. 'You laugh, you lose' is the rule.
Late comedian Vivek and actor Shiva play the hosts. Cinema personalities like Premji, Sathish and Powerstar Srinivasan; TV comedians like RJ Vignesh, Pugazh and Harathi; and stand-up comics Abhishek Kumar, Baggy and Syama Harini join the coterie. Also with them is theatre artist and actor Maya S. Vivek and Shiva are kind. They are, in fact, unreasonably paternal in encouraging the participants. They act as the manual laughter track. If you ever wonder whether something you saw/heard was a joke, the producers cut helpfully to Vivek and Shiva. You will find them laughing, but don't doubt yourself, it was not a joke. It helps that they both seem genuinely enthusiastic about what they've signed up for.
The contestants are a strange lot. The group is not homogenous enough to elevate each other. None of these contestants naturally gravitate towards another for some fun riffing or even a collaborative show. Not that they don't try. For instance, Syama Harini lays her eyes on Premji as her comedic partner during her unmarriageable woman act (the act itself is cringe-worthy, but I'll come to it). But Premji does not embrace her attempts at all; if anything, he is only shying away from her. It gets so bad at one point that she says, "anyone who takes my coffee is my husband." Spoiler alert: No one drinks her coffee. So she changes costume and moves on.
This also happens when Maya S Krishnan wears a bodybuilder costume and tries to improvise with Pugazh, who is dressed as a woman. But he doesn't seem to catch her intent at all. In fact, I got a feeling that many contestants thought of LOL as Bigg Boss, where they need to survive the six hours, instead of as a show where they need to make their competitors and audiences laugh. Premji, for instance, doesn't even try.
This is perhaps because LOL demands improvisation skills from a group of comedians, a majority of whom are used to doing scripted work. They don't seem to be able to build something entirely new from thin air. But the problem is that, even when given the chance to give a scripted performance, they rely on their non-existent improvisation skills. For instance, during his performance time, Powerstar Srinivasan wears a Cleopatra costume and dances seductively. Soon enough, Pugazh too wears a nighty and a wig, and speaks in a high-pitched voice — did I miss the memo that just being a woman is funny?
The show is so barren of any heterogeneity that the same jokes are made by multiple people multiple times.
For instance, they all rhyme Maya with Aaya (old woman). In fact, when Maya dresses as an old woman, both Shiva and Vivek look at each other and go, "Maya-vaAaya-vaahahaha" as if they're delighted that a situation arrived for that joke in their head!
Harathi asks Premji if no one respects him, which is why he's added 'Ji' to his name — poor Premji looked so exhausted by that! Pugazh mentions "Gandhiji Nehruji Premji" twice as if the first time wasn't painful enough. Then, of course, there are the in-jokes. Everyone mocks Premji for being "forever single". Someone mentions STR at some point (if you don't know who it is or why, I'm jealous of you.)
The show doesn't set them up in great humorous situations either. The tiebreaker is designed as a thumb fight during which the contestants can insult each other as much as they want. You will be stunned at how little creativity they exhibit. I've been in minor road accidents where I've heard more colourful and creative language. The game where two contestants are expected to speak in diametrically opposite dialects is mostly a mess. The absolute lack of control that Harathi and Pugazh exercise over their words and work is explicit. That skit felt a little like a drunken fight — uninhibited, maybe, but out of control certainly.
As if the producers knew this was going to be bad, they give contestants props and costumes. But, can costume make up for the lack of creativity? If self-deprecating fat-shaming jokes are all you've got, can you think beyond Sumo Wrestler fat-suit or a gorilla costume? Harathi chooses exactly these and you can guess how that ended!
Syama Harini doesn't go the same route in an obvious way. But her unmarriageable woman act is bizarre. Serving bad coffee or pestering men to marry you is funny? Would it be unreasonable for the audience to see an underlying joke about her physical appearance in that act? Abishek Kumar acts as a journalist from "ThooTimes," the nomenclature his only joke. If you've seen the trailer, you've got everything money can buy from him.
LOL is a show where Sathish is the funniest of them all, at least he owns the "counter-giving" game, the insult comedy that the Tamil nation savours. If Sathish is the best they've got, Amazon Prime is truly scraping the bottom of the barrel.
The telling thing about LOL: Enge Siri Paapom is that most people who are eliminated leave because they laughed at their own jokes. Perhaps, the show is a lesson on self-love. If you're a friend or a follower, let me show you some love, skip this show and find something better to do with your time.
Watch the trailer here:
by Ranjani Krishnakumar
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