Laughter is the Best Medicine - And Perhaps Also the Best Weapon?

As we know, media have always been politically weaponized, ever since the earliest newspapers, and that's especially true in India. While the Indian Left  have always sought to attack and caricature the Indian right, the latter had responded with newspapers of their own to get their opposing view across. Political cartoons have always been a staple of newspapers, including in India, providing fodder against all parties.

In recent decades, Bollywood/Urduwood had gotten into the act to weaponize entertainment. But even while Leftist ladder-climbers manage to enforce their will on most of the industry, other entertainers have been able to occasionally pierce the fog with alternate views.

More recently, we'd all commiserated about the need to challenge the dominance of english-language media (NDTV, etc) by hoping for our own FOX News. The arrival of newer networks like Republic TV have helped to address this gap.

The weaponization of Comedy & Satire by the Left has gone beyond the objective satire of Mark Twain. In the West, late night talk shows have been a staple of comedy entertainment, but traditionally stayed neutral without taking political sides. However, starting with Jon Stewart, the trend in recent years has seen a flood of comedians shoving their way ever more aggressively into the sphere of politics, with very powerful effects. The political right has been notably feeble in responding to this.

I was watching this video by Shekhar Gupta's news outfit The Print, and noticed a departure from their usual solemn Left-leaning reports, with a foray into satirical reporting to mock and skewer the Indian right:





What's then wrong with the Indian right also doing the same back, and coming up with comedians to skewer the Indian Left mercilessly and unsparingly?

Rather than mocking Mullahs, who are a never-ending source of absurdity ripe for ridicule, the better target might be the Indian Left, who at least cannot claim to be a persecuted minority.

Tough talk shows like Arnab's and others have had a strong impact that's greatly benefited the Indian right, by allowing them to get their viewpoint across. We now know to think beyond mere individual news reports and instead look at narratives. What about the use of comedy and satire for the same? Could the cultivation of Indian comedy & satire for skewering the Left in a broadcast format not similarly provide good return on investment? Perhaps it may start out with just humorous WhatsApp videos, but there may be room for evolution from there.