Enough Hue & Cry Over ¡®Koffee With Karan¡¯ But Where¡¯s The Outrage On The Sexist ¡®The Kapil Sharma Show¡¯?

So Karan Johar¡¯s Koffee With Karan is the latest Public Enemy Number 1. As it perhaps should be, what with our cricketers Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul leaving no stones unturned where objectifying women and downright denigrating them is concerned. From Hardik gloating with pride while talking about how he told his parents how many women he has had ¡®a scene¡¯ with to Johar happily egging him on, crass and utterly unintelligible behaviour has found a new benchmark.

The outrage is justified and more than welcome. However, it is also a bit late. The Indian television audience seems to have been fed on a diet of misogyny in the last few years. Apart from all the battles that women here have had to fight, there¡¯s one that began with The Kapil Sharma Show. Yes, the resurrected show where recently a newly-wed Kapil Sharma referred to his marriage with Ginni Chatrath as a PR stunt and laps up applause, while actor Amrita Rao looks on.

But why are we surprised? The Kapil Sharma Show and the eponymous host are known for spilling out our guts with rip-roaring laughter. We¡¯ve all laughed when an in-character inebriated Ali Asgar has landed on guests¡¯ laps. We¡¯ve giggled when Sunil Grover as Gutthi has pranced about the set in a mock-worthy get-up. When Sumona Chakravarti has been mocked at as a part of the act or when Bharti Singh, Krushna Abhishek, Kiku Sharma and Navjyot Singh Sidhu have been made the butt of jokes...

We¡¯ve laughed out loud. Without a conscience. Laughed at those who are different, guffawed at the absolutely abysmal portrayal of women, and chuckled when someone¡¯s physical disabilities are mocked. Why do we do it? Why do we find it so easy to enjoy ¡®humour¡¯ which is actually nothing better than slingshots wrapped in a sack cloth aimed at women?

Kapil Sharma has volunteered information about his own problems with alcoholism. Yet, on his show no eyebrows are raised when someone with a similar problem is made fun of. He has admitted what a pillar of support Ginni has been to him. Yet, he doesn¡¯t flinch while labelling his own marriage a PR stunt. He professes undying love for his mother. However, characters of his mother¡¯s age are routinely shamed for being unmarried. And we, the audience, lap it up, sitting in our homes.

No, Kapil Sharma, women have not been created to be made fun of. No, dressing up a man as a woman and making him prance about the stage is not humour. It is called mocking an entire segment of our society that already battles a gazillion problems because it is different. While some may be genuinely unable to appreciate, and understand the difference, you, as an anchor and a public figure do hold the responsibility to not denigrate them.

No, Kapil Sharma, making fun of unmarried women is not humour. Depicting them as desperate creatures who would try anything under the sun to find a partner is not cool. Neither is making fun of your on-screen wife and continuously putting her down during your ¡®act¡¯.

Humour is a tool to make people laugh. To entertain them. To unite them in that one hour segment when all the mundane problems can be forgotten. Not a device of torture where every rational thought has to be kept at bay and every intelligent emotion replaced with crude, medieval thought processes that can spread misogyny to a dangerous level.

You have the power, tools, and yes, talent, to take humour to a different level, Kapil Sharma. You can take people back to the golden era of television when laughter meant grinning at Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, Hip Hip Hurray, Badi Door Se Aaye Hain, etc. Shows that were clean, funny, applause-worthy and genuinely left a smile on our faces. Where women were not constantly the butt of unsavoury ¡®jokes¡¯. There is a fine line between making someone laugh and making someone laugh at someone else¡¯s expense. And you, Kapil Sharma, seem to be crossing that line with amazing alacrity.

An entire gender cannot be held hostage to your mis-read judgement of what humour really is. Showcase your talent with REAL humour. Tickle our funny bones with what really should be laughed at in our society. Tackle poverty, racism, corruption, dishonesty, unemployment through your show. Not an entire segment of society that is trying to step out post sunset, without fears of getting molested, raped or killed. That, Kapil Sharma, is what you should strive towards. And that, if done well, will really get you the chuckles that you deserve. And then, you really will deserve them. Not when you make fun of women and project them as objects to be scoffed at.

Let the real Kapil Sharma show stand up. Not this canard that may have high TRPs but is woefully low on integrity, intelligence and equality. And Karan Johar, let this just be a mistake, never to be repeated please!

Abha Srivastava is a journalist who likes to look at the world through her own unique lens. And often finds it to be quite a spectacle! She has previously worked with Asian Age, Cosmopolitan, Catch News & Reader's Digest.

NOTE: The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Indiatimes.