There is a joke that Kusha Kapila, the new host of comicstaan – the third season is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video – book in the fourth episode to explain its arrival. “Change is the only constant. And in comicstaan, this change is the female host. Before Kapila, the comedy contest – produced by Only Much Louder (OML) – went through two different hosts: Sumukhi Suresh in the first season and Urooj Asfaq in the second season. Besides the fact that Kapila is the first non-comedian animator of comicstaan — presumably exploited to make the show more Instagrammable — the punchline is a clever commentary on the ultimate fact of the Indian entertainment industry: the dispensability of female entertainers. By comparison, Abish Mathew, the competition’s unremarkable male host, has remained unchanged in all three seasons.

In comicstaan, the female host is bait; someone supposed to convince different sections of the public to watch the show. It doesn’t help then that Kapila is excruciatingly stylish throughout all eight episodes or that her inexperience shows it. In episode after episode, Kapila continues to stare at the teleprompter obviously placed above the camera instead of looking directly at the camera. It’s a bit like someone talking to you while looking at your forehead. That’s not to say Mathew isn’t reading his lines on the teleprompter either. He does, but the comedian also frequently continues to make eye contact with the audience, which makes Kapila’s rookie mistake all the more glaring. Even then, it seemed like the kind of thing that could be easily avoided or rectified — the producers could have easily had Kapila memorize her lines and use the teleprompter as a fallback option. Whoever chose to do anything is just the first example of the flaws that are revealing themselves.

That is to say, the third season is piled high with such baffling decisions that undermine comedy competition – arguably, the most rewarding reality TV format of the streaming era – from unleashing its true potential. On the one hand, the decision to have seven mentors (Kanan Gill, Rahul Subramaniam, former Comicstaan ​​contestant Prashasti Singh, Aadar Malik, Rohan Joshi, Sapan Varma and Anu Menon) and four judges (Sumukhi Suresh, Neeti Palta, Kenny Sebastian, Zakir Khan) seems hard to justify, especially when the performances of most of the season’s mentors turn out to be even more disappointing than the competitors.

On the contrary, it makes the season more crowded – and for no good reason. Judges, for example, occasionally present themselves as helpless spectators. Another sore point is the fact that the competition feels tamer than usual with few memorable sets coming out of this season. In this, Comicstaan’The competition’s third season is a lackluster slice of the competition, which only comes alive when it wholeheartedly embraces the irreverence that defined the first two seasons.

Take for example, the hilarious and cold opener which revolves around a silly gag about Baba Sehgal refusing to rap and deciding to show off his other musical talents instead. It’s a clever device to introduce the show’s revamped format: a new host, eight contestants from the usual group of ten, seven mentors tackling one genre each, and four judges. For his part, Sehgal has fun with the mission, writing stupid lyrics that rhyme “Sumukhi” with bekhudi and calls harem pants angrezi dhoti.

The season’s two standout episodes draw on a similar brand of eccentricity, which to me felt like a fitting foundation for the unpredictability of stand-up comedy. In the third episode, mentor Aadar Malik takes charge of the improv episode, dividing the eight contestants into two teams and tasking them to be funny on the spot. Any stand-up comedian is only as good as their instinctive ability to make a punchline out of anything and nothing. And this sparkling episode felt like putting all eight contestants – Aman Jotwani, Shamik Chakraborti, Aashish Solanki, Shreya Priyam, Pavitra Shetty, Gurleen Pannu, Natiq Hasan and Adesh Nichit – through a wringer in the truest sense possible, placing them in situations that stressed both their minds and their reflexes.

During this season, my constant grouse was the fact that the eight episodes didn’t quite familiarize viewers with each contestant’s specific comedic styles. I could see they were eight talented comedians, but rarely understood what made them so unique in their comedic styles. The only time Comictsaan was about to really show the importance of a comedic voice in its fourth episode. Mentored by former AIB founder Rohan Joshi, the roast episode saw all eight competitors at their attacking best. Besides being a hugely satisfying episode (if there’s anyone qualified to be a mentor for comedians, it’s undoubtedly Joshi) littered with zingers, the episode stood out for making one important distinction. between an easy joke and a clever joke.

These two episodes stand out all the more simply because the other five defy a drag for several reasons, undermining the show’s reputation as a lean production. The “topical humor” episode directed by Sapan Varma plays out like a joke, not only because the candidates shy away from any political position. But because nobody really sticks to the headlines, interpreting the theme as keywords (unemployment, cryptocurrency) rather than smart gateways. Kanan Gill’s alternative comedy episode also felt let down by the genre’s truly superficial interpretations. Rahul Subramaniam’s opening anecdotal episode and Anu Menon’s sketch comedy episode are picked up by a few bright spots.

The lack of uniformity also affects the judging processes. As is the case with Indian stand-up comedy in general, contestants who performed their sets in Hindi (Aashish Solanki, Gurleen Pannu) fared better than contestants who delivered sets in English (Shamik Chakraborti, Pavithra Shetty). Admittedly, Hindi is inherently a more fun language than English for landing punchlines. Still, for a contest aimed at rewarding “promising” talent, I want all eight contestants to judge in a way that honors the comedic grammar of both languages.

Chakraborti and Shetty – touting comedic styles that could become personal catchphrases – were repeatedly told by the judges that their comedy wasn’t exactly capable of appealing to everyone and that they needed to find their own audience. It is for this exact reason that their absence from the top four has personally felt like an oversight. Point of comicstaan shouldn’t be just to cap comics can appeal to everyone; which seem to be the safest and most obvious choices for hosting sold-out shows. At a time when Comictsaan is equipped to propel comics to stardom, the contest’s goal should instead be to challenge audiences by supporting unconventional voices and detailing why people should buy tickets to their shows. One look at the oversaturated stand-up ecosystem is enough to conclude that the Indian comedy scene doesn’t need new comics as much as it does. Needs new voices.

However, in its third season, comicstaan sticks to finding a new comic. For me, Gurleen Pannu, born in Chandigarh, a sure-footed and physically alert actress, embodied the very reason why competitions like comicstaan should exist: highlight comics that play against public expectations. As well as boasting sensational comedic timing, Paanu displayed an inherent ability to intimidate audiences while speaking sweetly to them, a brawl that made his sets worth remembering. That says a lot about the direction of comicstaan that the only contestant who destroyed all episodes of the season was not crowned the winner. After seven weeks of following a cumulative point system that saw Pannu lead by a margin, the show opted to drop him for the final episode.

The winner of comicstaan was then chosen only on the set they played on the final day of competition. If anything, the winner with his penchant for the conventional setup-punchline-setup-punchline format, proved to be the safest choice possible.

Poulomi Das is a writer, critic and film and culture programmer. Follow more of his writings on Twitter.

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