Can Shashi Tharoor’s comedy act dilute his political image?

Illustration by Soham Sen | ThePrint

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s stand-up comedy act on Amazon Prime Video’s new show ‘One Mic Stand’ has earned him raving reviews. Tharoor took sharp jibes at PM Modi’s demonetisation move, attacks on Jawaharlal Nehru, UP CM Yogi Adityanath’s city-renaming spree, journalism, WhatsApp and British colonialism. He also laced his lines with self-deprecating humour.

ThePrint asks: Can Shashi Tharoor’s comedy act dilute his political image?

If the joke’s on someone like Shashi Tharoor, delivered by him no less, what’s not to like?

Manasa Mohan
Associate editor, ThePrint 

Everybody loves a good joke. Especially if the joke’s on you. And if the joke is on someone like Shashi Tharoor, delivered by him no less, what’s not to like?

That the Congress MP was going to be part of a stand-up comedy show was eye-catching enough.

An eloquent speaker, user of big I-need-to-check-the-dictionary words, a published author, a politician, Tharoor once came close to becoming the UN general secretary. In recent times, he has been linked to the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar.

With a profile like that, you’d imagine he has plenty of material to draw from.

While India isn’t quite the blossoming market for political comedy — it’s hard to imagine a show like Patriot Act existing here, and not for the lack of an audience — it’s still a growing space that allows some range of experimentation. And perhaps, Shashi Tharoor is the best man to first try it out in India.

So, what does this mean for his political career? It’s an English comedy show on a streaming platform. That in itself limits its reach to a specific demographic that in all probability knows how to differentiate between Tharoor the comic and Tharoor the politician.

In effect, for a politician who can carry it off — who remembers Hillary Clinton’s shimmy or Barack Obama in Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis — it’s a good image boost. Unless, you bomb as badly as Prince Andrew did in his BBC interview.

In a deeply polarised India, Shashi Tharoor threw punches at the Right. It may hurt him politically

Aastha Singh
Journalist, ThePrint 

Shashi Tharoor might have won over many viewers by entertaining them with intelligent comedy, but the real repercussions of any act is not felt immediately. He didn’t just crack non-political jokes. Tharoor raked up all those contentious issues that rattle PM Narendra Modi’s rabid, Right-wing fans and critics of the Congress.

The stand-up comedy act may not have earned Tharoor new political fans in a polarised India. And it definitely leaves him politically vulnerable. His comedy was political and he was throwing punches at the Right. It may potentially hurt him politically.

His critics might already be in search of that perfect moment when they can give Tharoor a taste of his own medicine.

It was partisan comedy. Cracking one-liners with smart references to one’s political rivals can cut both ways. Tharoor might be rudely reminded of this at some point or the other. What stops a BJP politician from using similar tactics against Tharoor?

As the popular saying goes: Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost. Tharoor’s 10 minutes of comic fame is over, but the possibilities of people mocking him when the time is ripe are yet to come.

At the end of the day, Shashi Tharoor is a politician, not just an erudite author-scholar.

Tharoor’s comedy act won’t hurt his image. It shows he’s aware of millennial trends, understands public sentiment

Mohana Basu
Special correspondent, ThePrint 

Many Indian politicians have inadvertently become a source of jokes and internet memes of late. In times like these, Shashi Tharoor’s comedy act is refreshing. Stand-up comedy is not everyone’s cup of tea. It requires an ability to understand the audience and to not take oneself too seriously.

Rather than hurting his political image, Tharoor’s performance has only shown that he is up to date with the latest millennial trends, and knows what the public thinks of him as well as his political rivals. With his act, Tharoor took us back to the era when political debates were witty and dignified — another refreshing change from the Twitter spats and shouting matches we often come across on television these days.

Comedy acts always have an element of the political in them. Comedy capitalises on the prevailing public sentiment, conveying collective grievance through humour. Understanding people’s sentiments should be one of the key qualities in a politician. In fact, Ukrainians elected an actor-comedian as their President this April.

Being able to get an audience to intentionally laugh along with you, rather than at you, is no joke. Comedy requires an ability to empathise and Tharoor’s act only shows that as a politician, he has his finger on the pulse of his audience.

Shashi Tharoor is catering to English-speaking audience, which will chuckle at his ‘recalcitrance’

Kairvy Grewal
Journalist, ThePrint 

At a time when both the ruling BJP and the opposition indulge in political mud-slinging on a daily basis, Shashi Tharoor’s comedy act sets him apart as a politician with a personality.

But the question that whether it can dilute his political image is uni-dimensional. It is important to spell out which section of the population he is reaching out to. Going by the fact that his performance is streaming on a platform like Amazon Prime Video, it looks like he is only catering to the English-speaking audience, one which will chuckle at his “recalcitrance”. At the end of the day, he’s a politician and his moves are bound to be calculated. This is another extension of his clever Twitter politics, which again caters to a specific section of society. For this audience, Tharoor’s comic act is yet another feather in his cap.

This question is also very specific to Tharoor. He has managed to create his own brand in Indian politics. I can’t imagine anyone else pulling this off with the same finesse.

Shashi Tharoor’s stand-up comedy could be an attempt to connect with India’s youth

Gaurav Singh
Journalist, ThePrint 

Shashi Tharoor’s comedy act will not affect his political image. For many, Tharoor is India’s most suave English-speaking political leader. While for some others, he is a leader of the elites.

Political leaders around the world connect with common people to create a favourable public image. So, Shashi Tharoor’s venture into stand-up comedy might be an attempt to connect with India’s youth. During his act, Tharoor makes fun of himself and his English – he narrates how he was once asked by his parents to speak English in front of an uncle.

Shashi Tharoor worked at the United Nations for 29 years. In 2009, he entered Indian politics and joined the Congress. But after getting embroiled in the IPL controversy and having been accused of involvement in his wife Sunanda Pushkar’s alleged suicide, Tharoor’s public image took a hit.

Tharoor’s comedy act is available on Amazon Prime Video, which has a huge viewership among the youth. And India’s youth knows that public figures need not be judged in their professional roles by what they do in their personal spaces as long as those acts don’t affect citizens’ lives in any way.

When the opposition is pitted against fakiri/yogi netas of BJP, Tharoor’s comedy act makes him look non-serious

Prashant Dixit
Senior copy editor, ThePrint 

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor is a seasoned ‘public’ figure. And as a suave, urbane, elite public figure who entered politics in his 50s, Shashi Tharoor knows the art of building, cultivating and largely living off his public image.

With his stand-up comedy set on Amazon Prime’s One Mic Stand, Tharoor has only tried to push that ‘public’ image of himself. And his clever act of insulating his own politics from his act could perhaps even boost that image.

At least Shashi Tharoor would hope it does because he clearly seems to have overlooked the pitfalls of engaging with the public in this manner. At a time when Indian opposition is pitted against 24×7 news channels and fakiri/yogi netas of the BJP, his stand-up comedy act makes him look non-serious.

Tharoor also leaves himself vulnerable by giving faceless and nameless social media trolls enough content on a platter to use against him. This is the age of spliced/edited videos and deep fakes. Anytime there’s a tragedy in Kerala, his comedy set can be used for propaganda against him.

Lastly, Shashi Tharoor has an elitist persona. And his comedy set doesn’t really help change that.

By Kairvy Grewal, journalist at ThePrint