Speaking through caste comedy: Manjeet Sarkar’s Let’s Talk About It and the insertion of a Dalit voice into the Indian stand-up comedy scene

Abstract

Despite caste playing a critical role in shaping Indian society, Indian stand-up comedians do not often directly make jokes about caste. This is because caste jokes can make the audience uncomfortable. Critiquing or engaging with caste is risky for the comedians. This study analyses Let’s Talk About It, a stand-up comedy special by Manjeet Sarkar. Adopting a qualitative research approach, Sarkar’s stand-up performance is examined using critical discourse analysis (CDA). The analysis reveals the deployment of strategic references, personal anecdotes, linguistic choices and implicit critique for discourse construction and its contribution towards social practice. Let’s Talk About It stands in contrast to typical Indian stand-up performances that resort to convenient themes for jokes. Instead, it engages with caste and makes fun of the caste-based hierarchy that exists in the Indian society. The study also reveals how satire can operate as a counter-discursive mechanism in the Indian context. Findings reveal explicit and purposeful use of caste references to expose the structural discrimination and reproduction of power within Indian society and emphasise the larger social relevance of ‘caste comedy’ in which lived experiences of caste influences joke choices.