Racist accent joke on Keralites triggers criticism against Samay Raina’s ‘India’s Got Latent’ show

The excerpt features a judge on the show mocking a contestant's view on politics and voting after she admitted to not voting and having no interest in politics. The judge, seemingly making a joke, remarked, "Kerala, Saar... 100 percent literacy Saar..."

Hyderabad: A video excerpt from comedian Samay Raina’s ‘India’s Got Latent’ has triggered criticism on social media over what is being alleged as racism.

The excerpt shows one of the judges on the show making fun of a contestant’s opinion on politics and voting, after she said she had not voted and was not interested in politics. The judge’s comment, supposedly intended to be a joke went like “Kerala, Saar.. 100 percent literacy Saar…”

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However, many are pointing out that the joke was completely off the mark and that it was not proper to make fun of the contestant’s personal choice. Several netizens also pointed out that the “Saar” accent was not actually from Kerala and that it was being wrongly attributed to Malayalis just to make fun of them.

Many also pointed out that it was racist for Indians to make fun of each other’s accent, especially when every State in India had different accents depending on the language spoken there. They also pointed out that Indian accent was made fun of in other countries and those who complained about that were making fun of their own people back in India.

There was also criticism that the show was targeting non-BJP ruled States like Bengal and Kerala based on “rotten racist stereotypes propagated by the BJP IT Cell”.

This is not the first time that the ‘India’s Got Latent’ show has triggered criticism over its poor choice of jokes for the sake of ratings.

In fact, an FIR was registered in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, against a contestant after her comments on the cuisine in Arunachal Pradesh.

 

An excerpt from ‘India’s Got Latent’ in which a racist accent joke against Keralites was made
byu/frosted_bite inKerala