Nothing half-baked about it

Jasmine Singh

And everyone laughed their guts out… The members, the participants, the ones sitting below the dais, the celebrities. They all laughed. Next day some called it breach on ‘cultural moral conduct’, some tagged it as the most shameful act you can find yourself party to. Whatever it meant, to people who waited for the AIB Roast video to be buffered, the AIB members definitely ended with more hits than Narendra Modi’s act at Madison Square, New York.

And recently, a Delhi-based girl showed her parents the AIB’s Honest Wedding only to break her marriage later.

This might come across as bizarre for some, but it also shows how seriously some take their non-serious things! If figures are some testimony, as of March 2015, the group has got over 85 million views on their videos and over 1.157 million subscribers on Youtube! Have we become courageous enough to laugh at ourselves, flimsy with values or just roasted to take anything in our stride.

The story so far

AIB is an Indian comedy group, initially founded by Gursimran Khamba and Tanmay Bhat and was later joined by Rohan Joshi and Ashish Shakya. Abish Mathew and Kaneez Surka frequently collaborate with them. All four members are equal owners of the group. The group maintains a Youtube channel that shows their comedy sketches and parodies on topics such as politics, society, and the Bollywood, and much of their reputation was founded on their online presence. Currently, the group produced podcasts before using Youtube in 2013 as a medium to share their comedic work.

The naked truth

It is said that AIB shows naked truth rolled withhumour and wit. Even when actress Poonam Mann, 22, finds every single moment in these videos true, she cannot convince her PG aunt. “I was travelling to Australia for a song sequence when I saw an honest video on Indian frequent flyers. Trust me this is how we actually behave on international flights.” Poonam agrees that the language is too bold for elders to accept. “I doubt if they can ignore the words they use, if only they can concentrate on the message.” Poonam showed AIB’s ‘honest’ video to her folks in Amritsar as they are looking for a suitable guy. “I shared the video with my elder sister and asked her to show it to my mother.”

Face off 

Right from Alia Bhatt’s Genius of the Year spoof, laughing at everything Indian advertisements and marriages, the group has done it all. Harmesh Kaushal, 39, Chandigarh-based physician shows all the selfies he clicked at the much-talked about roast, he specially went to see. “These people made fun of everything under the sun, also understand where are they possibly getting to.” 

According to Harmesh, who has seen both the parts of Honest Wedding videos, “They are making fun of not the marriage as such, they are trying to show customs that have made marriage a trade. They show stigmas surrounding this institution in our country and it is shown in in-your face comic manner.” As youngsters across the nation relate to these videos, they find them startlingly real to life.

Mansi Puri, 21, an air hostess from Ludhiana, has posted the video on her FB page saying must-watch and take a clue. 

Her parents, both pediatricians, however, disapprove of the language, which comes to them as a shock. Mansi’s mother, who is also her 

FB friend, has a different opinion on the video.“My concern was the language, so unparliamentary. I saw the actors in this video were no teenagers, there were youngsters and grown ups also. How can AIB change society or bring about a positive change if they don’t use a decent language to convey their message.” 

[email protected]