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Wednesday, August 26, 2009

TOI's Renuka Vyavahare - Meta-Satirist?

First, watch this clip -

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Shah Rukh Khan Detained at Newark
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Now read this.

I think Renuka Vyavahare, who wrote the article, is some sort of a meta-satirist, satirizing satire itself, by pretending to take it wayyyyy too seriously, fake-projecting some complexes and biases, and getting worked up over nothing. That has to be the case. NO ONE can be capable of missing the forest for the trees by as wide a margin as the article, if seriously written, would imply.

In case Ms. Vyavahare was serious, here are some pointers for her -

- Jon Stewart's ridicule is a defence mechanism that is part of crisis management from the "American press"?? Hah! that's like saying...... gah, similes fail me! The very idea is so absurd! Clearly, this woman has no idea what The Daily Show does. Which begs the question..... how will she react if shown clips of Stephen Colbert? Specifically, Colbert taking the credit for Shashi Tharoor's Lok Sabha win? I can just imagine the headline "US Media Falsely Claims Credit for Tharoor Win". Followed by a poll question - "Do you think the US media is wrong in taking credit for Shashi Tharoor's win?"

- She writes that Stewart mocked SRK by showing clips of him not being recognized at Newark. Ummm.... he was actually mocking the ignorance of New Jersey, incidentally his home state!

- The little bit that he talked about SRK was also basically just a set-up for Aasif Mandvi's clearly self-deprecating bit....including calling Stewart a "m***-chod".

- Random people like Omar Qureishi and Taran Adarsh are quoted, supposedly sticking up for Shahrukh and taking potshots at America. Their quotes are hilarious enough by themselves.

In conclusion, I have some sobering pieces of news for Vyavahare, Qureishi and Adarsh - The parrot in the Monty Python sketch? Not REALLY dead! More like a stuffed or toy parrot. Inspector Lobo in the Chocoliebe ad? Wasn't REALLY turned down from a police job. Eating Center-shock will REALLY NOT make your head look like a porcupine. Udham Singh on Channel V was not REALLY a jatt bumpkin, nor was Apple Singh on Star Sports an actual villager. And Jaspal Bhatti doesn't actually have a REAL political party.

And at night, the sun doesn't really go to sleep. It just happens to be shining on the other side of the planet.

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