It’s No Laughing Matter: Offensive, Sexist Humour In Bollywood

The Hindi movie industry, while frequently giving us gems, has the general tendency of following tropes. Now some of them are harmless, but most of them aren't. And beyond tropes also, there is so much offensive humour that needs to be called out. That’s why, whenever anyone points out how common they are and says, 'Hey, maybe this is contributing to a culture of prejudice,' there tends to be an immediate and furious counter-response of: 'Political correctness!' 'It’s just a joke!' 'I don’t see what the big deal is!'

People don’t see what the big deal is because this isn’t about any one joke. It’s about the fact that these jokes about caste, colour, region of origin, the LGBTQA+ community, women, or the disabled, are so common that they simply no longer are 'just jokes'.

While we have listed some scenes based on how tone-deaf they were, this is not to suggest that one form of discrimination or assault is better or worse than the other.

Repeated jokes on homosexuality in Kal Ho Na Ho, with Kanta ben shown as a homophobe, who starts shaking at the thought of two men being romantically involved

Dostana portrays a gay character with all the stereotypes that gay people are trying to fight in real life

The monologue in Pyaar Ka Punchnama, which is sexist and degrades women

Chatur's speech in 3 Idiots plays on the word balatkaar, and makes a joke out of it

Raj totally not respecting Simran's boundaries in the creepy train scene in DDLJ

The scene in Pati Patni Aur Woh where the male protagonist says, 'Biwi se sex maang lein, toh hum bhikaari. Biwi ko sex mana kar dein, toh hum atyachaari aur kisi tarah jugaad laga ke uss se sex haasil kar lein na toh balaatkaari bhi hum hain'

The forced kissing scene in Ishq

This scene in Badrinath Ki Dulhania, where they make fun of a man and laugh at the fact that his clothes are torn. It is shown to be a funny scene in the movie, even though it directly hints at assault

The song in Humshakals where the characters were trans for comic relief

'Tumhara naam Jay Mehra nahi Gay Mehra hona chahiye,' is a dialogue from Prem Aggan that we all remember and shudder at. The entire existence of this character was just so the 'bold' female lead could crack this 'joke