The Great Indian Kapil Show: Social Media Abuzz with Disapproval over Crude Humour

The Great Indian Kapil Show premiered on Netflix on March 30 with Ranbir Kapoor, Neetu Kapoor and Riddhima Kapoor Sahni gracing the first episode of the revamped show. However, netizens found the episode monotonous and boring with some labelling Kapil's sense of humour as crude.

Hyderabad: The first episode of The Great Indian Kapil Show aired on Netflix on March 30. Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor, his mother and yesteryear actor Neetu Kapoor along with her daughter Riddhima Kapoor Sahni graced the debut episode on the OTT giant. As soon as the episode was out, it was met with criticism from audiences for its crude humour and stale jokes.

The contents of the has been the subject of considerable discussion and examination in, and fans have taken to social media to vent their displeasure. The show was criticised for being dated and crass on the microblogging site X (formerly known as Twitter), even though it was a hit on television.

One tweet from X user reads: "The fact that Kapil Sharma show decided to move to OTT is a horrible business decision given they’re running it in exact same format. Netflix has never been Kapil’s audience. It has always been the TV viewing folks. It’s in no way even going to benefit celebs from movie promo!"

Similarly, another user posted: "Interestingly, other Indian standup comedian shows like #VirDas Kannan Gill, Amit Tandon, Kenny Sebastián, Aditi Mittal did not get the crude description attached to their show. Even Russell Peters, Hasan Minajh & Aziz Ansari’s comedies was not described as crude! #KapilSharma"

Tweets criticising the revamped Kapil Sharma show on Netflix have taken over the social media platform. People have expressed their disappointment at what they consider to be a fall in humour quality, pointing out examples of cheesy jokes and rehashed gags. To add to it, not just social media users but the streaming platform itself described the show as 'crude humour.'

The criticism levelled against show brings to light a larger problem facing the comedy genre: the difficulty of remaining inventive in the ever changing social dynamic. Even though Kapil Sharma has had enormous success on television, comedy and storytelling must have been rethought for the digital sphere.

The show's heavy dependence on vulgar humour and rehashed gags stemmed as one of the primary criticisms directed at it. Many viewers believe that the material does not appeal to a contemporary audience. Furthermore, the structure of the show also played a key role in its poor reception on Netflix. For viewers who are used to its formulaic format and reruns, the show did not really offered anything novel or engaging, even after re-introducing the fan favourite Sunil Grover.

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