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The Activism of Old[/caption]
Another thing that is very important to the popularity of the show and why it’s getting the message across to the audience is the medium employed to convey it, namely humour. Throughout the time that you’re realizing how your tax payments are being used to do anything but benefit your well-being or how perilously close you are to being part of a nuclear barbecue just because somebody forgot to close a door, you’re laughing. The information will enrage you, maybe move you to action (hopefully), but the entire process will also entertain you. This packaging of not easily palatable information inside a light and easy medium such as satire is why the show has worked and why I feel people are paying heed. There is no sermonizing here, there is entertainment.
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Activism today[/caption]
I don’t say that John Oliver’s show is the first one to come up with such an idea. There have been many others before (my favourite being Real Time with Bill Maher). But while Bill Maher’s style tends to be confrontational and his stand decidedly anti-establishment, Oliver has a subtle, more agreeable style. In fact, at times it almost feels as if he’s muddling through the labyrinth of banality before suddenly delivering a killer punch.
Waves of such activism haven’t passed by Indian shores either. Over the past year or two, there have been several hugely famous initiatives surfing the broadbands in India; the top of mind recall brings up names like All India Bakchod (AIB) or The Viral Fever (TVF). These and others like them have used humour and satire to poke fun at the Indian entertainment industry (remember Rowdies or Yashraj), the Indian political divide (the RaGa vs NaMo election campaign saga), the broken Indian education system, Indian eccentricities and pretensions, all the way to the deplorable attitude many people have towards heinous acts like rape.
What is that makes these videos so effective? To start off, they’re very visual. Today’s generation has the attention span of a kid with ADD and the memory of a goldfish. Where twitter feeds count as high culture, people don’t have the time to read boring news articles and listen to even more boring newscasters. But it’s not a generation that lacks soul or the activist spirit. It’s just that you need different media to engage them and outlets to express their support. These videos have done just that, entertaining while informing.
And the movement is gathering momentum. Both the creators and the audience are maturing. The content is becoming increasingly edgier and more thought provoking, putting the evils of society under a stark gaze. The audience is also becoming increasingly aware and accepting of them. The biggest proof of that would be the increased frequency with which these videos appear on my Facebook newsfeed.
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The New Battlefields[/caption]
So although we are not quite ready to rise up in rebellion just yet, the awareness prevails, the anger exists and the actions are being taken, even though they may be restricted to a few mouse clicks for now. This is after all the age of the sarcasm activists.
- Nadeem
Nadeem is still trying to make sense of Life, the Universe and Everything having just started his second year and planning to have a great time while he tries to figure all that stuff out. You can follow him at nadeemraj.insideiim.com
He's an amateur storyteller at 42shadesoctarine.wordpress.com
Drop him a line on Twitter or Facebook. He doesn’t usually bite.
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