When it comes to television comedy involving Indians, the British usually do it first and do it better than the Americans.
British television execs seem to be more optimistic that audiences there will like oddball ideas – in fact the odder the better – and because of longstanding cultural ties and the large population of Indians and Pakistanis in Britain, they’ve even been open to oddball ideas from them. And it can’t hurt to have funding from fees that are mandatory for all television owners.
Which is why it was possible for a comedy sketch show like BBC’s “Goodness Gracious Me,” full of insider jokes about Indian culture (though they did poke fun at the English too), to become a mainstream hit in Britain in the late ’90s. The show’s title was a nod to the many English turns-of-phrase that Indians have kept in circulation long past their sell-by date.
Anyone remember Indian Bridegroom Detective? When there’s a problem to be dealt with, he goes into a phonebooth and comes out in full wedding regalia complete with strands of flowers falling from his turban over his eyes, before galloping off on a white horse. Another character always insisted that everything good in the world comes from India. If pressed hard, most Indians would admit to knowing at least one person in real life like that:
Two of the show’s actors, Meera Syal and Sanjeev Bhaskar, went on to create another extremely popular show out of a set of characters from “Goodness Gracious Me”: “The Kumars at No. 42,” first broadcast in 2001.
Now the United States is thinking about bringing the Indian call center to mainstream television audiences in America, according to this report by the Wall Street Journal’s Amy Chozick. NBC executives are working on a pilot for a show called “Outsourced,” described as “The Office” meets “Slumdog Millionaire.” It stars Broadway actor Ben Rappaport and a mostly Indian cast.
NBC might want to look at how ITV’s “Mumbai Calling” (British, again) played out. Set in a Mumbai call center called Teknobable, it starred the ubiquitous Mr. Bhaskar and Nitin Ganatra, who had a bit role (but a funny one) as the Indian version of Mr. Collins in the so-bad-it’s-hilarious 2004 film “Bride and Prejudice.” The British Comedy Guide said the 2007 pilot had promise but the full show was very different and did not do well. If the call center comedy doesn’t work for an audience that joyfully embraced the Kumars, it’s not likely the U.S. can do much better.
The U.S. tried to bring the “Kumars at No. 42″ to America but not with an Indian family. Instead it featured an ethnic group that occupies the sort of place in America that Indians and Pakistanis do in Britain. We’re guessing “The Ortegas” were Mexican from this report at Latino Standup, which says the show never actually aired. Maybe it was for the best. Remember the American version of “Men Behaving Badly”?
It’s not that America can’t do humor – Jon Stewart and the fake news contingent are proof of that. But good ethnic humor, not so much. As for Indians doing humor about Indians, we’ve heard that’s still a work in progress too. Or at least that’s what Indian stand-up comedians say.
Hilarious!!!
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