Samay Raina, Balraj Ghai, who else got flak from SC for ‘insensitive’ jokes: Details about comedians asked to apologise
Five comedians popular on social media have been asked by the Supreme Court to post apologies on their YouTube channels over their content
The Supreme Court's stringent order to five social media influencers or comedians — Samay Raina being the most prominent of them — to apologise for their “insensitive” jokes has sparked concern and curiosity about who they are and what the matter is.
Besides Samay Raina, others covered by the SC order are Vipul Goyal, Balraj Ghai, Nishant Tanwar, and Sonali Thakker aka Sonali Aditya Desai.
What is Samay Raina's ‘dank’ humour, and why is SC angry at him?
Samay Raina, who is in his late 20s, is essentially known as a stand-up comedian who puts his work out on YouTube besides doing live shows.
Performing in Hindi tinged with everyday English, he became well-known after he won a contest called ‘Comicstaan 2’ in 2019.
When the Covid pandemic hit, he mixed his humour with online games of chess, and invited personalities such as Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen, even actor Aamir Khan, for games streamed online.
In 2024, he launched a self-effacing talent show called 'India's Got Latent' on his YT channel, which has over 7 million subscribers as of August 25.
Jokes on this show often employed what are known in pop culture as “dank” or dark themes. The show got negative attention, too. The most infamous moment, after which he deleted all the episodes from his channel, was a joke about incest made by him and others present as guests, including podcaster Ranveer Allahabadia aka ‘Beer Biceps’.
Joke that got Samay Raina into trouble this time
However, in the express case, his joke on one of his live-recorded shows was among those that got him into trouble. In that, he referred to a charity drive for a child suffering from a rare disorder.
He asked jokingly if the parents of the child, once they indeed got the ₹16 crore they needed for an injection, would spend it on the child or have second thoughts. “The child might die anyway,” he laughed, as did the audience.
An organisation working on this specific disorder, Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), filed a petition in the SC. The petition says these comics ridiculed persons suffering from SMA and from other disabilities.
"Today, it is disabled, tomorrow something else. How will the society be affected... where will all this end?" Justice Surya Kant on the SC bench remarked. The case is still on for further action, posted for hearing now in November.
Who is comedian Vipul Goyal, and why is he in trouble with SC?
Vipul Goyal is another of the five comics ordered by the SC to apologise for their jokes. His life story online mentions he went to IIT Bombay, did some theatre after not finding engineering work fulfilling; and ended up in the booming standup scene.
His breakthrough was as a leading man in the web series ‘Humorously Yours’ by production house The Viral Fever (TVF) in 2016.
He was among regular guests on episodes of Samay Raina's parody reality show ‘India’s Got Latent', reacting to and making jokes. The petition in the SC mentioned him as one of the comics who made insensitive jokes against people with disabilities.
Why is Balraj Ghai facing SC strictures, and what did he do in ‘India’s Got Latent'?
Balraj Ghai, full name Balraj Paramjeet Singh Ghai, is not a comic performer per se. He was a regular co-host and sat on the judging panel of ‘India’s Got Latent' with Samay Raina and others. He has featured in videos with comics.
His family owns a popular standup space-cum-club in Mumbai where the show was recorded. The place was vandalised after a recent controversy over the content of the show, specifically an episode with YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia as a guest judge.
Balraj's Instagram follower count is close to 150,000 as of August 25, and his bio cheekily says: "Loves people who use talent for nonsense".
Know Nishant Tanwar and Sonali, other comedians asked to apologise by SC
Nishant Tanwar has used the moniker 'Joke Singh' for a while, and goes by 'Rider OP' too. He is a standup comic and an actor, who started off with a news channel as a video producer. He became more prominent after he did a special show for Amazon Prime in 2018. His content often features profanities for impact and humour, such as the Amazon show title that goes: “Dilli Se Hoon B*@!&#%D”.
Also on the SC list is Sonali Thakkar, also known as Sonali Aditya Desai, who was once an accountant but later made a career as a standup comic. She has nearly 140,000 Instagram followers and around 17,000 on YouTube.
