Let me tell you a story,
Edgy ‘Humor’ And The Internet
It was 2015 when I started investing myself on now discontinued Google+. It was an in-built social media app made by Google, whenever you set up an account in your android phone they automatically create a new account there as well. Anyway, when I started investing myself in Google Plus, I started getting edgier. I used to make jokes and memes that could/might be offensive in today’s time but back then being edgy was being rebellious against the mainstream pop culture.
That’s what I thought anyway. I joined one of the largest hater groups on Google Plus and pretty soon I started gaining followers, notoriety, views, and clout. At one point I even became a community leader and have led various raids on One Direction, Anime, Justin Bieber, and Emo communities to piss off the fangirls and simps just for the sake of our entertainment. It was also during that time when Filthy Frank and Rucka Rucka Ali were in their prime. Their unconventional edgy humor has changed the landscape of the internet.
BB ki Vines, Ashish Chanchlani, CarryMinati were also gaining traction through their skits and roasting… They’re all funny and original in their own right and at one point I considered CarryMinati and BB ki Vines as one of the greatest edgelords who could match the likes of Filthy Frank, Rucka Rucka Ali, LeafyisHere and Idubbbz.
In 2016, the hater group was at the height of popularity. We were gaining likes and views on Google+ and at that point, I had thousands of followers and millions of views thanks to our memes. However it didn’t mean things won’t fall apart and when they did, it had severe consequences. Firstly some trolls raided our community and banned all of our members. It was mostly… No, it was entirely my fault because I added one of those trolls. I also became too cocky because I was a wannabe edgelord.
I started looking down on fangirls and raged a lot like Hindustani Bhau. I’ve also said things I shouldn’t really have and I still regret even to this day. It cost me good and genuine friendships online which really did affect me. By 2016, I wasn’t a rebel. I was just an online bully. It didn’t help the fact that it was my last year of school which means the Board Exams are coming to add more salt into injury. So I didn’t have time to spend on the internet because of the Boards.
How I Got Involved In Politics
Things got so worse that I started getting involved in politics. Actually, I was just adding my edgy behavior in politics. Back in 2016, the global social-political climate was changing with Brexit and Trump becoming the news. The Liberals and Conservatives are just playing their dirty identity politics against each other and sadly I began to side with the Conservatives because I wanted to laugh and mock those liberal Social Justice Warriors.
Honestly, they didn’t really care about what’s going in the world. Both sides wanted to boost their egos that’s why they behave so aggressively. By then I started making edgy political jokes on Facebook and let’s just say, it was lovely. In Google+ there is little to no presence of the people you know but Facebook?
It’s a different story, it could attract friends, family members, relatives, and even teachers which could even be problematic. One time I’ve made jokes about certain political figures and things got so bad that my family and my mentor got involved and I got a good scolding because of this. Because of that, I’ve decided never to make any edgier political jokes on any social media anymore.
By 2017, I’ve lost all interest in making edgy memes and jokes anymore. And with my school era finally seeing its waning months and as I was witnessing the closing chapter of my Board Exams and as I was almost reaching the opening door of the college, I’ve decided to quit Google+ permanently. I deleted my Google Account out of regret and the loss of interest. I don’t know what happened to my hater community but most of them have left the site as well following the troll debacle.
Pewdiepie faced the brunt of cancel culture.
I tried to make a comeback but by then it was just pointless. That wasn’t to say I did make a fool out of myself in college when I got too edgy or when I’ve said some regrettable things which led to an argument with a friend last year. Although we did sort things out it did gave me a lesson about being edgy that not everyone has the same level of humor and they could get hurt or offended because of the things I said. Relationships could get destroyed because of edgy behavior. I decided to make edgy memes and jokes only in private with the rise of woke culture, cancel culture, and internet censorship.
Cancel Culture In Social Media
Now that I’ve talked about my story, let’s discuss the bigger fish. In 2017, Pewdiepie made some dumb jokes and The Wall Street Journal made a fool of themselves by taking his jokes out of context. This led to the Adpocalypse on YouTube i.e. demonetization. This was way before the e-pseudo patriots started attacking Pewdiepie and supported a soulless corporation in the name of patriotism. This led to the rise of censorship in social media and it became very difficult for people to post edgier content. Filthy Frank left YouTube that same year. LeafyisHere was banned in the aftermath of Pokimane Drama. And Idubbbz barely makes edgy content anymore.
Social Media platforms wanted to bring more brands into their own platform, that’s why being edgy is like being a punk kid in a school full of elite, rich brats. YouTube in particular has become a shell of its former self not because it’s not for creators anymore but it’s because of being advertisement and profit friendly. In simple words, YouTube has completely turned its back on its roots. And with cancel culture and joke policing, someone would lose their livelihood, their lives, and their relationships just because of the jokes they’ve made 10 years.
Yes, cancel culture does not allow you to progress from the past. It makes you want to still regret the past mistakes you’ve made. Although Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby are a different matter and they deserved it but cancel culture has done more harm than good. An exam of this could be of a Japanese wrestler Hana Kimura who’ve committed suicide because of this toxic culture over an argument in a reality show. Thus this culture needs to either reform or end.
The Worst Of ‘Edgy’ Culture
As much sad as it is to see the current internet climate, I’ve seen the worst of the edgy behavior among internet celebrities especially in the roasting community. My disgust for them was completely clear during the YouTube Vs TikTok Drama. I’ve already given my 2 cents on this one so I not gonna talk about it again.
But when I saw creators like Elvish Yadav, Lakshay Chaudhary, CarryMinati, Gareeb, BBJ and most of the roasting YouTubers made tons of videos about Amir Siddiqui, they were just giving justification to their fans to use homophobic slurs against TikTokers. When Carry’s and Lakshay’s videos got deleted by YouTube (they kinda deserved it), crap really hits the fan, and when someone like Saiman Says or Dhruv Rathee speaks out against the roasters. They also get attacked by their rabid fanbase.
Let’s not forget that they milked the whole situation to gain attention, clout especially in Carry’s case who made 3 other videos milking on Amir Siddiqui. No wonder, I’ve lost so much respect for him. I used to saw him as another Filthy Frank or Idubbbz. Now he’s just a hypocritical roaster with a messiah complex at least in my eyes. Let’s not forget these people are very insecure if they are being criticized like in Gareeb’s case who body shames people and objectify women in the name of roasting and he also scammed an animator.
No wonder why roasting channels are being criticized as of late. (Oh I forgot about carrying talking about “Zindagi Banjar” in his song Yalgaar and then he started talking about mental health. Yalgaar also came a week, before SSR’s unfortunate death where he also gave his opinion regarding this. (Ab Duniya MC nhi hai Carry? The hi bola the na Dunya MC thi, hai aur rahegi. Ab dekhlo kya nateeja ho gya) Carry and the other roasters are responsible for the cluster frick on the internet i.e. YouTube vs TikTok.
But keep in mind Carry and the rest of the roasters are just Leafy clones. They’re just repeating the successes of LeafyisHere. The only reason why Carryminati even exists is because of Leafy. So agar tum carry fans yha aake “Carry tera baap hai” comment kroge toh usse Kuch nhi ukhdega. Sorry for being too salty but this was something I should’ve said a long time ago.
The same can be said about Lilly Singh rip off MostlySane, who claimed CaptainJamV’s video because he criticized her dogpoop song. It’s sad to see the comedy space in India has degraded to a point with roasters who use swear words as the main punchline of their jokes and non-edgy content being dominated by Mostly Sane and Anisa Dixit who mostly copy everything from Lilly Singh’s already bland content.
The Jio Janta audience has become so brainwashed that they’ve even put people like Hindustani Bhau (who should’ve remained a meme and a laughing stock) and Subham Mishra on a pedestal. I don’t blame Jio for this because they have good intentions but their good intentions have turned into a time bomb. This is why whenever some controversy happens, the environment gets too toxic to handle. This also served as a reason why I stopped being edgy in public.
In India, people get offended very easily over a bunch of edgy jokes(They get offended over everything anyway like if you choose Arts stream after 10th then the society will rage like Xbox Live Chats). Like Bollywood celebs like Amir Khan whining about AIB Knockout about how offensive it was but he forgot about how his movies like Delhi Belly and 3 Idiots have offensive jokes as well (The former uses swear words as comedy and the latter used rape jokes in the now famous The Chatur Speech).
Look I never like AIB Knockout but if you’re whining about how offensive their jokes were and then you do it yourself then you’re a hypocrite. Or did I forget how people like Abby Viral, Ashish Chanchlani, Amit Bhadana, and other e-pseudo patriots played the patriotism card during T-Series vs PewDiePie feud over a few jokes Felix made about India? Or when stand-up comedians like Agrima Joshua or Danny Fernandes got backlash over the jokes about sensitive issues (the former made jokes about Quora stories about Shivaji Maharaj and the latter made jokes about the moronic side of Sushant’s case.)
Agrima got rape threats by a car influencer named Subham Mishra because he thought she was insulting his idol but in reality, he and his car influencer father Hindustani Bhau are insulting the morals of Shivaji Maharaj. Shivaji Maharaj respects women in his kingdom and if someone were to disrespect them that person will be punished harshly. So Bhau and Mishra are literally insulting their idol and are committing a crime under IPC 295A. By the way, the clip was 2-3 years old and the only reason they made a huge issue is because of COVID and Bhedchaal.
During Covid lockdown, people have a lot of free time and they had nothing to outrage at so they chose a 2-3-year-old joke. It’s understandable why people get sensitive over a joke and yes you have a right to be offended over a joke. We indeed need to be sensitive over certain issues but being sensitive over everything (or over-sensitive) is not really healthy and it can harm you and others as well. You have two options to deal with a joke. Either ignore it or just whine about it. Don’t do anything else (both illegal and immoral and also, learn to grow a thick skin.)
And for the love of God stop putting these aggressive, abusive car insects like Hindustani Bhau and Subham Mishra on a pedestal. Hindustani Bhau is just a meme and only a meme. Treat him like a meme, not an influencer. Pehli baat toh tu Hindustani Bahu me se Hindustani hta le kyuki tu uske laayak nhi hai apne naame se pehle Hindustani lagana. Desh bhakti ke Naam pe toh tune gaali, death threats aur rape threats hi diya hai aur Kuch nhi.
Hypocrisies Of Woke Culture
And then there’s the woke culture. This recent culture is about being aware of social, political, and racial justice. So this culture is good, right? Yes, it is, because in the current social-political climate especially what happened to George Floyd, people need to be aware of recent socio-racial issues that are affecting the world.
So what’s the problem? The problem is that the mob took this good idea and made it into a convoluted mess. Why? Because the thing that they’re being woke when in reality they just wanted to satisfy their egos and they also wanted to feel important. If you’re the type of guy or gal who shares some social/political/racial posts on your Instagram Stories or if you’re sharing hashtag #insertsomesocial/political/racial issues on Twitter then you do you.
The unwritten rule of the internet says that you’re entitled to your opinions just like I do. But it doesn’t change the fact that all these stories and hashtags mean nothing in real life. Maybe the #Metoo movement did change history but that’s one in a million. Most of the time it doesn’t change anything. I mean look at all those #PrayforInsertLocation trends on Twitter when some disaster or terrorist attacks happen.
Maybe it could help people but in reality, it’s just 2 days of mourning and then everyone forgets it until another tragedy happens and the cycle repeats itself. The mob just wants to make themselves feel better and god forbid if someone says anything against the status quo. It’s like North Korea launching a nuke unintentionally.
Ricky Gervais criticised Hollywood for woke posturing but still supporting problematic people and ideas.
The worst offenders of this are celebrities and corporations. Let’s talk about celebrities first. Other than few celebrities, I think the majority of the celebrities pretend to be woke but in reality, they’re just hypocrites. One example is George Clooney, a Hollywood elite actor who loves to preach about housing a refugee but hasn’t even housed one despite the fact he lives in various million dollar mansions.
Speaking of Hollywood, most Hollywood celebrities love to preach about Feminism, and yet they’ve standing ovations and awards to wife beaters (Sean Penn), pedophiles (Roman Polanski), abusers (Mel Gibson), a person accused of sexual assault (Casey Affleck) and rapists (Harvey Weinstein), not to mention they also have ties with Jeffrey Epstein (sex offender).
They also love to preach about climate change with Greta ‘How Dare You’ Thunberg and yet they travel via their private jets and luxurious boats. Well, their hypocrisy knows no bounds. No wonder Ricky Gervais roasted them ruthlessly in the 2020 Golden Globes Awards. Ricky Gervais also called them out for pretending to be woke but they’re also working for corporations which does the exact opposite of what they believe in. Did I forget to mention that Bollywood also preaches feminism and yet they objectify women in their movies and item songs?
Corporations like Disney and Apple are pushing the narrative of social, racial, and political justice in the West but they just throw that away in the Middle East and China. Disney, Apple, and Mattel are running sweatshops in China where workers as young as 14 years work their butt off to make phones and toys. Insert Palpatine meme, “Ironic Isn’t it”. Kids are making toys in China so that they could sell them to the kids in the West.
Not to mention, the workers are treated poorly, have to work overtime, risks an abusive environment, and lack poor safety regulations. British YouTuber Paul Joseph Watson made a video about how companies like Netflix preaches staying woke in their LA headquarters and yet they bow down to Saudi Arabian regime when it comes to editing the content.
It’s funny that companies love to preach about women’s rights, LGBTQIA+ rights, minority, and refugee rights and yet they work for the richest and authoritarian countries in the Middle East like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Iran, etc. which are some of the worst offenders of human rights. It’s hypocritical of the western mobs to preach about social and racial justice when they turn a blind eye on these similar issues in Russia and Africa.
And don’t get me started on China. The country has its own human rights problem. For all it talks about freedom and liberty, the Western Companies and conglomerates love to get some juicy communist gold from China. 3-4 Decades ago, they were too hostile to communism but now that China is a new market so they’re just gonna throw capitalism away. Not that capitalism has its own problems too. Disney, Apple, and Mattel are easily the worst offenders for the above reasons.
In 2019, Blizzard banned Blitzchung a Heartstone player, and suspended two announcers when Blitzchung gave his opinion in support of the Hong Kong Protest where China was cracking down- Hard. The only reason they did so is that they wanted to appease their Chinese Masters although they have their own human rights problem. This banned caused a huge backlash among the fans and pro-democracy supporters. Hell, even the US Congress got involved and told Blizzard to double down on the punishment which they eventually did. And then during the George Floyd Protests, they started preaching about equality and being against racism in a modern democracy despite the fact they literally did the opposite to Blitzchung.
Hell even during the farmer’s protest in India, we saw celebrities like Amanda Cerney and Lilly Singh who were giving their support to the farmers although Amanda Cerney literally begged for followers on Twitch, and Lilly Singh has been criticized for having hypocritical political opinions. At the same time, we saw Woke Liberals attacking Sachin Tendulkar for supporting the government while at the same time putting Rihanna and other celebrities on a pedestal while the Woke Bhakts are whining about how Western Celebrities are breaching India’s sovereignty and are justifying Rihanna’s abuse by Chris Brown.
Unfunny, wannabe standup comedians like Kunal Kamra loves to preach women empowerment, and yet he posts the quotes of woman beaters. Kunal Kamra is basically Nicholas Cage(without talent) meets Hindustani Bhau. Kamra loves to get into a controversy like how he made tweets about the Supreme Court and how he made that moronic video against CarryMinati. He’s not an idiot, he knows like Hindustani Bhau controversy can bring more clout and he knows that people would be toxic enough to respond most childishly. He knows that roasters would attack him and they’ll respond to him with kindness.
So what’s my gripe with him? He’s just unfunny. He’s smart but he’s a wannabe. He thinks that making political jokes and saying controversial stuff would make him a hippie or cool when in reality he’s just a wannabe. That goes for most standup comedians like AIB, Kenny Sebastian, Zakir Khan, and whatnot. They only make political statements but won’t make a funny joke.
If you’re gonna use some politician or swear words (for roasters) as a punchline of a joke? At least make it funny but you even failed to do that. It’s also ironic that AIB loves to preach feminism but gets rekt by the #Metoo movement. This movement almost destroyed TVF and Kamra. So it’s no wonder why Kunal Kamra should get off his high horse and realize that he’s not so funny after all.
In short, woke and edgy people are all bark and no bite… It’s just bhedchaal, nothing more
Well, I’m tired of writing this piece. So I’m gonna conclude that I’m disillusioned with both Edgy and Woke Culture. I have to admit that because of being edgy I learned to grow a thick skin and it defined my last years of school. I also have to admit that being woke taught me to care about socio-racial and political issues that are affecting the world. But at the same time, it also caused a lot of problem for me that has affected me personally (while I was being edgy most of the time) and how it can also bring hurt and sorrow to others. So it was best for me to support the best of both sides but criticize or ignore the worst because it will matter in the real life.