Opinion Zakir Khan at Madison Square Garden: The next global comedy superstar may be an Indian

An interesting phenomenon has emerged over the past couple of years, where influential South Asians abroad from the fields of entertainment and politics have infused Indian languages, or “Indian-isms” in their videos and messaging, giving rise to a seamless blending of English with Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, etc.

Take, for example, New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. During his campaign, he made a tongue-in-cheek video reaching out to his South Asian supporters entirely in Hindi. He mouthed popular Hindi film dialogues while taking playful digs at desis and their relationship with elders.

Or comedian Hasan Minhaj, who was present at the Garden to warm up the crowd and reverentially addressed Zakir as “Zakir bhai”. Despite English being the primary medium of Hasan’s comedy, he questions American institutions and systems while also familiarising audiences with stringent Indian family customs and his struggles with them as a second-generation immigrant. 

With Indian comedians making the US and European cities a constant fixture on their tours, there has been a growing camaraderie between comedians in India and those of Indian descent abroad.

While this leads to mutual cheerleading when they perform at notable venues and comedy festivals, it has also helped turn the attention of their primarily American and European audiences to controversial issues where comedians in India have faced the wrath of the moral police or of those in positions of power.

Comedian Akaash Singh, who co-hosts the popular podcast Flagrant (which has nearly two million subscribers on YouTube), has, in the recent past, discussed how performers like Samay Raina, Vir Das and Kunal Kamra have faced pushback from the authorities and how narratives created by the media and online troll armies shape public perception in India. Akaash even sat down for a one-on-one conversation with Kunal about the state of comedy in India.

With the likes of Vir Das and Zakir Khan making waves in the West, there has also been an influx of big names from their comedy scene visiting India for shows. Just in the past two years Anthony Jeselnik, Jimmy Carr, Max Amini have been here and the next six to eight months will see Kevin Hart, Louis C K, Sammy Obeid and Daniel Sloss (making this his third trip to India).

With stand-up specials and clips being accessible to millions through YouTube and Netflix, and comedians making pit stops on each other’s podcasts, comedy has truly gone global in the last decade. A South African like Trevor Noah got the reins of The Daily Show, steeped in US politics, Egyptian doctor turned comedian Bassem Youssef has been performing sold out shows across the US while also becoming the face for Palestinian solidarity after his appearance on the Piers Morgan show. With subtitles and AI tools aiding translations, language is slowly ceasing to be a barrier. If Zakir’s sold-out show at MSG is anything to go by, it isn’t outside the realm of possibility that the next global comedy superstar will be a homegrown comedian who speaks an Indian language.

The writer is a podcast producer and stand-up comedian