The Kapil Sharma Show was recently in the spotlight after comedian Sunil Grover had a fallout with Kapil Sharma. Now, it seems, the show is at the receiving end of another comedian's wrath. Stand-up comedian Abijit Ganguly in a Facebook post, that is going viral, has accused the show of plagiarism after Kiku Sharda, a fellow comic on Sharma's show replicated his joke from a video published on April 9. In his stand-up comedy clip titled 'Having an Elder Brother' uploaded on April 9, Ganguly makes a joke on how the younger brothers are not allowed to 'bat' in cricket. He goes on to take the names of Kapil Dev, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, J Srinath, etc. — who are "incidentally all younger brothers". The joke gradually lead to the punch of "Do you realise how weird it is that India’s bowling strength depends on the fact that elder brothers never let younger brothers ever bat?" The episode that Ganguly refers to in his post is the one that aired on April 23, which was also the 100th episode of the show. In the YouTube video that Ganguly posted as reference in his post, Sharda makes an appearance around 52.15 minutes and appears to crack the same joke, with even references to Kapil Dev and Zaheer Khan, like the comedian did in his clip. Talking to indianexpress.com, Ganguly said how nobody from the show's end has contacted him, in spite of his Facebook post continuing to garner attention. "I just need some kind of acknowledgment for the joke," he said, explaining how time consuming it will be for him to follow this up legally. He also mentioned how other comedians too have faced similar situations in the past. The New Delhi-based comedian came to know about the incident after people started posting the comparisons on social media after the channel aired the episode. "Now I am getting abusive tweets from Kapil Sharma fans," he said. Read the Facebook post here. "Important - Lifting of Joke/Plagiarism by The Kapil Sharma Show Please share this so that it reaches the folks at The Kapil Sharma's Show or Sony Entrainment Television. I had released a stand-up bit on Youtube and FB on ‘having an elder brother’ around two weeks back. One of the jokes in the routine is an observational joke on how from from Kapil Dev to Zaheer Khan (citing some other names, such as Harbhajan Singh, Srinath, Kumble) all successful Indian bowlers have been co-incidentally younger brothers, leading to the punch of ‘Do you realise how weird it is that India’s bowling strength depends on the fact that elder brothers never let younger brothers ever bat’. I have been doing this bit for over three years now and most people who have ever been to my show in the last three, would have heard this. And modesty aside, many have told me that this was one of their favourite jokes. Yesterday, at around 10:30 PM, I suddenly got a message from a friend on FB who said that my younger brother bowler joke had been lifted in The Kapil Sharma Show. Someone also tweeted out to me informing me of the same.I was genuinely flustered but still wanted to check before drawing any conclusions. Having checked online, I am disappointed and gutted to see that they have indeed done that. There I saw Kiku Sharda trying to use my joke (and honestly making a mess of it) while Sidhu and others laughed out in their usual hysterical manner as every cell in my body burnt with rage. I understand that it’s possible for two people to have the same thought, but this is not that. The fact that right two weeks after I released this bit (which got a decent amount of traction), they just happen to use it while awkwardly trying to use the same examples as premise makes it clear what has happened. A stand-up bit takes a lot of effort to write and fine-tune. As comedians we strive for originality and after having made all the effort in coming out with a unique observation and building a joke around it, when something like this happens it just deflates you. We comedians make a living from our self-written jokes. It’s what I depend on to run my house. When you lift a joke I have written, you steal from me. It is as good as stealing my wallet, my watch, laptop or just a goddam robbery at my home. No Kapil Sharma, plagiarism is not OK. It is not OK to do this. It is not OK to lift a man’s joke and do it on national TV where millions will now think you goddam wrote that joke, and if I am to ever perform it, it comes off as I lifted it. I am feeling angry, and helpless. I just hope there can be enough noise around this, so that it doesn’t happen anymore with anyone else. The Kapil Sharma Show Link: Joke at 52:15 My video link: Joke at 3:08 #PlagarismbyTheKapilSharmaShow #plagaristsTKSS" Skip to 3.08 minutes of the video here to see the joke Ganguly is talking about in his post. Watch the video here. Skip to 52.15 minutes of this Kapil Sharma Show to see the joke. Watch the video here. His post has created a lot of buzz on social media. From people supporting him to others pointing out that "plagiarism in desi comedy is a norm", here are some of the reactions the post has garnered.
