25 comedians talk funny about air pollution

Denial taken to absurd heights and razor-sharp wit laid bare the bizarre new normal Mumbaiites are being forced to adapt to. This was Mumbai’s first-ever stand-up comedy show on air pollution

MUMBAI: How do you tackle a problem such as air pollution? You don’t, because, inevitably, “smog gets in the way”. On Friday, 25 comedians used humour to lighten the atmosphere, something the municipality is finding almost impossible to do, in a seemingly losing battle against toxic air.

25 comedians talk funny about air pollution

Denial taken to absurd heights and razor-sharp wit laid bare the bizarre new normal Mumbaiites are being forced to adapt to. This was Mumbai’s first-ever stand-up comedy show on air pollution.

In rapid one-minute acts at the Bal Gandharva Rang Mandir auditorium in Bandra, the comedians left the audience breathless – with laughter, for a change. Titled ‘Laughs Per Minute: Breathless Edition’, the show was organised jointly by Asar, a start-up that works on environmental issues, and DeadAnt, a comedy media and entertainment company,

“Buildings called ‘Sea View’ are now called ‘If you can see view’.” “The air pollution is so bad, the air purifier in my room said ‘dy-son’.” “My partner told me I took his breath away, so I took him to the ICU.”

There were also allusions to the India’s Got Latent fiasco, a few songs themed on AQI and allusions to a certain builder… It was indeed ‘laughs per minute’ on this Friday evening.

The BMC’s latest obsession, its relentless digging of the city’s streets, didn’t go unnoticed. How could it – there was a reminder posted not a few meters away from the venue. The comedians likened Mumbai to “Gotham” and “the set of MadMax”, while another defended it, saying, “You guys are not seeing the beautiful vision of our municipality”. Aditya Gundeja, the face behind reels on the BMC’s haphazard digging of roads and footpaths, remarked, “There are 50 shades of grey in the dust all around in Andheri.” Another said, “Roosters may be the wake-up call in some cities, but in Mumbai, construction noise is my alarm.” Some asked, why smoke cigarettes when you can simply inhale the equivalent in toxic air? “The gas chamber is coming to you,” one comedian said.

Comparisons were inevitable with Delhi, notorious for its air pollution. Supriya Joshi narrated a sweet romantic tale of how poor AQI has added a connection to her long-distance relationship with her partner in Delhi. “Now both of us are in a long-distance relationship with fresh air. We don’t have trust issues, we have lung issues,” she quipped. “But it’s not all bad; we’re going on really fun double dates with an allergy specialist and a pulmonologist!”

Jokes aside, Mumbai’s worsening air quality has been a growing worry.

Despite the city’s natural advantage of the coast, a blanket of smog rolled in late last year and clung to Mumbai in ways that sent alarm bells ringing.

After the Covid pandemic, construction activity has boomed, not to mention generous incentives being continuously doled out to developers. Rising vehicular pollution has also helped take Mumbai’s AQI to new levels.

All this has prompted the civic authorities to go to greater lengths to enforce the emergency GRAP - IV plan, halting all public and private construction in areas consistently in the ‘poor’ AQI category.

In the past, the BMC has issued a 28-point guideline to control air pollution, for which it continues to issue stop-work notices to construction sites for flouting the rules. Even the Bombay High Court has taken suo moto cognisance of the issue, directing the BMC to take stringent action to mitigate air pollution.