Amid Kolkata rape-murder case, Tanmay Bhat’s insensitive tweets resurface on the Internet

Tanmay Bhat

The internet never forgets. Old comments and tweets can resurface and cause trouble even years later. Amid the outrage over the Kolkata rape-murder case, Tanmay Bhat's insensitive tweets about child rape have reappeared online, drawing criticism once again.

Netizens strongly condemned the offensive and disturbing tweets from years ago that were disguised as "comedy." Many people were quick to call out how inappropriate the comments were, despite being labelled as "jokes". Take a look at some of the reactions:

Earlier, in an interview with Mid-day. The comedian spoke about the controversies he's faced, he stated, "Every controversy ruins someone's life - my parents' and my well-being come under question, business shuts down, and you become unemployable for a while. You don't know if you'll have a career after that. No one volunteers to create controversy. It is never created by a person who is making art, it is always created by [media on] a slow news day, or due to some other agenda of the state or media."

He also spoke about his struggles, saying, "The difficulties that comics face are uniform. There's the outrage, self-censorship and psychological damage they face. Supporters of politicians [one pokes fun at] can make life hard. And, in India, unfortunately, free speech, as a concept, is new. Punishment is not [meted out as promised by] the law. In fact, the process of dealing with the law is the punishment. This is the situation of comedy in India. Earlier, it was lack of venues and infrastructure for comedy to thrive that were the concerns. But, if you ask if comedy can be a viable career, I think, it can."

As per his LinkedIn profile, YouTuber and comedian Tanmay Bhat graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Advertising from RD National College in 2010. Shortly after, he co-founded AIB and served as its CEO.

Recently, a post claiming that his net worth is ₹665 crores went viral, sparking numerous comments on social media. The comedian responded to the buzz and denied the rumours, saying, "I can assure you that this number is wildly off - at least for me."

Stay tuned to Mid-day.com for further updates