It's a tough time, but a few of us are putting the age-old adage, laughter is the best medicine, to good test. A round-up of the funniest influencers online
With great power comes great responsibility
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The various characters Kusha Kapila plays, from Billi Maasi to Ma Woke Anand and Monday Aunty, have managed to make many a viewer guffaw with delight. She has been posting humorous content on her page with titles like married couples in quarantine, aunties during quarantine and extroverts in quarantine. She sees the pandemic as a global and national crisis rather than an individual one. Hence, she has also uploaded a video urging her followers to donate to an organisation making protective gear for doctors, who are helping COVID-19 patients. She views this as an opportunity to use the platform to spread awareness about the pandemic. "I am grateful that I have a roof over my head and money to buy groceries. I saw the disturbing picture of migrant workers stranded at Anand Vihar bus terminal in Delhi and it shook me."
Follow Kusha on @kushakapila
Keep up with Karma
Karma, the Cat and Moti, the Dog are truly our inner voices, and funny man Cyrus Sahukar is making them come alive with aplomb. We fell off our chairs when Karma attacks the couples, who post their Maldives pictures all year around with the hashtag #couplegoals. As he says, it's the end of "fomo", and now your wife is left wondering how she ended up with you. Sahukar told mid-day, "After many years, I am locked alone in the house. I am faced with my own uselessness as a human being. I figured I should come up with some stuff. Moti's first video was about how when Modiji said clap at 5 pm, nobody told the animals about the madness that was going to ensue. The cat answers philosophical questions be as they may." His plan for the next few weeks, along with cooking and cleaning, is to try and keep all of us upbeat. "The feedback has been amazing. People are sending me questions for Karma! I know it's tough to keep it together, so in my own way, I am trying to make
everyone smile."
Follow Cyrus on @cyrus_sahukar
A musician's memes
We may know Raghav Meattle as an upcoming musician, but he is also a budding meme maker. The singer-songwriter has been posting some laugh-out-loud memes, featuring himself, on his Instagram feed. "My friend, Sanjna Krishnan, has been helping me. It's a great cause, and it keeps us updated with pop culture too. It also makes my content and music more relatable. I am using memes as marketing content for my music." So you see him as the Amul girl and as the doctor from the TV show Scrubs. "I love experimenting with different formats. It's keeping me inspired while I'm at home."
Follow Raghav on @raghavmeattle
Guddi's lockdown tales
Influencer Dolly Singh's Guddi Bhabhi is very upset with Corona as it has put a dampener on her "social titli" life. As she says, "Pehle ke chaar din main bahut bore hui. Now, I cook... Kahaniyan. Kiska affair kiske saath chal raha hai." Keeping with their hilarious content, especially as Raju ki Mummy, the Delhi girl is making the lockdown bearable. "I want to create something that can lighten the mood, because the serious stuff is anyway in the news. I experienced a lot of anxiety in the first four days, so I want to spread the message in a good way." People writing in to her, has pushed her to make the videos regular. Now that she has managed to make her followers smile, and so Singh is going to be even more consistent with her videos.
Follow Dolly on @dollysingh
Main entertainment hoon
Shraddha, 38, who shone as Vasu, the landlady, in the hilarious web-series Pushpavalli, moonlights as a digital content creator. She started making comedic content on Instagram a year ago. "Now that I am home all the time, I have a lot of time on hand," she quips. Her knack for languages is her strength as she has managed to reach Tulu, Kannada, Hindi, and English audiences through a single platform. She has been using her presence on social media to reach out to her followers, and spread awareness about the infection. "Entertainment is key, the message has to come later. If I start my videos by giving people a lecture about the virus, they will tune out. But if I start with a rib-tickling sketch and gradually move on to what one can to do to keep the virus at bay, the audience is likely to be more receptive and as a result, the message gets amplified."
Follow Shraddha on @aiyyoshraddha
Wham, bam, thank you ma'am!
Bhuvan Bam rose to meteoric fame through BB Ki Vines, his YouTube channel dedicated to sketch comedy. Bam's one-man show won him laurels for its risqué humour and his ability to effortlessly switch characters while portraying BB as well as BB's friends and relatives. The number of rapidly rising Coronavirus cases and people's lackadaisical attitude towards the pandemic prompted him to create virtual content about the virus and its impact. "Some people were stepping out of their houses. All our parents believed WhatsApp rumours and started panicking. Others weren't being kind to their house helps. So, I wanted to do something about it," explains Bam, about the first video he created. He wanted to state facts in alignment with World Health Organisation data. Apart from informative videos, he has also been making funny ones to lighten the mood as he understands that staying indoors is tough and our mental health may be taking a knock.
Follow Bam on @bhuvan.bam22 and on YouTube at BB Ki Vines
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