THE RISE OF THE SPOOFS
Are
spoofs the next big wave of online entertainment? What makes them work?
Indians are now warming up to making
fun of themselves.
B ATMAN, SUPERMAN or The Hulk are
arguably some of the most memorable superheroes of all time. But what if Batman
became Baatmaan (check it out on YouTube!), another sort-of superhero who has
just one special power – gullibility? Add to that a dollop of naivete, and you
have a character that travels in a bus wearing his Bat Suit, visits an auto
dealer to find a replacement for his missing Batmobile and gets duped by The
Joker quite easily. Go online and you’ll even find a post-metamorphosis
Spiderman. Only here his name is Makkad Man and the Municipal Corporation is
after him for leaving webs all over the city!
From the Mahabharat scene in Jaane
Bhi Do Yaaro to Amul topicals every week; from Saturday Night Live to movies
such as Scary Movie and Tere Bin Laden; from newspaper strip cartoons to cola
wars, we are being inundated with spoofs. Online videos such as Baatmaan and
Rowdies, which went viral with thousands of views are only making the lampoon
genre more popular. Plus, thousands of spoofy images are posted on Facebook
every hour, mocking a football, cricket or an examination paper. Nothing. it
seems is sacred, it’s all fodder for parody now!
CRACKING THE SPOOF CODE
So what makes a spoof so appealing?
“It is a natural human feeling to want to see someone getting screwed,” says ad
man Josy Paul, the man behind BlackBerry’s recent ‘Action Starts Here’
campaign, and one whose visiting card spoofs his own life. Instead of an office
address, it has a car and a flight number. He’s travelling most of the time,
you see! “We do it on an everyday basis, when we mock someone or a stereotype
concerning Punjabis, Tamils, Gujaratis and others. Spoofs just do it more
professionally,” he explains. The main objective of a spoof is to elicit
laughter for the moment. And it works because people want to see the funny side
of their heroes. “If an important guy slips on a banana peel, everyone will
laugh,” Paul says. “That doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but it’s funny. If
just anybody slips on the peel, it isn’t as funny. That’s why many movies show
bloopers as the credits roll.”
When it comes to parody, there is a
clear difference between what works and what doesn’t. Prashant Raj, co-director
with The Viral Fever, a Mumbai-based spoof-video house, says that something
like Shah Rukh slapping a guard can turn out to be a very funny spoof. “So, we
take people like Shah Rukh, Salman or Raghu Ram and make a spoof around their
eccentricities. What can also be spoofed well are events around them.” Raj
should know. The Viral Fever’s popularity began with a show called Rowdies,
which poked fun at the original Roadies. Certain things are still off-limits.
“Unlike the US, in India nobody spoofs politics as it is very risky,” he says.
“It is only now that Indians are warming up – a little bit – to making fun of
themselves. Spoofs are another indication of this new sensibility.”
RIDING ON POP CULTURE
Most spoofs take off from where a
popular story or film or animation series ends. Whether it is Rowdies and
Baatmaan in the Indian online space, the How It Should Have Ended series
worldwide, or even Supermen of Malegaon, all these have been inspired by a
popular movie or TV series, says documentary filmmaker Nitin Sukhija, best
known for his satirical portrayal of the Malegaon film industry. “Shah Rukh is
always the good guy with his arms wide open. Now if I see the villain beating
him instead, or if he suddenly becomes grumpy, it can be very funny. A good
spoof has shock value,” he adds.
FOOD FOR LAUGHS
A good parody should make you laugh,
but it’s only an excellent one that can also make you think. AGuide To Smoking,
a 5-minute spoof film, for instance, mocks the unhealthy habit. “With spoofs,
people hit out at established ideas,” says Gaurav Raturi, part of the Filmbooth
group that hosted Spoofhmania, a six-day spoof-film and video festival in Delhi
some time ago.
Subhashini Dewada, one half of the
duo Subhashani-Vinimay, which won the Best Short Film Award at the festival for
Creamerica, which takes potshots at both James Bond and CID, says that even
someone not into serious cinema is attracted to a spoof, “as it is wrapped up
in comedy and still raises the issue.”
Spoofs of such iconic lines as “mere
paas maa hai” and “kitne aadmi they?” in ads have, perhaps, contributed to
their longer shelf life. Those who wrote these lines might have never imagined
the cult status they’d attain!
· by Manit Moorjani HTBR 130217
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