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THE HINDU Magazine DELHI THE MILLENNIALS
Sunday, March 3, 2019 23

Still laughing Comics such as Hasan SOCIAL MEDIA
Minhaj don’t ‘drop the act’ even in CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
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A virtually
times of tragedy. NYT
like, send a Google calendar invite?
How does this work?”
He gets laughs off saying ‘dick perfect life
appointments’ out loud. Half of those
laughing are people who use the
phrase conversationally; the other half
are staring from the outside at a high­ MEENAKSHI REDDY MADHAVAN
tech cage marked Young People™.
Their chuckles almost certainly began veryone’s a brand these days.
as nervous laughter. As Hannah People with children perform
Gadsby had once famously explained, aspects of parenthood online.
the comedian elevates the tension in ETheir kids are always so cute,
the room to breaking point, and then so bright, so full of witty bon mots.
BINGE WATCH she punctures it with the well­timed People without children perform in
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punchline. other ways: photos of pets, that dive
Punchline complex, ever­shifting relationship out with friends. The expression is
they took in Thailand, even hanging
That young people today have a
shiny, teeth ablaze in a smile, no one
with humour is not surprising — we’ve
inherited a world unparalleled in
Later, you'll look at that photo and
complexity and shiftiness. What’s truly would guess your feet are killing you.
and sinker humour to avoid un­ironic sincerity. erased, and all that will be left is this
remarkable is how often we use
the memory of exhaustion will be
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We do this quietly, relentlessly. You
idea of having a great night out. Soon,
can time Minhaj or Oliver in the
middle of their monologues. Arcane that will become the memory — the
performance becomes fact.
pop cultural trivia punctuate their The essence of social media is
sentences with metronomic regularity, showing off the aspects of yourself
Hasan Minhaj and John Oliver show how no matter the gravity of the underlying you'd like to highlight more.
popular the news comedy genre is, that the issue. Contrast this with an earlier “Pretending,” some people call it,
generation of news comedians like Jon
showing off only a curated aspect of
unpalatable realities of the day can only be Stewart (Minhaj’s guru) or Stephen your life. But what's wrong with
Colbert (Oliver’s favourite), who were curated? If you tidy up your home for
swallowed with a joke well­known for ‘dropping the act’ in guests, which is an acceptable and
times of tragedy and addressing the expected behaviour, why not tidy up
your life when you show it to strangers?
#70929
n an episode from the first season government overreach with elaborate A “It's not honest,” people argue, and
of Hasan Minhaj’s Netflix news pranks, muppets, marching bands, Oliver, the reigning champion of the genre, yes, it's not a complete warts­and­all
comedy Patriot Act, the affable Weird Al appearances and much else. mixes well-researched, meaty stories about image, but for that, may I gently
I33­year­old American comedian Michelle Wolf makes fun of Billy Joel dictators, rogue corporations and suggest, turn to real life.
breezed into his act by declaring his songs even as she skewers the Trump Funny that it's come full circle now.
show to be the (overwhelmingly administration. government overreach with elaborate Make up­free selfies and body positivity
young) audience’s preferred These comedians understand that pranks, muppets and marching bands messages bombard you across feeds.
destination for “news and ’90s their young fans are woke, but the You could be vain, like I am, using the
basketball references”. It was a unpalatable realities of 2019 can only camera with unvarnished vulnerability phone’s Beauty Mode. Your chin is
typically self­effacing play from the be swallowed with a joke. And so and gravitas. pointier, your eyes wider, your skin
man whose breakout hit, the stand­up Minhaj, right in the middle of an This isn’t an argument in favour of almost laminated. I am so used to
special Homecoming King, was impassioned monologue about one style over another. For all of seeing myself in the front­facing
distinguished by moments of startling, America’s draconian immigration Stewart’s gravitas, there is no denying camera of my phone that sometimes
nerdy self­awareness. A fortnight ago, policies, segued into a hilarious that in terms of popularity and reach, I'm a little taken aback when I look into
Patriot Act returned for its second takedown of ‘dick appointments’ (a the likes of Oliver and Minhaj are right the mirror. I'm buying into my own
season and Minhaj began with a zany 2010s phrase for scheduled hook­ up there with the old giants. Moreover, myth. Real life can get a little shocking
segment about Saudi Arabia banning ups), another one of those they haven’t forgotten the old ways when you have filter­filled glasses.
an episode critical of the royal family #JustMillennialThings. It is important entirely. Like their comedic fathers, Will we soon stop looking at each
(from the first season). Self­referential to note here that Minhaj, at 33, is they have always ‘punched up’ with other except through our gadgets? I
segments are a sign that your show has firmly at the outer limit of the their jokes. It is very difficult to think engage better with the world when I
arrived, you know. millennial continuum — endearingly, of a routine where they’ve sided with have access to a keyboard, I am
It was also indicative of just how he acknowledged this and confessed the powerful against the little guys, or smarter, less apt to break into giggles,
popular the news comedy formula has that he had to ask his writers (who’re cracked a blatantly misogynist joke, and a backspace button means I always
become — especially with a millennial likely to be four to five years younger and so on. get to edit what I say. Why wouldn't I
audience. John Oliver, the reigning than him, if not more, Long after the ’90s basketball want that? Why wouldn't you? It may
champion of the genre (Minhaj making them peak references become ancient rather than not be face­to­face interaction, that
recently joked about the futility of millennials) what the charmingly outdated, that’s the stuff stuff that bonds us, but as we live more
“doing a routine” only to “watch John phrase meant. “Do you, audiences will remember. of our lives online, we have to accept
Oliver do it better a week later”) mixes this is “real life” too.
well­researched, meaty stories about Aditya Mani Jha is a writer and journalist, currently working ...............................................................................
dictators, rogue corporations and on his first book of non-fiction. The writer is a Delhi-based author.

WHAT’S UP U.S.-North Korea Summit
‘SAY AGAIN?’ Used to depict perfection, describe
U.S. President Donald Trump is eminently meme-able, and he is something as flawless or stylish. It’s a
also one part of the favourite couple of this ha-ha-land, along phrase that went viral in 2014 when
with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. The two met for the second time On American Vine user, Kayla Newman,
in Hanoi this week, and the lead-up had a Vietnamese barber or her social media persona Peaches
offering Kim and Trump bad haircuts, and speculation on whether Monroee, used it to describe her
Dennis Rodman would make a guest appearance again. Historic Fleek perfectly shaped eyebrows. Five
as it was, the most enduring image was not from the summit years later, it’s certified millennial
slang, occupying print space in the
itself. It was a video of Kim smoking at a Chinese railway station Oxford Dictionary.
during a break in his 70-hour journey to Hanoi, with his sister, Kim
Yo Jong — a close aide — as the humble ashtray bearer.