Star One had them, India TV borrowed them, now Sahara One and Sony too have staked a claim to the laughter champions that television has thrown up.

(Courtesy:www.sirindia.com)

Sahara One and Sony will next week launch Comedy Champions and Hasee Ka Badshah, respectively. Star One has continued to cash in on the popularity of the Great Indian Laughter Challenge with its series Laughter Champions, and assorted awards shows and news channels, including India TV and Aaj Tak, air spoofs that feature the now well known faces of Sunil Pal (winner of the first season, Raju Srivastav (famous for his Gabbar spoofs), Navin Prabhakar (Pehchan Kaun?) and Ehsaan Qureishi (the man with the quaint drawl).

Does their sudden ubiquitousness on channels mean that India was just waiting for these masters of slapstick and innuendo to rise from the obscure confines of their mohallas to take on the Great Soap and sweep us away in tides of laughter? Were we just waiting for our funny bone to be tickled by comic takes on bar girls, Gabbar Singh and inebriated folks?

(Courtesy:www.tribuneindia.com)

Then why couldn't comedy as a genre establish itself before the laughter champs made their presence felt? Why was comedy thus far viewed as a tricky genre that rarely brought in the moolah for the makers? Why did channels bemoan the lack of good comedy writing that would be effective in evoking smiles? A Hum Paanch, a Tu Tu Main Main and the rare Office Office are all that stand out in memory in a decade of satellite television, and Sab TV (with its claim of being the only comedy channel) could never catch viewer fancy. All along, it seems, we were just waiting for the stand up comedian to regale us with jokes of the strictly streetside variety.

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k...K...K...all the way

(Courtesy:www.hindu.com)

New shows have been launching with such alarming frequency of late, that you need to be a confirmed couch potato to catch at least half of them. The best of last week's lot has been Filmy's Kaun Banega Champu, that not only does a brilliant job of spoofing KBC, but has also done a promo that takes off on the SRK promo for the original. Sunil Grover does a competent job of playing Ruk Ruk Khan, down to the last little mannerism (he needs work on that stuttering laugh, though). And Suresh Menon is expectedly brilliant as the assorted celebrities he is expected to play sitting on the 'pot seat' (the seats are actually designed as commodes with the flush tanks for back rests). This week, he was Sunjay Dutt as Munnabhai, pretending to have the Mahatma as his companion in the audience, and whipping out his revolver at every wrong answer. It was funny, witty without going over the top, although it can't get many marks for originality!

Koffee with Karan, on the other hand, was a tad bland. Kajol, Rani, Shah Rukh and Karan all seemed to have conferred earlier on the quips and witticisms that would make for sparkling conversation. If only Karan would move out of his comfort zone (Kajol, SRK...) and bring in some real candid conversation with film folks he may not be necessarily pally with, it would make for a real zinger...

Karamchand returned to screens after two decades, and no, he hadn't changed one whit. One wished he had, though. The deadpan expressions, the rude 'shut up, Kitty' et al are all in place, but they feel curiously dated. The story of a murdered laundry owner could have come straight out of the 1980s, with minor modifications. Audiences today are used to faster pace and smartly outfitted detectives. Star One's DON was somewhat like a latter day Karamchand, riding his bicycle and wearing his school boy satchel. Quirky, but clued in. Sadly, Karamchand seems caught in a time warp.

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Shah Rukh Khan too slipped into his comfort zone when buddies Karan Johar, Farah Khan and others turned up to share the V Day KBC episode with him. The
episode sparkled with SRK in his element and the participants being equally witty. Regular episodes the rest of the week just paled in comparison. One gets the funny feeling that SRK is tiring of playing the grand entertainer on the show, but is carrying on gamely, nevertheless....