We’ve grown up listening to jokes which qualify as sexist, racist and defamatory. As thinking adults, we now know how to discriminate between a joke which is actually funny and a joke which is condescending/degrading to someone.
The Great Indian Laughter Challenge is going on and the judge is our very own Akshay Khiladi Kumar. On the mentor list, is our favourite Makeup Didi, Mallika Dua.
But on the show, Akshay Kumar cracked a sexist joke to Dua saying,
“Aap bell bajao, main aapko bajata hoon.”
Her father and esteemed journalist, Vinod Dua immediately shared the video where Akshay made this remark. He slammed Akshay Kumar by saying,
However, the post was taken down. Fans and websites made a hue and cry over this move, calling out the father-daughter duo. They dug up Mallika’s old jokes and said that she was no different.
https://twitter.com/KattarAkkian01/status/923216826422632448
https://twitter.com/AnuragDhyani_/status/923226135919443968
People also pointed out that since Mallika has been removed from the show, it is just “revenge”.
https://twitter.com/Huss_Master/status/923183220962684928
https://twitter.com/pandeyvagish58/status/923193452161933312
However, Mallika Dua took to Twitter to clarify what happened. She said,
“Sorry to squash your hunger for sensationalism but Facebook and perhaps a copyright claim had it removed. Find something better to do.”
Mallika has since been replying to fan tweets asking her why she took down her earlier comments. She said,
Casual sexism is something we deal with as a part of our daily lives. We see it in workplaces, we see it at home, we see it on Whatsapp group chats. But now with people becoming aware and the advent of social media, this blatant misogyny is being called out. It’s time we draw a line, don’t you think?