It is sad to witness this like a country such as ours where swearing, character assassination, sexually offensive jokes are normalised in the name of 'dark humor'. Not only that, but most of the popular content creators and stand-up comedians thrive on such jokes because the audience fuels the views. It seems like stand-ups are more about offensive 'dark humor' than jokes. It is almost like every comedian knows their shows won't receive appreciation unless they go down the unethical way and use foul language. But what about ethics? It is a democratic country after all! (read sarcasm)

Up until now, Latent has had celebrities like Uorfi Javed, Badshah, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Poonam Pandey, Avika Gor, Bharti Singh, Haarsh Limbachiyaa, Rakhi Sawant as panel guests and use of words like La**e, Ma*darch*d is not only being normalised but also being laughed out. The problem is, this show airs on YouTube and has no censor. Imagine the impact it can have on a child or a teenager if they randomly come across such content. Moreover, the kind of content people spend hours watching under the name of entertainment is concerning, especially when the show's disclaimer clearly says, "Iss show ke views see hume pata chalega kaun kitna berozgaar hai."

Samay Raina's India's Got Latent

India's Got Latent has been a controversial show from the very first episode. What is more surprising is the viewers support the show in large numbers which is why the show goes on, bigger every time, with an even nastier joke. In the recent episode of the show, popular content creators such as Ashish Chanchlani, Apoorva Makhija and Ranveer Allahbadia were the guests on the panelists along with Samay Raina.

Ranveer Allahbadia's insensitive and absolutely obscene joke went viral on social media and has been receiving outrage and hate since then. Ranveer asked a contestant, "Would you rather watch your parents have sex every day for the rest of your life or would you join in once and stop it forever?" If this is dark humor, it is high time people think about where the future of this country is heading. At this rate, bullying will soon be disguised as 'dark humor' and the nation will have young kids and teens suffering from image issues and mental traumas.

How dark humor affects mental health?

Now you might be surprised to know this but the reason people like dark humor is associated with their mental health. An NIH study reveals that humor styles like nonsense, irony, and cynicism are more connected to emotional distress. Cynicism, which often involves being negative about common values, was the only humor style clearly connected to higher depression levels.

This information is concerning on many levels since the content majority of India consumes via shows like latent only pushes them towards the darker side. And for the ones who do not even understand such humor at their age (kids and teens) begin to turn mature early and not for good reasons. Exposure to such content shapes one's mind and puts them in an illusion that this is normal and can be applied in real life too! Cynicism can become a way for them to attack others and express their inner distress.

What can be done?

For starters, in a highly democratic country like ours where freedom of speech and expression is often misused, the government can intervene and apply censorship on content that included found language or dark humor. Parents can be more careful as to what content they restrict in their phone so as to avoid exposure to the kids.

Most importantly, it is high time to content consumers realise the seriousness of the insensitive mindset being put up with as stand-ups and humor.