New Delhi, Feb 18 (PTI) A crass remark by YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia on comedian Samay Raina's show "India's Got Latent" has left many involved struggling against the long arms of the law.

The comment on parents and sex went viral on social media on February 10. Ever since, Allahbadia, also known as BeerBiceps, has been at the centre of heated discussion. Several FIRs have been filed against him as well other comedians, including Ashish Chanchlani, Jaspreet Singh and Apoorva Makhija, who were part of the show.

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Even as the Supreme Court of Tuesday protected Allahbadia from arrest over his distasteful comments, the episode refreshed in collective memory the many times Indian comedians were criticised for their content and at times found themselves on the wrong side of the law.

In February 2015, when Indian audiences were still warming up to the idea of stand-up comedy and YouTube comedy shows were in their nascent stage, the All India Bakchod Knockout, aka AIB Knockout, attracted the wrong type of attention from religious groups, Bollywood actors, and politicians.

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A number of FIRs were filed against the group and the show's participants, including filmmaker Karan Johar, actors Ranveer Singh, Arjun Kapoor, Deepika Padukone and Alia Bhatt. It was alleged that the show was "vulgar, obscene and pornographic".

Tanmay Bhat, one of the founding members of AIB, was again at the centre of a controversy in May 2016 when political parties, including the Shiv Sena, BJP and MNS, demanded action against him and the group for a mock conversation between Lata Mangeshkar and Sachin Tendulkar.

AIB, controversy's favourite child, faced another FIR in 2017 for a tweet that showed Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a Snapchat dog filter.

The cases against AIB are pending in the Bombay High Court, said advocate Ashwin Thool, who appeared in the case in 2015.

It wasn't only AIB or its founders who ruffled feathers with their unconventional sense of humour. Actor and comedian Kiku Sharda was arrested in 2016 for mimicking Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim and "hurting religious sentiments" on popular TV show "Comedy Nights with Kapil".

In 2021, an FIR was filed against the makers of "The Kapil Sharma Show" for showing actors drinking alcohol during a courtroom scene on the stage.

In 2020, at least eight people sued comedian Kunal Kamra, who has been critical of the BJP, the judiciary and the larger government machinery in his shows, for contempt of the Supreme Court.

Attorney General K K Venugopal gave his approval to initiate contempt proceedings against Kamra for his tweets, saying that his tweets were in "bad taste".

The comedian said in response, “The suggestion that my tweets could shake the foundations of the most powerful court in the world is an over-estimation of my abilities”.

The contempt proceedings against Kamra is pending in the Supreme Court, said a lawyer associated with the case.

This wasn't the first or last time Kamra was slammed for his views and jokes.

In January 2020, Kamra confronted news presenter Arnab Goswami on an Indigo flight, leading the airline to ban him from flying with it for the next six months.

A similar action was taken by Air India, SpiceJet and GoAir after civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri's tweet suggesting other airlines to follow suit.

Celebrated comedian Vir Das, who has slammed the news media in the latest controversy involving Raina and Allahbadia, faced a police complaint in 2021 after his show, "I Come from Two Indias" at the John F Kennedy Centre in Washington DC.

Das uploaded a six-minute clip from the monologue on YouTube that was critical of India in its fight against Covid-19, crime against women, and crackdown against comedians.

The outrage against Das erupted from a segment where he said, "I come from an India where we worship women during the day and gang-rape them during the night."

Comedians Munawar Faruqui and Nalin Yadav were arrested in January 2021 in Madhya Pradesh for alleged objectionable remarks about Hindu deities and Home Minister Amit Shah. The apex court ordered that the comics be released on interim bail after a month.

A video posted on Instagram in May 2024 showed Yadav and his younger brother getting beaten up some people. Yadav wrote that it had been three years since his arrest and he is now identified as "anti-national" in his hometown.

Faruqui too faced the cancellation of several of his shows across the country following the incident.

Despite the momentary relief from the apex court, the case involving Allahbadia and Raina may still be far from over. It does come as a reminder that comedy in India is no laughing matter.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)