Comedy is by far the most difficult genre in the entire film industry; and often the roughest, too. If you do it right, you can make millions in a few days; and if you do it wrong, you can fall flat on your face. But we’re not here to discuss that. Different movie industries make different comedies. Or to put it another way, different kinds of comedies become successful in different societies, and that tells you a lot about society.
We will focus on the two major film industries in the world, Bollywood and Hollywood, and compare the types of comedies that work in both and what they tell you about society. If you watch popular comedy movies in Hollywood over the last decade or so, you’ll see a large number of sex comedies or movies with a lot of sexual humor. Whether it’s the unusual “Bachelor Party,” the sex comedy “American Pie,” or the “Very Scary Movies,” there’s a lot of sexual humor in each of them. On the other hand, if you watch popular comedies in Bollywood over the last decade or so, sexual humor is conspicuously absent, with a few exceptions such as Kya Kool Hai Hum.
The sprinkling of sexual humor in Hollywood comedies and its near absence in Bollywood clearly draws a line between Asian and Western culture. While Westerners are more comfortable discussing their sexuality, Asians are much more modest and prefer to discuss sex behind closed bedroom doors. But cynics on the outside would notice that “The Hangover” was as much a hit in India as it was in the United States. Well, that’s not entirely true. The Hangover was a success in India only in tier-one cities, where audiences are more Westernized. The film’s distributors didn’t even deem it worthy of release in Tier II and Tier III cities simply because there are no audiences for such films.
When it comes to Bollywood, people choose comedy films like Khera Feri and Dhamaal or comedies like Munnabhai and The Three Idiots, which have a hidden social message. A large percentage of Bollywood comedies prefer toilet humor to sexual humor. In fact, by close comparison, toilet humor is widespread in Bollywood comedy films and almost non-existent in Hollywood. Whether it is “Hera Feri” or the most recent “Belly Deli,” there is toilet humor in most Bollywood comedies.