Deepika Padukone joke row: Samay Raina mocks criticism received from netizens

Comedian Samay Raina seemed unfazed by the controversy surrounding a joke on Deepika Padukone’s depression on the latest episode of the show “India’s Got Latent.”

Samay Raina recently garnered headlines, this time not for his “jokes” but for his reaction to a joke about Deepika Padukone’s depression. The joke about the actress’s depression didn’t go down well with netizens and audiences. However, the comedian seems unfazed by the controversy created on the latest episode of India’s Got Latent.

What was the joke made on Deepika Padukone?

The comedian seems unaffected by the harsh criticism he has received from netizens for bursting into laughter when a contestant joked about Deepika Padukone’s depression. India’s Got Latent is an online comedy show created by Samay. In the latest episode, where he was joined by Tanmay Bhat, Raghu Ram, neurologist Dr. Sid Warrier, and Balraj Singh Ghai on the judge’s panel, a contestant named Bunty Banerjee made a joke about the birth of Deepika and Ranveer Singh’s daughter Dua. She said, “Deepika Padukone also became a mother recently, right. Great, now she knows what depression really looks like.” The joke was received with laughter and applause from Samay and other panelists.

Samay Raina seems unaffected by the criticism received from netizens.

On Monday, Samay Raina took to Instagram stories and shared a screenshot of a Reddit notification about the controversy. The title read, “Comedian’s joke on Deepika’s depression sparks outrage.” Samay wrote, “To everyone who is outraging on Twitter, one request: Could you please outrage in my YouTube comment section so I get some ad revenue from the traction, at least.” He then added a link to the YouTube video of the latest episode of India’s Got Latent in which the joke was told.

What did netizens say?

Following the gig by the contestant, where she made a joke about Deepika Padukone’s depression, the comic was criticized online for trivializing mental health. One Reddit user wrote, “People are finding it unfunny because it trivializes a common mental health condition and that too in a dumb way, comparing apples to oranges. It is punching down, unintelligently.” The judges, including Samay, were criticized for laughing at the joke. One commented, “As much hilarious the panel is at times, sometimes the panel has the most brain-dead takes like come on comedy ke naam pe kya kar rahe ho (what are you doing in the name of comedy).”