Comicstaan Season 3: Inconsistent performances and a lackluster finale mar an otherwise good season

In one of the episodes of Comicstaan 3, Zakir Khan, popular stand-up comic and one of the four judges on the show addresses the participants and says, ‘pehli baar Comistaan mei aap log aise comedy kar rahe ho jaise oral exam ho’ (for the first time in Comicstaan, participants are performing stand-up as if it as an oral exam). The statement perfectly sums up one of the many reasons why Comicstaan 3 fails to live up to the benchmark set by the previous two seasons. The contestants this season seemed to focus less on the delivery of jokes and more on remembering them and not fumbling - something which wasn’t seen in the previous seasons. Don’t get us wrong though - the contestants on the show are good. In fact, in one of the episodes, Kenny Sebastian says ‘the elephant in the room is that in the previous seasons, those who were at the bottom of the leaderboard stayed there’. He added that in season 3, comics go up and down the leaderboard. Kenny was trying to emphasize that Comicstaan 3 saw comics at the bottom rise to the top. However, on some level, it can also be understood as a lack of consistency from the participants - the good ones did not perform well in every round to maintain their position on top and those at the bottom had sudden bursts of brilliance which weren’t really maintained. While all comics had their shining moments - Shreya Priyam as a lizard in Episode 4, Adesh Nichit as a rich man in Episode 7 and Shamik Chakrabarti in Episode 5 - they lacked consistency which marred a season which could have been really good. Not just contestants, but even the judges are at fault.

When feedback and scores don’t match

If there’s one common pattern that you’ll see across the 8 one-hour-long episodes of Comicstaan 3, it is that the comments of the judges and the scores never seem to match. They will slam a contestant left, right and center and still give them a score as high as 9 or 10 which left not just the audience and the viewers but even the host Abish Mathew confused as he asked Kenny the reason behind the mismatch. Of course, comedy is subjective and each comic has their own voice and audience that finds them funny. While the views of judges can be different, the least one can expect is the feedback and scores to match. One cannot help but wonder if this mismatch left the contestants confused and unable to make out where they stand in the race because the feedback they received was critical but scores were high. The scoring in Comicstaan 3 is similar to CBSE awarding above 95% marks to all students, irrespective of their academic capability. While it does make everyone feel good at the end of the day and comics are happy and not discouraged, it kills the spirit of the competition and doesn’t leave the participants with much scope to improve and grab a perfect 10 from all judges.

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This mismatch could also be the reason behind the inconsistent performances of the participants. To put things in perspective, Adesh Nichit missed a spot in the finale by just 0.2 score as Shreya, who got 0.5 extra from mentor Kanan Gill grabbed the fourth and the final spot. In another episode, the gaps between the contestants were as low as 0.2 and 0.5 which, ironically, can be bridged by the mentor awarding their 0.5 mark to the contestant who does well. Due to arbitrary and inflated scoring, Comicstaan 3 could really be anyone’s win depending upon how they performed on a particular day. Eventually, viewers were left confused and questioning their knowledge of comedy. Perhaps, the showrunners and the judges next season can take a cue from this and stop giving an 8 or a 9 to average performers to keep the competition interesting.

Roast ignites controversy, yet again

The infamous AIB roast shook up not just the world of stand-up comics but the entire country as FIRs were filed against the comedy collective All India Bakchod for their rather controversial jokes directed at Bollywood celebrities. After the aftermath of the original Roast, Comicstaan 3 had a special Roast round which was mentored by comic Rohan Joshi - in addition to anecdotal, observational, improv, sketch, topical and alternative comedy. The expectation from the episode in terms of humour was high. While the episode did live up to it to some extent as there were plenty of creative insults, it also brought out the awkwardness and the sheer discomfort felt by the mentors, judges and hosts as comedians cracked rather distasteful jokes on their weight (Sumukhi and Kusha’s body was a target of many fat jokes), appearance (Neeti was deliberately misgendered and compared to Falguni Pathak multiple times) and even skin colour (Zakir was shamed for his dark complexion). The contestants and the hosts, of course, played it cool. Kusha Kapila was notably uncomfortable as comic after comic cracked jokes on the shape of her eyebrows.

The discomfort and awkwardness was palpable and could be felt by the viewers. While there is, of course, nothing wrong with Roast comedy and insulting people - given that we are in 2022 where jokes on weight and skin colour can be extremely detrimental and have a larger cultural impact, the contestants should have practiced restraint while roasting the judges and the hosts. Abish, too, was shamed for his height and contestant Adesh got flak for not looking affluent enough. While roast is all about insults, a good roast must have insults that are creative and require some intellectual labour on the part of both the comic and the audience to decipher it. There are, of course, plenty of people who can insult but roasting is an art that goes beyond snide remarks and potshots - it must have some intellect and creativity at play - which seemed missing from the Roast episode.

The anti-climactic finale

If you have binged Comicstaan 3 or have watched the first few episodes, you probably know that Gurveen Pannu has a high chance of winning the title - except she (spoiler alert) does not win. Pannu, despite having a dream run on the show and getting near-perfect scores from the judges failed to lift the title because her set on the day of finale wasn’t as funny as that of Ashish Solanki, who eventually won. This, of course, is significant for two reasons. One, it keeps the contestants, even the best performers on their toes and doesn’t let them take the show for granted. However, to play the devil’s advocate, it also seemed a bit unfair that Gurveen’s near-perfect scores in the previous 7 episodes were not given any weightage in the finale - which made the outcome seem very anticlimactic. This is, of course, not to take away from Solanki’s win, who had the funniest set of the night. But one can only wonder if the showrunners took the right decision by doing away with the scores of the previous rounds in the finale. Was the outcome of the show unfair? No. Should the showrunners rework the format? Yes.

The hosts: Is Abish the problem?

Comicstaan 3 saw internet sensation Kusha Kapila take over the hosting duties from Urooj Ashfaq who hosted Comicstaan 2 with Abish Mathew. The contestants of the show were quick to point out how the female host of Comicstaan changes every season, with Pavitra Shetty, a contestant, going as far as asking if Abish is ‘the problem’. One cannot help but wonder if Kusha’s gaffes like looking at the camera with a blank stare while reading the teleprompter or lack of eye-contact with the audience could have been fixed if she received feedback from the showmakers. Abish, of course, is at his humorous, quirky self and delivers more than what is required of him as a host. While Kusha and Abish’s chemistry is offbeat - sometimes friendly, sometimes fiery and mostly full of roasts and comebacks - it will be interesting to see if the showrunners bring Kusha back for another season and have Abish-Kusha as permanent hosts.

All in all, Comicstaan 3 had all the ingredients that were needed to make it a hit - the right contestants, hosts, judges and mentors. Had it not been for the inconsistent performances, mismatched feedback and scores and a lackluster finale, the season would have surely outdone its predecessors.

Deepansh Duggal is an entertainment, pop-culture and trends writer based in New Delhi. He specializes in op-eds based on the socio-political and gender issues in the world of entertainment and showbiz. He also writes explainers and occasionally reviews shows in the OTT space. He tweets at @Deepansh75. 

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