Netflix released four episodes of its latest comedy show, Comedy Premium League (CPL), on August 20, pitting some of India’s ‘premium’ entertainers against one other in teams. The show, which reminded me of Amazon Prime’s Comicstaan, immediately left me wondering: What are they battling for? The victory had a monetary value for Comicstaan: fame. Of course, the show’s winner would have their name inscribed on the ‘comedy hall of fame.’ But the terms of the CPL comics are already on the wall. There’s nothing wrong with hosting a comedy event purely for comedy, but a competition without a “grand prize” seems a little lacklustre.
About the Show: Comedy Premium League
Prajakta Koli hosts the Indian Hindi-language comedy series Comedy Premium League. The show follows sixteen comedians separated into four teams competing to become comedy champs. Amit Tandon, Mallika Dua, Kenny Sebastian, and Sumukhi Suresh are the team captains in this competition. “16 of India’s wittiest comedians battle in teams to be dubbed the ultimate comedy champs, with caustic sketches, sly debates, and blistering roasts.” It takes 16 comedians — Rytasha Rathore is an actor, but that’s beside the point — and pits them in various conflicts. Many of them, including Tanmay Bhat, Kaneez Surka, Kenny Sebastian, and Sumukhi Suresh, has previously served as judges on similar programmes. Some are already so huge that they don’t care about winning. Nonetheless, the show acts as if they do.
Features of the Comedy Premium League Show:
Throughout six episodes, four teams with corny animal names battle it out. They perform standup comedy, sketches, debates, and presentations. A live studio audience in masks and darkness ranks them on a leaderboard. A game called ‘Punchlines’ is played near the end of each show to break a tie on the bottom rung. It’s the fastest phase, but it’s just as manipulated as the others. A participant gets the Mughal chronology wrong while punning the word “barber,” The camera cuts to an opposing team giggling hysterically. During a typical comedy round, the team Gharelu Gilaharis defies convention by doing a spoof on Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, a lacklustre two-handler salvaged by Kenny Sebastian.
Best of the Comedy Premium League Show:
However, the timing is all too precise elsewhere. Rohan Joshi is making looks at a teammate during a roast, fearing the next joke will be directed at him. In another act, contestants Aadar Malik and Samay Raina reveal this by interrupting themselves to throw the audience. The issue in Comedy Premium League, however, is not that the gags are rehearsed but that none of them gets significant laughs. The two debate sets are enormous letdowns. Tanmay Bhat and team’s comedic sketch ‘Dance of Democracy,’ which comments on China, Corona, and the US presidential elections, would have been stale in January but is passed off as timely. Some of the most amusing situations appear to occur by happenstance.
Favourite Characters of the Show:
These comedians’ individual performing styles peek through at times. Prashasti Singh is one of the unique comics; when asked if she got into IIM Lucknow only by posing, she replies with a dry ‘Yes.’ In the same set, Kenny switches from English to Hindi to recite a few lines while still keeping time. Tanmay makes too many jokes about his AIB days, Sumukhi appears as a schoolgirl, and Rohan is dubbed the “Shashi Tharoor of cats.” The show’s weakest set is on controversial beliefs, in which players criticise chess, cricket, and covid violations. As a sort of retort, here’s an opinion for Netflix’s executives: no one loves their comedy shows walled in, and the more time and homogenised, the better.
Winning Moments of the Participants:
Everyone does their best to appear professional during the show’s six episodes. Except for Aakash Gupta, they all go through the beats without the tiniest trace of the “why is I here?” face, even though the show expects them to be humorous (which they aren’t very often). The scoring system is strange because only a few dozen people in the audience are given the job of choosing what’s hilarious and what’s not (probably due to the COVID protocols in place). To begin with, this is a defective method, especially in a society where ‘taking offence’ is a national sport. But it’s also fair that the contenders don’t push the audience, instead opting for low-hanging fruit like innuendo or inserting profanity.
Given that at least three of the IDGAF Iguanas are established writers, it’s hardly unexpected that they dominate the opening few rounds. The tournament is highly unbalanced, with other teams consisting of lightweights such as actor Rytasha Rathore, Kaneez Surka, and Rahul Dua. It doesn’t matter whether I got anyone’s team wrong because it’s all meaningless in the grand scheme of the show. The IDGAF Iguanas provide a few of amusing sketches at the conclusion. In the final, Anurag Kashyap makes an obnoxious cameo, parading around the stage as if it were advertising material for AK vs AK. Apart from the occasional giggle every half hour, there’s not much to this show.
