Vir Das shares why comedians don’t host award shows in India

Jimmy Kimmel has once again been confirmed as the host for the upcoming Oscars ceremony. Reacting to it, Indian comedian Vir Das penned a note about why award ceremonies are better with comedians and not big stars as hosts. He hinted at how mostly big stars are roped in to host major award events in India and how this affects the mood of the evening.

Das took to ‘Instagram’ recently to share a note and captioned it: “For the five people who care. Someone asked me today why comedians don’t host film awards in India. Now many comedians myself included have scripted every film award we have. The point of having comedians host the Oscars or film awards is that for a night, a jester would humanise the most beautiful chosen people in the world since they were being celebrated already. That’s when any joke is a punch-up.”

Talking about stars hosting award events, he further wrote, “Here, egos won’t take a joke from anyone, not at their level. So, you go big. Ironically, the bigger the star who hosts, the trickier it’s going to be. So, a huge star hosting works for the people in the room, just not always funny for the people watching. Simply because the power imbalance is off. It’s only funny when the host has less power. So, you’re deciding between who you want the show to be funny for. The viewers or the winners.”

Many seemed to agree with Vir’s point of view.