After "Chief Twit" Elon Musk finalised his Twitter acquisition last month, he was seen walking into Twitter’s Los Angeles headquarters with a sink — all for the purpose of a pun — "let that sink in". None of Musk’s followers were surprised. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO is known for the multi-billionaire techpreneur and investor's sometimes-offensive, mostly-provocative sense of humour and shitposting, which has turned him into a pop-culture icon. Closer home, in India, we rarely see corporate bigwigs and tech honchos engage in light-hearted social media banter or post memes. This, of course, with the exception of Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra and RPG Enterprises chairman Harsh Goenka who don’t share memes but images and videos similar to WhatsApp forwards. Still, Mahindra and Goenka are the only corporate honchos in India who come close to Musk in terms of engaging with followers and posting viral content.
Do Indian corporations give leaders enough space to be humorous and share their candid, unfiltered thoughts with the world? Do our CEOs take themselves too seriously to indulge in self-deprecating humour? Let's ask the comedians.
Will India have its own Elon Musk?
Stand-up comic Sorabh Pant says, “Completely possible that they'll let the sink, the bathrobe, the hangers, the soap dispenser and even the jet spray in”. Elaborating on the same, he adds, shows like Shark Tank India and the existence of social media has allowed Indian start-up CEOs to express themselves more freely than they did before. “So, I can fully expect Aman Gupta to walk in dressed as a ship captain saying he's rebranding boAt as Ship,” Pant quips.
Comedian Atul Khatri feels an Indian CEO can certainly pull off what Musk did. “They can (pull it off) but will also have to speak to their HR as to what are the dos and don'ts." Meanwhile, comedian Garv Malik believes some Indian start-up founders take themselves way too seriously. “A lot of them have built their gravitas to make their employees take them seriously (and in some cases, fear them) and they don't want to lose what they have built.” As for India having its own Elon Musk, Malik says, “I hope someone would at least try”.
Corporate humour: A double-edged sword
Comedians like Pant, Khatri and Malik are used to performing in corporate circles so it is safe to say that they know a thing or two about corporate humour. Are Indian CEOs okay with jokes cracked at their expense? Pant says, “My favourite corporate shows usually tend to be the ones where the boss comes up to me and says: please do jokes on me, enjoy yourself. That usually means it's a sporting and fun work environment and those are usually killer shows.” For the uninitiated, some corporations insist on vetting jokes that the comics crack — this is usually done by the HR. Malik says, “A lot of HRs insist on vetting all jokes, and I mostly avoid those shows. I prefer them sharing general guidelines on what is okay and what is not, and I respect that.”
Pant says, “Nothing political, sexual, expletive, etc., is usually the norm when it comes to vetting jokes. I'm happy to comply because I find it an interesting challenge. After 14 years of doing comedy and hundreds of corporate shows, I think I've figured out how to do them in a way that's both creatively satisfying for me and enjoyable for the client.” Khatri feels comics should follow the general guidelines set by the corporations for these shows. “It's the responsibility of the comedian to follow dos and don’ts, so that, the corporation embraces the art form of standup comedy and not get scared of it.”
Importance of humour at the workplace
How important is the use of humour at the workplace? Musk for one, is making his employees at Twitter work 12-hour days, seven days a week, so, they could surely use some humour to relieve their stress. Pant asks a pertinent question, the world seems to be running on memes, so, why should corporate life be any different? “I don't even have a corporate job but I follow random meme accounts about office culture and find them funny,” Pant says. “It's the same reason I can enjoy House of the Dragon without having any personal experience with dragons. People being mildly inconvenienced is always amusing if you are not the people who are inconvenienced."
On the usage of memes at the workplace, Malik says, “Meme channels are almost essential in start-ups, most have dedicated channels to memes. They help keep stress at bay.” Comedians like Rahul Subramanian and creators like Aiyyo Shraddha are extremely popular on LinkedIn and Instagram for their humour on corporate culture. Pant says, “There's a bunch of comedians absolutely 'killing it' on LinkedIn as well with their corporate culture jokes. I'm not one of them, but I find them funny.”
“Reels, posts or videos — whatever is the format — they help us cope with work stress and toxic environments. So, we must keep them coming,” Pant says.
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