How are you able to laugh? Internet questions Samay's Bihari-Kashmiri Latent banter

The latest episode of India’s Got Latent Season 2 sparked a heated debate online after comedians Samay Raina and Sharon Verma exchanged jokes about their respective backgrounds. Raina appeared to engage in a roast battle with fellow comedian and panellist Verma, which involved jokes about people from Bihar and Kashmir. Although both comedians appeared to enjoy the exchange, it soon drew reactions from social media users.The episode featured Orry, Archana Puran Singh, Nishant Suri, Sharon Verma and Samay Raina. During one segment, Samay and Sharon took aim at each other, with their banter quickly turning into a Bihar-Kashmir exchange.It began with Samay roasting Sharon over her Bihari roots and stereotypes surrounding Bihari pronunciation and language. Sharon then hit back with a joke about Samay’s Kashmiri identity, drawing a parallel between getting high and stone-pelting in Kashmir, a reference to Kashmiri Pandit exodus that affected the region.After videos from the episode went viral, a section of social media users questioned whether the jokes crossed the line from comedy into insensitivity. While the segment was framed as a roast between two comedians, references to regional stereotypes, migration, and the displacement of Kashmiri Pandits have prompted strong reactions. One of the X users wrote, “Few days ago, the Maharashtra Government felicitated Samay Raina. Now, Samay Raina is mocking Bihari who comes Maharashtra for working. Do Bihar People deserve this humiliation? (sic).”Another Instagram user wrote, “How we are normalising things... what happened in Kashmir... (sic).” A third user chimed in and wrote, “Crazy how they normalise jokes on real issues and tragedies!! (sic).” Another wrote, “Abe ye sab kya hai??? Ispe hasi kese arahi hai??? Ye kon gadha hai jo kisi bhi state ko kuch bhi bolra hai?.. mana naukri nahi mil rahi is gadhe ko per yaar kahi jhaado mar leta...” (“What is all this??? How are you able to laugh at this??? What kind of idiot is this who is saying anything about any state? I understand this idiot isn’t able to find a job, but come on, he could at least do some odd jobs somewhere)On the other hand, there were some who even praised Sharon for roasting Samay on the show.One of the X users wrote, “Sharon just cooked Samay Raina. That comeback was brutal. Just Bihari vs Kashmir." Another user commented, “Sharon Verma brutally roasted Samay Raina. She absolutely cooked him. "Inframe: Sharon Verma and Samay Raina." Another wrote, “From being a Contestants to roasting Samay raina as a judge in IGL, Sharon Verma came a long way.”What Samay-Sharon said on the showIt began with Samay asking Sharon how she had been. He pointed out that she had appeared on India’s Got Latent as a contestant a couple of years ago and had now returned as a judge, while he was still in the same seat.Samay then joked about Sharon’s Bihari roots, saying, “Sharon is so Bihari that she thinks ‘Ebola’ means someone said something.” The remark played on the stereotype surrounding Bihari pronunciation and language.Sharon hit back with a joke about Samay’s Kashmiri identity, drawing a parallel between getting high and stone-pelting in Kashmir, a reference to unrest that has affected the region. She quipped, “Samay is so Kashmiri that he loves getting ‘stoned’.”The exchange escalated when Samay brought up migration from Bihar to Maharashtra in search of employment, telling Sharon, “Sharon Verma is a Bihari who came to Mumbai in search of a job, just Bihari things.”Sharon then delivered what many viewers saw as a sharper comeback. “At least I left my state by my choice,” she said, appearing to refer to the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley during the insurgency of the early 1990s.After the joke, BJP leader and Maharashtra MLA Ram Kadam slammed Raina for allegedly hurting people’s sentiments to “gain publicity”. In a recent press interview, Kadam said, “There are certain forces in society that deliberately make controversial statements simply to gain publicity. Their sole objective is to become famous.”“We need to understand that the deities of Sanatan Hinduism and Kashmiri Pandits cannot be treated as subjects of ridicule. Someone cannot deliberately do something offensive and then simply apologise afterwards. In the meantime, they get the publicity they wanted across the country for free,” he further added.Comedians have often found themselves at the centre of controversies over remarks that later led to apologies. Recently, Pranit More’s crowd-work show drew criticism after the comedian made a remark that appeared to compare a woman’s dignity to a Rs 370 plate of biryani.Earlier, during the first season of India’s Got Latent, host Samay Raina invited Ranveer Allahbadia, who faced severe backlash after asking a contestant an inappropriate question about their parents’ sex life. The incident triggered widespread controversy and eventually became one of the show’s most talked-about moments.- EndsPublished By: Prachi aryaPublished On: Aug 29, 2026 20:01 IST