The controversy surrounding the joke on Deepika Padukone's depression on India's Got Latent has not fazed the show's creator, comic Samay Raina. Even as many online have criticised the joke and Samay's reaction to it, the comic posted on Monday asking people to outrage in a manner that would benefit him. 

Samay Raina's post

On Monday, Samay took to his Instagram Stories and shared a screenshot of a Reddit notification about the controversy surrounding the joke. "Comedian's joke on Deepika's depression sparks outrage," read the title. Samay wrote alongside, "To everyone who is outraging on Twitter, one request: Could you please outrage in my YouTube comment section so I get some ad revenue from the traction, at least." The comedian then added the link to the YouTube video of the latest episode of India's Got Latent in which the joke was told.

What was the backlash about

India's Got Latent is an online talent show created by Samay. In the latest episode, he was joined by Tanmay Bhat, Raghu Ram, neurologist Dr Sid Warrier, and Balraj Singh Ghai on the judges' panel. A contestant named Bunty Banerjee made a joke about the birth of Deepika and Ranveer Singh's daughter Dua. "Deepika Padukone also became a mother recently, right. Great, now she knows what depression really looks like," she said. The joke was received with laughter and applause from Samay and the rest of the panellists.

Following this, both the show and the comic were criticised online for trivialising mental health. One Redditor wrote, "People are finding it unfunny because it trivializes a common mental health condition and that too in a dumb way, comparing apples to oranges. It is punching down, unintelligently." The judges, including Samay, were criticised for laughing at the joke. "As much hilarious the panel is at times, sometimes the panel has the most brain-dead takes like come on comedy ke naam pe kya kar rahe ho (what are you doing in the name of comedy)," read one comment.

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