Help an American to understand Indian satire

October 1, 2012 9:43 AM

CricketFilter...or IndianHumorFilter: Help with decoding some Indian humor on a satire website, namely with acronyms?

I was, as I do, surfing the information superhighway and happened on an article concerning the Indian T20 team adopting long names a la Sri Lankan cricketers to intimidate opponents.

Now, anyone who's a fan of cricket knows that Sri Lankans tend to lead in the long name department, often having 4 forenames: Denagamage Proboth Mahela de Silva (DPMS) Jayawardene, Kulasekara Mudiyanselage Dinesh Nuwan (KMDN) Kulasekara, &c. Indeed, the record holder for longest name of a cricketer is most likely Amunugama Rajapakse Rajakaruna Abeykoon Panditha Wasalamudiyanse Ralahamilage Rajitha Krishantha Bandara (ARRAPWRRKB) Amunugama.

What I'm having trouble with are some of the humorous acronyms given to the Indian players like MCBC Kohli and KLPD Sharma. I'm guessing my confusion stems from a combination of not knowing Indian cricketers well enough to know what kind of joke would be made for Kohli and Sharma as well as not knowing what MCBC might refer to (Google suggests "Marin County Bicycle Coalition").

Can anyone out there help me gain insight into Indian humor a bit?

posted by Fortran to sports, hobbies, & recreation (5 answers total)

MC & BC are slang for people who have certain relations with your mother/sister.

KLPD is from a movie called Monsoon Weddings, and sounds like its similar to blue balls.
posted by tinymegalo at 9:57 AM on October 1, 2012

MCBC is probably a conjunction of two Hindi invectives; similar for KLPD.

I wouldn't expect to find any clever humour on that site; completely frat.
posted by Gyan at 9:58 AM on October 1, 2012

I've generally found that there is a dearth of "good" Indian satire on the interwebs. There are very few places where I find articles that are not in some way insulting, racist or offensive to someone.

This article, from a long line of Onion-wannabe Indian satire sites, is borderline racist, and very weak in its attempt at humor. The posters above have already broken apart what those acronyms mean, so it's a lazy attempt. Then on top of that it is making fun of Sri Lankan cricketers' long names that have previously attracted racist jokes, which is a little surprising to me, given that some Indian names tend to be extremely long as well. I still remember an occasion where someone made a very offensive joke on Laxman Sivaramakrishnan's name during commentary of a game, with on air laughs and guffaws that clearly made him uncomfortable -- made even more unnecessary because he refers to himself with his nickname 'Siva' which shouldn't be so hard to pronounce.

Anyway, my point is I hope you don't try to understand Indian satire through this type of purported 'humor'.

I've been told that fakingnews is a better Onion clone, though it's for you to decide whether the stuff is actually funny. Their non pop culture avenues into news satire (politics / world / business links on the top) seem relevant at least.

If you're interested, one of my favorite examples of Indian satire (online) is
localteaparty, which looks at Indian society through the eye of someone speaking 'Indian English' -- Think of English with a lot of twists and turns and reverse-engineered from the grammar of one's local language, spoken with unabashed enthusiasm and no knowledge that they're skewering the language. And it demonstrates good, fearless humor without being offensive.

[However, if you really want to read good Indian satire, the books of Khushwant Singh and Jug Suraiya would be a much better use of your time. I found nothing online matching the wit and prose of these authors.]
posted by mysticreferee at 11:59 AM on October 1, 2012

I've long enjoyed this fellow's writing, which has a satirical bent, though many of the references sail over my head.
posted by irrelephant at 1:50 PM on October 1, 2012

KLPD stands for 'KHADE LUND PE DHOKA' - the literal translation in english is ' The betrayal of an erect dick' very similar to the term 'Blue Baller' like one of the earlier posters said, the difference being the term 'Blue Baller' is used for the person causing that effect where as the term KLPD is used for the person subject to that effect.

The india - sri lanka cricket rivalry is often linked with the battle between lord Rama and Ravana in the Indian Epic Ramayana which is the story of Lord Rama's wife Sita's forceful abduction by the king of Lanka ( now sri lanka) Ravana. The king of lanka - Ravana was a great king with a lot of qualities that he was respected and admired for ( this is the reason why the people of sri-lanka worship him as their god), however he was caught in the web of MAYA ( greed or lust) for Rama's wife Sita ( the most beautiful of all) , this is where his actions lead him down to the path of evil and to the abduction of Rama's wife Sita. The climax of the story takes place in Ravana's home land -Lanka ( now sri lanka) and is an epic battle ( involving a key character Hanuman - the wind god and the leader of the army of monkeys ) between Lord Rama's army of monkeys called the VANARSENA and Ravana's army of giants. The end of the story signifies the victory of good over evil and virtue triumphs as lord Rama emerges victorious thus rescuing his wife from Lanka.

People in India are so passionate about cricket that it is almost their religion. So for those who know even a little bit about that it is no surprise when such co-relations between a game of cricket and an epic story are made. PLUS it adds more drama, excitement and entertainment value for the viewers , some quotes that have actually been used as promotion of an India Srilanka cricket game on a sports channel : " Its not just a game its a battle of virtues" , " Will India's Vanarsena conquer The Lankan Giants" , Also means more TRP ratings for news channels.
posted by Inquisitive Explorer at 2:50 PM on October 1, 2012