Representing Brown Britain: A Review of South Asians in British Comedy

Comedians can push those boundaries and make people think again about race, religion, sexism or whatever subject matter they choose to talk about. Comedians can walk on stage with a mic and, metaphorically, drop bombs—because a brain, and a mouth, and a microphone are incredibly powerful things. Funny is power. (Henry & Ryder, Interview Nish Kumar: Do they just hate my jokes?. , 2021, p. 293) This proclamation by renowned British comedian Sir Lenny Henry on the possibilities of comedy and humour serves as a crucible for this chapter and also more generally for debates in relation to race and national identity, which have come to the fore in diffuse and divisive ways in Britain over the past few years. Indeed, contemporary concerns of race representation, anti-racism, equality and diversity have come to feature prominently in cultural and creative industries (Saha, Race, culture and the media. Sage, 2021; Malik & Newton, Adjusting the contrast: British television and constructions of race. Manchester University Press, 2017; Malik & Shankley, Arts, media and ethnic inequalities. In B. Byrne (Ed.), Ethnicity and race in the UK: State of the nation. Bristol University Press, 2020), more recently following the global re-emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement. This chapter considers and critiques how popular ideas of being South Asian, or to put this colloquially, being Brown, have been engaged through screen and stand-up comedy in Britain. It also looks to the potential of comedy as a medium to challenge and/or support dominant discourses as well as articulating new identifications that goes beyond stereotyping, re-orientalising and othering that has long defined South Asian communities in Britain.