Even as stand-up comic Kenny Sebastian has maintained that the screenshots of him abusing people on Instagram are “fake” in spite of several video grabs of the same comments, videos of him screaming out similar slurs are now emerging.
A old video of Kenny Sebastian livestreaming a game shows him saying saying “B*chod (sister-f*cker)” and “R*ndi (prostitute)”. As he utters those words, his fellow players, which includes AIB founder Tanmay Bhat, appear to gasp in surprise, before covering up with nervous laughter. Sebastian immediately says “sorry”, following which Bhat tries to diffuse the tension by saying the “Kenny is losing his sh*t.”
In yet another livestreaming game video, Kenny Sebastian can be seen saying “l*wda (penis)”, “madarch*d (mother-fucker)”, and “Behen ke l*wde (sister’s penis)”
Last night, screenshots of Kenny Sebastian directing vile abuse on Instagram users had appeared on Twitter. Kenny Sebastian was responding to the fans of activist-influencer Madhur Singh, who Sebastian had been feuding with on Twitter for a few days. The screenshots had Sebastian calling people “teri ma r*ndi,” saying that he was f*cking Madhur Singh’s mother, and asking a user to put burnol in “your mom anus.”
After these screenshots had gone viral, Kenny Sebastian had claimed on Twitter that there were “fake screenshots” that are circulating about him, and urged his fans to pay no heed to them.
However, several video grabs of the same comments had soon emerged, which Sebastian has yet to respond to.
Screen recording 2 pic.twitter.com/efbWhp3uyW
— swadeshi mojito (@desimojito) July 8, 2020
The National Council for women has also taken cognizance of the issue. “NCW has been tagged in posts with snippets of misogynistic comments made by stand-up comedian @knowkenny. We’ve also observed his statement claiming them to be fake. Our Chairperson @sharmarekha has written to @DGPMaharashtra for immediate investigation in the case,” its official account had tweeted.
An official inquiry will likely determine if Kenny Sebastian had indeed made those statements, but if they’re real, it would be yet another black mark for India’s stand-up comedy scene . For a prominent comedian to publicly imply that fucking someone’s mother is an insult to them denies women the agency they so deserve, and reduces them to mere sex objects. Patriarchal slurs like these are not only deeply disrespectful to women, but can also lead to sexual violence in the real world. Kenny Sebastian had tried to explain away the screenshots as fake, but with videos now emerging of him using the exact same slurs, and the Maharashtra Police now investigating the case, it would appear that the young comedian might have some more explaining to do.
