You know how standup coming Vir Das said something and then a bunch of people took offence? And then people like Chetan Bhagat sought to register their criticism in a more roundabout way? Well, the social media rigmarole was taken a step further when standup comic Raunaq Rajani decided to needle Chetan Bhagat. Bhagat seemed to be annoyed, then pretended he wasn’t and it all got a little ridiculous:
Bhagat had said that no matter what his mother’s flaws, he wouldn’t go complaining about them to his neighbours. Rajani decided to mock that with this tweet --- by spinning some silly yarn.
This guy seemed to take Rajani seriously and appeared quite annoyed at what he saw as a loser ‘falsely claiming to be associated with me’. He seemed to be accusing Rajani of doing this for ‘validation’
There are many who seemed offended on Bhagat’s behalf --- clearly also taking Rajani seriously.
They played along with Rajani.
Another standup comic Angad Singh Ranyal chimed in with this clarification about the geography of Delhi and its localities.
The thing about Naraina Vihar, Punjabi Bagh, West Delhi --- people take these things seriously. Possibly slanderous allegations about mothers of bestselling authors or needling said author with sarcasm are all beside the point when it comes to geography and city nomenclature.
When Bhagat appeared so clearly annoyed at Rajani’s tweet, Rajani decided to take it up a notch with this tweet. He also said “I used to be @chetan_bhagat ‘s childhood neighbour. Ask me anything” in another tweet, clearly meant to be facetious.
By now, Rajani seemed to be enjoying himself thoroughly. Maybe he didn’t have a lot to do that day.
The deliberately badly photoshopped image was proof that Bhagat was being ribbed and many were really amused.
In this tweet, Bhagat seems to be backpedaling; pretending that others (not he himself) got triggered. It seems as though the penny dropped a little late.
After taking offence at something that was clearly a joke, then pretending he was amused by it, Chetan Bhagat called Raunaq Rajani a ‘brother from another mother’. Full points for trying to cover up what was a very obvious – and alas a very public – gaffe.
Rajani seemed to have the last word.
The whole episode proves one thing – Twitter is routinely toxic but also occasionally amusing.
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