Mumbai, August 30, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Actor Manoj Bajpayee has weighed in on the ongoing debate over jokes about immigrants and regional identities on comedian Samay Raina’s show ‘India’s Got Latent’, saying people should learn to laugh at themselves while maintaining respect for others.
Bajpayee, who is promoting his upcoming film ‘Last Man in Tower’, spoke to IANS about an episode in which comedian Samay Raina and Sharon Verma engaged in banter involving jokes about each other’s roots.
“If it is all in jest, I actually don’t mind it. We should learn to laugh at ourselves and laugh together, laugh at each other and still not be hurt and offended,” Bajpayee said.
He stressed that humour should be accompanied by mutual respect, particularly when people from different backgrounds are involved.
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“We should have humour about ourselves but at the same time we should have respect, not only for ourselves but also for the person that you are sitting with and where that person comes from. It’s very, very important,” he said.
Recalling an experience from his early days in Delhi, Bajpayee said a bus driver once shouted at him for attempting to board from the wrong door and referred to him as “Bihari”. The actor said he did not take offence because he was indeed from Bihar and was unfamiliar with the city’s rules at the time.
He said he later developed friendships with people from different states and that they regularly joked about each other’s backgrounds without taking offence.
“We never got offended or hurt. But yes, there is a problem if somebody coming from somewhere becomes a problem for you or becomes a problem for the community. Then there is a problem,” Bajpayee said.
He added that the ability to laugh at oneself and others, while respecting individual identities, was a sign of a healthy society.
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