India's Got Latent's Samay Raina Wants 'Ad Revenue' From Deepika Padukone Depression Joke: 'Outrage On My YouTube So That...'

Comedian Samay Raina recently mocked the backlash he received after a contestant of his show, India's Got Latent, trolled Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone's depression story.

For those unversed, the controversial joke was made by a female contestant, Bunty Banerjee. She said, "Deepika Padukone recently became a mother, right? Great, now she knows what real depression looks like." She continued, "I’m not trying to belittle breakup-related depression," paused, and then added, "Actually, I am."

Soon after the video of the act surfaced on social media, Samay and other judges were slammed for making fun of depression.

Reacting to a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) which read, "A contestant on India's got latent trolled #DeepikaPadukone for her fake sob story which she created to defame her ex," Samay wrote, "Guys it’s not fair. You cannot outrage on twitter. Please outrage on my youtube comments section so there is some ad revenue at least."

Samay Raina slammed for his post

Samay's post did not go down well with netizens and he was called out by a section of social media users for being 'insensitive'.

"It takes courage to be on a panel where depression is treated as something trivial, but it takes stupidity to come here and whitewash it with a low-grade comment, only for some 10-year-old to later call it dark humor," a user commented.

Another wrote, "In the name of humor we only have Horse Manure dished out off late. Pure and unadulterated irresponsible mess. And by the way many of the humorists themselves have admitted their own challenges with mental health (severe ones)… yet here we are! For 2 mins of sunshine. Shame."

Netizens criticise the reaction of the judges

Samay and other judges, including Tanmay Bhatt and Raghu Ram, were slammed by netizens for chuckling after the 'joke' was cracked. In the now-viral videos, they are seen hiding their faces, and exchanging looks of disbelief.

Social media users criticised them for trivialising clinical depression, a serious medical condition that remains heavily stigmatised globally. Many expressed greater disappointment over a woman mocking another woman’s struggles, and pointed out how harmful such comments can be in minimising mental health issues.

Samay shot to fame after his standup comedy show India's Got Latent became a rage online. It has now become one of the highest viewed comedy shows. For those unawares, Samay was the co-winner of the standup comedy contest Comicstaan 2.