In Mumbai last week, over 25 of India’s foremost comedians came together for a special performance, one where all the jokes were about air pollution. The evening was titled: ‘Laughs Per Minute: Breathless Edition’ .
The Laughs Per Minute format was launched by comedy promoters DeadAnt in 2023. In it each comedian gets just 60 seconds on stage to make their mark. The first ‘Breathless Edition’ took place in new Delhi last March.
For both these shows, DeadAnt partnered with Asar, an organisation whose work focuses on Air Quality & Climate Change.
The state of Mumbai’s air quality was front page news recently when Bryan Johnson, a multi-millionaire entrepreneur whose X profile reads ‘Conquering death will be humanity’s greatest achievement’, walked out of a podcast in the city because of the air quality.
The incident sparked controversy but in doing so, effectively raised awareness of what is a very real problem. And this is the thinking behind the comedy event.
Ravina Rawal, founder and CEO of DeadAnt said: ‘This isn’t just another show—, it’s part of a broader mission to use the arts as a force for impact. We are delighted to partner with Asar… in raising awareness on the rising air pollution in the country, and stripping away the abstraction around air pollution, driving home the reality of what’s at stake—without the doomscroll.
‘At DeadAnt, we believe comedy can be more than just entertainment—it can spark conversations, shift perspectives, and even catalyse change. This edition is designed to make people sit up, take notice and, hopefully, take action.’
Brikesh Singh, Chief of Communications at Asar was behind the original idea for the Breathless Edition.
Brikesh, who ‘moonlights’ as stand up comic himself, explains how this came about:
‘In June 2017, when I had just moved to Delhi to work on the critical air quality issue, I started attending and performing stand-up comedy at open mics across the city.
‘In two years, I had attended countless shows and performed at 100 open mics through severely polluted Delhi winters. But there was one question that I couldn’t shake off: Why did worsening air quality rarely feature in these shows despite the National Capital Region choking for months on toxic air?
‘What was brewing in my head for years has finally transpired into ‘Laughs Per Minute: Breathless Edition’—a first-of-its-kind event where 20 well-known comics came together to perform an air quality-themed show in Delhi on March 10.
‘After all, laughter is often acknowledged as a universal language, and humor is a means to capture attention like nothing else.
‘For the general public to take air quality seriously, they need to understand it better. But for them to understand it, information needs to be made more accessible.
‘To achieve this accessibility, we need to move beyond jargon-filled discussions on air pollution, beyond visuals of the India Gate playing a disappearing act behind a layer of dense smog, and beyond regular news headlines. We need to humanize the impact of air pollution, to be anywhere close to communicating its impact effectively.
‘Humor could be one of the most powerful tools to achieve this – to galvanize public action and awareness about air pollution.
‘In a country where humor is deeply ingrained in the cultural fabric, stand-up comedy serves as more than just entertainment. It’s a mirror reflecting society’s idiosyncrasies, a platform for social commentary, and a catalyst for change. Comedians not only have the remarkable ability to address sensitive issues with wit, satire, and insight, but they also have the power to break down complex issues and make them more accessible.’