“The UnReal Times” is an Indian satire, spoof, parody and humour portal featuring satirical articles on politics, entertainment, cricket, media, international affairs and society.
Two IIM Ahmedabad graduates Karthik Laxman and C.S. Krishna are testing our humour quotient with a website that pokes fun at all and sundry, especially politicians. Karthik Laxman and C.S. Krishna were in rural Bihar working full-time with a BJP MP on development initiatives in his constituency, Purnia, when they turned to humour for relief.
They posted a blog after the 2011 Union Budget on how dropping money bags from the sky was the best way to implement a direct cash transfer programme for poverty alleviation. They got such a kick out of it that they went on to start The Unreal Times in April 2011. It takes inspiration from the British satirical website Thespoof.co.uk. The website is managed by them as an alternative passion and has already had a few hit videos, especially one of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, as Manmohan Singham, destroying price rise and corruption with his flying kicks. A few Congress supporters filed a complaint against them. But slowly the issue died down.
Then there was this hilarious piece on a CNN broadcast journalist interviewing Bollywood actor Imran Khan, taking him for his namesake, the Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician. The Imran story was an instant hit in Pakistan; Indians noticed it only thereafter. The Delhi-based duo is now focusing on building a strong reader base and on uploading content that doesn’t malign anyone but lights up people’s faces. They make money through the advertisements.
