[drumming] [captioning made possible by kcet television] [horn honks] >> we live in the greatest country in the world. isn't that safe to say? we're so lucky to be here. like, you guys live in the only country in the world where people die from food. that's fucking gangster, you know what i mean? like that stuff they don't have enough of in africa, we just stuff too much of that in our faces, then we keel over and just die. you know, like, you can never have an argument with a kid in nicaragua about your problems, you know. he'd be like, "hey, man, how'd your dad die?" "oh, my dad? yeah, pringles. like, once he popped, he couldn't stop." you can tell a lot about people by the jokes they tell. i've been doing stand-up about 8 1/2

years. and for the majority of my comedy career, i would just kind of just tell jokes. people always have, like, really vague status updates to make it sound like whatever they're doing is really important. so i'm like, let me tell a joke about facebook. you guys like facebook. i like facebook. look how relatable i am. it was a lot of hiding behind jokes and not lling neay as hard as i thougt i should be. so stopped tryi to be funny and just started telling my sry. i never even knew how my faly got to this country. this is what happened. 30 years ago in this village in india called aligarh--anyone here from aligarh? got any aligarians? yo, i'm trying to relate, y'all. any aligarianup in here? uttar pradesh, stand up. no? ok. and the funny thing is, i got funnier. we go camping for fun. i cannot explain that to my cousin in pakistan, you understand that? hasan, man, what's camping? oh, camping. well, see, camping's this thing where you set up tents in the woods, you shit outside, the mosquitoes bite you. oh, you mean pakistan? yeah, it's like pakistan except you get smores instead of malaria. oh, you're gonna die

soon, sahil. my story had power. my struggle as a kid growing up between two worlds mattered to people. and that got me thinking, the world is full of struggle, comedy comes from adversity. this must be one hilarious planet. what if there were young comics out there just like me killing it in places i never imagined? who are the pryors or the carlins of this new global comic spring? what stories were they telling? what truth bombs were they dropping? what sacred cows were they slaying? and more importantly, how could i get in on the joke? i decided to find out. i have a bunch of frids that are also comics, and i perform with them all the time. but they have a ry different perspective, each of them. >> when i tell people i'm jamaican and haitian, they're like, oh, my god, girl, shut up. what part of puerto rico is that? i'm like what? >> so i grew up here. i'm also gay. so sorry, ladies, and

you're welcome, fellas. >> i'm from tennessee. i didn't learn aut countries in school. i learned about tennessee, and then i learned about the states that touched us in case they attacked. >> this is the situation. i've just been reading abo all these different comics around e world,nd from what i hear, they're doing incredible things. they're these trailblazers that are creating a scene and an industry where it otherwise didn't exist. >> i don't believe it. >> ok, so this is how i want to present it to the posse. these are the comics that i've looked into in india and south africa. they have these cracking comedy scenes, and these comics over there are talking about some stuff. like, serious, serious stuff. now, which one of these comics should we bring back to share their story with the rest of the world? >> could i name an international comedian? uh. could they name me? have we asked them if they can na me? >> i don't know if it's going to work. i don't know if they're going to be funny, like, i go over there. i'm honesty scared about doing stand-up there. that's their homeurf. i know

they're going to crush, but my thing, number one, am i going to understand what they're talking about. and number two, when i go up, are they going to get anything? >> there's something universal about comedy, but there's also the way it's done is sort of specific to not only a language, but a specific cture. i do impressions of people that no one over knows overseas, like jesse ventura. like [as jesse ventura] let me tell you something, it's all about truth. [normal voice] and, like, absolutely no one anywhere besides the united states knows or case who thats. >> why do you want to do this? >> i think-- >> no, but seriously. >> to me, following the joke, following people's narrative, that would be the coolest thing about this project. oh, this stuff isn't just contrived in a joke book. these aren't just witty one-liners that i thought of. this is real life. [line rings] i'm calling the laugh factory. we're trying to save the world through comedy. hello? hello? my mission was set. check out the comic uprising in india and

south africa, perform with my comrades in stand-up over there, see what they're talking about, then i' bring one comic from each of those countries back here to perform with me and my friends at the world-famous laugh factory in l.a. if there was a comedy revolution going on, i wasn't gonna miss it. ok, this is a test here. i'm in newark airport. most times i travel for stand-up, at the max it'll be like a 5 hour flight somewhere acrosshe country. but now i'm going across the world 'cause i'm going to the motherland. ok, so i just arrived in mumbai and i was dumb enough to wear a hoodie. i know so little about cricket. i don't even know if i'm in the middle of the game right now. am i blocking--i'm

blocking. oh, my god. >> [shouting] >> imagine the entire population of australia crammed inside columbus, ohio. mumbai has some of the world's most expensive real estate, yet 40% of its people live in slums. india's the world's largest democracy, but was ranked behind libya and afghanistan in a recent report on media censorship. into this clash of new freedoms and ancient limits, a new generation of stand-up artists are making their voices heard. >> ladies and gentlemen, introducing one of india's funniest stand-up comics, tanmay bhat! [cheers and applause] >> good evening. >> tanmay bhat is a rising star in the indian comedy scene who hosts his country's first and only comedy podcast. it hit number one on itunes india until it was banned for being too explicit. >> what's up? >> hey, what's up, man? oh, dude, no, no, let's do it.

>> 'cause you can't say anything on television 'cause it's heavily censored. you can't say anything in film 'cause we have very strict rules. like, politics plays a huge part in our arts. >> is there this, like, uprising of artists coming up and creating stuff? >> yes. actually, you know what, yes, in a way. especially in stand-up, even though the stand-up scene is very new. sometimes comics are saying stuff on stage just because they want to and because they can. >> after the censorship stuff, did you ever fear? did you ever have any fear where you were like, oh, i could get caught up? >> they only way to get the idea of free speech across to the government is by getting caught up, is by going to jail. like, i was watching

tv the other day, and i was watching one of these english channels. and there was a sitcom playing. and on the sitcom, this dude sarli said something. and he said "condom," and it was beeped out. and i'm like, we're in india. should we be beeping "condom" on tv? we have a billion people. we should be saying "condom" all the time. weshould just have ram kapoor on tv saying, "condom, condom, condom" from 8 to 10 pm every night. that is all our programming should be. >> i think i'm gonna bomb. like, i believe i'm going to bomb. >> really? >> absolutely. >> no, man. i think you'll ve a very good time. the indian audiences are great. we have, like, people that come to watch stand-up, they're ready to laugh. they're a great audience. >> so if i do bomb, it's all on me. >> it's probably your fault. if you bomb, that means you suck. [applause] >> guys, we have something special for you tonight. we have someone who has traveled to

india and is doing stand-up in india for the first time. please give it up for mr. hasan minhaj. [cheers and applause] more bombay love, please. more bombay love. >> oh, man. ok. this is--this is gonna--this is interesting. do you understand i don't know what i'm doing here? [laughter] i got off the plane, they said, hey, there's a guy, his name is raj, he'll pick you up. i'm in fucking india, man. how many rajs are there? i come out, there's 97 brown dudes. "sir, sir, sir, sir." no! i can't-- i'm gonna believe all of you. [laughter] oh, my god. the amount of love that i got from the crowd was 180 degrees away from the amount of fear

that i had. even for certain jokes, they'd be like ha ha ha, applause break time. >> yeah. yeah. the comedy now is so new, there's nothing that the audience will listen to and go, "that's been done." >> you guys are doing everything for the first time. >> yeah, everything is fresh for them. there are bits that work great in some places and not in other places. >> like your bit about the 54%. >> yeah. >> does it always crush? >> bombay's a shitty, shitty smelling city. that's because 54% of all indians shit outside. do you guys know this? 54%, man. this number's been going up since 1947. did you guys know in the forties it was 34%, in the fifties it's 44%. this number's been going up. basically, the british left and we started shitting outside a lot more. like, i think this is the best defense strategy any country can adopt. like, make the country smell so shitty that no one will want to invade us. [laughter] >> when you were writing that joke, were you like, oh, i want you guys to think about this?

'cause i can hear it in your voice. you keep saying it. you're like, 54%. >> yeah. 54% is a number that would shock the average guy on the street. >> 54% is more than shocking. it's off the charts. when you consider the number of people in india defecating outside, it's more than twice the size of the entire u.s. population. i decided to follow the joke, which led tanmay and me to shivaji nagar, one of the largest slums in mumbai. you didn't have to be an observational comic to notice the problem. >> you'll actually see it as we walk. just look in there. just right there. it's on the streets. >> uh-huh. doing it right here. holy. but i don't know. is that human or animal? i don't even know. >> that's human. >> we went to visit the sheik family. like most people who live in a slum, they had no indoor plumbing. 8 people, one room, no toilet. so back then people were just doing it out there.

>> yeah, they used to make their own temporary toilets. >> what the sheiks did have was kids. and the good news from where i was sitting, india had no shortage of human potential. >> these kids are sharp, man. >> that's what i'm saying. >> yeah, these ds are very sharp. >> computer engineer. he's doing better than me. but here's the bad news. all the potential amounts to nothing when 1,600 kids die every day in india from sanitation related diseases. most before the age of 5. tanmay and i met a local sanitation officer whose solution to the problem seemed logical enough: build more toilets. you know what's great about taking a dump here right now is that you can just hear this great hindi music while you go number two. what are the benefits that this sanitation block has given the community? >> but despite these toilets, i still saw that a lot of people where, you know, doing

the toilet on the street. >> it was obvious more toilets were needed, but it was also clear there must be more to the story. we went to meet deval sanghavi, one of a new generation of thought leaders looking at old problems from totally new angles. >> we realized it actually wasn't the toilet itself that needed shift or change. it was actually behavioral change. in mumbai, for example, the ocean is probably our biggest toilet. people would rather go there versus a small confined room with very little lighting. >> that has to be a tough sell because you're like, look, i get it, it's very liberating. when you told me they shit in the ocean, i'm like, that would be really nice. >> exactly. >> because just to be like, you know what, yolo. i mean, it doesn't look like a-- >> toilet? >> yeah, it doesn't look like a toilet. >> it smells like it, though. >> yeah. >> we have 1,600 children dying every single day in india because of lack of sanitation.

>> ok. >> 24% of our girls drop out of schools because schools don't have adequate toilets for them. >> wow. >> 30% of the women get sexual harassed or humiliated when using the toilet. so when you look at just the root cause of the problem. and i think a lot of our conversations have been with philanthropists who would never think that toilets is something that they want to give money to. >> yeah. when i first heard tanmay's joke about the 54%, it made me laugh. but it also made me listen. as a child of india once removed, it led me to a deeper understanding of the problem and the possibilities for change. all in all, that's not bad for a poop joke. >> in our top story, angelina jolie adopted yet another baby todaymaking her home the fifth most populated country in the world. >> aditi mittal is another up

and comer of the india stand-up scene. it's not easy for women comedians anywhere, but until recently, women in india weren't supposed to say much of anything, let alone jokes. how does that joke go? you have that joke about the tampon that you did the other night. >> you have heard about don't worry? i like that they've stopped attempting to name themselves and just tell you how to feel. like, i'm a pad. i got this. don't worry. there's such stigma. you're not allowed to cook when you have your period. you're not supposed to go into a temple when you have your period. you're not supposed to like--you are supposed to actually just sit at home. you're called an untouchable when you have your period. >> so how--where do you draw the line of how hard you're going to push? because with the tampon thing, you're like, i don't care, i'll push. >> if it's the truth, then i will defend it till the day i die.

even as a woman, you're a woman first, then a comedian. whereas the male comedians are just comedians. >> i'm a comic. yeah, yeah, yeah. >> why am i known as a feminist comic? why am i not political, observational? why aren't they known as penal comics? >> right, right. they're dick comics. >> yeah, why aren't they known as that? >> right, right, right. aditi wanted me to meet her mom, raju, a pioneer in her own right as one of the first women in india to work in tv production. it didn't take long for me to see where aditi got her moxie, not to mention her sense of humor. you were probably one of the few females working in television and film production, right? >> yes. >> there must have been push back, and it must have been your passion that allowed you to push though that. >> i did ce initial opposition, but i fought it. i rolled up my sleeves and said, come, baby. now i'll speak your language. >> ok, so then you had to just get rough with some people.

>> yes, i had to. >> 'cause aditi told me that, i mean, you know how to curse le a sailor and get what you want. >> yes. i used a lot of bad language. that's the only language people here understand. >> were there ever any moments when you were just like, i just want to quit? >> no. i'm not a quitter, basically. i make other people qut. i won't quit. >> nice. right now i'm thinking about aditi because she has no one to look up to, to be like, oh, that's my tina fey or that's my kristen wiig or that's my amy poehler. >> when you don't have colleagues and you're working 12 hours a day, it's very lonely. >> the power of hope, like it just inspires you and it allows you to just keep preserving and going through it. >> i just want to tell jokes. i want to be in rooms where people laugh and i want to tell truths. >> she's going to have to be the trailblazer. she's going to be the first one to pop. [computer chimes] >> hello. >> how's it going, man?

>> hi, hasan. how are you, mister? >> the ene here is incredible. there's this small group of comics that are just kind of blazing the way. [cheers and applause] you are guys are part of a comedy boom and i'm so excited to see what you guys do. it's going to be incredible. my trip to india proved one thing for sure. nothing is funnier than the truth. and the young comics i met were making sure people knew it. >> part of the magic of comedy is that you can force people who disagree with you or even hate you, you can force them to listen.

>> the whole world partied in 1994 when nelson mandela became the first president of a free south africa, ending half a century of racist brutality under the policies of apartheid. it's freedom day again, but 19 years later, the rainbow nation miracle is experiencing turbulence. poverty, violence, and a deadly aids epidemic are not the dream anyone had in mind. so where's the comedy in all of this? it wasn't hard to find. >> this season, we're in the thick of it and we'll bring you the truth and nothing but the truth. >> cut! >> how was that? how was that, guys? was that good? >> everywhere i looked there were signs of a comic uprising. open mic nights, africa's first full-time comedy club, and a new one-man show by one of south africa's biggest comedy stars, loyiso gola, host of the wildly popular satirical news show, "late night news." i met him at the barbershop for a quick course on south african stand-up. let me ask you this. how much has race affected and shaped your act? >> a lot. i talk about race

a lot. i mean, wherever i go, i talk about race. ok, sure, sure. >> do you feel there is some level of responsibility where you're like, man, i'm one of the first people to do it here in this country? >> as a black person for black people, yes. they still own all the big businesses. pretty much everytng they accumulated during apartheid they still have. so you can talk about numbers of black people being the majority, but real power is economic power. >> right. to make his point about economic disparity, loyiso took me to

the alexandra township, an area similar to the one where he grew up. a local resident invited us into his home, a squatters shack where his family of 5 lives. >> it brings back some memories. it's tiny. i have this joke about how it's hard to punish a kid in this space. >> when they say go to your room-- >> you're like, go to your room. and the kid's like, yeah, this is the room. where are we going? >> we're going to meet famous comedian loyiso gola. ohh! famous comedian loyiso gola. >> because i roll deep. you got the kitchen over here. i got some snacks. boom, air conditioning. oh, look, you can see a dude outside. ooh, what, mtv? we're going to go to where all the magic happens. the bedroom. right over here.

bam. everybody over here sleeping. all kids, parents, grandparents, everybody over there having a good old sleep. ooh. well, you've seen the house. you've seen the fridge. you've seen the bed. you've seen the toothpaste. you've seen my living space. now get out of here. >> oh, yeah? ok. >> like, i find the american accent so fucking annoying. it's so nasal. nyeoh, meow, maow. >> that is kind of how we sound. >> what's the problem, man? yh. wheas, like, we articulate. >> and you guys are like, basi-cally. pro-bab-ly.

prac-ti-cally. who lives in a house like this? if i knock on the door, they won't shoot me or something, right? hello? apparently this house has 64 rooms. i can't even count how many greek statues it has in front of it. does one family live here? we're doing a documentary. we're not allowed. not even for an interview? >> you can go. >> ok, ok. what if i had to ask for a cup of sugar? my trips to alexandria and hyde park left my head spinning. what role does comedy play in a culture with so much division? and how do comedians navigate all the landmines that come with it? to dig deeper, loyiso introduced me to his partner in comedy, kagiso lediga, one of

the biggest comedy stars in the country. >> as a black guy, we do kind of blame apartheid a lot. you know, you have a guy with a headache. he'd be like, hey, what's wrong? i think it's apartheid. why are you late? uh, it's apartheid. >> all right, so tell me about this pms show that you guys did. >> yeah, pms. the pure monate show. it was a sketch comedy show. the first season was in 2003. >> hello, chaps. welcome to my ranch. have you ever been hunting before? >> yeah, sure, we go hunting all the time. >> the general sense in the country was that people weren't talking about thingand that there were many elephants in many rooms and so on. and so it was very... >> so there was no such show and this was a groundbreaking show? >> yeah, exactly. this was the first time we made fun of aparthd on tv. >> right, this is the first apartheid sketch. >> right, the first. >> this summer when masses of

black people overslept on the day of the elections. apartheid ii. >> are afrikaners like, yo, man, come on, man. stop playing the blame game. or, i don't want to hear this stuff. >> well, yes and no. i mean, south africans really want to laugh at it because it's a release, you know. i think th's part of south--of comedy being kind of growing so much in south africa is because of that. >> by joking about race, kagiso and loyiso are helping heal old wounds through the power of laughter. but what about the other elephant in the room? south africa has the highest hiv infection rate in the world. can comedy help combat a problem that big? >> i really do feel like this is rainbow nation, man. it's like an incredible, thriving, cosmopolitan, metropolitan city. but do you feel like there's this need beyond just race, you gotta talk about certain global poverty issues? do you feel a need to address that stuff? >> is this working? hello? one, two. hi. i'm kagiso, and shout

it now has asked me to talk to you about medical male circumcision. >> so, are you going to introduce me? >> how i do introde--it's a video about--you're a private part. he's a private part. my member. yes, my penis. >> ok, but like a few years ago, you did that thing about circumcision where you put on the suit, right? >> yes, yes. let me tell you the facts. south africa has 1% of the world's population. 1%, right. but 12% of the world's hiv positive people. scientists have recently discovered that a circumcised penis prevents the infection of hi up to 6. >> 60% safer? >> here it is. >> this is the suit? >> yeah, i've kind of forgotten how it works. >> i don't know if this is a penis or a goth chef.

>> [speaking native language] >> now we're here to help you get more people circumcised. >> so this is our pamphlet that we usually distribute to the community and around. it has even got some pictures. >> i am a penis here as well. circumcised. >> yeah, i see. yeah, in fact, i see the resemblance. >> yes. >> oh, yeah, i see. oh, yeah, mr. penis man. let me introduce you to the group. >> yeah, let's hit it. >> ok. >> are you guys circumcised? >> because you can do it at any time. >> the pain is minimal. it's something you can endure. >> snip, snip, you guys. >> this is our center in orange farm. these are the guys that we have just transported back from different sections of our community. >> so what happens to the foreskin after you guys cut it? because when i got my teeth pulled, they put it in a little jar and i could-- >> not with a foreskin. with a foreskin, we keep it-- >> keep it? >> yeah, we keep it. >> whoa! >> people come and take them--

>> illicit foreskin dealers of, like, the world. they sell them off to, like-- >> no, no, no. >> the chinese. with rhino horns. >> welcome, my gents, to our center for circumcision. the is a one-day operation. we are going to give you a group information session telling you more about the importance of doing circumcision. >> you still do things the same way you're doing. that means you are still being careful. that means you are still using a condom. >> with regards to the anesthetic, the amount that you use, what is it based on? on the size and weight of your manhood, or what is it based on? do you kind of go, ok, two kilograms. it's going to take this much or? >> it goes different with different people. >> they use elephant

tranquilizer. >> welcome to the surgery. i'm dr. mabela. i'm going to do your procedure for you today. >> wait. before you go. >> yeah, yeah. >> no screaming, dude. >> be strong, man. >> be strong. >> is it weird that i'm eating a banana at a circumcision clinic? >> yeah, a bit. unsavory. >> a new man. >> i kept hearing about this new comic on the scene, mpho popps modikoane. unlike loyiso and kagiso, mpho grew up after apartheid, a part of a new generation of south africans who call themselves born frees. >> our parents were just happy that we were going to a predominantly white school. they didn't prepare us. like, you're going to meet indian friends and this is how they talk. you're going to meet--they were just happy we were going. ok, bye. come back and talk english, ok? don't come--if you

can't talk, don't come back. don't. >> we decided to meet at freedom square in soweto township, home of the freedom movement. it's where mpho grew up and a lot of his family still lives. >> my biggest focus is motivation, you know. i realized when i was growing up that i didn't have a lot of heroes. and if you look at my parents and my grandparents, they used to look up to struggle icons, you know? ♪ if you're blacklisted you won't be able to gain any form of credit this means you can't get a cell phone or a home loan or a student loan even if ♪ but you see, with that video, it's a rap i did for smart bucks, which is a movie that teaches young kids how to save money, how to invest money. and because it was in a rap, i mean, after the movie, kids would be singing tracks. >> that's dope. >> yeah, but they didn't realize they were being educated. >> i don't have the look for hip-hop. you know what i mean? >> you've got that bruno mars. >> all of my verses would just

be l