DD anchor joke's now on you, Mr and Ms ROFLs

Social media, as everyone on social media never tires of reminding each other, is a beast. Once you enter it, you have no reason to complain. You either live by, and with, it. Or get consumed by it.

The latest victim, apart from victim-crying by some journalists on the Indians-are-casteist survey and the said journalists' passionate outpourings and outraging on some or the other not-merely-social electronic medium, is the Doordarshan anchor reporting from the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), which concluded in Goa on Sunday (November 30).

The anchor who — yes, I am sure you have seen, and might have shared, the video — made a mess of the story, the issue and, well, even herself. The video went viral on social media and everyone had his/her say.

And say they sure did a lot. Mock, rage, fume, lampoon, ridicule — the 'beast' had made up its mind about the wits and temperament of its prey, and nothing less than a scatterbrained clown would do. A week on, according to reports, the anchor has gone into depression.

As details have now emerged, it was not exactly the anchor's fault — at least not completely — the national broadcaster, too, left her high and dry, doing a live without backup support, which every anchor, even the best and seasoned ones, needs.So here are my three questions for the super-cool Smart Alecs who LOLed, ROFLDed and WTFed while sending the 'joke' forward even as they presumably fell off their chair in a violent bout of belly-laughter:

1. It matters little what you do, but would you be able to do it on December 15 without the help and backup you will get from today till December 13? Till then, shut up.

2. Can you be a stand-up comic? Then stand up and do the comedy. We can all laugh with you. The anchor was not trying to be funny. She was fighting against odds and erred. You and I, too, do that. Just that our errors are not highlighted. So think before you mock-laugh. Till then, go back to #1 and repeat the last bit: shut up.

3. I am sure you can make smart comments while retweeting or forwarding such videos. Why don't you make original ones of your own — and there are hundreds of such class acts on social who do it brilliantly without the need for that most formulaic crutch, of mocking another person — so that we, too, can RT or favourite them? Till then, re-enact that last point.

We Indians have an admirable quality of making fun of people for coming, well, anything short of expectation. Look at our advertisements or films; many of them make a point by pointing out the shortcomings in others. Or, the other — the dark-skinned people, the fat/overweight, the rustic hinterland accent, the Bengali, the Madrasi, the bhaiyya, thee Bihari, the stutter, the lisp... well, anything but the crisp, often forgetting in the warmth and high of anonymity and distance that we are the "other". And these are only the more formal ones, closer to the border of that island called political correctness. The social media? Just multiply that with whatever number comes to your mind in three seconds.

No, don't give up on humour, sarcasm, parody and wit to suck all fun out of the medium. Just think it through if it's not original. For, now that details about the technical glitches under which the anchor did the event are out, the joke is on you, Mr and Ms LOLs, ROFLs, and WTFs. There might not be any escape or excuse for you, as, unlike her, you did those things riding the beast called social media.