‘Ye koi chai hai?’ What did Kunal Kamra say in his tea-seller joke? Netizens try to guess whom it’s about

Kunal Kamra has stirred another controversy with his apparent dig at Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. However, in the same comedy special called “Naya Bharat”, he cracked jokes on many other topics like Anant Ambani’s wedding, Ola Electric, and men’s rights activism.

One of his jokes is a classic example of misdirection mixed with exaggeration and a touch of satirical nostalgia.

Kamra starts by painting a romanticised picture of 1970s India, the kind of nostalgic fantasy many people have about a “simpler” past. This builds an innocent, almost poetic expectation. People are led to believe he genuinely wishes for a peaceful, laid-back era.

“I want to travel in 1970s India because India was great those days…whatever I read about that time. It was a beautiful time. No roads. No tolls. Vehicles were fewer. We had only trains then,” Kunal Kamra started.

Then comes the misdirection.

“We could get on a random train, get down at a station and look at someone and say…”

It still sounds harmless. People expect him to talk about connecting with strangers or exploring India.

Then comes the punchline:

“You call it tea, (cuss word)? No wonder your wife left you. Who’s this kid with you? He’ll grow up to be bald.”

His outburst shatters the serene picture he just built. The contrast between the calm nostalgia and the brutal insult is what makes it “funny”. It’s absurd and deliberately offensive, catching the audience off guard.

“Who’s this joke about? Who knows! Your guess is as good as mine,” Kunal Kamra says to a cackling audience.

Rahul Gandhi’s parody account, Rofl Gandhi 2.0, shared a clip of Kunal Kamra’s joke while the entire video of the standup special is still available on YouTube.

“Aise kon dhota hai?” quipped one Instagram user.

“Is sajjan ko kya takleef hai bhai,” asked another user.

“How desperately he is asking for trouble,” wrote one user.

“Chai...bola toh log ek ke baar mein samaj jate hai (When you said tea, people get it immediately). । Love you bro!” came from another user.

Kunal Kamra on Bhavish Aggarwal

Earlier, Kunal Kamra clashed with Ola Electric CEO Bhavish Aggarwal after the standup comedian criticised Ola e-scooters catching fire. Aggarwal slammed him on social media. Kamra referred to this episode in his comedy special.

“What did I even say that made him so furious? It’s simple, you manufacture two-wheelers, and neither of their wheels works. And yet, he tells me, ‘Come work with us, let’s build India together'," Kamra said.

“Why do these businessmen have a fetish for building India? You can’t even build a decent bike, and now you want to build the whole country?” he added.