Zarna Garg — Can brown mums be funny?

For women of colour growing up meant becoming serious and that if there are going to be any jokes made, they would be at the expense of women, says Zarna Garg. She is an Indian immigrant wife, mom, producer, screenwriter, and lawyer turned comedian who breaks the serious brown mom stereotype by simply doing comedy.

Today Zarna is known for being the funny brown mom, a comedian with over 60 million followers on TikTok, and who can be seen on various comedy shows. But how did she become the funny brown mom?

How did she become a comedian?

Zarna had lost her mom at an early age in life and a way to cope with everything life threw at her was by being funny. Humour was not just a coping mechanism, but also her approach to being integrated into society. Soon enough she was able to make light of any situation and this was the start to her becoming the comedian we know of today.

How she became the funny brown mom first started with her making her children’s friends laugh. Even when she was upset at her kids, they always saw what she was doing as funny. Soon enough, she wanted to make people laugh online and that was how the name funny brown mom came to be, as that was what she was literally known as.

When she became a comedian it was not because of the art, rather she approached it from a business mindset. She always considered who that audience is, and who would be interested in seeing her perform. By seeing comedy through this type of lens this made it easier for her to focus and make a career out of it. Being in this career has also made Zarna aware of the difference in how men and women are expected to be in the comedy space.

How do men and women behave in comedy?

In the comedy field, it seems like men are more inclined to say “no” to what they are not comfortable with doing. However, for women they are more likely to be charitable and generous, which can be a huge disadvantage for them. There are times when women have to do comedy that does not suit them, or they are asked to do their show for cheaper, or in some cases to perform for free.

Women are not taught to say no at an early age, rather we are taught to cave into feeling guilty and to try to accommodate everyone. As women we have to hold ourselves to the same standards we hold men too. We have to realise that it is okay for us to decline a job when it does not suit us and that saying “no” is an acceptable answer.

For Zarna, saying “no” means making sure she gets paid and staying true to the brand she has created as a comedian. It also means bringing awareness to serious social issues within her culture.

How does comedy raise awareness?

When using comedy as a way to spread awareness it takes a different approach to how it is done in a serious manner. Comedy is able to exaggerate a situation a bit, it is able to make it more satirical, and in other ways it makes us consider what is being said because we know there is some truth to it.

Zarna gets inspiration from what she had heard as a child from her grandparents or those around her and she makes it a humorous situation. Despite her making light of serious situations, and stating that she is a comedian, with comedy there will always be people who take what she says to heart. Instead of taking what hate she gets from the public, she takes it as a compliment and that takes a strong mind and heart to overcome.

Although there are some people who have strong emotions about what Zarna says, she is also able to inspire other women with her comedy.

How can comedy inspire women?

Growing up as South Asian women, as brown women, there is this expectation that we have to be serious in everything we do. We have to get a serious career, we have to earn a specific amount of money, we have to have children, we are not taught that it is alright for us to be comical. We need to make it known that we are not here to have children, age, and go without making a noise at some point.

As women we cannot live in this archaic lifestyle where men take care of us when we are old and we just fade out of existence. We need to make ourselves known, we need to make our needs and potential known.

By Zarna making a name for herself as a comedian, she is not only breaking the expectation of South Asian women being serious all the time, but she is also making herself known. She has made a career for herself, she does not want to be taken care of by her kids or by men, and she is breaking the mould society has put in place for her. Through doing all of this, she is inspiring, not only South Asian women, but women of different ethnicities as well.

South Asian women are born with different restricting expectations. We can only be serious, we can only be mothers, we can only have serious careers, we have to rely on the men in our lives to take care of us. Zarna has proven to us that we are more than what we are taught to be. We are so much more than what these expectations and society make us out to be, we are able to live for ourselves and make a name for ourselves.

LISTEN TO ZARNA GARG EXPLORE SOUTH ASIAN WOMEN’S LIVES FURTHER ON MASALA PODCAST:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5hU5H25D3jTTD9bgiL9yuA

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