Skip to main content

Hari Kondabolu makes America laugh about America again


Even though Indian-American comic Hari Kondabolu was born in Queens, xenophobes frequently tell him to go back to places like Iraq, Afganistan, and Libya. "Whatever nation our country is bombing, I'm told to go back there at the worst time to go back," he says. But in Denmark, during a particularly awful performance, he was told to go back to America. Maybe that was a sign of how bad things have gotten here in the States, or maybe it was a sign that Kondabolu had finally proven himself as a Mainstream American Comic (Kill Rock Stars), the sarcastic title of his new album.

Kondabolu's comedy is politically observant—he's not getting on a soapbox and forcing his beliefs on the crowd, he's just starting a conversation about topics he thinks the entire country should be talking about, like health care, sexism, and racism. And it seems like he has successfully contributed to activist efforts through his comedy—an image on the comic's Tumblr shows a protest sign featuring a joke from his first album, Waiting for 2042: "Telling me I'm obsessed with race in America is like telling me I'm obsessed with swimming while I'm drowning."

On Mainstream American Comic Kondabolu contends with his distaste for Bobby Jindal and the phrase "all lives matter," but without ever getting too serious. And among the album's lighter moments he tells a story about getting a photo taken with Joe Biden just for the social media likes; breaks into a Doc Brown impression (the only one he's got); and discusses the dissonance between the phrase "nocturnal emissions" and the act it describes ("Nothing is more mainstream American than a come joke!" Kondabolu declares). It's this combination of his political point of view and casual silliness that makes Kondabolu the important new kind of everyman comic America needs.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Kamma Cine Heroes

1) N.T.Rama Rao 2) Akkineni Nageswara Rao 3) Gattamaneni Krishna 4) Sobhan Babu (Uppu Sobhana Chalapathi Rao) 5) Gummadi Venkatwsara Rao 6) Maganti Murali Mohan 7) Manchu Mohan Babu 8) Kongara Jaggayya 9) Giri babu (Yerra Seshagiri Rao) 10) Sridhar Surapaneni  11) Madala Ranga rao 12) Nandamuri Bala Krishna 13) SaiChand Tripuraneni 14) Akkineni Nagarjuna 15) Daggubati Venkatesh 16) Gadde Rajendra Prasad 17) Raja Sekhar (Kasukurthi) 18) Daggubati Raja 19) Bhagya Raj 20) Nandamuri Hari Krishna 21) Veeramachineni Jagapathi Babu 22) Meka Srikanth 23) Vadde Naveen 24) Tottempudi Venu 25) Gattamaneni Mahesh Babu 26) Junior. N.T.R 27) Sivaji Sontineni 28) Nandamuri Taraka Ratna 29) Nandamuri Kalyanaram 30) Yarlagadda Sumanth 31) Tottempudi Gopi Chand 32) Manchu Vishnu Vardhan 33) Manchu Manoj 34) Edara Naresh 35) Edara Aryan Rajesh 36) Ram Pothineni  37) Myneni Sarvanand 38) Daggubati Rana 39) Akkineni Naga Chaitanya 40) Nani (Ghanta Naveen Kum...

Kamma Movie Directors

List of Kamma Movie Ditrectors 1) Gudavalli Ramabrahmam 2) Akkineni Lakshmi Vara Prasad (LV Prasad) 3) Kovelamudi Bapayya 4) Veeramachineni Madhusudhana Rao 5) Kovelamudi S.Prakasa Rao 6) Kolli Pratyagatma 7) G.Sambasiva Rao 8) Tammareddy Krishnamurthy 9) Mannava Balayya 10) Tatineni Prakasa Rao 11) Tatineni Rama Rao 12) Tatineni Prasad 13) Kovelamudi Raghavendra Rao 14) Gutta Ramineedu 15) Kolli Hemambaradhara Rao  16) Uppalapati Visveswara Rao 17) Tripuraneni Maharadhi 18) Tripuraneni Gopichand 19) Tottempudi Krishna 20) Madala Ranga Rao 21) Siva Nageswara Rao 22) Uppalapati Narayana Rao 23) P.Sarat 24) A.Mohan Gandhi 25) Bezawada Gopal 26) T.Kranthi Kumar 27) Maganti Vijaya Bapineedu 28) Tammareddy Bharadwaj 29) Akkineni Kutumba Rao 30) K.Vasu 31) Edara VV Satyanarayana 32) Muppalaneni Siva 33) Yalamanchili VS Chowdary 34) Theja Jasti 35) Sreenu Vytla 36) Koduri Srisaila Sri Rajamouli 37) Vemulapalli Srikanth 38) AS Ravikumar Chowdary 39)...

Kamma Business/ Industrial establishments in Tamilnadu

Some of the Listed and unlisted companies owned by Kammas established in Tamilndu 1) KG Group (KG Denim, KG Hospital etc.,) 2) PSG Group (Business, Educational Institutions, Hospital) 3) Lakshmi Machine works (LMW) 4) Lakshmi Mills 5) Craftsman Automation 6) Cethar Vessels 7) Star Health and Allied Insurance 8) UMS Group (Electrical and Electronics Equipments) 9) Suguna Group (Pumps and Foundry) 10) Elgi Eqipments 11) LG Balakrishnan and Bros., 12) Rajshree Sugars 13) Sri Venkatesa Group (Spinning and Ginning Mills) 14) Suguna Foods 15) Premier Mills 16) Pioneer Hatcheries 17) Sri Jayavilas Group (Textiles, Power, Transport) 18) Super Spinning Mills 19) PRICOT Group (Textiles and Fabrics) 20) PRICOL 21) CRI Pumps 22) Trimax International (Mining and Minerals) 23) Archean Group (Mining and Minerals, shipping & Power) 24) Beardsell Ltd., 25) Eltex Group (Engineering, Textiles, Flour milling, Foundry) 26) Srinivasa Shipping and Property Development 27)  Uniply Industr...

Satyanarayana Chowdary Nadella Announced as Microsoft's New CEO

After a five-month search, Microsoft has named Satya Nadella its new CEO. He's the third CEO in the company's history. Satya Nadella was born in 1967 in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India to Kamma parents B. N. Yugandhar (Father) and Prabavati Nadella (Mother). His father B. N. Yugandhar is an 1962 batch Indian Administrative Service officer (IAS) hails from the Bukkapuram village, Anantapur district , B. N. Yugandhar was a member of the Planning Commission during 2004-2009 under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He has also served as secretary to the prime minister, secretary, rural development, and as a director of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration.  BN Yugandhar      Anupama                                          ...

G.D.Naidu, first generation Kamma Industrialist

G. D. Naidu (Gopalswamy Doraiswamy Naidu) was an Indian Inventor and engineer who is sometimes referred as the Edison of India. He is credited in manufacturing the first electric motor in India. His contributions were primarily industrial and span the fields of electrical, mechanical, agricultural (Hybrid cultivation) and automobile engineering. First of all he is a scientist but he studied up to only third standard. Naidu was born on March 23rd , 1893 , in Kalangal, near Coimbatore. He began his transport business in 1920 , with the purchase of a passenger auto-coach. He drove it for the service between Pollachi and Palani. In a few years, his United Motor Service (UMS) owned the most efficient fleet of public transport vehicles in the country. In 1937, the first motor to be produced in India, was brought out from G D Naidu's UMS factory. He invented an electric razor - Rasant - that gave users far more shaves than other existing options, in the international market. Among his ot...

List of Kamma Cine Heroes (Updated)

List of Kamma Movie stars: 1) Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao 2) Akkineni Nageswara Rao 3) Gattamaneni Krishna 4) Sobhan Babu (Uppu Sobhana Chalapathi Rao) 5) Gummadi Venkatwsara Rao 6) Maganti Murali Mohan 7) Manchu Mohan Babu 8) Kongara Jaggayya 9) Giri babu (Yerra Seshagiri Rao) 10) Sridhar Surapaneni (Mutyalamuggu fame) 11) Madala Ranga rao 12) Nandamuri Bala Krishna 13) SaiChand Tripuraneni 14) Akkineni Nagarjuna 15) Daggubati Venkatesh 16) Gadde Rajendra Prasad 17) Raja Sekhar (Kasukurthi) 18) Daggubati Raja 19) Bhagya Raj 20) Nandamuri Hari Krishna 21) Veeramachineni Jagapathi Babu 22) Meka Srikanth 23) Vadde Naveen 24) Tottempudi Venu 25) Gattamaneni Mahesh Babu 26) Junior. N.T.R 27) Sivaji Sontineni 28) Nandamuri Taraka Ratna 29) Nandamuri Kalyanaram 30) Yarlagadda Sumanth 31) Tottempudi Gopi Chand 32) Manchu Vishnu Vardhan 33) Manchu Manoj 34) Edara Naresh 35) Edara Aryan Rajesh 36) Ram Pothineni 37) Myneni Sarvanand  38) Daggubati Rana...

THE MAN AND HIS LEGACY A portrait of PSG Govindasamy Naidu

Great legacies have mostly had humble beginnings. But, they have all been ignited by a grand dream. One such simple dream that has enriched generations in this entire region is the legacy of the PSG family and its institutions. Coimbatore today is known nationally for its industries and educational institutions, which were founded and patronised by its enterprising people. If one were to go into the past to study the origin of the early industries and educational institutions, the PSG legacy will weave a beautiful story. The founder The P.S.G. family, belonging to the Kammavar sect of the Naidu community, traces its history to Periya Veedu Venkatarama Naidu in the later part of the 18th or the beginning of the 19th centuries. The letter `P' in P.S.G. is derived from Periya Veedu, `S' after Sama Naidu, the third son of Venkatarama Naidu, and `G' after Govindadamy Naidu, the second son of Sama Naidu. The Origin of the family could be traced to its forbear Sri Venkatarama Nai...

List of 30 Kamma Billionaires and rankings

The IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2021 shows that India has more than 1,000 individuals who have a net worth of  ₹ 1,000 crore or more across 119 cities. The cumulative wealth in the country has gone up by 51 per cent, while the average wealth has also increased by 25 per cent, the report by Hurun India said. 30 Kamma business and industrialists finds place in the list from AP, Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra. 14. Murali Divi Rs76,000 crores Divis Laboratories 179. Venkateswarlu Jasti 9,600 crores Suven Pharma  190. Veeraiah Chowdary Nannapaneni 9,100 crores NATCO Laboratories  209. Chava Satyanarayana 8,400 crores Laurus Labs 264. Satya Nadella 6,200 crores Microsoft 368. Mandava PrabhakaraRao 4,300 crores Nuziveedu seeds 377. Ella KrishnaMurthy 4,100 crores Bharat Biotech 384. Doppalapudi Bhaktavatsala Rao 4000 crores Privi Speciality Chemicals 398. Galla Ramachandra Naidu  3,900 crores Amara Raja Batteries  398. Chinta VisveswaraRao 3,900 crores...

Castes and Tribes of Southern India/ Kamma - By Edgar Thurston

Kamma. —   Writing collectively concerning the Kammas, Kāpus or Reddis, Velamas, and Telagas, Mr. W.Francis states that "all four of these large castes closely resemble one another in appearance and customs, and seem to have branched off from one and the same Dravidian stock. Originally soldiers by profession, they are now mainly agriculturists and traders, and some of them in the north are zamindars (land-owners) . The Rāzus, who now claim to be Kshatriyas, were probably descended from Kammas, and Velamas. The Kammas and Kāpus of the Madurai and Tinnevelly districts seem to have followed the Vijayanagar army south, and settled in these districts when the Nāyak Governors were established there. Their women are less strict in their deportment than those of the same castes further north, the latter of whom are very careful of their reputations, and, in the case of one section of the Kammas, are actually gōsha (kept in seclusion) like Musalmānis." Various stories are cur...

A road named after Veerasamy Naidu in Singapore

Veerasamy Road - Little India/ Singapore Veerasamy Road was renamed twice in its history; it was originally called Inche Lane, and was renamed Jalan Tambah in 1910. In 1927, the road was renamed again as Veerasamy Road, in honour of Dr N. Veerasamy Naidu (1865-1926), one of Singapore’s first Indian doctors and a leader in the local Indian community. Dr N Veerasamy Naidu was born in 1864. He was the son of Narayanasamy Naidu and Ramanuja Ammal. He learned Tamil from the age of four from his grandfather, Kuppusamy Naidu. He studied English at the Raffles School in Singapore and first worked at the lawyer’s office of Mr Cook. Unsatisfied in his job and drawn to the study of medicinal herbs, he decided to pursue an education in medical science and eventually worked in a hospital owned by Govindasamy Naidu. He set up his own clinic called Indian Dispensary in Rochor Road and derived effective scientific and traditional treatments for a variety of new diseases. He was the Presid...