<img style="float: left;" src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2026/apr/Aastha-Atray-Banan-op_e.jpg" alt="Aastha Atray Banan" width="150" height="72" />Hi, babes, <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/news/opinion/article/either-dismantle-or-repair-damaged-postboxes-23626690" rel="nofollow">Rocky Randhawa</a> this side,&rdquo; says customer.
&ldquo;Rocky, you run a dhaba?&rdquo; Suraksha asks.
&ldquo;Rocky... I am a puppy.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Puppy as in kutta?&rdquo;
&ldquo;Puppy &mdash; Prosperous Urban Punjabi Youth.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Am I Seema aunty from the Indian matchmaker? Did I ask for your bio data? Nonsense!&rdquo;
Yes, that exchange was nonsense. Not funny. Not groundbreaking. Not clutter breaking. Not original. Not funny at all.
It&rsquo;s a recent reel put up by Mokai Caf&eacute; in Bandra, owned by Karreena Bulchandani, which became famous last year thanks to their Instagram series featuring their employees &mdash; the most sparkling of them called Suraksha Suvarna. Suvarna delivers funny lines with a dry swag &mdash; which was once refreshing, but now a bit grating. The series expanded with famous influencers often appearing as guests at the shop &mdash; like Orry &mdash; who Suraksha always cuts down to size.
But a year later, it just doesn&rsquo;t have the same punch. And this has nothing to do with <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/news/opinion/article/mid-day-opinion-does-the-scroll-kill-your-creativity-or-sharpen-it-instead-23626128" rel="nofollow">Suraksha</a>, who is a bona fide star. But the dialogues at the beginning of this column are a reflection of writing that&rsquo;s now trying hard to be funny. The script isn&rsquo;t cutting-edge any more.
Let&rsquo;s come to the Croffle Guys, who have a series called Kaun Banega Crofflepati, and their other reels try to be self-deprecatory at the assumption that one of the founders is good-looking. After a while, that joke gets old&hellip; fast. I find both of their series a bit too slapstick. In the times when nuanced comedy is the hour of the day, I just can&rsquo;t help but ask: Kuch hatke karo?
There are many more caf&eacute;s that do this &mdash; most a pale imitation of the above-mentioned, but it&rsquo;s enough to now cause the clutter, not break it.
The OG of this trend is the Brooklyn Coffee Shop, which is actually not a coffee shop &mdash; it was meant to be a sketch. Actor Pooja Tripathi turns every coffee order into social commentary, often satirising capitalism, Gen Z and the performative nature of (almost) everyone on the Internet. As witty, funny, and relevant as it is, it&rsquo;s also becoming stale.
I feel the time for doing the same kind of content, again and again and again, is pass&eacute;. Now, you need to reinvent yourself every year. Say something new, say it in a different way, and you better make sure the writing, the jokes, and the commentary shine and sparkle. Old wine in a new bottle just doesn&rsquo;t serve the way it used to.
Let&rsquo;s me try and explain it. Can you imagine a Friends Instagram handle, that featured Reels of Joey saying &ldquo;How you doin&rsquo;?&rdquo; every day to a different person? Or imagine a reel with Steve Carell doing his inappropriate sign-off &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what she said&rdquo; every day. Kill me now.
Comedy &mdash; especially the slapstick, outrageous, and irreverent kind &mdash; has to be so edgy that every day, every reel should make you stop in your tracks. Think Hacks (which is the flavour of the season) &mdash; every line in that show, especially spoken by <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/news/opinion/article/can-great-acting-be-an-impediment-23625775" rel="nofollow">Deborah Vance</a>, played impeccably by Jean Smart, is a master class in writing (even when she is being politically incorrect).
The point is this: You did great. The series went viral. Suraksha is a star. The Croffle Guys are so cool. But now, it&rsquo;s time to rethink. It&rsquo;s time to reinvent. It&rsquo;s time to move with the times. Social media is a wheel that keeps on turning, and the only thing that will work is constant transformation. Or else you will just be a Reel someone scrolls past. Maybe it&rsquo;s time to hire a real writer?
See you next time.
Ranting and raving about all that&rsquo;s trending on social media, Aastha Atray Banan is an author, creator, podcaster, and the Editor of your favourite weekend read, Sunday mid-day. She posts at @aasthaatray on Instagram.&nbsp; Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com The views expressed in this column are the individual&rsquo;s and don&rsquo;t represent those of the paper.

Cafe life content by Mokai or the Croffle Guys, or any other café, once clutter-breaking, has now become repetitive and unfunny. For the trend to continue, it n

It’s time to give Suraksha a break

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Cafe life content by Mokai or the Croffle Guys, or any other café, once clutter-breaking, has now become repetitive and unfunny. For the trend to continue, it needs a serious dose of out-of-the-box thinking

It’s time to give Suraksha a break

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Home / News / Opinion / Article / It’s time to give Suraksha a break

It’s time to give Suraksha a break

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