Joke's over: AIB shuts down 'Knockout' roast

A day after the Maharashtra government announced its decision to investigate comedy collective All India Bakchod's (AIB) roast of actors Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh — titled Knockout — the group has pulled the video series from YouTube.

On Wednesday, officials stated that they were planning to look into whether AIB had the permissions for their show, which has raised hackles among some conservative voices for its explicit jokes. The group tweeted a long response on the fracas.

Excerpts: "No one person or force forced us to take this video down...Under the circumstances, this is us being pragmatic. "...[the Knockout] was an attempt to try something new and bring the roast format to a country where celebrities aren't known to laugh at themselves. "...Were the jokes repetitive? Crass? It didn't matter because it happened in the spirit of irony and good humour...The video came with a clear disclaimer with several age and content warnings. No one was forced to watch it.”