When you open the live YouTube comments of a Malayalam news channel, you will find not just the news but a whole other world of entertainment. It is a world where random strangers from different parts of the world chat, comment, and gossip about numerous things happening around them, and the funny thing is, it may have nothing to do with the news being discussed above.
For example, when the anchor is explaining a serious political development or a very sensitive issue, someone randomly types, “Good morning from Qatar”, even though it has nothing to do with the issue happening above. The comments follow, and a whole new conversation revolves around it. People do not even mind the news happening above, whether it is serious or sensitive; they simply carry on with their conversations.
As the panelists begin shouting over each other during a serious debate, one viewer sums up the entire discussion better than the channel ever could: “Five people are talking, and nobody can hear anything”.
That’s the magic of these comments; they don’t tend to mind the script, and they just keep on arguing with each other and sometimes with invisible enemies who may or may not exist. Here, everyone is an expert and every opinion is urgent. Whether it’s a retired teacher living their retired life or a bored college student, they all chat and converse irrespective of their age or background.
When there is hot breaking news happening above, students will make random comments, casually asking, “What happened today in class, or are you coming tomorrow?” They have WhatsApp, Instagram, and every other method of communication. Yet they still choose these live comment sections for their chats. The comment sections have become a platform for entertainment.
What’s striking is how little patience the comment sections have for structure. Here, long explanations are not needed, facts are ignored, and when the studio conversations slow down, the comments take over with sarcasm, speculation and firm conclusions with absolute certainty. In this space, truth is rarely debated, but it is declared. As one comment confidently puts it, “There’s only one truth on this story… and that happens to be my opinion.
In the end, the live comments on the Malayalam news comment boxes are not, of course, about the news. They are simply a side broadcast that is messy, hilarious, and reassuring all at once. You might not go out into the world any wiser or with new information. Still, you will certainly leave entertained, trying to figure out how a conversation about national issues somehow morphed into everyday topics and got stuck there. Perhaps the answer is that, beneath all the news, this is simply “Kerala thinking out loud one comment at a time.”
