Twitter slams R Madhavan for 'Islamophobia' after his old joke on polygamy and Muslim men resurfaces

An old video of actor R Madhavan has resurfaced and it shows him telling a joke about polygamy and Muslim men. Internet users have slammed the actor for ‘Islamophobia’. (Also read: R Madhavan wishes sister on 50th birthday, says ‘privilege being your brother’)

The video shows Madhavan saying, “He is a very profound doctor, a gastroentologist and he got a call from his patient Mr Abdul and he said ‘Doctor saab, my wife is very very ill. She is in big pain, she has a stomach ache and she cannot sit. Can I come over to your clinic?’ The doctor said, ‘Yes, by all means’. And, like all patients today, Abdul had done his research he has gone to the internet and said usko ye ho sakta hai wo ho sakta hai (she may be infected with this one or that one)'. ”

The actor further said, “The doctor asked him not to worry. He checked her, and then told him ‘Let me tell you, she has an infected appendix. So I have to do a surgery and she will be fine. The surgery was done and she was fine. Abdul was a happy man. One year later, Abdul called the doctor again and said 'Sir, my wife has got a stomach ache, please do the appendix operation and she will be fine'.”

“Doctor said listen ‘I am the doctor, let me do the diagnosis, please bring her to the clinic, then we will fix it’.” Madhavan further detailed how Abdul kept insisting that the doctor must fix an operation date immediately and must not bother about the diagnosis at all.

“The doctor finally lost it and said 'Listen I am the doctor, let me do the diagnosis. Every human being only has one appendix and I have already taken out the appendix. So please do not tell me how to do my job’. Abdul patiently waited for the doctor to finish with his assumptions and then he shot back very meekly ‘Sir, I agree with you. Every human being can have only one appendix, but a man can have two wives, right?’”

Businessman Harsh Goenka shared the video on Twitter recently, and the reply section was flooded with users slamming the actor for Islamophobia. One of the users tweeted, “@ActorMadhavan ka Abdul se obsession jaa nahi raha hai (Madhavan's obssession with Abdul does not fade). Islamophobia.”

“Would you have enjoyed the joke as much if the character was Rama Prasad and not Abdul and would @ActorMadhavan have cracked the joke if the joke was on Ranganathan? Let me add these emojis (laughing face) to make this tweet hilarious,” one of them wrote.

Another one added, “Didn't expect this from him. But as people say - a great actor may not be a great human. I have many non-muslim friends who remarried when their 1st marriage didn't work out. Some even remarried with a few months. So this 2nd wife story is nothing but intolerance/hatred."