Deliver a joke in an Indian accent and you’re a hit in the US. This recipe for success has been used by Indian-origin comedians such as Aziz Ansari, Russell Peters or Kal Penn, who normally speak in an American accent.

“This is how I talk, I’m not doing a bit. There’s no Apu from The Simpsons joke coming up,” clarified Indian comedian Vir Das during his debut on talk show host Conan O’Brien’s late-night television show.

As part of his global Netflix stand-up special titled Abroad Understanding, Das crafted a comedy show for the audience in his home country and the West, in this case, the US – and used the worst of both worlds.

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“Everybody’s complaining too much, you have to work this out, guys. Everybody’s like, ‘man, we didn’t’ vote for this guy, now we gotta live with him – to you Americans, that’s your president. To most Indians, that’s a marriage.”

He follows a slightly predictable pattern – taking on the US president’s policies and the resultant hate crimes, along with the surge of conservative religious fervour in both India and the world – but doesn’t fail to tickle the funny bone.

“When we (Indians or ‘brown people’) get shot, there’s an investigation. I’m not worried about hate crime, I’m Hindu. If you murder me, I get karma, I’ll come back as Beyoncé.”

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Das, who has been vocal about pressing problems in India through his YouTube channel, didn’t shy away from talking about radical religious sentiments on the global platform.

He suggested that religious tolerance might be boosted if old ideas were to be interpreted in tune with changing times – just the way Apple launches new phones and alerts users to upgrade their apps.

“How nice would that be? We need Islam 6S, Jesus Pro.”

The Indian comedian also came up with a line that could help him escape the offensive nature of his jokes: “I’m just a comedian, I’m not your president”.