MUMBAI, June 10 -- A man went to a comedy show in Gurugram, said something ugly when the microphone reached him, and within days had reportedly lost his job, deleted his social media accounts and become a national search term. On Wednesday the comedian who held the microphone followed him off the internet.

Pranit More, the stand-up comic and Bigg Boss 19 contestant whose crowd-work clips built one of Indian comedy's biggest YouTube followings, deactivated his Instagram account amid the backlash over what is now universally shorthand as the 370 rupee biryani row, Free Press Journal reported, with the Times of India, Hindustan Times and Indian Express carrying the deactivation within the hour.

The clip at the center is brief. During a cro...