Comments on: The Wily Filipino redux

By: Zugzwang

Zugzwang — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 03:26:06 +0000

Helloooooooooooooo . . . . i know it’s 2 years later but I just listened to the audiobook version of ” In Search of the Wily Filipino” which is just of many schticks in the Martin book “Pure Drivel.”

I just laughed myself silly. Manolo, your words resonate. It’s absurd- even dadaist. Affectionate? Yes. I think so.

Profundity can be found in Pure Drivel. This book about nothing has more to offer than all the seasons of seinfeld.

By: ramrod

ramrod — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 11:30:31 +0000

I watched the Benny Hill Show too, lately there’s Mr. Bean. Locally, we have the old Dolphy movies which was funny but not offensive because he mostly made fun of himself or was the butt of the joke. Then we had Tito, Vic, and Joey, people I don’t find funny at all. I don’t know but I believe it was Charlie Chaplin who introduced the “man slipping on banana peel” scene, now this is supposed to be an accident but we still find it funny. Some of the popular funny people have unique physical attributes like “Dagul.”

By: Bencard

Bencard — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 10:54:48 +0000

erratum: i mean “slapstick”, not slapsick.

By: Bencard

Bencard — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 10:51:37 +0000

devils, slapsick is true humor and usually self-deprecating. what i was referring to is ridiculing someone else’s personal defects, that exist through no fault of his/her own, with obvious intent to cause pain and contempt. it is a mark of ill-breeding, regardless of wealth and “education”.

By: mlq3

mlq3 — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 05:01:59 +0000

slapstick has universal appeal. as a kid, one of the most popular shows i remember was the benny hill show, certainly not the height of british sophistication. we all like low brow and high brow humor is just a matter of what today is called niche humor marketing.

By: DevilsAdvc8

DevilsAdvc8 — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 04:40:25 +0000

I believe the humor Bencard is referring to is called slapstick. Most pinoys hasn’t yet evolved (so to speak) into liking subtle or witty humor. probably the reason for this is that only the well-educated can get witty humor. hence, the rest of the masa are consigned to the humor that they can appreciate best.

By: ramrod

ramrod — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 23:22:16 +0000

Its a shame how we “cruelly” treat the helpless among us and cry foul when we think we are being treated cruelly also. I fully understand what you mean, when my son was born I prayed so hard the way I never did in my whole life that he will come out normal and complete knowing the way disadvantaged children are treated here.

By: vic

vic — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:48:54 +0000

Bencard, I am with you all the way if a joke is referred to the deficiencies of a disabled individual, physically or mentally.
I remember a year or so, i read in an inquirer column about a “light hearted joke” by one of its columnist ( a respected priest) and referring to a Canadian disabled individual. I wrote him (with a generous donation to his charity) and put him to task about discrimination against the disabled and to make a joke about their disabilities go deeper than just light hearted. He apologized and I show his apology to a Filipino friend (a new arrival) of mine who happened to have a disabled child, and that’s the main reason why he immigrated here. to give his child the respect and equality lacking in our native country and he could never been hapier with that decision….

By: Bencard

Bencard — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 02:57:50 +0000

the tackiness of the pinoy ways is best illustrated by what makes him laugh. subtle, cerebral jokes don’t appeal to him. he laughs at physical appearances, infirmities, defects of another. nothing is funnier to him than someone being pilay, duling, maitim, mataba, payatot, pandak, pangit, utal or bulol, gago or luko-luko or bobo. he finds someone accidentally slipping on a banana peel and falling down as hilarious.

compassion to others for their physical or mental deficiencies, unless the subject is a close relative, is almost absent.

there are psychological explanations for this. one that comes to mind is “defense mechanism”. it seems ridiculing a poor, physically impaired (including speech deficient) person gives the troll a sense of superiority, a feeling that ” i’m better than her because i talk better”.

By: ormocanon

ormocanon — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 22:21:26 +0000

“The wily Filipino. How often have I gone to bed at night with that phrase echoing through my head. And yet I only recently became aware that I had actually never seen one. I had driven through Filipino neighborhoods, and everyone and everything I saw appeared to be straightforward.”-Steve Martin

Ah, he’d never seen one because he never made his search in the Philippines. The wily Filipino does exist; he is amongst us, he is cleverly disguised in one form or another. Sometimes, he appears as a religious leader.
He spreads the word of God here and abroad and in the process, he somehow manages to acquire huge amounts of wealth and power.

Know why? well, maybe its because he subtly makes his followers part with ten percent of their money and call it ‘tithing’.

One can tell if he has a large flock and powerful influence already because politicians of opposing sides usually make a beeline towards his doorstep on his birthday and during campaign periods.

Of course, again, maybe I’m just imagining things.