The Funny Side of the Filipino: Good or Bad

Ben John A. Alaba May 26, 2015
11322047/ M72 Prof. Gina Lomotan
“The Funny in the Filipino” The article that I’ve chosen to take a good critical opinion is entitled ‘The Funny in the Filipino’ from Rapler.com by Lilio Carreon Jr. I chose this type of issue because it is very apt and timely which is straightforward to the reality of all Filipinos nowadays. In this commentary, it gives you an idea about how Filipinos are trying to getaway the callous reality through humor. There are a lot of entertainers here in our country and even if we don’t say it audibly, we love watching them crack a joke for example Vice Ganda because it redirects us from polluted topics. Everyone seeks a good outlook in life everyday & everyone is just trying to be optimistic and it is not weird. No one in this world is problem –free, who hasn’t encounter a single problem, rich or poor, beautiful or ugly, religious or not, every individual has its own detailed conflicts in life. We can’t deny the fact that we are a happy race, at certain circumstance, we laugh when we are happy and we laugh when we are sad. “It takes just a bit of nudging our funny bones to make us laugh (Leodini, 2011).” We are known be the world as a nation with happy people and this is one of the advantages why many foreigners choose to go to the Philippines because aside from beautiful places, we are welcoming them with friendly faces and attitude. It is something for us to be happy about, but the question is, why do we still suffer and slowly respond to many inevitable different kinds of problems? Instead of putting our interest for being proud as happy flock, let us also not turn back our heads to those awful sides of smiling insignificantly. One of these is when we are called for our earnestness; we developed apathy towards matters. Perfect example would be the ‘Milk Tea incident’ where 2 people were found dead after drinking the milk tea without knowing it contains a poisonous ingredient mixed to it. It became viral when people started scaring each other like, “Give him milk tea!” It means if you want to die instantly just drink milk tea. This is one of the reasons why we are still not the happiest people, it becomes a hindrance to solved major issues to be killed on the roll like poverty, corruption, calamities & many more because we put so much attention to rubbish & frivolous topics. One of the positive sides of being cheerful always is that we gain courage to face the problems. We became braver when we smile. It is proven to be a fact in times of flood/ typhoon scenarios, houses burned into ashes, and people who don’t have stable job but we still have the spirit to continue in life and smile. It’s the material thing that is not available, hope in us is everlasting. We tend to have positive vibes every time so that we can run each day without stress & worrying. On the other half, what really saddens me as a Filipino citizen, we have big problems that we should keep an eye for like the PDAF scam, SAF troopers (Fallen 44) event, and the case of Mary Jane Veloso but we always entertain ourselves with nonsense trending news like celebrities wedding and other funny rumors which most of us put their attention to. It is not that we are not fond of watching news, it’s just that we are switching the menu into the hot plate, the one which is more trending and catches our comical minds. Most of our problems on the list are filled majority with social & political issues. The corruptions by our government officials just evaporate on the scene after many days that we’re not being suspicious and vigilant.
There is no problem with being happy every time, the matter comes when we don’t take serious action in front of many problems. I believed that being religious individuals is a factor why we can stay happy all day. We ask for God’s goodness that He will help us solve our problems that is why we are satisfied in life because we know there is someone up there who can be our best friend to share all the burdens that we are facing. At times, we direct ourselves to those hilarious things which can’t change the world with full of twists and turns. Although it’s not bad facing challenges in life with happiness, we should always discern things when to face painful and witty realities. I would say that somehow we Filipinos are insensitive about the occurrence of matters in our surrounding. Sometimes we turn ourselves to different amusing stories but we should not entertain ourselves to these distractive things that avert us to current important matters. What will just happen if we keep on smiling every phase in life? We will end up arguing to everyone, we will disappear one by one on the stage. At the end of the story, we are the ones who will decide if we will continue to laugh every time we have serious issues to face on. According to the article I’ve read that there is no issue bigger than the Filipino humor. By that, we have drawn ourselves from unsightly and ugly realities. We should not let ourselves sitting in the play, while waiting for those responsible and powerful ones to destroy and whip the problems away that construct and split our society. If we can’t change this attitude rapidly, we will be drowning from many unsolved issues, and because we are a nation, we should accomplish this as soon as possible through the help of each and every one of us. I’ll leave a quote which would summarize everything: Action speaks louder than words!

References
Carreon Jr., L. (2015, April 26). The Funny in the Filipino. Retrieved May 22, 2015, from http://www.rappler.com/move-ph/ispeak/91057-the-funny-in-the-filipino
Why Filipinos are Always Laughing? (2011, July 10). Retrieved May 24, 2015, from https://innermagicclub.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/why-filipinos-are-always-laughing/
Filipinos & Happiness: why we need to be serious about it (2011, March 23). Retrieved May 25, 2015, from http://getrealphilippines.com/blog/2011/03/filipinos-and-happiness-why-we-need-to-be-serious-about-it/
Are you guilty of these funny annoying Filipino habits (2013, September 21). Retrieved May 25, 2015, from http://kickerdaily.com/are-you-guilty-of-these-funny-annoying-filipino-habits/

References: Carreon Jr., L. (2015, April 26). The Funny in the Filipino. Retrieved May 22, 2015, from http://www.rappler.com/move-ph/ispeak/91057-the-funny-in-the-filipino Why Filipinos are Always Laughing? (2011, July 10). Retrieved May 24, 2015, from https://innermagicclub.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/why-filipinos-are-always-laughing/ Filipinos & Happiness: why we need to be serious about it (2011, March 23). Retrieved May 25, 2015, from http://getrealphilippines.com/blog/2011/03/filipinos-and-happiness-why-we-need-to-be-serious-about-it/ Are you guilty of these funny annoying Filipino habits (2013, September 21). Retrieved May 25, 2015, from http://kickerdaily.com/are-you-guilty-of-these-funny-annoying-filipino-habits/