Isang libo’t isang ngawa

By Artchil B. Fernandez

The messy breakup of slapstick kings Tito, Vic, and Joey (TVJ) and TAPE Inc. heralded by long-time noontime show “Eat Bulaga” going off air for a few days is the latest tsika taking the showbiz industry by storm. This development is not unexpected.

For months, the parties had been publicly sniping at each other as negotiations on the fate of the noontime show hangs by a thread. TVJ and the Jolosjos family who owns 75 percent of TAPE Inc. finally called it quits after 44 years of partnership when their acrimonious talks failed. The parting however was tumultuous leaving a bad taste in each other’s mouth.

Both parties are now engaged in an ugly public spat and in a tug-of-war over the ownership of the “Eat Bulaga” brand. The court will have the last say on the legal aspect of the altercation but the battle for public sympathy and support rages.

TVJ and company are moving to TV5 while they were replaced by a new set of hosts in the noontime show airing at GMA7. Currently they are furiously washing their dirty linens in public. The nasty war between the warring parties has started and this is another cheap teleserye in the decayed world of Philippine show business.

While both sides are ferociously courting public backing as they battle for the “Eat Bulaga” brand, the “madlang people” better avoid being dragged into this acrimonious fight. On the first place, did the noontime show contribute anything worthwhile to society?  In it’s almost half a century of existence, is “Eat Bulaga” a force of good or is it a cultural wrecking train?  It’s time to unmask the show for what it is.

“Eat Bulaga” claims its raison d’état is it gives the public “isang libo’t isamg tuwa” (one thousand and one joys) six times a week. Lunch time of Filipinos would have been boring and stale if not for fun, joy, and laughter brought by the noontime show its creators assert.

That it has become an iconic fixture of Filipino pop culture the show stresses is proof of its enduring success. The fight over the show’s brand between TVJ and the Jalosjos family is another evidence of its significant popularity and cultural prominence according to supporters of the show. If “Eat Bulaga” is not profitable, would the contending parties battle for the right to use the brand?

Beyond the claimed fun, joy, and huge profit, what is “Eat Bulaga’s” real contribution to Philippine society and Filipino culture? Had the noon time show in anyway enriched Filipino popular culture?  Outrageously it is a vehicle of decadence.

In it’s almost five decades of existence “Eat Bulaga” pioneered and popularized toilet humor and slapstick jokes with TVJ as the high priests. The show is the epitome of Filipino “damage culture.  In a Rappler article, Ana Santos succinctly summed up the fatal harm of the noontime show of TVJ.

“Long before children step into a classroom, they are already exposed to Tito, Vic, and Joey. Millions of us tune in every day, without knowing how the hosts’s behavior slowly but consistently lowers an already low bar for the treatment of women, ethnic minorities, and gender-diverse people.”

The misogyny and toxic masculinity of TVJ propagated through “Eat Bulaga” are packaged as entertainment. When called out for their excesses, the trio would lamely say it was all a “joke” to get away with their harmful and hurtful antics.

Who can forget the tragic plight of Pepsi Paloma in the hands of TVJ which accurately exposed their cruel treatment of women? TVJ along with Richie D’Horsie were accused by the actress of drugging and raping her. The case did not prosper as Tito Sotto allegedly coerced her to drop the complaint. She committed suicide later. Sotto as Senate President forced the Inquirer to take down stories of the case from its website.

Aside from misogyny, toxic masculinity, and abuse of authority, “Eat Bulaga” also perpetuates “false consciousness” among poor Filipinos by dangling to them huge money in the game show. Millions of poor Filipinos dream of being part of the noontime show hoping to become instant millionaires. “Eat Bulaga” gives them fake hope of making it within the system obscuring the reality that the problem is the highly unjust social system. Instead of working to change the system, game shows like “Eat Bulaga” blinds poor Filipinos to the fact that they have to radically alter the system to improve their lives and not by trusting fate and luck. The show is a factory of illusion and fantasy.

Everything that is wrong with Philippine society is mirrored in the noontime show. Almost daily “Eat Bulaga” reproduces the Filipino “damage culture” and naturalizes the highly asymmetrical social system. It also makes the victims complicit to their victimization by enticing them to take part or be the subjects of toilet humor, slapstick jokes, hurtful jabs, mockery and debauchery.

No noontime show has wrecked Filipino culture and inflicted considerable damage to pop culture than “Eat Bulaga.” This kind of show should be banished from the cultural landscape.  “Eat Bulaga” should be permanently retired and abolished.

But the unjust system that benefits from “Eat Bulaga” is ensuring its survival. The fight for the ownership of the brand is an indication of its usefulness to the unjust social arrangement. “Eat Bulaga” is one of the pillars that support the hegemony of the present inequitable structure, a crucial element for its maintenance and sustenance.

For so long “Eat Bulaga” has polluted national life by promoting decadent culture.  Instead of bringing to the public “isang libo’t isamg tuwa” it actually brought “isang libo’t isamg ngawa.” The injury it wreaked on Pinoy pop culture is incalculable.  Junking “Eat Bulaga” is one way to fix the Filipino “damage culture.”