Now that the aggrieved parties have been consoled by the recent public apology from the “Desperate Housewives” incident, I’d like to share some YouTube compilations I found yesterday.
From what Ive read thus far, some senators are eager to ban shows that are making fun of Filipinos or the Philippines. I did a little research myself in the hopes that I could help the good senator start the list of shows/movies he intends to ban on Philippine TV. *heh*
Late Night with Conan O’Brien – in one of the shows segment called “Conan Hates My Homeland”, O’Brien made fun of the Philippines and said “Philippines – Mi casa es su landfill.†{via Andrew} Here’s a complete list of the racial slurs.
The Family Guy – this comedy cartoon series made a couple of swipes against Filipino nurses and the Philippines. A sample clip can be found in YouTube:
The show referred to Filipino Nurses as thieves. Another clip portrays a Filipino as ignorant and who doesn’t know English:
The there are several other movies like 9mm (Nicolas Cage), Constantine (Keanu Reeves) which depicted the Filipinos in a bad light as well as those spy/military TV series (NCIS, The Unit, Alias) that often refer to the Philippines as haven for Muslim terrorists. And these aren’t even fictional jokes.
Others would ask, “Why didn’t we hear an uproar to these earlier jokes (or racial slurs, depending on which side of the fence you are)?” Oh, there are a few out there. Just that not enough people were personally offended.
It reminded me of Fil-Am comedian Rex Navarette whom I’ve been listening to for almost a decade now. Remember the SBC Packers? Well, it’s possible that all those Filipino-related jokes were derived from him.
In this clip, Rex was joking about black people in Oakland and the crowd (I suppose Filipinos, Fil-Ams and Americans) were all laughing. It’s fair game, right? Or how about this other Filipino stand-up comedian named Ron Josol. I was just thinking that maybe all these Pinoy jokes came from our fellow Filipino comedians too. But that’s beside the case.
It seems there’s this cultural disconnect and a joke for one crowd may not be a joke to another. Which brings me to this show hosted by JC Gonzalez and Tallulah on ABS CBN’s Speak Out — Filipinos vs. American, FOBs vs. Fil-Ams:
So, what does this incident taught us? People, whatever race, education, profession or class, have a good sense of humor — as long as they’re not the subject of the joke.
Now, I’m really curious what Conan O’Brien, Jay Leno or David Letterman would say once they picked this up. More Filipino jokes coming our way?
Have a fun Friday to everyone.
Epic! LOL!