It is incredibly corny. The funniest thing in Filipino popular culture seems to be a gay man in a dress (bakla) saying outrageous things in a high-pitched squeel. The second-funniest thing… fat children doing wacky things. Fat children get a LOT of air-time.
Another staple of Filipino “comedy”… game shows with sexy barely-clothed girls dancing in between segments, like Willie Revillame’s “Wowowin” show, featuring the famous “Wowowin Girls”. There will be a LOT of jokes thrown in-between. Much of it sexual innuendo. With laugh-tracks. Lots and lots of laugh tracks.
Look I lived in the Philippines for years. The country has amazing mythology and some solid literature. Cities like Manila and Baguio have a rich literary scene, and a lot of bright and cultured people living in it. But the popular culture is mind-numbingly dumb.
Giggling laugh tracks, endlessly repeated without variety. Fat kids. Men in dresses. “Love teams” (celebrities starring in the same production or show who ‘fell in love’ and who everyone obsesses over). Really corny television shows that end in slow-motion cliffhangers and dramatic music, rife with zoomed-in faces with exaggerated expressions… Filipino culture? Great. Filipino popular culture? Trash.
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