SAME OLD HUMOR
By Issa Sebullen


While surfing the internet for my research papers, I came across an interesting blog site owned by a certain Ms. Showbiz. As the blog address implies – www.philshowbiz.blogspot.com - the site is all about local entertainment, specifically showbiz. By the way, a blog site (short for web log site) is a website intended to be a personal journal of the blogger or blog owner.

Most of the writeups in the said blog were criticisms but there’s also some kudos particularly the brief review of the digital film Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros. The opinion piece with the title Cornmedy was very factual such that it gave me the impetus to expound on the subject matter.

According to what’s written on the blog, Ms. Showbiz had focused her sight on our recent comedy films and she found that the applied humor were either passe or a rehash. Worse, there were gags lifted from the Internet. In summary, the present crop of gag writers are not creative enough to tickle the minds of the movie-viewing public.

Lending my own experience on the topic, I made a short analysis on the films Enteng Kabisote 2, D’ Anothers and Espiritista, all those three films that I have watched as a privilege of my being a voter in the recent Luna Awards.

First item on my note pad is the appearance of the girl in the PLDT commercial, in both Espiritista and Enteng Kabisote 2. A closer look will yield the fact that those two films have the same director and same producer. Plainly said, the gag (the sudden appearance of the PLDT girl) in Espiritista was repeated in Enteng Kabisote 2. The director may be so fond of that girl or perhaps the creative department was amiss. But for whatever reason that the gag was repeated in the two films shown in the same year, is definitely a boo-boo on the part of the production team.

Next item on my list is the logic violation of Espiritista. The source of conflict is a haunted house inhabited by poltergeists. From what I know, a poltergeist is an evil spirit sowing destruction that can directly affect the physical and material dimension. In a lapse of common sense, zombies suddenly appeared to scare Vic Sotto and his son Tolits Forbes. Again, this may be attributed to the faults of the creative department which handles the continuity of the story.

Another haunted house is the central theme of D’ Anothers. Written by a good scriptwriter in the person of Adolf Alix, D’ Anothers has a good story and a few good twists. But I have a strong suspicion that the director had maneuvered the script to her liking so as to include a dance competition. In the netherworld, where the ghosts or spirits were in a quandary on how to save themselves from annihilation, there arises a spat among them and the issue was settled by a dance competition. It is no secret that Vhong Navarro, the lead star, used to be a professional dancer but that’s not a good reason to inject his skills in the movie because there simply was no relevance at all.

Doing a little more research, there were some who said that scripts normally serve only as framework of production. During the shooting, it is the director who calls the shots and the script, which was approved and certified by the bosses in the production team, can be mangled, cannibalized or simply ignored. As a result, the finished product may be better or worse than what was planned but in reality, it was rarely better and more often worse.

More of the corny gags, the director or someone on top of the production hierarchy had wanted to apply his own brand of humor. And frequently, the application destroys the very essence of the theme. It is not a rare case for actors to put in their two-cents worth and unless the actor is Joey De Leon, almost always the contributed gag falls flat.

Remembering my very first scriptwriting workshop in 1998 under Mr. Nestor Torre, Jr., he said that the most difficult genre is comedy. It is easy to make the viewers cry, it is easier to make the viewers thrilled (with action) and it is easiest to scare the viewers out of their wits. But it is no joke to make the viewers laugh.

Pushing my luck with my informal investigation, I have learned that a movie concept, in general (any genre), passes a strict quality control. The concept may have come from the scriptwriter or most likely the director and sometimes the producer has his own idea. To cite, Mother Lily does the thinking for the concept of her Mano Po series.

When the concept is agreeable to the director and, of course, the producer, the writer is asked to write a storyline. Depending on the style of the director, the storyline may be one page or up to six pages. Again, the storyline passes another round of scrutiny. It is a miracle if the storyline, which was perfected by the writer in front of his writing machine, would not need any revisions.

After the storyline is approved by the authorities, the writer is asked to write the script. After a week’s work, on the average, the scriptwriter nervously submits his final product only to be tortured by a series of modifications. For a comedy film, the gags are overhauled by the genius director or at other times the director has his own gag writer who happens to be an old fogey with an old grey matter inside his cranky skull.

In the shooting, the script suffers more indignities and it is lucky if half of it is followed to the letter. But then again, the director is the so-called filmmaker so it is his call.

In the final analysis, the movie’s box office performance was due to many factors. At present, the animation has a great appeal especially to the kids. The lead actor plays a big factor too. In the case of the upcoming Enteng Kabisote for this year’s festival, the guest appearance of Pia Guanio can be considered a selling point. Proper promotion is also counted. But if the quality of the humor is gauged, more likely the movie is a failure.

Another thing that’s bugging our comedy films is the preferences of the makers (director or producer). Psychologists say that it is a normal behavior for people and animals to imitate what they see. So when directors and producers watch a comedy film with full of funny dialogues, they tend to copy the style although not intentionally at times but unconsciously. The producer cannot really be at fault since what’s on his mind is the financial rewards. But the director should, at least, be conscious of the quality particularly the humor that should not be trite, not passe and not corny.

There was this co-workshopper of mine who seemed to be a specialist in comedy scripts because almost all our instructors were amazed at his new brand of humor. But everyone was surprised when this specialist declared that he doesn’t watch movies, whether local or foreign. And where does he get the ideas, asked our instructor. The comedy specialist replied with a shoulder shrug. When we became friends, he revealed that he was afraid to watch movies because he might be contaminated by the stale jokes that he would see. At least his jokes are original and exhilaratingly funny.

Thinking forward, I guess that my friend will not prosper in the movie industry. Considering the pathways of the script, his original and exhilaratingly funny gags will not get a passing grade from the Jurassic minds of the director, the producer and any other people involved in the upper level of filmmaking. Simply put, it’s a rat race out there and a dog eat dog mentality will just destroy the neophytes unless they dance to the tune of Bahay Kubo.

It’s sad to think that our comedy films have not improved a bit since the time of Ading Fernando, Bayani Casimiro and other contemporaries of Dolphy. Our humor just changes collars but their bark and their bite remain the same. Hopefully, the slump in the movie industry will compel those people concerned to toe the line towards progress particularly in the genre of comedy. And perhaps there will come a time when we can blurt out a genuine ha-ha-ha!