Imagine Marina without Chokoleit, Kim Sam Soon without John Lapus, Eat Bulaga without Mamwa Pao and Allan K, and It's Showtime without the unkabogable Meme Vice Ganda-- it will certainly not be as entertaining as we know it. Queer Filipinos have long been sources of entertainment in Teleseryes, movies, and television shows in the Philippines. They have been vital supporting figures in TV shows and movies, accompanying protagonists in their climactic decisions, delivering unforgettable punchlines, and sprinkling a unique flavor on the overall viewing experience. Personally, it is almost impossible to name an entertaining Filipino movie or TV show without a Bakla character or a role that mimics one. The bakla present in Filipino entertainment essentially pertains to the character or persona overtly frank, flamboyant, and vibrant. However, as much as they give colorful dimensions to our screens, they still face disproportionate hate and insults surrounding their sexuality and queer identity. Society visibly sidelines queer entertainers as caricatures of laughter and punchlines; a disruption to their social scripts as jesters entails punishment from a heteronormative society.
How can queers then establish a counterdiscourse to homophobia and heteronormativity?
In virtue of Butler's idea of subverting and challenging entrenched masculinist social norms, I argue that LGBTQIA+ people can look into the roles of gay icons and symbols as counter-hegemonic figures to masculinist imperatives. Gay icons are people, not necessarily queers, who muster massive support from LGBTQIA+ that arguably bolster intra-community solidarity and outsider empathy. Observably, Filipino queer performers remain as sidekicks of protagonists or supporting hosts of heterosexual main hosts– either as the receiver or sender of punchlines. This sidekick-supporting dynamic was the reality of many Filipino queer entertainers for a very long time until Vice Ganda. I argue that Vice Ganda's quick yet successful rise to stardom wedged a norm-disruptive critical juncture in Philippine media and even society for queer voices. Vice Ganda's rise to fame, infiltration into Filipino popular culture, and current critical voice to hegemonic heteronormative ideals are the makings of an important Filipino queer icon. Her life story is an ideal playbook of how queer entertainers build socio-political capital and become icons who ardently fight for LBTQIA+ rights and representation in the context of queer-ambivalent Philippine media and society.
Art by Neil Roman
From Comedy Bars to the TV and Silver Screen
Vice Ganda, or Jose Marie Viceral, is a Filipino comedian and host who has long been part of the entertainment industry. Since the late 1990s, Vice Ganda worked in niche queer spaces in the metro, mainly working as a stand-up comedian and a host/entertainer. Her entry into the comedy bars shaped her brand of humor and wit. Consistent with many stand-up comedians in Filipino comedy bars, Vice's humor revolves around relational banters with the audience, references to showbiz events, and sexuality. Vice's famous humor style, improvisational, observational, and ironic, developed through her tenure in comedy bars-- even gaining the unofficial title of Queen of Comedy Bars. Vice remained in the comedy bars for a long time before successfully infiltrating the mainstream. In fact, in an interview, Vice accepted her fate as a stand-up comedian thriving in small-time events and comedy bars.
However, in 2009, her entry into It's Showtime set a promising path for becoming arguably one of the most famous celebrities in the Philippines. Her consistent appearance on the show as a resident hurado and humor worked well with Filipinos, like her sarcasm and ironic punchlines (May Nagtext). Additionally, the showing of The Unkabogable Praybeyt Benjamin in 2011 marked a critical juncture in Vice's cinematic journey. The movie, resembling a queer version of Mulan, received overwhelming box-office support from Filipinos, with 332 Million Pesos in revenue . Contrary to previous Filipino comedy movies about bakla characters, an actual bakla is now the leading actor of a bakla character. I argue that this etched Vice Ganda's growing influence in Filipino media and popular culture. Praybeyt Benjamin's success secured the status of Vice Ganda as a substantial force in mainstream Filipino media, having four films surpassing the 500 million peso mark. As much as critics view Vice Ganda's films as shallow, I posit that their movies mainstreamed various queer-friendly themes that helped re-examine Filipinos' anti-queer values.
Vice Ganda's fame continued to widen throughout the years. Her increasing reach and widening influence inextricably caused more people to criticize her humor; Vice's comedic brand became arguably infamous. Her humor, values, personality, and individuality went through the social microscope, questioning her being and influence-- her queerness. I argue that her queerness or kabaklaan imbued in her humor, banters, and movies exponentially propagated the criticisms she received. She became the de facto representative of Filipino bakla, disproportionately receiving critical remarks from all directions. In fact, her movies bravely explored the environment of a baklang Pinoy while balancing huge cinematic viewership. Vice Ganda explored the bakla in the contexts of the military through Praybeyt Benjamin, national security through Beauty and the Bestie, parenting while juggling financial struggles through The Super Parental Guardians, and many more. She and her works displaced various Filipino patriarchal and heteronormative cognitive shortcuts, guaranteeing a backlash from homophobic and traditional Filipinos. Vice carved an important space in Filipino mainstream media by inserting the bakla in many narratives, contexts, and phenomena– eventually, destabilizing Filipino heteronormative social scripts and subverting cognitive gender defaults. In short, she waded through the murky waters of queer ambivalence to include the bakla in mainstream discussions, eventually challenging entrenched gendered values, norms, and knowledge.
The Unkabogable Makings of a Queer Icon
Vice Ganda frankly had questionable politics in the past. However, she countervailed it with her current brave and progressive stances in the recent presidential elections, banters during It's Showtime, and even her social media postings. She is now trying to seal and prove her de facto status as the representative of the Filipino bakla and even a sharp progressive voice in mainstream media.
If Vice introduced the bakla in various spaces through the themes in her movies, she realistically acted upon those themes and imbibed them in the real world. In the recent presidential elections, Vice took the risk of promoting one of the opposition candidates and possibly gambling on her career by placing her bet on Former Vice President Leni Robredo. It did not stop there. Vice Ganda continuously utilized her voice by including questioning heteronormativity and homophobia, poking fun at political blunders, and even educating viewers about necessary gender information-- openly tackling these at noon time. Recently, Vice openly responded to a viral video inciting ridicule of femininity on men. She highlighted that queers struggle to come out because of videos like those, stressing the social, emotional, and mental judgments queers might face from society. She also continuously includes SOGIE knowledge education in It’s Showtime when the need arises. Aside from this, Vice also pokes fun at political events like the recent series of senate hearings of Alice Guo, satirically criticizing the fiasco and encouraging people to engage in politics by watching senate hearings. To cap all of these, Vice Ganda joined the TikTok trend of Piliin Mo Ang Pilipinas in a comedic, satirical, and important way. In her video entry, Vice utilized her humor and queerness in tackling pressing national issues like the Jeepney Phaseout and the infringement on our national sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea-- while concluding it with a declaration of loyalty and sacrifice to the country.
With her enormous platform, Vice Ganda steered various social and political issues towards progressive and inclusive discussions. A huge number of people already adore her, heterosexual and queers alike. Her pre-existing social and economic affluence of being a super-celebrity drove her to better use it for LGBTQIA+ inclusivity and critical nation-building. Furthermore, her kabaklaan and queerness, though previously attacked by people, propelled Vice to extirpate hegemonic masculinist notions, interrogate traditional beliefs, destabilize gender roles, sow inclusive ideals, and inspire the future generations of bakla in taking up space and asserting their rights and role in our nation.
Social Irony in Insult Comedy
Insult comics and comedy have long existed in human literary history. In Conley's The Rhetoric of Insult, Roman comedy infused and integrated insult in their banters specifically surrounding political figures. Furthermore, Shakespearean plays also infused insulting humor in their acts to poke fun at various characters. Most importantly, in contemporary times, people patronize and enjoy comedy roasts of various celebrities. The Philippines is also no stranger to insult comedy because mainstream Filipino media consistently uses it in sitcoms, movies, and teleseryes. However, the rise of Vice Ganda, with her comedic brand raised numerous eyebrows criticizing her humor as problematic. With this, I pose a question.
Do people and society react differently when cis-gendered heterosexual men throw insulting jokes versus when queer people do the same?
I argue that they do substantially and significantly respond differently. Since I started to watch Filipino comedy movies, sitcoms, and shows, insulting humor is already a part of their comedic core. Normally, queer supporting actors and figures are the receivers of insulting humor from heterosexual protagonists, usually poking fun at their sexuality, appearance, and expression like Diego in Bubble Gang or baklang parlorista characters in 80s-90s Filipino comedy movies. Insult humor, sexist jokes, and anti-queer banters underscore much of masculinist jokes. Thus, masculinity is arguably strengthened, emboldened, and reified through sexist and anti-gay humor, crafting a narrative that it is normal for men to play around with this humor style. This is why Vice Ganda is an anti-thesis to masculine insult humor. She displaces, disrupts, and subverts socially intelligible notions (heterosexual male leading actor poking fun at a queer supporting character) of humor and gender. Her blockbuster-supported yet widely criticized comedic brand of improvisational and referential insult humor is antithetical to the socially normalized trope-- affirming the inflammatory flak she will receive from society. In contrast with heterosexual male comedians who perform the same humor, society might likely become more accommodating and accepting of sharp and snarky insult humor from men. With this, I will leave another question:
Do we really hate this kind of humor? Or do we associate a comedic style with one's identity?
While the fight for gender equality and representation does not rest on queer icons and their complex contexts, their contributions are vital. Their presence allowed generations of sangkabaklaan to affirm their identities, speak their truths, and rewrite their stories against the colossal system of toxic masculinities.
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