Comedy in the Philippines
[1] Although there are very few contemporaneous descriptions of early Philippine performance arts, the prominent use of humor is evident in documented folkloric forms as the salawikain (proverb),[2] and oral epics such as Biag ni Lam-ang.
When Miguel Lopez de Legazpi and his men colonized the Philippines, a comedy theatre already existed in the form of ethnic rituals of dances and jokes.
[8] Local performers such as Zarsuelista Atang de la Rama and singer Katy de la Cruz began joining these vaudeville acts in the mid 1910s, and in 1920, a Filipino entertainer named Luis Borromeo (who renamed himself "Borromeo Lou" after a brief stay in North America) organized what became the first Filipino bodabil company.
[8] Segments of these variety shows included humorous elements such as the acts of dancer Bayani Casimiro, and the magician and Chaplin imitator Canuplin.
[8] Among the performers whose careers were jumpstarted during this period were Panchito Alba, Anita Linda, Rosa Mia, the tandem of Pugo and Togo, and Dolphy, who started under the stage name "Golay" as a comic dance partner of Bayani Casimiro.
[8] Pugo and Togo had a popular routine where they portrayed Japanese soldiers wearing multiple wristwatches on both of their arms, and they were soon briefly incarcerated for that spoof.
[8] When Ferdinand Marcos announced on September 23, 1972, that he had declared martial law throughout the Philippines, he also ordered the shutdown of media and performance venues.
[1] A number of comedians became very popular for this, notably Willie Nepomuceno and Tessie Tomas, who were known for their comedic impersonations of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos.
[1] Nepomuceno would later reveal that he would regularly be approached by generals of the Armed Forces of the Philippines to stop impersonating Marcos "dahil siya ang presidente" (because he's the president) and he is supposed to be treated with respect.
[1] The ouster and eventual exile of Ferdinand Marcos and his family in 1986 led to the reopening of previously-shuttered radio and television stations, allowing comedians to express themselves freely once again.
[14] Some of the experimental works included metacomedies such as Antoinette Jadaone's Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay[14] and Chris Martinez and Marlon Rivera's Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank, and deadpan mockumentaries such as Mike de Leon's Bayaning Third World.
[17] While emigration from the Philippines started becoming a phenomenon early in the Nation's history, it grew began to grow significantly in light of labor export policies during the Ferdinand Marcos, Corazon Aquino, and Fidel Ramos administrations.
Political satire became part of the scene early on, allowing writers to poke fun at Spain and other colonial powers, and later on the Japanese.
