Are Filipinos Funny?

WRITTEN BY ELLE LAVIN & FRANCESA JANA SANTIAGO

From YouTube skits to stand-ups to lead roles on comedy shows, Filipinos have been exposing international audiences to our culture through the use of humor. We see comedians like Jo Koy host Netflix specials about his mom’s tough love and how funny our family customs are in “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”. But it doesn’t end there because we continue to find meme-worthy content from Filipino comedians all over the world on any social media platform. We laugh because we relate and even to other communities, there is a sense of familiarity in some of our experiences growing up as Filipino. Is this finally our ticket into better representation?

While Filipinos are capable of entering any industry, comedy is one of our strongest suits as we get to combine creativity with culture. Take Christine Gambito, popularly known as HappySlip: one of the first Filipino-American comedians who revolutionized YouTube with her one-woman shows, playing different Filipino characters. And there’s also comic JR De Guzman who uses music to project his jokes. There are so many Filipino comedians out there each with their own styles and stories to tell. Even in movies of the comedy genre, Filipinos are showcasing our community’s humor just like in “Lumpia with a Vengeance” and “The Fabulous Filipino Brothers”.

Even if we hear the same line of jokes most of the time, it’s worth supporting these comedians because it might be someone else’s first time hearing it. The more we consume their content the more we push our culture into the mainstream. For more on this topic, check out this episode of The Chismis! And for other videos centered on Filipino culture and representation, come visit One Down’s YouTube channel.