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Emil Guillermo: Why are Filipinos always the punchline? Seeing FX’s “The Comedians” reminded me of a dumb joke in “Anchorman 2.”

We know that Manny Pacquiao can punch.

And that  the champ is nobody’s  punchline.

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So why is it that in U.S. pop culture, that’s not true for the rest of us.

Have you noticed? Filipinos are way too often the punchline.

WTF?

It happened again the other night on the FX debut of “The Comedians.” Joshua Gad jokes about joining Billy Crystal in a sitcom. Talking to his agent on the phone, Gad says he wants Latinos to see his work; And blacks; And that other group. You know that group….

The agent then says, “Filipinos?  (beat) They’re terrific.”

The tag doesn’t soften the blow.

Listen to the dialogue here: 150409_001

So we’re mentioned. That’s some consolation prize.  Inclusion? I didn’t see any Filipinos in the cast.

It reminded me how Anchorman 2 had a Filipino dog eating joke that was really offensive. See my take here.

Replace “Filipino” with “Jew” and you know there’d be cries of anti-Semitism. It would be  somewhat mitigated by the fact that the Jews are making the products on screen.

So that’s really the answer isn’t it? We  need to  see more American Filipinos producing and directing projects.

If that were the case,  we can tell our own dog jokes.

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“Hobbit” big, “Anchorman 2” smaller than expected, as weekend box office receipts tallied

“The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug” was again the No.1 movie in the nation with $31.5 million in tickets, giving it a two week take of $127.5 million, according to the NY Times.

“Anchorman 2,”lived up to its name and finished 2nd at $26.8 million. But it opened on Wednesday and is up to $40 million total, well on its way of making back the $50 million it cost to make.

Now instead of showing up in ads and free media everywhere plugging the movie, maybe producers will start showing up to Filipino community fundraisers or consider giving a little bit in aid to the typhoon victims in the Philippines.

As I pointed out on my blog post for the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the silly anchorman was sullied by an ignorant joke that promotes a Filipino stereotype.

http://aaldef.org/blog/anchorman-2-movie-didnt-need-racist-ethnic-joke-against-filipinos.html

It was just one line, am I being too sensitive?  I don’t think so.

If all you see in the media about Filipinos is negative, then such jokes are indefensible. If there were something to counteract the throw away line in the movie, it would have been easier to take.

For example, there were a number of tasteless jokes about African Americans in the movie, as well. But there were African American actors in the movie  who were able to clearly rebut Ron Burgundy/Will Ferrell.

Read the piece on the blog.

http://aaldef.org/blog/anchorman-2-movie-didnt-need-racist-ethnic-joke-against-filipinos.html

And let’s hope that once the producers hit their $50 million nut, they will consider giving aid to the victims of the typhoon in the Philippines. The typhoon displaced millions of people, many of whom are hungry.

And not eating dogs.

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