Filipino masters of screen comedy

Now that local TV or film “comedy” productions are so unfunny, it’s high time for us to hark back to a better, more genuinely humorous time when comedy productions “delivered” on their promise—to make us laugh!

In the field of Filipino cinema, the old masters whose works we want to highlight and hold up as fine examples of the antic craft and art of comedy include Romy Villaflor and Luciano “Chaning” Carlos.

Romy who? Chaning whatzis? It’s really too bad that local film buffs have such short and shallow memories. Only a few of today’s viewers would recognize these masters’ names, let alone be cognizant of their exceptional achievements!

What made Villaflor and Carlos’ movies funnier and better than their present-day counterparts’ flicks is the fact that the old-timers were story- and character-oriented.

Contrastingly, today’s so-called humorists are fixated on outrageous gags and gross-out characters. They also love to dispense “green” or “brown” jokes that make parents and teachers fret because they are unhealthy fare for young viewers.

Behaving naturally

When Carlos and Villaflor were making one hit film after another, comedy fans were assured of well-conceptualized, humorous situations and colorful characters who were empathetically human, not gargoyles or “cartoon” crazies who nobody could relate to, like or care about.

The characters in comedy films of old were funny, all right. They weren’t push-button, laugh-generating machines; they were flesh-and-blood people. Thus, even when they weren’t being intentionally, relentlessly funny, they put a smile on viewers’ faces. They were behaving naturally, not in today’s “forcing-through” and excessively “punched” and “pushed” manner.

Shifting our focus now to TV comedy, we find that the situation has gotten even worse. Viewers who remember oldies but goodies, like “Abangan ang Susunod na Kabanata,” “Sic O’Clock News” and the early, vintage years of “Going Banana” with Johnny Delgado, Jay Ilagan, Christopher de Leon, Edgar Mortiz and Al Tantay, can vouch for the fact that those hearty laugh fests did much more than what most of today’s generally shrill and unfunny comedy capers come up with.

It’s high time, therefore, for today’s viewers to loudly complain and prod today’s TV “humorists” to do much better work.

Aside from bad scripting and directing, TV comedy programs are being compromised by the cynical industry notion that “anybody can become a comedian.” That’s why droves of good-looking stars and starlets are being shoehorned into comedy productions, even if they’re notoriously devoid of both acting talent and a sense of humor.

Truth to tell, good comedians are harder to find and develop than dramatic actors, so comedy shows shouldn’t be used as dumping grounds for contract starlets who are still dazedly figuring out what they have to offer by way of performing skills.

Chances are, great comedic acting isn’t one of them!