‘Banana Sundae’ finally gets its act together

“BANANA SUNDAE.” More hits than misses.

It’s good to see that some TV shows that got off to a skittish start have, through the weeks, gotten their acts together. The “most improved” local show this season is “Banana Sundae.”

It had more misses than hits when it started some weeks ago, due to its reliance on old jokes of the hoary “knock-knock” variety, as well as an excessively “pushy” and strident comedic approach that wasn’t warmly conducive to laughter.

In recent weeks, however, some positive changes were introduced that have made the comedy show less “traditional” and “borrowed,” and more humorously topical, dealing from time to time with the fads and/or issues of the day.

A new portion that clicked with the studio audience was the show’s satirical take on presidential candidates.

Other gimmicks like improvised song lyrics and music created “on the spot” were less successful, but relatively new jokes that were more creatively crafted instead of recycled helped make up for the slack.

Improvements continued to be made until, last month, the show finally came together, and produced more hits than misses, for a bracing change!

Gone were the “improvised songs” that didn’t work even after several outings. A new portion we really liked was set in front of a sari-sari store, with “hugot” as its special offering:

Individual cast members would buy something that would then remind them of a faithless lover, and they would serially break into tears!

What was impressive about the comedy skit was the fact that each “hugot” twist elicited laughter from the studio audience, so the long number was still fun even after most of the show’s performers had tearfully hit their punchlines—and the store owner (Pokwang) finally had her own emotional breakdown, under the heavy load of all of her customers’ sad stories!

Sustaining such a long comedy scene isn’t easy to do, so props to the show’s actors and writers for getting it right!