Bobo

In Tagalog, it means stupid.

I have been reading the various articles regarding the last escapade Willie Revillame has had with respect to his game show.

The most recent incident involved a 6 year old boy named Jan Jan whom Willie R had apparently plucked out of the audience. For P10,000 (about $230), Jan Jan was asked to dance. While the boy was dancing, Willie was reportedly laughing like a lunatic and making uncouth comments about the boy not smiling while being asked to gyrate like a macho dancer. And the comment was that the boy was not even smiling (Have you ever been to a gay bar and watched a macho dancer dance? Well if you haven't, I have and I have never seen them smile. But if you put money in their underwear they will thank you for it. Even if you palpated their genitals, they will allow you to touch their private parts. They will not complain because it's all about the money.)

This episode of his game show had drawn flak from various sectors of society. Well, specifically, the well-off. Those who had commented on this apparent abuse were, sad to say, mostly (if not all) from the middle and upper class.

Well bless your bleeding hearts!

Time and again, I have blogged about Willie R. Let me get it straight to my readers. I AM NOT A FAN!

I occasionally watch the tirades of Willie R and when I do get the chance, his show, in order to provide a critique.

I will not defend Willie R in this blog.

All I can say is we get what we dish out.

Let me be frank. Willie has the money to give. Lots and lots of it. But like all the local game shows and their hosts, what they give out in cash or prizes are at the expense of the audience. Those lacking not only in brains, but also in cash. Those of us who denounce these practices are simply kibitzers of the ongoing saga of the local media making "bobos" out the the Filipino people.

Let's face it. It's not only the game shows that are apparently a reflection of the dire attitude of the Pinoy viewer. It's also these inane and mundane telenovelas that seem to have a following. From Machete to Captain Barbel to Darna to Mara Clara to even the Korean telenovelas where the lines are dubbed in Tagalog. And the Pinoy viewer will always have a penchant for the slapping, the killing, the abuse, the fantasies and the inuendos that actually come out of the boob tube. We only have the media to blame for this. After all, as I always say - there is no greater fool than the fooled by a fool.

Bakya! Jologs! Whatever name you give it, local showbiz will always have a way of making the average Pinoy viewer a pathetic empathizer and follower of what is characteristically a no-brainer.

I had asked my driver the scenario that happened on Willie's show. If I gave your son P10,000 to gyrate on television, would you? And I was not surprised at the response. It was, after all big money. He added, after all, it was only a gag and even if people made fun of it, it was a once in a lifetime. My driver wasn't complaining. Neither were the parents of Jan Jan.

So why are we making a big issue out of it?

The news from the grapevine is that the first report of this "dastardly" act of Willie R was from a reporter for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Another media person. The PDI is closely (read closely) affiliated with GMA 7. According to my source, none of the complainants actually had a clue of what went on in the show. Not until the reporter had the commentary published in the PDI. The drove all the techies and bleeding hearts into a "Kill WIllie" frenzy. As we all know by now, both GMA 7 and ABS-CBN had been having a run for their news ratings since the show of WIllie on TV5 had barged into the same time slot as theirs. Report is that the current share of the ratings is now equal. So this puts both channels 7 and 2 in a precarious spot wherein they need the advertisers, but the latter have been trekking to the show of Willie R. What better way to destroy the show of Willie than to find a story?

So we want to destroy Willie R. What better way than to:

1. Not watch his shows
2. Not buy his records (God the guy can't even sing but he's the best selling artist, outselling Martin Nievera, Gary Valenciano, Sharon Cuneta and Christian Bautista combined).
3. Not buy Bench items (He has a perfume to his name. It's also the best seller)
4. Not purchase anything he endorses. (From Happee toothpaste to Camella homes)
5. Not buy tickets to his concerts.
6. Ask the advertisers to pull out of his shows.
7. Boycott TV5
8. Not cater to anything that Manny Pangilinan owns or runs (which i doubt can happen because he practically runs all the utilities and roads and properties and major hospitals in the country).


But I doubt if we will do most of the suggestions I provided above.

Truth of the matter, however, is that it's the lower class that happen to be his rabid followers. No matter what we do, no matter how much stones we cast on him, he will outwit and outlast all of the kibitzers and complainants. He has the money and in fact is the top 5 taxpayers in the Philippines. He pays his taxes on time and correctly. Something I doubt, even these do good die hard detractors do. In short, with the over P15M that he has paid in taxes last year, he has contributed - again - to the poor and the projects of the Philippine government. Much more than what his detractors have.

What Revillame does in order to earn money, whether right or wrong, is for the people the judge. And like other local actors and actresses that have a rabid following in spite of the wrong that they do at the expense of other people, he is not alone in this endeavor. Kris Aquino has the penchant for maligning a contestant on her various game shows. Edu Manzano will make someone dance like a chicken so that the idiot has shot at fame for a few seconds. Vic Sotto will belittle the capacity of a studio contestant in a game show if the guy can't even get a simple question answerable by a grade 1 student correctly. Vice Ganda will make a fool out of a dance contestant by mocking him or her as if he was still running a comedy bar. Or how wrong it is to be followers of TV personalities who endorse medicines, herbal supplements, and even the wrong kind of food or drink!

And the weird fact here is that we're so worried about the 6 year old who was thrust into a few seconds of fame and money and controversy, when his family were even encouraging, nay, ecstatic over the boy dancing like his future job! Whether these TV personalities bully a young lad like this or an adult who is mentally challenged is no reason to allow the ridicule based on the age of a person.

If Revillame rolled over and died today, I would have no remorse. But the millions and millions of followers would probably make Cory Aquino's wake and burial look like peanuts.

As long as local media operates the way it does by making our televiewers more "bobo", there is nothing we can doing for now. This, my friends, is the sad, pathetic world of local showbiz.

And in the world of showbiz, a controversy will always make a star!

By creating this buzz about Willie R, we have simply added a notch for him in his claim to fame. He will apologize (as he always had) and survive this. And we were taken for a ride. We have made him more popular now and the rabid fans will always be at his side, to the rescue.

We just need to stop making this fool famous.

Primetime's mendicancy: The return of Willie R.

For the record, I am not a fan of Willie Revillame.

It was, however, interesting to watch his new show titled "Willing Willie" on TV5.

The show runs for 3 hours - from 6:30 - 9:30 in the evening. And Willie R is the only host (with Mo Twister on the sideline acting like an emcee for a beauty contest). What's new with the show? Nothing. It simply is a take from the defunct "Wowowee". New sets don the new home studio, but it looks like the same crowd. The sexy dancing girls are gyrating and doing splits to the various music that's bombastically barraging my eardrums. The endorsements are endless and so is the cash!

The take here is that the show runs smack against two major networks' news shows - GMA 7 "24 Oras" and ABS-CBN "TV Patrol". It trickles into the reality show of GMA after 8pm and a telenovela of ABS-CBN.

And here's the kill.

"WIlling Willie" is mass-based. I was telling my mom over dinner that this is one show that the masses will get enticed to watch. Not only because the show gives away money to studio participants, but to home viewers as well. It's like, for 3 hours, you see so much money being given away. This doesn't of course include a jackpot price of a car, a house and lot at Camella Homes (developer is Sen. Manny Villar who happens to be Willie R's business partner for his Wil Towers) and P1M in cash - all in one prize pot!

True enough, 5 minutes after I discussed my take on the show with my mom, Willie blurts out "bakit pa kayo manonood ng news, eh dito sa atin, may pera na nakakatulong pa"! (Why do you want to watch the news when in my show, we give away money and we can help you financially?)

The studio participants are mass-based. They are those who belong to lowest quintiles of society - the C, D and E. They're also his greatest and most loyal fans. They follow Willie wherever and whatever TV channel he moves to. Like the paupers on the streets of Manila, the mendicants will always be avid followers of those that give dole-outs.

But the C, D and E classes make up more than 75% of Philippine society. The segment of society that is most neglected by both the rich and the government.

It is the same class that bands together in order to preserve their existence in the urban jungle. They are rabid and will never understand why mendicancy is a crime altogether.

Never mind if they will look stupid or crazy or dance like a chicken or crow like a lunatic in front of the camera. Never mind if they will share their life story of hardship and financial disarray or broken homes and tragic lives. For the money they can bring home, even if it means licking and sucking up to Willie R, it will temporarily provide food on the table.

After all, the Filipino is used to being beggars in their own nation. During an election period, people will exchange their votes for a measly amount of money in order to provide food or medicine for their family.

While there is nothing wrong about giving money away (I like that thought), the thought that the way the show is being aired leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Today, Willie R talks about the rising ratings of his 3 days old show. Indeed, a 33.8% share of primetime is impressive. And I am sure both Channels 2 and 7 honchos are scratching their heads on this.

Why is that?

It's simple. The ratings game commands sponsorship (TV commercials). The higher the rating of the show, the more commercials it gets. Which means that the show of Willie R can demand a higher fee for a commercial slot eventually. With limited resources, why do you want to put a commercial on a show that has a dwindling follower?

Interestingly, is how the two giant networks will now have to focus on re-inventing their news program. I mean, what will make every Juan de la Cruz interested in having to hear people dying from a bus falling off a ravine or some SK official getting shot during a poll violence or some starlet having a lurid affair with a boxer? Is there money for me in all these cheezy news? Nope! Will it make me P10,000 richer overnight? Nope! Would I care less if the mayor of some pathetic town rolled over and died? Nope! Will it matter to me if somewhere in Paris, the French people went up in arms against their own government? Nope! In short, what would interest the 75% of the viewing public is now focused on what they can gain from the show of Willie R.

If the trend continues, the next 3 months will be crucial. Slowly but surely, there will be a large chunk of TV viewers that will shift gears to watching a game show than watching some dreadful tsunami pummel a country. The latter, after all, does not concern them and is a one time event. If the trend on the TV ratings continue, there will be a change in time slot for the news shows and they will need to replicate a show that will go head to head with Willie R.

At this point in time, it would be interesting to see the turn of the tide. Only two things can happen. Willing Willie will flop and lose it's following and Manny P would have gambled for naught. But Pangilinan, at this point, is willing to stake his balls for the jugular against two giants in the industry. And Willie R is his secret weapon. Why else put him right smack head to head against two institutional giants and primetime news at that?

It does not take a genius to see this interesting battle for primetime supremacy.

Will Willie R have the last laugh?

As they say in showbiz...ABANGAN ANG SUSUNOD NA KABANATA! (to be continued...)

[Photos from Pinoy Gossip Boy and pep.ph]