The Pinoy's Unfailing Humor: The Moymoypalaboy Soon to be Legend

If you're somebody looking for an excuse not to do the work that is piling up before your eyes (even as you look for new excuses to avoid it), chances are, you'll look to the internet for distraction. This was how a friend described his "wasted" afternoon on the now popular moymoypalaboy, a comedic brother pair on You Tube.

Like a true denizen of the internet, my friend lost no time spreading the good word of course and soon enough, across the world (literally), more and more Filipinos or Pinoys (we call ourselves "Pinoy") out there wasted (well earned) office hours and work time to do some serious laughing. These guys, to us at least, are hilarious.

Yet they are also (sorry to say this) a dime a dozen back home. True, these boys are masters of You Tube and very talented.They are also very smart, for finding their niche but I also think we find them funny and agree about the humor they do because its very familiar to us. It is in more ways than one, truly very "Pinoy."

Without even bothering to block the background of their webcam when they make their "music videos," moymoypalaboy also gives us a glimpse into their home, which also looks like many average pinoy homes. From the last supper hanging on the wall, to the "walis tambo" (straw broom) they use as a prop in both Volare by the Mario Brothers and Bohemian Rhapsody and of course what appears to be their Mom (in a house dress we call a "daster," back home) dancing away as her boys broadcast their unbounded silliness to the world, it wasn't only funny, but also familiar.

I also found the comments very amusing. A lot of comments about their "sexuality," or rather questions about gender floated around till one Pinoy pointed out the perfectly normal and obvious: "They are boys...[meaning heterosexual?]its just that Pinoy boys are good at acting "gay." The levels of meaning in these exchanges are mind blowing. LOL. What is "gay" anyway? What is "acting gay?" What is normal?

The Wannabe video and the Girlfriend video got a lot of responses like this. And while not quite as easy to get as the others (because its entirely in Filipino), the Ordertaker video is also a gem simply because it spoofs heavy metal by being all about the travails of ordering food from a restaurant that doesn't have any more food to serve! Pinoys are all about food too. (Food is culture).

Watching them also got me thinking about some (just as hilarious) friends I knew in college who also made many of us laugh out loud with their renditions of "Hotel California" and spoofs of "revolutionary" songs. Too bad we didn't have the internet then, otherwise who knows? Maybe these friends of mine (now perfectly respectable journalists and IT experts) could have had entirely different careers. LOL.

I do appreciate a good laugh though and where I am, it matters a lot. I'm in Toronto finishing up (fingers crossed) an LLM and its the f-----g winter. Say what you will about snow (its pretty to look at) but like my feminist pal says, I'm an island girl, so I'll take white sand over snow anytime. So I'm forever in moymoypalaboy's debt. I have actually done my bit by spreading the word out there to pinoys who need to laugh. I keep track of the news back home after all and as usual, there isn't much to laugh about as far as our politics is concerned...

I'm pretty sure a lot of other Pinoys out there have also reflected on how perhaps our ability to laugh in the face of adversity is a trait that has helped us pull through the most difficult of times. Or maybe it has also helped us ignore the hard work we need to do...(like an LLM thesis that won't start writing itself) But who was it that said something positive about that too? "In every job that must be done there is an element of fun? Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down, in the most delightful way..."

So how about it moymoypalaboy? Can you do Julie Andrews?