Just for Fun by Claudio V. Tabotabo, MA (September, 2005)

Filipinos the happiest people in the world. This was the report five years ago. Recently, a similar survey was conducted that shows how the Filipinos maintain their happy mood. Filipinos came out happiest in Asia and second after Venezuela in the worldwide survey.

As the problems of the country turned malignant caused by malingering politicians the happy temperament of the people became obvious and expressive.

One must have observed the wordings in the jeepney's mudguard,

Pulubing Sosyal
Binatang Ama
First Blood - Unang Regla
Don Camote
Pawis ng Saudi
Wala pang baso
Retired playboy
Practicing playboy
Buraot
In the public bathroom when one is relieving himself of his body's demand, he reads on the wall a vandal that says, "The future of our country depends on what you're holding now."

Some observers say laughter is the Filipinos' weapon to counterpart frustration. Well, when a Filipino flanks from an examination he simply says "ay mali pala yun? The Filipinos are born to laugh while the Japanese are born to commit suicide, the Germans to work and the Italian to eat. The exponent of this entire claim is the number of festivals in the Philippines.

In the classroom a teacher is labeled boring and incompetent if he lectures about international affairs, economic depletion, moral recovery or how to solve the unending wars in Mindanao.

To align with the students' taste of life, a teacher invents a story that is flavored with a very shallow joke. The students are then delighted and the greatness of the teacher they sing to the moon.

The Hollywood puts up a standard that made the Filipino-made movie a scratch. Aware of this scenario, local industry had ceased on producing a movie that requires true talent and technology. The industry as a result maintains the slop-stick comedy although not anymore sounding to the intellectual elite of the country but still being praised by the consuming mass. Dolphy is still one of the sources of Juaning's meaningless laugh. Filipinos in other words still laugh at a man who slips on a banana peeling. So it's not surprising why we are still here in the midst of extreme difficulties brought by the dishonesty in the government.