ENDEAVOR
Vice Ganda’s It’s Showtime made its much-awaited debut on GMA last Saturday, April 6. He made his grand entry by way of a simulated video clip in which he descended atop the GMA building near EDSA, Quezon City. A week earlier, top executives of his home network signaled his new affiliation after ABS-CBN came to terms with GMA to enable the fruition of a blockbuster deal involving the most popular entertainer in the land.
GMA Network reported in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that Its Showtime’s pilot episode garnered a rating of 9.6 percent in Nielsen Philippines’ National Urban Television Audience Measurement (NUTAM) while its rival Eat Bulaga posted 4.4 percent. Eat Bulaga was shown and aired previously on GMA on a block time arrangement.
Vice Ganda, whose real name is Jose Marie Borja Viceral, has attained super-celebrity status that would qualify him as a cultural icon, defined by Google in this way: “A cultural icon is a person or artifact that is identified by members of a culture as representative of that culture. The process of identification is subjective, and “icons” are judged by the extent to which they can be seen as an authentic symbol of that culture.”
As depicted in ABS-CBN’s Magandang Buhay series, Vice, the youngest of five children, had to deal with early life challenges, after his father, a barangay captain, was murdered: “This pushed their Momshie Rosario to work abroad and leave them under the care of their grandfather. Instead of getting close to his older siblings since they only had one another that time, they went on to live different lives, with Vice Ganda veering his focus on his studies as he hid his gender from them until he was in college. Now, he’s considered as one of the champions of the LGBTQIA+ community for the inspiration he’s been radiating as one of its most successful and influential members.”
He got his “biggest break” when he was tapped to join It’s Showtime, ABS-CBN’s talent search program, that ultimately became his runway to reaching the peak of his popularity.
His genre is Observational Comedy, “a form of humor based on the commonplace aspects of everyday life.” Regular viewers of It’s Showtime are awed and amazed at his spontaneous humor and banter. His rapport with the audience is palpable; they are engaged by his rapid-fire reflex. His crew mates – including well-known actor-performers Ann Curtis, Kim Chiu, and Ogie Alcasid – also appear to have imbibed his flair for stand-up comedy.
Indeed, according to Eddie Izzard and Douglas Coupland, a comedian’s observations need to be relatable’ : "(I)t takes a good observational comedian to tell you what, exactly, is the 'deal' with the phenomenon they are observing and describes ideal topics for observational comedy as ‘those banalities and fragments of minutiae lurking just below the threshold of perception’".
It could well be that he has, on occasion, become too wrapped up in the quick-paced, sometimes rapid-fire momentum of doing stand-up comedy in front of a live studio audience that he has lapsed into situations that cross the lines of general-patronage viewership. Two incidents illustrate this: first, his much-criticized humor diatribe against multi-awarded broadcast journalist Jessica Soho in 2011, and his recent run-in with the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB).
“In the middle of every difficulty lies an opportunity.” This is what Vice Ganda posted on social media following a suspension imposed by the MTRCB on It’s Showtime for 12 airing days last September. The action was prompted by allegedly “indecent” acts committed by the program hosts during one of its segments, Isip Bata, participated in by kids under 10 years old. More than a decade earlier, Vice Ganda received severe criticism after he poked fun at veteran broadcaster Jessica Soho, for which he apologized.
While serving with President Noynoy Aquino, I witnessed the interview he conducted in Malacañang that was later beamed on primetime by ABS-CBN. According to Rappler, Vice Ganda elicited highly interesting information. PNoy related that he was a student in an economics class at Ateneo de Manila University with former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as his teacher and earned a grade of B+: “Hindi naman terror, parating nakangiti (She was always smiling).
Another interesting tidbit shared by PNoy was the bullet still lodged in his neck, a wound he sustained while he and his security detail “crossed paths with rebel soldiers” on their way back to Malacañang. “Hindi pala kayo pwedeng i-kiss sa leeg kung nagka-girlfriend ho kayo (So you can’t be kissed on the neck if you have a girlfiend), said Vice. “Ganoon nan ga ‘yon (I guess that’s the case),” said PNoy.
He demonstrated his generosity when, in the aftermath of super Typhoon Yolanda in 2013, he performed for a fundraising comedy and donated all proceeds to those afflicted and rendered homeless. At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, “donated face masks, disposable gloves, safety goggles, alcohol, and disinfectant spray for use by health workers in various hospitals;” delivered relief packs in a depressed community; and “extended help to random strangers by paying for the medicines they bought in a pharmacy opposite AFP Medical Center in Quezon City.
More than 50 years ago, as a columnist of the Philippine Collegian, I wrote about the pervasive influence of actress-singer Nora Aunor on the consciousness of the Filipino masses.
Impressed by Vice Ganda’s tremendous public rapport, I hope he can channel his broad-based support toward fostering hope in the country’s future among socially-aware Filipinos.