My constant refrain for decades now has been that Father’s Day is no more than a mere afterthought, global collective guilt over how much genuine and heartfelt fuss is made over Mother’s Day. Or at the very least, it started as a marketing ploy to replicate the enormous spend and consumption that accompanies Mother’s Day. Ask any Mall, any restaurant, any gift or flower shop, and they’ll recount how Mother’s Day is up there with Christmas, New Year (traditional and Chinese), and Valentine’s Day. It’s the Graduation Day or Prom Night for Moms; and no stone is left unturned, no expense spared, as Filipino families scramble in making it a special day for mothers, and grandmothers.

Father’s Day, on the other hand, is the “poor cousin” – the one you’ll show respect for, and offer lip service to, but all the time knowing that it’ll be a pale imitation of the festivity and spend that accompanies Mother’s Day. I’m not necessarily complaining, but just stating the facts. Talk to flower shop owners, and they’ll dismiss Father’s Day as one of the most pointless of celebrations — and can you blame them? Who gives a father a bouquet of roses? Prom Night and Graduations will translate, at the very least, to corsage sales skyrocketing. On Father’s Day, these flower shops can shut down and head to the beach, or schedule their flower-arranging lessons, and team-building sessions. And that’s just the way of the world. It’s just that most like to live in denial, or don’t spell it out the way I just have.

That’s why I was so amused when I caught the Daddyokie concert of Ogie Alcasid at the Proscenium Theater, Rockwell Center last June 19th. It was a two-night series with musical guests Karylle, Lani Misalucha, son Nate Velasquez Alcasid, and Ogie’s wife, Regine; and if you missed it, you lucked out on a great night of musical nostalgia and cheesy Dad jokes. But back to why I was amused – because at one point in the night, Ogie echoed my sentiments about how Father’s Day is a Tier-B celebration at best, about how unfavorably it compares with Mother’s Day. And I was laughing to myself, and so were most of the senior card carrying audience that night. We all know that’s the unvarnished truth; but we just like to keep up the fiction that fathers are just as loved, or as important, as Moms.

One of the highlights of Daddyokie was when Ogie called his son with Regine on to the stage. Ogie and Nate sang Here Comes the Sun of the Beatles (1969), and the Cat Stevens/Yusuf hit of 1970, Father & Son. Nate joked about how he’s always ready to accompany his Mom, Regine Velasquez, in her concerts — because she always has a gift, token TF (talent fee), for him. As it’s summer and he’s not in school yet, Nate asked what he could expect from his Dad for saying Yes to perform with him. Ogie elicited laughs from the audience by pointing to Regine, seated in the second row, and instructing Nate to collect from her.

Karylle and Lani Misalucha sang duets with Ogie, of his own compositions; and along with a medley of his other songs, these interludes were great reminders of how accomplished a songwriter Ogie is. He’s written songs for other musical artists, and they’ve made big hits out of them.

He also talked about Yacht Rock, referring to the very polished and highly-produced music of the 1980s and 1990s, as exemplified by such acts as Kenny Loggins, Doobie Brothers, Christopher Cross, and Toto. He explained that while most of audience would just refer to that music as what we grew up listening to, the kids of today have given a label to that genre and era of songs. He sang a number of them, including those of Stephen Bishop, Rupert Holmes, Rex Smith, and David Soul. The audience truly loved the songlist.

As for the title of today’s column? It comes from how Dads are often portrayed in social media as embarrassments, the repository of bad, cheesy Dad jokes, and actions that make their kids cringe. One humorous subplot of the New York Knicks championship run was Coach Mike Brown going back to a song/cheer he used when he coached his son’s football team, the Dogs, back when Brown was still an Assistant Coach in San Antonio. Of course, it was the Baha Men’s 2000 hit, Who Let the Dogs Out, and he revived it after Game 5.

At their guesting on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Kimmel, it was obvious that both Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns were so embarrassed for Coach Mike, and Jalen explicitly said, “We’ve got to put that to bed!” It was like kids watching their “father”/coach acting so uncool. And of course, Brown egged the studio audience to join him, while Jalen and Kat squirmed and hid their faces. Hilarious! And you should watch the clip if you haven’t yet — it’s grown men acting like 10-year olds, as their coach makes a fool of himself on national TV.

It may be a late greeting, but Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads out there. We have to stick together, and be happy with the — best in second-best.