Papa Jack and Chico Loco: Ending the Day Right with Two of Philippine Radio's Funniest DJs

I am not really a big music fan or radio listener, but when our television broke down at around four years back, still studying and with limited budget, we were forced to look for other modes of entertainment back then, and the only available one that time was the radio. This is when we heard 90.7 Love Radio's Papa Jack. It was a good one month of continuous listening to people's love problems, sound advices, and a very mass-friendly humor. All good things eventually must come to an end when we got a new television.

Fast forward to April 2012, after losing my three year job as an online outsourced writer for a foreign company, I am now forced to have a more stable and sustainable job. My new career that eats away 14-15 hours of my everyday life (except for two restdays per week). "Fifteen hours? What kind of job could that be?" you might ask, well it is because of the hours wasted in commuting. I lived in Dasmariñas Cavite and my work is located in Ortigas Center in Pasig City. So I have to anticipate the traffic every morning allocationg 2-3 hours depending on my sched. Currently I am schedule for the afternoon-night shift and after a normal day in the office, I am left with two more hours of waiting in the bus. Luckily I got a phone with radio feature in it. Now it is no longer just Papa Jack that can makes me smile and laugh silly while in the bus heading home, there is now 101.7 Yes YesFM's Chico Loco.

Even in the radio business, competition is inevitable. Every DJ or radio station seems to vye for the number one most listened to station in the Philippines. Times are changing and people's tastes are shifting. They could either prefer the old ways or look for something new. Radio listeners come from all walks of life, some might prefer the more classy radio DJ delivery while others may like an all-music less or little talk kind of radio. Although people may argue, statistics says otherwise. Love Radio has been successful in maintaining its position as the number one Philippine radio station and this is because of its mass appeal. Not far behind is a Radio station that adapted a similar format to Love, Yes FM. After a while, the once rival radio stations are now working together as one, Love Radio and Yes FM. Radio listeners to one or both the station will be usually hearing these lines on both stations: "Radyo? dalawa lang yan! Kundi Love, eh di Yes. Kung hindi Yes, eh di Love." I can testify to it as I usually end my day or night by listening and switching between 90.7 Love Radio's Papa Jack and 101.1 YesFM's Chico Loco.

Chico Loco in Papa Jack's Wild Confessions/True Love Conversations on July 20, 2011

To have a better idea on what goes on their show or their brand of humor. I looked for their radio show on Youtube and here is what I found. The materials shared below are copyright of YesFm and Love Radio. Yours truly didn't upload them on the popular video sharing website. These embed videos are for merely personal and "educational" purposes.

Papa Jack's True Love Conversations of TLC is a radio segment in Love Radio where he give his sound advices and interesting conversations with his callers usually with love problems and heartaches. Papa Jack's other segment is called Wild Confessions which deals with callers sharing their naughty experiences in a "public radio"-friendly manner. Papa Jack usually has this self-righteous tone when it comes to giving his advice which sometimes sounded so preachy. Although it sometimes bothers me, all in all his segment rocks. Maybe I just wanted to listen to a light heart conversations where he usually cracks jokes, but it can't be helped as some callers really deserved some scolding from the usually self-righteous radio jock.

Chico Loco's Yes Diaries on the other hand offers the same segment in terms of problem sharing but his style is way different that Papa Jack. Don't get me wrong he can be as self-righteous when giving advice to callers that deserve it but I somehow find his radio show more lighthearted. This is probably because before each caler share their issues with him, he has this routine skit where he reads people's fate by their birthday. So what's new with that you may ask? Well he doesn't really ave a black book of birthdays, he just uses this as a comedic skit. He changes his voice and takes up a character that will read the caller's fortune. Chico Loco can take up the characters like Madam Chiki (a flirty loud-mouthed drag queen), Notnot (a witch of some sort who uses rituals usually to curse the caller), Chiklet (a talkative and naughty kid that likes to tease and ask for money), and Kapitan Tutan (a male chauvinistic macho barangay captain who also was a former celebrity with tons of movies with naughty titles under his wing). I usually laugh silly when he assumes the role of his segment's many characters.

Since Love Radio and YesFM have jjoined forces and their DJs literally working on the same building. It can't be helped that other DJs from opposite stations make various cameos on their segment. In some rare occasions, Papa Jack might appear on Chico Loco's radio show or vice versa and usually a laugh out loud chaos ensues.

Papa Jack Wild Confession JV and Chico Loco Guests as Kapitan Tutan

You can only do so much when waiting in a bus headed home. You are lucky when the bus you rode in has a television open, but sometimes with that schedule there isn't much to watch, not to mention some televisions may be open but the audio and reception are horrible. So what is left is to sleep, bu what if you can't? This is where the radio show of these two jocks comes in. I usually prepare my handkerchief to cover my face so that people won't think I'm crazy while I listed to the jokes brought by these two amazing radio jockeys. For me, the best way to end you day is to listen to Papa Jack and Chico Loco.

You guys can follow them on twitter at:

Papa Jack's Official Twitter Account
Chico Loco's Official Twitter Account

or like Official Facebook Pages at:

Papa Jack's Official Facebook Page
Chico Loco's Official Facebook Page

The Humor That is Not: Boy Pick-Up of Bubble Gang's Pick-Up Lines Battle Skit Brand of Anti-Humor

Pick-Up Lines Battle is one of the more popular and awaited segments (by fans) in the long running Friday nights Philippine gag show Bubble Gang. Besides the strange charm and stupendously cheesy delivery of similarly cheesy pick-up lines by the "pickapista" contenders to become the ultimate pick-up king, the Bubble Gag's skit greatest strength and punch line is the sport's undisputed and undefeated winner, Boy Pick Up. Let's take a look at how this Bubble Gang skit and character became the a phenomenal success.

Delivering pick-up lines has long been an optional part of the dating scene or the flirting game. By definition, pick-up lines are supposedly catchy lines used to catch ("pick-up") the attention of a stranger of interest. A pick-up line is a success once the girl took notice and starts engaging in this small talks. Not everyone can be good at it though. The success of a pick-up line depends on the person delivering it, person receiving it, how it is delivered, and what message it delivers. Failure of falling under all four factors will end up with an instant rejection. As times past by though, comedians have found humor on pick-up lines. From the absurd cheesy pick-up lines to even the most perverted ones, delivering it seems to be more effective if it was meant as a joke. There have been a few cases that various comedic shows used the pick-up lines method of delivering humor, but Bubble Gang is probably the first to make a complete segment entitled and dedicated to delivering cheesy pick-up lines.

Bubble Gang's Pick-up Line Battle was inspired by the underground Filipino rap battle which was also known as fliptop battle which became comemrcially popular back at 2010. As a fan of Bubble Gang, I saw how the Flptop Battle segment evolved into the Pick-Up Lines Battle. Bubble Gang first invited actual fliptop contenders in Bubble Gang's more television-friendly version of the fliptop battle. Fliptop battles are said to be the mix of new form balagtasan, poetry, rap and trash talking. If you watched original Fliptopb battles over at Youtube, you will definitely find out that Flip Battles is a battle of quick wits and derogatory remarks, a game for not the easily-pissed individuals. Check out Bubble Gang's Freestyle Rap Battle, the predecessor to Pick-Up Lines Battle:

Being too censored out and toned down, Bubble Gang's Freestyle Battle may have interest its viewers with the underground Pinoy rap culture, but was effective as a long running gag. This is why Bubble Gang invited actual Freetyle "Fliptop" rappers to pit them against the ridiculously absurd and stupid version of Bubble Gang's freestyle rap... which doesn't made much sense, but it eventually became "funny". This is probably enough cue for the creative writers of the GMA Network gag show to come up with something "new" and thus Pick Up Lines Battle was created.

When Pick Up Lines Battle first made its appearance in Bubble Gang, it featured the same freestyle battle but with pick up lines battle which was always entertaining especially when the ones delivering it were actually good. The winner of the two rounds will face off with the undefeated king of pick-up lines which is played by Ogie Alcasid. The punchline here is his actual existence. The winners and the earlier competitors mostly have good pick-up lines and usually superb delivery of which, but here is this Boy Pick-Up who doesn't have a sense to any of his Tagalog pick-up lines. That fact itself and when you here his pick-up lines will make you scratch your head but later cracks you up when the audience exalt his pure brilliance with his pick-up lines. Boy pick-up's pick-up lines are not meant to be funny but they eventually become one. With this, Boy pick-up's brand of humor falls under the anti-humor category.

A little info about anti-humor:

Anti-humor is a type of indirect humor that involves the joke-teller delivering something which is deliberately not funny, or lacking in intrinsic meaning. The audience is expecting something humorous, and when this does not happen, the irony itself is of comedic value. Anti-humor is also the basis of various types of pranks and hoaxes. It is considered to be very postmodern. The humor of such jokes based on the surprise factor of absence of an expected joke or of a punch line in a narration which is set up as a joke.

Source: Wikipedia

But there is a limit to the anti-humor charm just like any other kind of joke. This is what I've been recently noticing with Bubble Gang's Pick Up Lines Battle. I think that some of us started to expect or wanted more sense in Boy Pick-Up's non-nonsensical pick-up lines, if that made any sense to you? Hahahaha. There is a limit to how many times we can tolerate "Kasi ang kuwan ni kuwan ay ganito". I prefer it when his nonsensical pickup lines has some pop culture reference or relevance, like a one particular episode when Boy Pick-Up answered Neneng B. with "Eh, kasi bata.", with "Weh?!", or with immediately following Neneng B.'s "Bakit" response with "..ngayun ka lang?" ("Bakit Nagyon Ka Lang" by Ogie Alcasid).

Hopefully, the creative team of writers of Bubble Gang can come up with more sensible nonsensicals for Boy Pick-Up. Something that isn't connected but still would be funny. I even saw some comments on various social networks claiming that ever since Boy Pick-Up became popular, he slowly became cornier and cornier. You know what, in some extent, I agree. Bubble Gang's Boy Pick-Up has become so popular that the character is used outside its regular zone in Bubble Gang, thus people being exposed to anti-humor making them more resilient to the effects of the comedic genre. Pick Up Lines Battle along with Boy Pick Up will eventually be phased out just like any other comedy skits, but hopefully it goes out with a bang. The big question is, will it successfully conclude with a film starring Boy Pick-Up like Yaya and Angelina? Guess, we'll have to find out about that soon enough.

The Allegory of Bubble Gang's CheChe Bureche Skit

Besides being the longest running comedy show in the Philippines, Bubble Gang in my opinion is one of the smartest shows out there. It does not only make you laugh for a good hour once a week (Friday nights) but subconsciously educates you on the reality of life. Bubble Gang features smart comedy every now and then.



Bubble Gang's Cheche Bureche skit stars Ogie Alcasid as the rich daughter named Cheche, Michael V. as the half-sister of Cheche who grew up in the slums, and Antonio Aquitania as their loving and unaware father. Each episode features the struggle of Cheche under her oppressive and plain old bully of a half-sister Bureche. Bureche seems to be the model child, kind and loving half-sister to CheChe when their father is around but as soon as he turns his back on them, the little devil starts picking up on the jolly and kind-hearted Cheche. Justice eventually prevails however as each bullying costs Bureche to suffer in the end.



Almost every Filipinos grew up watching generic Philippine cinema stereotypes like the rich are oppressive and evil, while the poor are always the victim and hero of every story. The Bubble Gang's skit pokes fun at this stereotype and turns it around. The funny thing is that it really is a reflection of reality. Watching the news, where "professional" squatters are so stubborn when being forced out on a piece of land which was never theirs is one proof of this reality. Another example is of who is it that victimized hard working middle class and well-off people, isn't it usually the "poor" criminals? I always see such reports ending with the criminal justifying his acts by saying "Wala na kaming makain" (We no longer have food to eat.) or "Kailangang kailangan lang talaga ng pera" (We are in desperate need of money). This is the reality of life, which is sad in the sense, but it is (what I think) probably the inspiration behind such Filipino television gag show skits. I am not generalizing all Filipinos who live under impoverish conditions are all like that, but no thanks to a selected dimwitted and opportunistic few, they have turned the usual goody good image of the poor Filipino mass into something society would hate. I personally know a couple of people who live under such poor conditions. The only difference is that they dream and made that dream come true by working hard in life. I am so proud of them now as they are all well off now, with good steady career and a well-off type of living.





Bubble Gang's Cheche Bureche Skit "Painting" episode.

Bubble Gang's Cheche Bureche skit somehow tickles most Filipinos funny bones by presenting the reality is a satirical kind of way. That everyone can be a bully and that it doesn't always have to be people who are in the upper or rich social class to be the ones responsible over the misfortune of their financially less-fortunate counterparts. That like you and me, everyone is capable of committing good and evil.



Bureche doing her signature ARGH! fail shout of despair.