For the queer community, laughter is both our offense and defense strategy. Each “echos“, “charing“, “charot” and “chz” lets us navigate through all the microaggressions and LGBTphobia, with humor and cheekiness our stealth weapons versus a bigoted, cis-heteronormative society.

Comedy and satire have allowed us to remain visible publicly: a display of our identity that would usually mark us as a target of hate if we present it in a more serious manner.

It’s not only the marginalized that use humor as a device for capturing attention while also deflecting attacks, or in their case, much-needed criticism. Political figures have realized its potential to advance their agendas, especially to a generation that is constantly looking for entertainment on social media.

Co-Creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab and the human rights, video, & technology network WITNESS’s report “Just Joking!” notes: 

“[T]he Philippines’ Duterte frequently covers for controversial statements by claiming later they were jokes, such as his threat to pull his country out of the U.N. Humor very often serves as both a sword and a shield. Misleading media, often laden with racist, conspiratorial, and xenophobic messages, can be packaged or retroactively explained away as harmless bits of sarcasm and irony that shouldn’t be taken too seriously. Defenders will say that this media is simply meant to push the boundaries of pop culture and to fly in the face of overly sensitive notions of ‘political correctness.’”

Ronald McDonald Trump

If there’s someone who should understand very well the intersection of queer humor and politics, it’s comedian Jon Santos. As one of the country’s well-known political satirists with a career spanning over three decades, Jon has caricatured controversial political figures such as Imelda Marcos, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Joseph Estrada, the late Miriam Defensor-Santiago, and recently Donald Trump and Rodrigo Duterte (in Trumperte, his recent performance with theater company PETA). 

He says his brand of comedy comes from growing up queer in a closeted generation: “I was from that generation where you could not be you. The mask was important. The mask was something that helped me become more comfortable.

“I feel a lot of that came from the fear of Jon, the real John, playing ordinary meat-and-potatoes Jon not being likable enough, or not being valid enough to be listened to, to look at…but the power I have when I turn to into a famous celebrity––that makes them look, that makes them listen.”

Jon easily disappears behind these very strong characters he portrays.

“My basis for choosing a character is the point of reference and intensity of like or dislike,” he explains to me during our one-and-a-half Zoom call. “For me Ate Vi, the first and my favorite, I was working with a lot of love and adoration from her fans. There are the controversial characters na maraming naghe-hate, very polarizing. Ronald McDonald Trump, that is the name of the character, even si Madam Imeldific. Some of them have likers and dislikers. 

“The important thing is these feelings are clear and intense.” 

Audience impact

Director Rod Singh, who became famous for her award-winning film Mamu: And A Mother Too and is currently producing content for the group LGBTQIA+ for Leni (one of which, Usapang Lasing, features prominent influencer Sassa Gurl) echoes the sentiment that stirring the emotions of the audience is necessary:

“For me to successfully deliver my politics, my message, kailangan ko nung appeal to emotions in a way, pero dun sa humor. Parang, meron akong gustong sabihin, kailangan ko ng audience. At yung audience, mas malaki kapag alam nilang humor. Kailangan ko muna ng tao, at sa gitna ng mga tawanan, dun ko ipapasok yung gusto kong sabihin.”  

Rod credits her experience as an LGBT+ advocate for infusing political awareness into her creative work: “Yun kamuwangan ko tungkol sa pagiging LGBT+ ay nanggaling doon sa pagiging active member ko sa [UP] Babaylan. I don’t think that without my exposure to UP Babaylan and other LGBTQIA+ advocacies, magiging influenced ang art ko na political.” 

Meanwhile, Jon is adamant that political humor to him is not just a means, but the actual end. 

“It’s political in the repertoire, it’s political in theme, but the intention of the show is to sell a product, and the product is laughter,” he describes his work. 

He stresses that what he does is mostly at the mercy of external factors such as his audience and show buyers:

“Sometimes, beyond raising money for your organization, they sometimes write it into a political season. That’s what PETA did with my most recent series, Trumperte. That to me is icing on the cake. I really put together my shows, try to sell four nights to suki show buyers, because I want to have a party, I want to sell a laughing experience.

“I think my audiences are very bright, I think they know how they feel, they know who to vote, I really do not need to go that far. I just become that little court jester who says, “Oo nga ano, ganun nga pala yung accent ni Donald Trump, ganun ang rolled-up sleeves ng barong ni FVR, ganun ang accent ni Gloria.

“I played people I did not like, but they were part of a repertoire, they were part of an arc of characters of a particular season. And they have to be played. Some of them were uncomfortable, the body pads, the prosthetics, the Leukoplast to draw up your (brows).” 

He further muses: “Wala akong clear idea on how to run a career. It was managers and advisors who helped me do that waltz, to take your market where you can take them, and to be taken by the hand to where they think they can take you.”  

Intention and evidence

For Rod, writing and filmmaking are just devices for her to deliver her political message successfully. There are things that will remain non-negotiable for her.

“If it’s anything related to issues na alam kong disservice sa pinaglalaban ko, ano yung pinaniniwalaan ko” is the line she would not cross. 

She expounds:

“If it’s twisting or revising history, you have to make sure that backed up by evidence ito. May mga accounts naman ng history na alam nating hindi totoo, kasi ito yung nangyari–for example, the Aguinaldo-Bonifacio kineme, pero dapat knowledgeable ako about it, backed up by researchers, at hindi siya contested like, it’s something as a culture alam natin na hindi propaganda. Mga ganung bagay.

“​​Comedy, or satire in general, is shooting up. Hindi siya shooting down. When you shoot down, it’s lazy. Mas madali ang mag-shoot down than mag-shoot up. Shooting down, alam mo na meron at meron kang mapapatawa. Actually madali yan, lazy comedy nga yun.” 

She cites the work of content creator Darryl Yap, who has worked on a number of controversial films prior to producing anti-Leni Robredo campaign videos:

“Yung humor, alam mong may matatawa, pero the question is, dapat pa bang tinutuloy yung ganyang humor? Yun yung laging question ko sa sarili ko. Alam kong nakakatawa ito pero mali, so hindi ko gagawin ito.”

This is the filter Rod applies with her current work for VP Leni’s presidential campaign, which she says is a labor of love (​​”Yung budget kasi ng paggawa is for the workers lang talaga. Honorarium nga lang e, di TF yun. Yung hahanap ka talaga nung mga tipong willing kasi Kakampink din,” she shares.) 

“We always start with intention. Yun yung sinasabi ko, this is a political material, you always start with intention muna. Yun ang creative process ko,” Rod says, confiding how she’s proud that her opinions as an LGBT+ person matter in the battle for attention and with countering disinformation:

“Naramdaman namin na stakeholders na tayo sa kampanya. Hindi na tayo basta jester lang or host ng mga sorties. Karamihan ng mga naghi-hit creatively, yung pinanglalaban na kampanya ng mga Kakampinks sa mga BBM, yung mga ginagawa ng LGBTQIA+ for Leni. Nalo-lobby na natin yung agenda natin, napapirma natin si VP Leni, si Kiko, some senatoriables, to sign the LGBTQIA+ agenda, na kapag nanalo sila, ito yung gusto nating i-prioritize na agenda.

“Ang sarap-sarap ng feeling na may boses na tayo…Hindi ko ide-discredit yung other faction, si Sass Sasot, Thinking Pinoy. Ito yung masasabi nating intelektwal, yung pinambabato nilang intelektwal ng panig nila, LGBT. So ako, kung may nakikita ako, parang at this point, stakeholders na tayo from all sides. Sa BBM-Duterte faction, stakeholders na sila, propagandista na nga yung dalawa e, parang mga key opinion leaders.”

The middle ground

Jon is more conservative about what his comedy can actually do, in the grand scheme of things:

“I don’t believe in imposing on an audience. I believe it’s not about me. It’s a ground that we can share. It’s about your agenda overlapping my agenda. Your need to be entertained, overlapping with my need to do art. There’s enough middle ground that can still be fun.”

He also believes the politicians he impersonates aren’t bothered by the things he does.  “A lot of them to me have very, very complicated lives. I really do not think they have much time to think about these comedians. A lot of them I have impersonated in front of them. I played GMA in front of GMA, I played Tita Cory in front of Tita Cory, I played FVR in front of FVR. I guess, it’s very trite, but they see the popularity meter as the reason they were chosen, and they see it as a form of flattery.

“Insekto lang ako sa kanila. I try not to focus too much, I try not to get distracted by my personal feelings. Baka mawala ang edge, mawala ang tapang.” 

When to stop laughing

The light satirists and entertainers cast on social injustices, Jon believes, “makes you more patient with life’s cruelties.” And while he will never endorse any candidate or party as of now (“I’ve turned down from both camps, and my managers have understood,” he says), he tells me an observation he heard from a friend: “The Pinoy needs to also know when to stop laughing, and to take it seriously, and to be angry. Baka kasi ‘pag tinatapakan ka na at tinatarantado ka na, there is a time na hindi ito nakakatawa. Lalaban na tayo.”

As for Rod, she thinks her work is not just to take potshots so she can feel superior. Beyond using humor to challenge their ideas, she wants to invite other queer people and the bigger population who have been misinformed to a safe space where they can educate themselves further:  

“Naniniwala ako na sana bigyan ng pagkakataon ang mga tao na makapagbago. Kung hindi natin sila bibigyan ng room to grow or change, anong gusto nating gusto nilang mangyari sa kanila? Mamatay?”

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Illustration by Pammy Orlina