Foreigners say that we Filipinos are the greatest and the most skillful imitators. We are copycats so to say. In fact, it has been a truth for decades. The Philippines
Remember Captain Barbell and Darna? How about Barok? Well, these are some of the well-known comic characters which could be proclaimed as ‘imitated’ versions of Superman, Wonder Woman and Fred from the Flintstones respectively. There are also numerous characters that our Filipino artists and film makers used to acquire from foreign creative minds. In music and fashion, imitations do sell millions in fact but those won’t be mentioned in this entire article.
However, looking at the height of optimism, Filipinos have that outstanding dexterity if imitation is being talked about right here. It takes gallons of efforts and ideas to imitate something may it be in music, art, cinematography, etc. especially if the items from these indicated fields are so institutionalized and high paid. And so, creativity is still there. You get the picture over here. Resourcefulness comes into picture because no wonder Filipinos are 100% resilient in performing effective imitations of anything. Our fellows are naturally inclined with this matter so to speak. Well, economy is alive because of these things. Thanks! (No, not really I guess).
If creativity is at stake here, maybe we can consider ‘parody.’ Yes, let us have the art of parody as the best example of how Filipinos adopt this talent though it’s actually imitation too. For a little background, parody came from the Greek word, paroidia (from para which is ‘beside’ and aidein which is ‘to sing’). In other words, it is an act of satirical singing by imitating someone. For the early Greeks, it was more of an entertainment and having parody was an essential part for plays. Thus, it was one of the earliest literary works if considered. By the time of Jesus Christ, the Romans used parody to attack political enemies and rebels who would try to overthrow the powerful Roman Empire . Moving the hands of time to the present time, parody is still relived especially by talented Filipinos and recording artist wannabe’s. Try to listen to the local radio stations and you will find out. Disc jocks will surely pin your bellies out with parodies of the most played foreign and local music oftentimes blended with ‘green’ matters. Companies also exerted their efforts to promote their products by parody of course. Even politicians will pour out the best for campaigns via parody of their jingles in television, radio and also in scouting your streets and disturbing your beauty rest. Hence, parody has become a part of our culture and tradition. It woke up the positive framework of our conceptual thinking that there is something ‘good’ that could come from imitation.
Michael V., a famous comedian and TV host here in the Philippines claimed his way to fame not just by making funny antics but of course by imitating foreign and local commercials plus impersonating the prominent personalities like Former President Arroyo, talk show host Boy Abunda and news anchor Mike Enriquez and disguising into someone and will roll out on streets just to fool everyone and produce laughing moments afterwards. But his career never stopped there. He even discovered his long-lost talent in line of parody (aside from being a singer/rapper-songwriter already). He had written many laugh-out-loud lyrics that would fit an imitated song choice. He even compiled it in an album and was sold out in the market. He just got credits for it. One should really try to browse his ‘works of art’ in YouTube and other video blog sites.
The Filipino Psychology should publish and make research on the concept of Filipino parody. This can be considered a world-class talent. We could even be better than Americans whose works appear to be corny enough. Filipinos in such a sense must seek for themselves a pursuit for excellence. We must dismantle the negative ideologies that no good could be found in imitating because originality and integrity lies ahead. But how could imitation be negative or perhaps destructive to our originality if it’s the one that rejuvenates hope for the Filipinos that despite being downtrodden, we could still laugh and sing our lungs out? Filipinos are happy people by nature and by nurturance. Filipino parody makes life less serious. Through it, we see reality and we earn learning points from the misdemeanors of our political system and the chaos our country has been into. It reflects on the true blue values and principles only we Filipinos can claim as our own. I think, that is the true concept of originality in a different way.
So I remember this quote: “It does not mean that if a thing is very ridiculous, you could not get any sense from it.”
It spoke for itself, right?
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