From kinder to grade 6, I grew up watching Eat Bulaga every afternoon during lunch break.
From kinder to grade 3, I was able to watch the show in its entirety until 130pm.
From fourth grade to sixth, because I lived a few blocks from the Catholic elementary school my parents enrolled me in and I went home to eat lunch at my grandmother's house, I was able to watch Eat Bulaga until 1pm.
I didn't watch the show because I wanted to, I watched it because the adults in our house did. And I don't remember anything else memorable on TV during lunch at that time. I remember that lunch time until 3pm was "patay na oras" or downtime where one either slept or watched old 1950's-1960's Sampaguita movies.
Eat Bulaga was a show you watched while you did nothing or while nothing was happening.
Now, it is a lunch time staple. It is like rice to mainstream society's "ulam" or `viand' (according to my fourth grade teacher).
In one of the Eat Bulaga episodes I remember,
my father was laughing at Vic Sotto - who was pretending to cook a dish with the help of a male assistant who had a cleft palate.
I didn't understand why my father found it funny when Vic Sotto asked his assistant to check if the oil on the frying pan was hot enough, the assistant waved his hand above the pan but Vic Sotto dunked the assistant's hand in. The assistant, from what I can remember, said - in all seriousness and in his cleft-palate-affected speech - "Walang ganyanan."
I couldn't understand why Vic Sotto and my father found it hilarious.
I did find Aiza Seguerra cute and so it was easy for me to become her instant fan when I saw her in Little Ms Philippines.
It also didn't strike me as odd - at that time - when Joey de Leon wore his street clothes on national TV.
It was in the late 80's that I finally saw what everybody did - the show was inherently / organically, albeit playfully, subversive.
In one of the show's contest - She's Got the Look - a beautiful female contestant was called for her turn in the Question & Answer portion. It was obvious that everyone was awed by her elegance. When she reached the center stage, host Joey de Leon asked the usual - and at that time not yet over-used cliche'/ patronizing question -
"What is your motto?"
The contestant replied, "To be a doctor."
The audience screamed, the contestant smiled but mild panic was all over her face.
Meanwhile, Joey de Leon whispered to the mic while one of his hands was on his face: "Sinasabi ko na nga ba."
The contestant looked to her side and then - probably coached by someone backstage - spoke to the mic, "Time is gold. Time is gold"
In Pinoy Henyo years ago, a male contestant was guessing the word "Kuko."
He couldn't (ermmm) "nail" the word so Joey de Leon helped.
Male contestant 1: Pagkain ba `to?
Contestant 2: Hindi
Male contestant 1: Tao?
Contestant 2: Oo.
Male Contestant 1: Parte ng katawan ng tao?
Contestant 2: Oo.
Joey de Leon: Kinakain din yan.
Male contestant 1: Suso?
More recently, in Eat Bulaga's Juan for all All for Juan segment where Vic Sotto called a contestant via a cellphone and the call gave out a high-pitched buzzing feedback, instead of asking the contestant to lower the volume of her TV, Vic Sotto enjoyed the annoying sound the way a druggie gets his fix - with the technical echo adding to his "high."
Most recently, about six days ago, a Juan for All All for Juan contestant made an error by calling one of the segment's host Wally as Willie - and even mentioned the full, complete name of Willie Revillame. Instead of immediately correcting the mistake, Vic and Joey rode on the error and milked it for all the laughs it could get - with the help of everyone else's genius namely Jose Manalo.
Currently, there is nothing else as relatively edgy and funny on mainstream TV as Eat Bulaga.
Do you remember the time when there were at least one or two local sitcoms shown on primetime TV everyday?
Have you noticed how there are very few now? If there are sitcoms, they turn into gameshows halfway through one season.
Eat Bulaga so far is the only show where funny is allowed. The way mainstream funny is usually permitted to be - lightheartedly offensive but offensive still.
Is it because everyone is so thin-skinned now?
Is it because everyone has more to lose now?
Is it because now in 2011 Philippines - as according to Ely Buendia: "Mahirap (na) magsalita ng totoo dito sa Pinas masyadong sensitive ang mga tao."
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