Bubble Gang Gets X for Political Spoof
Sunday, November 28th, 2004One of the political spoofs of Bubble Gang that got X’d was supposed to be shown last June. Jo-Ann Maglipon writes about it in her column in the Inquirer. The article can be read here. Laughter is empowering. Silencing laughter is the worst kind of censorship.
Take note that the spoof not only makes fun of the President, but also other GMA 7 shows. Because of this incident, Bubble Gang no longer makes spoofs of the President. In continues to make fun of other GMA 7 shows, however.
In June this year, the show’s “4 Oras” segment, playing around with its own network’s “24 Oras,” had Michael V, playing Michael Ricketts, obviously playing Mike Enriquez, interviewing the President, also played by Michael V with buck teeth.
They both appear on split screen: “Magandang gabi po, Madame President.” (Good evening, Madame President) And Madame President greets back, “Magandang gabi naman, Mike.” (Good evening, Mike)Immediately after, before the President can even utter another word, Michael V cuts, all urgent-like: “Huwag po kayong aalis diyan, Madame President, at babalikan namin kayo!” (Just stay there, Madame President, and we will be back in a while.)
It’s obviously an exaggeration of the way news anchors put everybody on hold to give way to somebody bigger, and it’s hilarious. The script goes on that way until this exchange:
GMA: Ang plano ko ay haharapin ang problema ng lumaking utang ng ating bansa. (Our plan is to solve the problem of the growing foreign debt)
Michael: At bakit po lumaki ang utang ng ating bansa?(And why do we have a growing foreign debt?)
GMA: Malaki kasi nagastos ko sa eleksiyon. Ay, mali, malaki ang nagastos ng pamahalaan sa eleksiyon-alam mo na, pag-print ng mga balota, pambayad sa mga teacher…” (Because we spent so much during the elections. No, its because of the expenses during the elections, you know the printing of the ballots, the per diems for the teachers…)
Then somewhere in there, the anchor tells the President she can have 15 seconds to give the country a message. And, in an obvious parody of the hilarious Lolit-Solis clocked thank-yous on “StarTalk,” the President says on TV, even as a 15-second timer clocks her on screen:
“Nagpapasalamat ako sa taong bayan…sa Senado at Kongreso, puwera na lang ang mga oposisyon na nagpabagal ng bilangan. Salamat sa lahat ng nanigurong ako ang mananalo, sa mga sundalong nagbilang ng boto ko sa Mindanao, sa mga politiko ng Cebu…” (I thank the people… those in the senate and congress, excluding the opposition. I thank all who helped ensure that I win the elections, the soldiers who counted my votes in Mindanao, the politicians in Cebu…)
That was it. It was rollicking fun-and it never aired.
Why not?
As far as the “Bubble Gang” team understands it, the MTRCB committee that passed judgment on it was not pleased that the President was made the subject of the political spoof.
Segment writer Romel Lalata puts it this way: “Puwede naming laitin lahat, kahit na si Senador Miriam Santiago, basta ‘wag lang galawin si GMA.”
And the end effect?
The writers don’t do GMA anymore. Thus, GMA, the President, has effectively, silenced political comedy in GMA, the station.
Chief Censor Ma. Consoliza Laguardia, in a phone call, denies this. She says it was “voluntarily deleted by the producers,” although she begs off to do more research on this, as the segment was submitted last June.
Still, she says she had no idea the “Bubble Gang” people had objections to the MTRCB’s judgment and is hurt that they had to go to the media with these.
She notes that no one from the show or from the network had raised the issue with her. “Madali naman akong kausapin,” she says.
In any case, she asks, “Pero di ba offensive ‘yon? Presidente naman ‘yan, and below the belt ‘yong sasabihan ng ganyan, di ba?”
And so it goes… this unfinished business between censorship and art, controls and freedoms, autocracy and democracy.
Question is: Where do you stand?