M&M and Fantastica: A Look Into Philippine Humor
Hello, I’m Meg :)
Today, we’ll be talking about the Philippine movies M&M: The Mall The Merrier and Fantastica. Specifically, how the two reflect Philippine humor and the media trends the year each was released.
[Warning: Spoilers ahead.]
M&M: The Mall, The Merrier: About the Movie
ABS-CBN Star Cinema’s M&M: The Mall The Merrier, released in 2019, was directed by Barry Gonzales and stars Vice Ganda as Moira and Anne Curtis-Smith as her sister Morisette. The story follows the two’s family history and drama. Their father being the main owner of their Tamol Mall, all hell breaks loose when he and the mother die in a plane crash. Moira and Morisette battle it out to see who gets to keep the mall.
Fantastica: About the Movie
Another ABS-CBN Star Cinema movie, Fantastica was released in 2018 and was directed by Barry Gonzales as well, starring Vice Ganda as Belat in the lead role once more. Belat and her family own a carnival that houses a bridging to Fantastica. When there is a lot of joy and cheer in the park, the portal is activated and opened. A prince from that other realm emerges and Belat is to help him find his three lost sisters.
Philippine Humor
Making Financial Instability Funny
Both M&M and Fantastica make use of the sad life being financially unstable can bring, all the while using it as a comedic relief too. For some reason, it’s a thing for Filipinos to quite literally laugh and smile their pains away, making everything a joke.
In M&M, the issue is brought up right at the beginning when it is seen that the escalator is broken yet again. At their parents funeral, Moira sets up the ashes of her parents in a pitcher and cup, and even has a side of fake flowers instead of real ones.
In Fantastica, the money issues are evident as well, as the story follows their battle against corporate people trying to buy their land.
There’s a scene in the movie where two park visitors complain about a ride not being exciting. Instead of seeing to it that the ride is fixed, Vice’s character and her brother get on the ride and make-believe that it’s going fast and that it is, in fact, exciting.
Insulting People Is Fun
It’s common in Philippine culture to offend the other person and play it off as a joke. The biro (joke) has become such a normal comment that you could be scolded and said to be overreacting if you get offended. A possible reason for why these sorts of jokes came about in the first place is because of the disregard of many Filipinos of the others’ feelings. They say such comments need to be said in order to learn, but what they don’t know how to do - really - is give actual constructive criticism properly.
Breaking the Fourth Wall
Both M&M and Fantastica break the fourth wall, acknowledging who the actor is in real life.
In M&M, one of the ways they do this is by having a pun battle with Vice and Anne’s movies respectively.
In Fantastica, they do this by making fun of how they come from different Philippine television networks.
Trends At The Time
Sana All!
“Sana ol” or “sana all” and any other variations of the term was a popular saying of Filipinos across the globe in 2019. It is an expression of jealousy. A rough translation could be, “Why can’t that be the same for all?!” A perfect example would be this scene from M&M:
Dalagang Pilipina
Dalagang Pilipina is a popular trend among Filipinos of people making these faces to seem cute, the Filipino term being “pabebe.” As made popular by famous Pinoy vlogger, Mimi as she went viral with her rendition:
Throughout the course of both M&M and Fantastica, Vice makes these faces over and over.
The Two Movies
Looking at the two movies side by side, there’s great similarity in their formulas, which could be because they were both directed by the same person, as well as star several of the same people. But besides those facts, it’s clear that these two movies were made for Philippine audiences as they are loaded with inside jokes that you may only understand as a Filipino and/or if you’ve lived in the country for a time. The two also tend to try and hop on some viral trends going on at the time they were made and released.
Issues that are present in Philippine society are showcased through humor. As mentioned earlier, it’s as if they are literally just laughing their pains way. The recurring problems of poverty in the country is nothing to laugh about, but there are those who find it acceptable to do so in their attempt to make a heavy topic lighter. The same with using insulting comments as a way to joke around with others. Such comments can be very scarring, no matter what the intention. One might say Filipinos could never take matters seriously, but it might also be understandable that it is their way of coping with the matters the Philippines is constantly in.
When talking about how these movies exploit the use of trends to get on the bandwagon and sell out in theatres, I’d say they don’t do a very good job at it. Yes, they take trends, but how they integrate them into their storytelling isn’t so good and seamless. Upon watching both M&M and Fantastica, I found myself constantly wanting to get up and leave because I did not understand where everything was going. Tangents popped up left and right, making the movies unnecessarily longer than needed to successfully tell their tales. Personally, I would not recommend these movies to anyone. I want my money back!
