The night is eerily quiet and dark. Only the soft sounds from the keyboard and the occasional bing of the messenger can be heard. Scrolling down the newsfeed of my social media account, rarely do I find posts about matters-of-great-importance. Suddenly, the silence of the lambs was broken. Suddenly laughter filled the room. Someone just laughed as if there will be no tomorrow, as if all the laughter the world ever has is nothing but a sorrowful cry. The cause? A #hugot post just captured the solemnity of the night. The Filipino social media phenomenon known as “hugot” or “#hugot” can be roughly translated as “pulled out”. It is a one or two-liner that usually evokes sarcasm from a broken-heart like “Ako: Pabili naman po nang pain reliever; Vendor:Ilan?; Ako: Isa lang po. Ako lang naman ang nasaktan sa aming dalawa” (Me: Can I buy a pain reliever?; Vendor: How many?; Me: Only one please for I am the only one that has been hurt between the two of us). “Hugot lines” are usually funny for it evokes sarcasm and utilizes witty logic. As the laughter subsided (n.b. I have partaken on it), the spell of the night was erased in an instant. Smiles were already drawn in our haggard faces. Why do #Hugot lines evoke laughter even if in fact it is a sarcastic tirade of a broken-hearted person? Why is it so trending and why do we like and share it at all? What is so funny in being a broken heart? The answer might just be strolling on the streets of our cities, hiking on the mountains and planting the farms of our people. Yes, the answer is the people themselves or if one be very particular, the culture. Filipinos might be said to be undergoing a cultural “identity crisis” but the entire world knows well how the Filipino can smile amidst things that evoke tears and despair. We have spent more than three centuries in the convento, about two scores in Hollywood, and around five years in the dojo, but still our smiles and laughter are just like how our Malayan ancestors might have had (please excuse my wild imagination). This innate joyfulness and candidness, for me, is the reason behind the “virality” of the #Hugot phenomenon. Some psychologists or other mind-mystery-loving persons might be tempted to diagnose us and say that we are an escapist people. They might argue that our culture of turning the sad events in our lives into a laughingstock is a kind of turning our backs to the real essence of the problem. But I dare say no. When we started laughing about our own misfortunes and broken heartedness, we are not just appreciating our witty logic and sarcasm but we are seeing the eidos – the essence – of our problems. What is this essence you ask? The essence of our problems and heartaches might differ from case to case but there is a common ground that they share. That ground is the realization that everything in this world is passing and so is one’s problem. Why do I have to problematize my problem? I should rather laugh on it and display my witty logic otherwise it will be a waste of time.
So far so good. But all these revolve only around the egoistic existence of the Self. Is there something much deeper about the social media phenomena of #Hugot lines? In the point-of-view of the broken hearted, it is really hard to laugh about the very things which torn your heart apart but when you are able to transcend this, you have also transcended yourself. This is the phenomenon of the classic comedian. I used classic, not the modern ones who try to evoke laughter out of downgrading other people. The classic comedian downgrades himself and might even accept pain so that others might laugh. This seems foolish but this is the origin of comedy – a fooling about of what in reality is unjust, unfair, and at times unhappy events. The classic comedian, thus, is someone who had already transcended the egoistic shell of existence. He is no longer mourning about his pains; rather he uses these pains to invest smiles on the face of the Other. He acknowledges his infinite responsibility to the Other whose Face he faces in every single moment of his life. He is no longer in the Cartesian “cogito ergo sum” (I think therefore I am) but already a being-for-the-other! This is the life of the one at the sending end of the communication process of the phenomenon called #Hugot. It might seem a bitter reminiscence of the past gone wrong but the #Hugot phenomenon is used not to cry over the past but to ensure the sweetness of the Other’s future, or at least of the moment that he smiles and laughs even if it is at the cost of my own bitter remembrance. Is this suicide? Maybe. But what is the reason of our existence if not to die and die as long as there is a chance before our final death and resurrection? To die does not only mean to die physically, it can also mean death of one’s ego. As we have said above, “hugot” can be roughly translated as “pulled out” and yes it is a pulling out – a pulling out of something from inside to give outside. Sometimes, I think, it is wiser to be at the sending end rather than the receiving end of the #Hugot phenomenon for the sender does not only exhibit his wit, logic, and humor, rather he is transcending the communication process and in that process gives not only the message but himself too. Indeed, it was his Self that is being pulled out inside and is given to you. And so I posted my #Hugot. |
anonymous lenzJust a traveling someone in this reality we have fallen in love with... this we call our world... "What is essential is invisible to the eyes..." Tags
All
"The absolutely other is the Other" Archives
September 2018
"There is only one corner in the universe that you can be certain of improving and that's your own Self" |