Hold Your Horses

Restraint. A word that is absent in the vocabulary of many individuals. At times, including mine. We always get carried away, especially when it comes to judging people. It’s the easiest thing to do: judge. Ride your high horse and look down on supposedly lesser beings. And go to great lengths just to drive home your point. Exaggerate. Be hysterical. Lie.

Such is the lynch mob mentality many times evident especially on social media. Lurking in the shadows. Waiting for the next target. Ready to pounce anytime.

Imagine a lynch mob. Only blind.

Chris Lao. Amalayer. Charice. Nancy Binay. And now, Vice Ganda.

To establish context, below is the complete transcript of the segment of Vice Ganda’s jokes on Jessica Soho.

Paano kaya kung nag-bold na rin si Jessica Soho? Ang launching niyang pelikula, “Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Sobra”.

Napanaginipan ko nga rin ‘yang si Ms. Jessica Soho, nagpapatimbang. Nakakatawa no’ng nagpatimbang kami. Umakyat si Jessica Soho sa weighing scale. Pag-akyat ni Jessica Soho, tumunog ang weighing scale: “One at a time. One at a time. One at a time.” So bumaba ulit si Jessica Soho. Nagalit. “Ay, baka sira. Ay ta-try ko ulit.” So umakyat ulit ng weighing scale si Jessica Soho. Tumunog ang weighing scale: “Please don’t play with the machine. Don’t play with the machine. One at a time. I told you one at a time. Don’t play with the machine.” Ay! Nagalit si Jessica Soho. “Ano ba naman ‘to?! Last try na talaga!” So umakyat ulit si Jessica Soho sa weighing scale. Tumunog ang weighing scale: “You weigh 180 per kilo.” So ayaw niya nang magpatimbang.

Ang hirap nga naman kung si Jessica Soho magbo-bold. Kailangan gang rape lagi. Sasabihin ng rapist, “Ipasok ang lechon!” Sasabihin naman ni Jessica, “Eh nasa’n ang apple?”

Nakakatawa nga eh. May boyfriend daw dati si Jessica. Narinig ko lang naman sa mga hindi mapagkakatiwalaan. Ninakaw daw nung boyfriend yung panty ni Jessica. Tapos pinalabhan. Nung dinala sa laundry, ang chineckan comforter.

Si Ma’am Charo tuwang-tuwa pag kabilang channel yung niloloko ko. Bumalik tayo sa Channel 2.

At the outset, let me tell you that I am not, nor will I be, defending Vice Ganda. He can very well do that on his own. And his team of lawyers and supporters. But let us get a few things straight.

Fact 1: Evidently, the central theme of the Jessica Soho jokes was WEIGHT. Not her achievements. Not her womanhood. Not her value as a person. NOT RAPE.

Surely, Jessica Soho is not just about her weight. Therefore, to say that jokes on her being heavy are tantamount to destroying her as a person is just too much of a stretch, which in itself terribly underestimates Jessica Soho as a person.

A joke went around a few years back where Jessica Soho was supposedly on the beach. She was said to be wearing a black wetsuit, about to go diving, when DENR representatives rushed to the scene. When asked why they went there, they said they were responding to reports that a butanding had been stranded on the shallow waters near the shore. How many of you laughed at that? I’m sure no one. Riiiight.

Did anyone get crucified for that joke at the time? I highly doubt it. There was no visible target. And people on social media whose habit is to bash other individuals with or without reason would be too lazy to do some research.

Fact 2: Jessica Soho was not being bullied or victimized. According to Shift+F7, to bully is to intimidate, to terrorize, to persecute, to torment, to frighten, to oppress, to browbeat, to harass. It likewise offers similar synonyms for the word “victimize”. In the two minutes that Vice Ganda delivered the Jessica Soho jokes, not once was she bullied or victimized.

It was a joke. Crass, lewd, made in bad taste. But a joke nonetheless, along the SAME LINES as color jokes, gender jokes, disability jokes and the like. From time to time, a line is crossed. Did Vice Ganda cross that line? Maybe.

Needless to say, the answer to that will depend on each person’s unique sensibilities, values, beliefs, upbringing and outlook in life. Tell me the greenest joke that you can think of, and I most probably won’t get offended. Tell me a joke about women’s stereotypical role in the kitchen, and I will probably take offense. I will probably call you out. Tell me a joke about what bad drivers all women make and I will most probably run you over with my car, on reverse.

There is no hard-and-fast rule as to when that line is crossed. And in the absence of such rule, there must likewise be no fixed punishment, especially one that is so severe that you decimate the joker to pieces and consider her or him worthless.

Fact 3: Other celebrities were mentioned in that segment of the concert, when Vice Ganda created scenarios depicting these celebrities as bold stars. He mentioned Boy Abunda, Kris Aquino and Gus Abelgas.

Do you mean to tell me these people were bullied, too? Were they also victimized? If so, where is the indignation? Where is the clamor for Vice Ganda’s head, in defense of Abunda, Aquino and Abelgas? What sets Jessica Soho apart? The rape angle? Come on. He said much worse things about Kris Aquino, in my opinion.

Come to think of it, would Maki Pulido come to the rescue of Aiko Melendez, if Vice Ganda happened to name her in that segment, and not Jessica Soho? Would Jiggy Manicad call Vice Ganda’s attention for making jokes about Janice De Belen and her weight? Would Mark Zambrano side with Sharon Cuneta and call for sanctions against Vice Ganda? Think about it.

Let’s face it. The ones who reacted first about the Jessica Soho jokes were members of GMA’s news department. Why? Most probably because they are Jessica’s friends, close colleagues. Maybe they saw Jessica Soho as their mentor, and they felt they had to come to her defense. Admirable. Justified even. Except in the case of one personality who made it quite obvious that he was more concerned about network issues than defending a friend.

But to overreact and resort to making judgments about a man we barely know? To call on people to boycott him? To relegate him to the lowest of the low scums of the showbiz universe? WHY?

This is where restraint fails most of us. Too many of us. We are not only carried away. WE LET OURSELVES GET CARRIED AWAY. There is a consciousness in allowing ourselves to go with the mob, to walk blindly with everyone else in the direction of the public execution stage. We want to hit, to injure, to hurt, to punish, to make this scum of the earth suffer, with our bare hands. Or with our gadgets.

We judge Chris Lao and say he’s an arrogant, stupid fool for taking on that flooded road. We judge Amalayer for arrogantly shouting at the station guard and shaming her. We judge Charice for making foolish choices, for making a global fool of herself. We judge Nancy Binay based on the color of her skin and on her physical appearance. And we judge Vice Ganda for his arrogance in taking on THE Jessica Soho and wanting to have her raped.

We already. Misplaced indignation, hypocrisy, outright lie.

The culprit: COLLECTIVE INSECURITY. Filipinos are afflicted with such inferiority complex that we are always out to prove something, to prove ourselves right and better than most everyone else. It is a mistaken sense of honor and pride. It is wanting to always be right in front of many. Even at the expense of our own brothers and sisters. As a result, the first chance that we get, we pounce on the often unwitting victim. We set our eyes on a target – a celebrity, a politician, a private individual who shot to fame, or infamy, for some reason – and we beat them to a pulp until there is nothing left of them. And we feel vindicated.

Sick.

It takes a certain level of maturity to look at this debacle as a level-headed person would. To many people, Vice Ganda crossed a line. To them, he should sincerely apologize, as any decent human being should. But to assemble the mob and to demand his head on a silver platter, that is just plain and simple horseshit.