Nutty nights

Wednesday, the middle day of the week, elicits different reactions from everyone. Some rejoice, as it signals the end of the difficult first half of the working week, with Monday and Tuesday conveniently out of the picture. Others, however, become more flustered and interpret Wednesday as the weekly insult; a nagging reminder that there is still the entire Thursday and Friday to deal with before the real weekend can begin.

GMA-7 helps alleviate this mental-Wednesday dilemma. Late nights on Wednesday, right before Saksi, Joey de Leon, Anjo Yllana, and Janno Gibbs perform their usual mid-week antics in a show called Nuts Entertainment. The show is a Filipino gag/cheap-improv/comedy show in true Pinoy fashion. With co-stars Carmina Villaroel, Gelli de Belen, Richard Gutierrez, and Mike Pekto, the show comes together in full force – one crazy bandwagon you can’t really understand but can’t help but ride anyway. Like the title implies, this show truly is nuts.

On a positive note, the one-hour therapeutic power of Nuts Entertainment is quite effective. Indisputably stupid yet genuinely funny, the show helps put the stressed individual’s mind at ease. Nuts Entertainment’s mid-week timeslot permits the brain the natural slowness and inactivity it needs in the middle of any hellacious week. Nuts Entertainment is only shown once a week perhaps because the show’s producers know that daily and prolonged exposure to it can seriously warp someone. In minute doses, however, it is a good cure-all and relaxant for the overworked brain.

Nuts Entertainment is comprised of totally bizarre games with actual corresponding prizes, celebrity screw-ups, absurdly hilarious sketches, and the strangest of all – the parading of ugly people. Really, those specific people whose faces produce the response: "Pare, ang pangit naman niyan!" among viewers. This in itself is a mystery. Nuts Entertainment is taped in front of a less than shy live audience who take part in the madness with their constant jeering, hooting, and boisterous cheers. Presumably, these people need some immediate comic relief, as the week’s insanity must have already caught up with them.

A mainstay game on Nuts Entertainment is the weekly "Jack en’ Poy." It is the traditional game of rock-paper-scissors but with a nutty twist. The two contestants are Cookie and Belli, two of the show’s actors who play flaming homosexuals. They play the game in full drag and each have a team. Why? Because they can. After each round, the losing team gets attacked with whipped cream pies and the occasional bucket of water. There are three rounds, and each team gets one win each up until the second round. On the third round, it doesn’t matter who wins because it becomes a free for all where screaming men and women, pies, and water are the only blurry images on the TV screen.

Another recent addition to the Nuts Entertainment repertoire is the "Nutsa Rapsa" game, where the contestants do an open-mic rap jam. The object of the game is to not get eliminated simply by creating simple childish rhymes about a given topic. The sentences don’t even have to make complete sense, just as long as they rhyme. Those who get removed from the game, however, have to pay a price: a five second kiss on the cheek from one of the ugly people the show has employed. There is a female ugly person with a humongous chin that looks like a malignant tumor and there is a male ugly person who looks like a gremlin with kinky hair. The two freaks seem to be aware of their grotesqueness and thus, they have a certain pride to this.

Besides, it’s good for them because if either Carmina or Richard loses early in the game, they get to kiss them. A twisted sense of values and perceptions is at play here somewhere.

Then there is Nuts’ trademark show, Balakubak, or Balita at Kuwentong Bakla. The only remotely intelligent thing here is the segment’s name, which is actually very interesting. Makes you wonder if they thoroughly thought this one out or if tsamba lang ‘yan. In this portion of the show, Joey de Leon, Anjo Yllana, and Janno Gibbs all dress up in drag and perform a satirical, gay S-Files, complete with a gay lingo interview of their special studio guest. This segment also has the Bulungan portion, where the three hosts whisper questions to each other and then to the guest, and wait for his or her shocked and sometimes agitated reaction. They really ask seriously embarrassing or revealing questions, but no one knows the answers except for them. These guys really know how to drive the audience nuts.

Kabaduyan? Kakornihan? Well, that is what you can expect from illogical Pinoy television shows like Nuts Entertainment. Take pride in being corny; relax, unwind, and have no regrets. Understand that Pinoy comedy goes hand-in-hand with the balde of ice-cold water. Besides, like the state of Pinoy politics nowadays, it’s all nuts and really isn’t supposed to make any sense at all anyway.