Conan’s love affair with the Philippines
In the Philippines, Conan O’Brien seems to have met his match.
The goofy, go-for-broke jokester approach he’s applied to the past three seasons of the HBO travel series Conan O’Brien Must Go came to its logical end with a finale set here—where O’Brien found that every time he went for shtick, it was ably matched by Filipinos dying for their moment in the burlesque spotlight.
We meet Mustafa Mustafa, the comically named would-be action star who hooks up with Conan through his podcast, then nearly upstages the host with his lightning-quick karate blocks. The two land a guest spot on GMA’s Sanggang Dikit FR.
O’Brien encounters two travel show hostesses, Inkie and Girlie, who get a spotlight while touring him through Intramuros. “Ube, bay-bay,” they joke while he switches into a yam-colored barong Tagalog. Josh of Bambike gets the host to ride a bamboo bicycle in Fort Santiago, then he and the tour group ditch him there and ride off.
There’s a day of Conan playing bellhop at a Batangas hotel, where he incessantly demands a tip for helping an unwitting guest settle into his room. (Even the deadpan Filipinos are funny.)
O’Brien’s prep work for this episode must have clued him in to the fact that Filipinos might’ve stayed in the Spanish convent longer than in Hollywood, but Tinseltown has always remained there—not in the DNA, quite, but right on the surface, ready to burst out to kindred souls. No wonder they break out with instant comedy.
Still, the podcast host was somewhat perplexed by his eager fan recognition here. We’ve waited almost a year to find out what Conan’s parachute drop into Manila would yield, and—although it’s not a competition—the Philippines finale probably outpaces the previous episodes shown in India, the Netherlands, and Morocco in terms of comedy potential extracted, if only for the fact that O’Brien clearly loves being with Filipinos. They are always ready for the gag.
Take Jose Magayes, a balut seller he encounters in Batangas while sampling street food. Enchanted by the guy’s colorful hawking style, they evolve into singing the word “Balut!” in various operatic ways. (At the end—spoiler—O’Brien chickens out of sucking down the duck embryo, lest he end up lying in a hotel bed, sick to his stomach, for the rest of his visit.)
At Manila Hotel, he encounters mild-mannered bellhop Asher, who doesn’t flinch at Conan’s transformation into General MacArthur and his evolving shtick on the line “I shall return.”
At Philip Sweets, Conan shares a long, chewy wad of bubble gum with company marketing man Charles à la Lady and the Tramp, and unveils his Tarzan and Texas gum billboard along EDSA. And back in Batangas, he contemplates buying an island here. Told he would need to marry a Filipino to purchase property, he hauls out… balut seller Magayes, wearing a bridal gown, ready to go. “It was love at first sight,” deadpans the host. Later, they sit atop a lonely atoll where Magayes, still in bridal gown, riffs on variations of “Baluuut!” until Conan asks him: “Do you know any other songs?”
O’Brien postscripts this visit with a heartfelt comment: “Thank you, Philippines. I’ve never been to a country where every person I met was warm and funny. In fact, you were all so funny, it made me feel I might be part Filipino.”
That part must be the funny bone.
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