NOW PANIC and FREAK OUT!

I don’t know when it started, exactly.

Maybe it’s been around for years.

I notice this mostly in Asian films and television shows, although I suppose the spate of Judd Apatow movies falls into this trope. 

I’m talking about the rise of the loveable loser.

Not the bumbling but well-meaning and divertingly charming nerd characters currently cornered by the Cera-Eisenberg Cartel. I’m talking about characters so stupid you’d think their parents were The Three Stooges and lobotomy.

I first noticed this in Sailor Moon. Yes, the cartoon. I never finished the show, actually. I was far too old for it by the time the fucking Sailor Stars came around. The point, though, is that of all the Sailor People with their mystical powers and magic tricks and bouncy hair, it was stupid, bumbling and definitely unappealing Usagi who was the leader. 

Think back to all the recent shows you’ve seen, especially the ones from East Asia. It Started with a Kiss is particularly notorious. Stupid girl somehow manages to bumble her way into Genius Guy’s life. 

All it takes is pluck.

Seriously, it used to be that loveable losers were just that. Losers. Yeah, they’re okay, I guess, but only as sidekicks. This is why Duckie lost the girl. Andrew McCarthy has perfect hair and a nice smile, and though he doesn’t have a Smiths moping montage, he does make up for it with his puppy dog eyes. 

But our television is filled with Duckies now. Filled with girls who don’t have brains or beauty, but loads and loads of pluck.

I’ve also noticed that local shows tend to cast the villain as “sophisticated”. You like art? Que horror. You’re positively Rickmanian.

The bida is always someone who’s clumsy, unwieldy, prone to falling and embarrassing herself in front of — preferably — huge crowds. The kontrabida is someone who is so boring she actually finds time to read and visit museums. You bastard.

It might be a reflection of our need to turn every poor person into a variation of Robin Padilla’s movie characters. It’s a desire to make the good guys “just like us”, I suppose, since we can’t all be sophisticated and perfectly coiffed at all times like Cherie Gil can. If we can’t be them, let’s bash them.

But think back. Remember those years long before, when the heroine was not just brave, but also beautiful and graceful? Sharon Cuneta, Vilma Santos? Vilma, even when playing a whore, loses none of her natural charm and dignity. 

And then there’s Sarah Geronimo, who falls flat on her face a few times in her movies, just so we can laugh, warm the cockles of our collective heart and think back to how we are just like her.*

*We are so fucking not.  

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