When comedy gets serious: Jo Koy reveals hard truth as a Filipino comedian

Amidst jokes about COVID, toilet paper shortage, stinky masks, his sleep apnea condition, Blockbuster videos and vintage hand-held cameras, Filipino-American Jo Koy’s “Live from the Los Angeles Forum” comedy routine shone brightest when he turned serious about racism.

At almost the hour mark of his Netflix special–cue to 00:56–Jo Koy pauses mid-sentence, turns his back to the audience, picks up his water bottle, and with eyes moist with tears, reveals some serious Ted-talk worthy truths about his struggles as a comedian of colour.

Jo Koy recounted a story about the time he submitted his routine and was told “we loved the routine, but can you drop the joke with the (Filipino) accent?”

An incredulous Jo Koy responded “you mean the joke about my mom? The joke isn’t her accent. The joke is about a mom being a mom.”

His voice thick with sadness, he said, “(they didn’t) want her voice to be heard”. Jo Koy then asked the audience: did Jeff Foxworthy (a white comedian known for his redneck routine) get the same comments back?

Having seen most of Jo Koy’s Netflix specials, this is the first time I’ve seen him this vulnerable.

He usually commands the empty stage–decorated only with back-lit, giant-sized letters of his name–walking to and fro, calling out certain people in the audience, cracking jokes and using nothing but a wooden stool or the microphone as props for his many funny stories about his Filipino mom, his teenage son and sleep apnea.

His observations are hilarious, his Filipino accent (especially when he impersonates his mom) impeccable, and his imaginary dialogue with Arnel Pineda and his parents “Emmy-worthy”, as he himself describes it.

But oh, to be able to switch easily from a jester to truthsayer and not lose an audience: that’s talent. He strays into Ted-talk territory for but a minute, makes the audience realize it, and kicks them right back into belly laughs.

Except he has tossed that seed of an idea into our collective consciousness.

“I wanna give Filipinos the opportunity because I knew how hard it was for me to get through the door, so now I’m gonna do it,” he said with a straight face.

“That’s what Filipinos do. When one goes through the door, we let ALL of them go through the door.”

If I thought of Jo Koy merely as a comedian before, I don’t think that now. He just became my new hero.

He just shone the spotlight on Filipinos, and made the audience realize what we struggle with, pretty much all the time.

His poignant observation: not all of us get the same shake that you did, not all of us get to be heard.

“It’s not easy for all of us. There’s a lot of voices here that need to be heard and we don’t get an opportunity like you do sometimes. We turn the lights off, we’re all the same colour. When we turn the lights on, all of a sudden we separate ourselves. That is ignorant. So stop.”

We hear you, Jo Koy. Salamat.

And by the way, jokoy is a slang Ilonggo word which means comedian. Perfection.