Are These Celebrities FILIPINO BAITING For Fans?

Are these celebrities Filipino baiting to get more fans and is saying that you're proud of your part Filipino heritage enough to be counted as Filipino? Let's talk about it, David. Are you saying that people are trying to pander to the Filipino audience for views? Just like why we are enjoying these Cebu's Lucky's premium dried mangoes? Are you Filipino baiting right now? I might be. I'm just kidding. You're doing it right now. I'm doing it. Damn it. Today, guys, we are shouting out to the Filipino audience because we're talking about the range of reactions that they had within their community. Like I said, I'm not one at all that holds any weight within that world. I'm just bringing it up. We're talking about Cameron Diaz saying that she ate lumpia rice and adobo every day. That clip is going viral right now. We're talking about Olivia Rodrigo being hailed as the first Filipino American to be on the cover of American Vogue. Bret Rockman or Bretman Rock was on the Filipino Vogue. We're talking about Anna Cruz Cain being considered Filipino representation by some, but not by others. Saweetie, Bruno Mars, and even American tourists acting bad in the Philippines. What do these all have to do with each other? Let's talk about it. We'll go into the comments section. Please hit that like button. Check out other episodes of the Hot Pop Boys. All right. So real quick, let's run each clip. We'll break it down and see what the comments were kind of like. The first one is Cameron Diaz. I grew up with a lot of Filipinos. Really? Yes. My best friend that I grew up next door to, her mother was from the Philippines. The Philippines. And I, lumpia, adobo, I ate it every single day. And you kept your figure eating adobo and lumpia and rice? Rice all the time. Her mom made the best rice. What do you think, Andrew? Did you ever think you would see Cameron Diaz say, yes, I ate lumpia and adobo every day. My neighbors were Filipino. I'm not Filipino. And I'm not the gatekeeper to anything. But I feel like she really did eat Filipino food. Maybe not every day. Come on. You don't keep that body, Cameron, if you eat Filipino food every day. I think she's half Cuban. So maybe that does make her a little bit more open to like, I don't know, other Spanish colonies or something. But yeah, I mean, she did do the accent. So I think she's heard it. She's been around. Yeah. But I would say most people in the Philippines, Andrew, from what I could tell in the internet comment section, were a fan of it. They were like, they liked it more. But some Filipino Americans were like, this was kind of cringe. This reminds me when you go up and you're like, dos carne asada tacos, por favor. I thought she gave it an authentic effort. But you could tell that she was kind of like, yeah, yeah, I love lumpia and adobo. And she was really tapping into that memory. Do you think that a lot of people have the sense and Cameron Diaz felt that? That like, obviously, they were like a Filipino audience is like looking for people to validate them. Well, they have a love because obviously, if you guys know the history of the Philippines was a Spanish colony, then it was an American colony. They have a very deep reverence or love for American media, pop cultural icons. Oh, yeah. I mean, I totally understand why Filipino baiting exists, because it's such a market for entertainment that, you know, anytime you want to show them love, you'll get like an influx of views from the Philippines. Every YouTuber knows this. Every YouTuber knows this also happens with India. You know, big country views, right? Yeah. Big countries, but not pumped. It's not like fake views. It's just views from another country. You know what I mean? Yeah. I'm moving on. Andrew to Olivia Rodrigo being hailed the first Filipino American to be on the cover of Vogue. This one definitely got the the Phil Ams versus the Filipinos. There was a range of opinions. This was a debate. So a lot of people in the comments, David, are generally essentially saying like, oh, Olivia Rodrigo, I didn't even know she was Filipino. And then there's some people who are defending her saying, oh, well, there's this clip back four or five years ago where she's kind of mentioning her Filipino heritage. So she counts. I'm part Filipina. On my dad's side of the family, my Filipino heritage comes from my great grandfather. Or and some people are like, Lumpia is always kind of the go to. You just say, hey, man, I mad Lumpia growing up. Yeah. And then I think the other range of comments is like, yeah, well, even if she said she likes Lumpia, what does that really mean? She didn't like do any work with Filipino artists. Where is the line? Right. How do you got to be in a Dinuguan? Yeah, you got it. That would be more advanced. Right. And somebody said, we just love celebrating part Asian people who don't even celebrate being part Asian unless there is a media monetary benefit. Do you think this is true? Because I guess society's changing and, you know, more people are. You know what I mean? Like people don't they're they're claiming they're non white side more than ever. Yeah. Because because I guess I didn't say this, but a lot of people think like being white is not cool anymore. First of all, being white is still great, guys. Let me just tell you this. I can still see it with my own eyes. It's still good. But anyways, it's not as it doesn't have the cachet. So then playing up your ethnic side is cooler now. So a lot of people, some people are accusing Olivia Rodrigo by playing up her Filipino side now, you know. But it doesn't mean. So even if it's true that it became more trending and acceptable society wise or in Hollywood to rep that side, it doesn't mean that she doesn't actually feel more proud of it as well. Right. Because people change over time. Guys, listen, in twenty twenty three, it is a lot easier to be publicly proud of being ethnic than it was 15 years ago. Fifteen years ago, it was a lot harder to do that. It was a lot more frowned upon. You didn't know if it was going to hurt your marketing. But nowadays, I think generally people believe it is a positive. Right. So just because you do something, you can't always assume the worst intentions about it. But clearly, a lot of people become prouder of their ethnic side if they're half white over time. Again, guys, we are not gatekeepers to who is Filipino. We're just sharing our thoughts. Also, David, this one comment said, man, Filipinos are the only Asians that use the one drop rule. Obviously, that came from the black American experience of the black American identity, which varies country to country. Right. Even how people identify based on visual, I guess, phenotype or whatever. Yeah, I would say there's a range. I would say Koreans are almost like the strictest Koreans and Japanese. Then I would say Chinese obviously have been opening up a little bit with Eileen Gu. You know what I mean? More so you've started to see lately. But even Roy Hachimura, Naomi, Naomi Osaka. But I would say that in my opinion, Filipinos, they probably they'll take a quarter or an eighth. If you eat lumpia and you're a quarter or eighth, from what I've seen, Filipinos will take it. A big Disney fan said, hey, man, she's more Filipino to me than Bruno Mars, especially on the Disney Channel video where she talks about her heritage and having a song with her Lola on the high school musical series. So I guess, you know, it's been around, but I guess nowadays, you know, maybe there's an option that she could collaborate with a Filipino artist, you know, promote them or collaborate with an Asian artist. I know she's been trying to collaborate. She's good friends with Rose from Blackpink, I think. And things like this, like those are also big points that you can score. You know what I'm saying? I think Bruno Mars, for a long time, a lot of the films I knew are Filipino-Americans were kind of questioning how deep Bruno Mars' love for his Filipino side was. I felt like he more went with like Hawaiian, Puerto Rican. But he did recently do a concert in the Philippines where he said. And it's still Miss Nikita Mahal, I said Miss Nikita Mahal, you don't believe me yet? Yeah. So I would say a lot of the people generally believe that Bruno Mars has been leaning into his Filipino side now that he's kind of like, I guess I would say his career has peaked in America, even though he's had an amazing career. But and then now he's like maybe on his world tour trying to gather up whatever fans he can at the end. Again, that's not necessarily wrong because he is Filipino. It's so difficult to say because society has changed along with the marketability. So was it society changing or was it strictly like a marketing equation, algorithm change? Like I said, guys, somebody said these Filipinos that are mixed look more Filipino to me than Joe Coy. But Joe Coy clearly does the work. We're talking about the comedian Joe Coy, because Andrew, it does seem like Joe Coy really, really sinks his teeth deep into the culture. Right. But how much is it about the work? Because Joe Coy definitely does do the work. There might be people who may even visually pass more than him, but he's you know what I mean? Like he's out there. I do think it's a lot of the work. I think the work has to come from an authentic place. You know, obviously we just did a video about being transracial. So that's a whole funny conversation to have right there. But no, it does. The work has to come from an authentic place. David, there's this one comment that was pointing out about Olivia Rodrigo being on the cover of Vogue and being touted as the first Filipino. It says, yo, she's American just because she has Filipino ancestry. Why do people call her Filipino? Like she's from the Philippines, right? Right. This was a comment from a white person because obviously she is half white herself. I believe her dad is 75 percent Filipino. So technically, I guess in a way, she's more European than even Filipino if you want to get technical. But because this person is like they're they're probably mad that somebody that was, I guess, previously white or default American has been, I guess, in a media title since taken away out of the white pool. Now, I don't know. I think some Americans are triggered when it feels like you're trying to X out the American out of your identity, even though you are clearly American. Like that's like us. But she's clearly more Americanized than she is. So, yeah, but David, would it be would it be accurate if we got touted as the first Chinese sibling duo on YouTube to get two million subscribers? If you just said first Chinese, that's not wrong, but it's not fully accurate because we'd be Chinese American. We're not from China. You know what I mean? But Double Dragons had millions of views before us. It was a cartoon. I guess somebody says, what about people who are not Filipino but identify as Filipino? This is bringing in the transracialism or, you know, whatever. Or are they talking about growing up in Seattle, David, when we wanted to be Filipino, because our Filipino friends were living better Asian lives. Oh, man. If you had the old school Asian parents that are like in their 70s now, they Filipinos were like the only kids allowed to have fun. They would come up. We'd be break dancing and doing windmills and all types of down rock. And they'll come out to be like, oh, Randy, you and your friends are break dancing in the garage again. Here's some instant noodles for everybody. Oh, man. And, you know, they would always have like the steaming rice ready to go. You could go in there, take a scoop, eat some of the food. Some pandesal. Oh, my gosh. You know, like are we Filipino fishing right now? We're doing it again. I'm just being honest. We're just keeping it real. Hey, if you know South Seattle, I'm just being like Cameron Diaz. I really did it. I really I was in a debut, guys. So Andrew, there was also a clip of American tourists kind of acting crazy in the Philippines, spitting off of a tourist site. Let's run that clip. This generated a little bit of anger, but then it also brought everything to a geopolitical discussion. Are Filipinos more accepted in America because they're more geopolitically, you know, because they were once an American colony. They speak English as a national language there, along with Tagalog. Someone said, man, it is a shame that the Filipinos who are greatly loyal to the great country of America are put in the same box as the Chinese and Japanese whose loyalties are always in question. So this this brought everything to this geopolitical place because obviously America fought a war against Japan. China now is framed as a new almost like Cold War. Right, right, right. But that would never probably happen to the Philippines, right? Yeah. Yeah, I guess. I guess I could see if Filipinos are like, you know, we are so tired of being called Chinese that we need to recognize everybody who is even part Filipino so that people know Filipinos are not Chinese. You can trust us with the secret. Yeah, we won't miss that. We are proud to be American. If that's the case, I don't know. But anyways, I'm not speaking for Filipinos. But of course, you know, there's a mix of opinions, Andrew. There's a lot of Phil Lambs that we grew up with. You know, South Seattle produced a lot of activists that are like end American colonialism. You know what I mean? Like there's a lot of so many things. And somebody said, I got a feeling that these white kids' parents took American exceptionalism a little too literally. Why are these people coming to the Philippines acting like they own the place and disrespect the place? All right, David, to kind of wrap this up, first of all, let us know in the comments down below what you think about all this. Like, is there a minimum things that you have to do to be counted as Filipino? Not that we are the ones to ever decide that. You let me know. And like I said, there's just a split within the Filipino community. Like and there's a difference between how Phil Lambs are thinking and the Filipinos in the Philippines. Well, what I will say this is from my perspective, and this goes for any type of part Asian person or Asian person who's trying to claim a certain Asian thing. It's like you can claim whatever you want as yourself. Right. You can identify as that. Right. And other people can. But I guess you don't expect all other Asians to recognize that person as like the most Asian person ever. Like, it's going to be hard for me to look at Olivia Rodrigo and be like, that's the Asian pop star queen. Thank you, Olivia. Like she can be Filipino. She can be of Filipino heritage. That's fine. I'm not taking that away because that's not my job. And nor can anybody take anything away. It's kind of like Jordan Clarkson being an Asian basketball player. He's definitely Asian. He's definitely Filipino. But if you made me say whose impact on the Asian sports world had a bigger impact, was it Jeremy Lin or Jordan Clarkson? Of course, it was Jeremy Lin. Right. And that's why you're like, I think that they would look at Kobe Paris or not Kobe Paris. I'm sorry. Who's the tall guy coming out? Yeah, Kobe Paris. Right. Who's the guy that's coming out? There's a seven three guy coming out of the Philippines. Kai Soto. That's what I meant to say. I mean, but I think once Jordan Clarkson played for the Filipino national team, to me, he was doing the work. Yeah. And he's probably doing a lot of work that Jalen Green, to be honest, doesn't seem as interested in doing, which is fine. It's just about it at that point. It's just about the work, because I think like if visually you don't look Filipino, that's fine. If you visually don't look Chinese, whatever. But what work are you showing? And by the way, Andrew, not to toot our own horn, we may be the first people to have ever talked to Saweetie on media about her Asian heritage. Oh, she's part Filipino and Chinese. Dude, we're going to play the clip. No, I never even knew we had a month, to be honest. So you do identify as part Asian, correct? I do. I'm black, Chinese and Filipino. OK, very cool. Dude, she said she had never heard of Asian Heritage Month until we told her that was a clip from years ago. Saweetie is Filipino. I've looked into it. She's eating Filipino food. She can say some Filipino phrases, always talks about her mom being Filipino. I think she counts. I'll tell you this, guys, I have studied a lot of different countries in Asia, probably way more than your average Asian-American has. Every country has a different relationship with the Western world. Every country has a different relationship with America, you know, and those are going to determine different patterns of thinking. I mean, every country in Asia has a different history with multiculturalism as well, because a lot of people in the Philippines, I saw this comment saying, but people here can look like Olivia Rodrigo because there's a lot of Chinese, Spanish, Indian. There's a lot of different bloodlines in the Philippines. So, you know what I mean? So it goes to show you every place is different. And I don't want to take that away from anybody. But you guys let me know what you think in the comments section below. Why does all this news talking about Filipino-Americans or people who are part Filipinos always go super viral? And can people exploit it or are they just like rocking with something that more people want more of? Oh, hey, David, is that your favorite mango brand there? Yes. Oh, my gosh, David. You have Cebu's, Cebu's Lucky. You're doing it right now, bro. You're doing. Give me some. No, seriously. I actually like the other brand. You like the Philippines. This one is quite sweet. No, you like the brand called the Philippines. Let us know what you think in the comments section below, guys, from silly to serious. Until next time, we're the Hot Pop Boys. We out. Peace.