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A coachman's tall tales: The street humour of Kuwentong Kutsero and radio broadcasting in twentieth-century Manila
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 April 2024
Abstract
This is the first article-length study of Kuwentong Kutsero (A Coachman's Tales), an immensely popular radio comedy in mid-twentieth century Philippines. This sitcom had two iterations: the first aired a few years prior to the outbreak of the Second World War in the country, while the second dominated the airwaves in the postwar years and enjoyed even greater success than its predecessor despite major changes in the script. The programme was so influential that the phrase kuwentong kutsero entered the Tagalog lexicon as an idiom to mean tall tales. Such a level of success was ironic considering that in the postwar decades the cochero as an actual occupation was on its way to obsolescence. This article argues that the reformatted programme was able to improve on the breakthroughs of the original because of the changes in the language used, the type of humour employed, and the topics tackled—factors that could only be understood if analysed alongside the historical experience of actual rig drivers.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright
- Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The National University of Singapore
Footnotes
I would like to thank the University Research Council of the Ateneo de Manila University. The significant reduction of teaching units that I received as a Research and Creative Work faculty of the university from 2020 to 2022 made it possible for me to work on this article. I am also grateful to the librarians and staff of the Rizal Library, Ateneo de Manila University.
References
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49 Miguel A. Bernad, Dramatics at the Ateneo de Manila: A history of three decades, 1921–1952 (Manila: Ateneo Alumni Association, 1997), p. 146.
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68 Ibid., p. 101.
69 Victor Buencamino, ‘Diary of Victor Buencamino’, 18 Jan. 1942; Philippine Diary Project, http://philippinediaryproject.wordpress.com/1942/01/18/january-181942/ (last accessed 1 Feb. 2021).
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79 Ibid., p. 237.
80 Primitivo Mijares, The conjugal dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos (San Francisco: Union Square, 1976), p. 4.
81 Victor Buencamino, ‘Diary of Victor Buencamino’, 7 Jan. 1942, Philippine Diary Project, https://philippinediaryproject.com/1942/01/07/january-7-1942-2/ (accessed 24 July 2021).
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84 Jacinto Cheng, ‘Sore spots in Manila's cleanup campaign’, Philippines Free Press, 15 Dec. 1956, pp. 26–7.
85 Ibid., p. 27. Interestingly, Lacson and Pimentel had been members of Ateneo's student theatre group. In 1931 both appeared in the staging of Cyrano de Bergerac by the Ateneo Players Guild. Amador F. Brioso, Arsenio H. Lacson of Manila (Mandaluyong City: Anvil, 2015), p. 37.
86 Rafael, ‘Anticipating nationhood’, pp. 111.
87 Lent, ‘Philippine radio’, p. 44.
88 Epifanio G. Matute, Kuwentong kutsero (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1997), p. vii.
89 Ibid., pp. 37, 40, 55, 59, 146.
90 Ibid., pp. viii, 54, 56. On carnivalesque humour, see Sabanpan-Yu, ‘Reversals of power’.
91 The Guidon, Loyola Heights, p. 25.
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95 Ibid., p. 230.
96 Ibid., pp. 247, 256, 285.
97 Ibid., p. 216.
98 Ibid., pp. 3–4.
99 Ibid., p. 250.
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105 Ibid., p. 108.
106 Meliton V. Salazar, ‘Mang Emong, kutsero Teban's cousin’, Sunday Times Magazine, 16 Mar. 1952, pp. 20–21.
107 Ibid., p. 21.
108 Brioso, Arsenio H. Lacson, p. 71.
109 Alice Guillermo, Social realism in the Philippines (Manila: Asphodel, 1987), p. 6.
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113 Matute, Kuwentong kutsero, p. ix. The First Quarter Storm was a series of youth-led anti-Marcos demonstrations that rocked the nation in the first three months of 1970. In September 1972 Marcos declared martial law.