Chip Tsao & Learnings About Satire

Francis Chua said that some of us should understand where Chip Tsao is coming from. He wrote a satire, he said. As satire, Chip Tsao aims to be funny.

That’s the thing here Francis.

Satires are supposed to be funny, but not at the expense of one race. There’s a teeny weeny bit of line that satirists like Chip Tsao should always keep in mind—never racism.

For satirists to be funny, they should write about the truth. Satire is like seeing the funny side of something true. In his article, there were many inaccuracies. He did’nt write anything truthful. There are many factual and historical inaccuracies which dilute its effectiveness as a satire.Let me cite just two.

Do you know that Luisa, the Filipino domestic helper, is NOT Chip Tsao’s domestic assistant. She’s employed with Tsao’s father, who respects her and gives her a decent income.

IN this instance alone, Chip Tsao already wrote a lie just to support his racial bias.

Lastly, do you know that we never sent any warship in the Spratlys to support our international claims on these islands? First, we don’t have any and second, we only have patrol boats (hehehe).Chip Tsao wants to discuss Spratlys yet we are now discussing his discriminatory views, which, if that is a satire, should have been directed at the main or core topic, not on a side topic which was his alleged scolding of a Filipino domestic worker.

Chip Tsao failed on these fronts. That’s his fault. What’s worst—his employer, that magazine who allowed him to write this pseudo-satire, even said that we don’t know anything about satires and we should not protest about it. That is yet another insult which Filipinos should never allow.

We know satires when we see one. And obviously, Tsao’s article was just a cheap shot aimed really at allowing the writer to reveal how he views and really sees Filipinos.

I just got information that Tsao had a spat with his Filipino superior before he wrote that article. And when he was a struggling writer, he was castigated by another Filipino journalist, his superior, for writing cheap articles full of inaccuracies and grammatical errors. Maybe Tsao remembered that when he was writing that piece. It was some form of revenge.

We, Pinoys, are waiting for Chip Tsao’s formal and public apology. He should write something that would redeem himself as a satirist. Otherwise, his writings will forever be viewed as cheap shots from now on.