Decoding Christmas bonus jokes
DARAGA, Albay – It’s that time of year again when jokes about Christmas bonuses not only make the rounds in office corridors but also spill over onto social media.
From videos of people hilariously queuing at ATMs to payday glow-up posts and witty “now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t-bonus” memes, Filipinos always find ways to laugh about their long-awaited extra paycheck.
But for Aleta Amador, who teaches popular culture at Bicol University (BU), these jokes are not devoid of substance.
In fact, according to her, some of them can even serve as satire to draw attention to workers’ economic struggles.
READ: Gov’t workers to receive year-end bonus, P5,000 cash gift in November
Case in point: the all-too-familiar meme of an employee celebrating the long-awaited arrival of a Christmas bonus, only to see it disappear within days because of bills and debts.
According to Amador, what makes the meme relatable is that it draws on shared economic experiences that many Filipinos recognize in their everyday lives.
“Employees only get a brief respite from financial hardship once a year, hence the Christmas bonus is something they eagerly anticipate,” she said in a mix of English and Filipino.
“But for many, the Christmas bonus is not necessarily extra money for holiday celebrations; it is already allocated for everyday necessities even before it arrives.”
As such, jokes make the painful reality a little easier to bear, allowing employees to laugh about the financial pressures they commonly face.
Referencing Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of the “carnivalesque,” which centers on social subversion, the grotesque realities of everyday life, and ambivalent laughter, she said that Christmas bonus jokes become spaces for a kind of “inversion.”
As a critical concept, “inversion” refers to the temporary reversal of power relations and social hierarchies, allowing those with less power to challenge or make fun of those in authority.
“When people cannot directly confront or challenge the system, they create alternative spaces through humor where they can express their frustrations, expose uncomfortable truths, and momentarily challenge the existing order,” she said.
READ: 13th-month pay, year-end bonus: What employees can expect
Melanie Golosinda, chair of the Filipino department at BU, also echoed this sentiment, noting that Christmas bonus jokes can be a form of social criticism.
“Basically, Filipinos are known for their sense of humor, and joking is one way for them to lighten their emotional burden despite the hardships they experience,” she said in Filipino.
Rather than expressing their frustrations through harsh or confrontational language, she said Filipinos often communicate their struggles in a lighter, more humorous manner.
Consequently, given the limited power afforded to workers, as they are often placed in situations where they have little choice or control over their circumstances,
Golosinda said jokes allow them to turn their shared vulnerability into collective action through laughter.
In other words, humor functions as a way for them to express solidarity, reclaim a sense of agency, and assert a kind of collective power given their limited capacity to subvert the system directly.
It is crucial to note, however, that not every Christmas bonus joke is satirical in nature. Some are simply comic exaggerations solely meant to elicit laughter.
In this most wonderful time of the year, Filipino employees will once again turn to Aegis and their hit song to voice their collective plea: Kaya’t ibigay n’yo na ang aming Christmas bonus! [“So give us our Christmas bonus!”]
In a country where “parinig,” the practice of sending indirect messages through hints, jokes, or remarks, has become commonplace, expect the song to be the unofficial anthem of the season. (PNA)
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