MANILA, Philippines—We’ve noted some disturbing developments on TV that need to be addressed before they go from worse to worst: On some game-variety programs, guests and contestants now tend to be of the “crazy” or “kaloka” sort. They’re apparently chosen from many other hopefuls, not because they’re potentially good competitors, but due to their weird, wild or bipolar speech and behavior.

The ditzy contestants come up with “funny” comments that delight viewers—but, at what cost? The viewers are subliminally being “taught” to laugh at people who aren’t “normal,” who talk a blue streak and evince “madcap” behavior.

Now, we all have friends who are over-the-top and exuberant, but these “crazy” guests and contestants have clearly crossed the line in terms of mutual instability, and deserve our concern and help, not ridicule.

But the shows make it easy for viewers to be mean instead of sympathetic.

The danger is that, by exploiting others’ mental instability for shallow fun and games, irresponsible TV people may be encouraging viewers to poke insensitive fun at anybody they meet in real life who is mentally “off.”

Instead of finding “humor” in weird or crazy behavior, we should be sensitive to the fact that it could be a warning sign that the person needs help, instead of being exploited and made to act as the designated jester in our communal court.

Shallow sniffles

Another recent development that similarly shouldn’t be encouraged is other shows’ penchant for featuring guests and contestants who are disabled in one way or another. In this instance, the operative factor isn’t kaloka but kawawa.

The “kawawa” syndrome professes to pity and cry with the disabled, but all too often on TV, it’s used to generate shallow, sniffly reactions—and, even more reprehensibly, to encourage viewers to regard the disabled as poor and pathetic, less than normal, and sideshow features in the perya of life for others to gawk at.

Some people may feel that there’s nothing wrong with pitying the pitiable, but the danger here is, it’s degenerating into another kind of exploitation for shallow, feel-good purposes.

The bottom line is, if you really care for the disabled, don’t use them to your emotional advantage, do what you can to add to their advantage.

Help them in any way you can, campaign for the proper implementation of laws and ordinances assuring mobility and better travel conditions for the movement-impaired, etc.

There are so many things we can do beyond just feeling sorry for the disadvantaged—and feeling good about ourselves for being so benevolent and sympathetic.

Kaloka and kawawa are just two of the misguided and potentially harmful syndromes that we should strive to avoid on the boob tube, for fear of adversely affecting the ethical standards of the viewing populace.