Once upon a time, stupidity was a punchline. Now itās a business model.
In the golden age of Filipino humor, shows like Wow Mali! by Joey de Leon delivered pranks with wit, timing, and cultural nuance. They made you laughāand think. Today? A guy gets slapped with a fish, screams āprank lang!ā and earns ā±50,000 in ad revenue. Multiply that by five reposts, and youāve got a system that rewards distraction over depth.
Welcome to the AI-powered stupidity economy, where nonsense is scalable, and attention is currency.
š± Stupid Is the StrategyāBecause It Pays
Letās break down the formula:
- Low-effort prank videos staged in public, often recycled across multiple channels
- Green joke reaction clips, where creators say nothing but react to sexual innuendos with exaggerated faces
- AI-generated skits using cloned voices and generic punchlines like āBakit masarap ang pancit? Kasi may sahog ng feelings.ā
- Duplicate content farms reposting the same viral clip across TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube Shortsāwatched by the same viewers due to algorithmic loops
The result? Creators earn from views, shares, and engagementāeven if the content is intellectually bankrupt.
š¤ AI Joins the March of Mediocrity
AI tools now make it easier than ever to mass-produce stupidity:
- Voice clones of comedians delivering recycled jokes
- Lip-synced avatars telling ālife adviceā thatās really just punchlines
- Auto-generated prank scripts with fake conflict and resolution
- AI-generated thumbnails are designed to bait clicks with exaggerated expressions and fake drama
Even bots are learning to be stupidābecause stupid gets clicks.
š§ What Weāre Losing
As explored in Rewarding Stupidity vs Deep Thinking in the Age of AI, the real cost isnāt just wasted timeāitās cognitive erosion.
- Filipino attention spans are shrinking, with 4.2 hours spent daily on social media, much of it consumed by low-value content
- Young creators mimic viral junk, chasing views instead of crafting meaningful work
- AI tools are underused for deep thinking, as users default to entertainment over exploration
- Cultural humor is diluted, replaced by algorithm-friendly nonsense that lacks context or critique
Weāre not just watching stupidityāweāre being trained by it.
šø Why Platforms Love It
- Engagement = profit. Even outrage or confusion counts as a click.
- Algorithms reward repetition, not originality.
- Low-effort content is cheap to produce, easy to scale, and hard to ignore.
In short, stupidity is efficient. And efficiency is profitable.
š¾ Final Thought: From Wow Mali! to Wow Waley?
Filipino humor was once a mirror, reflecting society with wit and wisdom. Now itās a loopārepeating the same joke until it becomes noise.
AI didnāt invent stupidity. But it made it scalable. And if we donāt demand better, weāll keep rewarding less.
Letās not just monetize attention. Letās honor intelligenceāeven when itās funny.
š Sources
- AIWhyLive ā Rewarding Stupidity vs Deep Thinking in the Age of AI
- PhilSTAR Life ā Filipinos Use AI More Than Global Average
- Spot.ph ā More Filipinos Use AI Than We Realize
- Newsbytes ā Pinoy Workers Lead the World in AI Use
- Statista ā Social Media Usage in the Philippines
- YouTube Creator Academy ā Monetization Trends
- TikTok Business Insights ā Engagement Metrics
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