7 Guilty Pleasures of 2009

In 2009, we kept going back to things that gave us comfort and made us feel good—even if some of them were bad for us. Here are our seven guilty pleasures. Will we have the strength to quit them in 2010? Your guess is as good as ours. Bertong Badtrip is the anti-thesis of positive thinking. As the “face" of the Facebook application that offers random acerbic words of wisdom, Berto entertained many Pinoys. Here are some of his quips: "Sinungaling ka. Hindi para sa project yung hiningi mong pera," "Iwasan ang pagtawa nang labas ang gums—pangit tingnan," "Huwag nang magpacute sa camera. Wala namang nangyayaring maganda." He’s not Mr. Sunshine, but he makes a lot of people laugh. Hayden Kho videos became viral among Pinoys because most of us still have a juvenile attitude when it comes to discussing sex. Truth be told, there was nothing unusual about the acts performed in the said videos. Sex per se is normal between consenting adults in relationships. (What do you expect them to do? Play Sudoku?) What was horrifying was the fact that Kho secretly filmed his private encounters with women. To make matters worse, he was allegedly naive enough to leave the video files in his laptop, which promptly got stolen. The issue of the said videos is not about sex. It’s about how women should be more careful about the men they let into their lives. Nevertheless, this point became moot and academic as people shared the videos with just about everyone who wanted to hear a doctor mess up the lyrics of “Careless Whisper." Many of us downloaded the videos secretly and felt he needed lessons in video production. Daisy Siete, an afternoon series featuring the Sexbomb Girls, has wrapped up 24 seasons and is gearing up for the 25th in 2010. With each season, the story changes and the girls get to play different roles. Throughout their show’s run, the girls have played cat burglars, spirited domestic helpers, jungle girls, OFWs, and others. The show’s season titles though are already amusing enough (Moshi Moshi Chikiyaki, Uling-Ling, Isla Chikita, and Vaklushii). Conceptualized for the masa, the show has, for some reason, developed a cult following among yuppies. Not that any of them will admit to watching it. Facebook or Google stalking is probably every netizen's favorite clandestine hobby. Many of us have connected with our old friends, lovers, and even enemies over Facebook just so we could see if they had aged badly. We take time to look at the pictures posted on the Walls of show-offs and scoff at their self-importance. (Yes, sadly, some of them are consummate attention whores who need to be validated by compliments.) And how many of us have done an exhaustive Google search on the people we love to hate? See, that’s the beauty of being online, you can sneak around and—as long as you don’t do anything truly criminal—there’s no reason for you to ever get caught. Walang Tulugan with the Master Showman is a great comfort for insomniacs and people on the night shift who don’t have cable TV. Regardless of whether the show is live or taped, German Moreno, who is everyone’s favorite boob tube uncle, entertains us with his self-deprecating spiels and the steady stream of giveaways to his guests—which range from water purifiers, dishwashing liquid, tikoy, bottles of virgin coconut oil, and pizza. Kuya Germs’ reliable presence keeps our spirits up from late Saturday night to the wee hours of Sunday morning. (The show usually ends at around three in the morning.) Why be guilty for watching the show? Well, shouldn’t you be asleep at around that time? Alas, the lure of the Master Showman’s magic is too hard to resist. (Bonus: Former That's Entertainment members converge on the show for their annual reunion.) Grease food such as lechon, crispy pata, bulalo, sisig, and fastfood fare are the drugs of choice of many harried Pinoys. Despite the popularity of jazzed up organic greens, nothing hits the spot quite like a dish that has “Eat me and you’re dead" written all over it. Cholesterol levels be damned, we’d wolf down platefuls of these things if we could. Yes, we know they’re bad for us. But we just can’t help it. Gossip Girl—which is set in Manhattan, New York’s posh Upper East Side—features best friends (Serena van der Woodsen and Blair Waldorf) who stab each other in the back, as well as their equally dysfunctional friends and lovers (the amoral Chuck Bass, the tormented Dan Humphrey, and the troubled Nate Archibald). Even the characters’ parents have their own head-spinning dramas. For many Pinoys who have to work for what they have, the show is the perfect escapist entertainment. In the world of these New Yorkers, money is no object. That’s why they can scheme and engage in illicit relationships all day long. Then, when things blow up in their face, they get on their private planes and do some soul-searching in exotic party locations such as Ibiza or Paris. Wouldn’t we all just love to live that sort of decadent life? -GMANews.TV