'Jo Koy: In His Elements' is not comedy, it's a love letter to the Philippines

Warning: This review contains spoilers.

Jo Koy is on a roll. His stint at Netflix kicked off with the special he himself built from the ground up — "Live From Seattle" — followed by the equally successful "Comin' In Hot." Both were a comedic gold. After all, when it comes to stand up comedy, Jo Koy's got it down pat. And now another of his dreams came true: to film a special in the Philippines.

It feels inevitable, like all his Filipino mom jokes led to this moment. It has always been clear that Jo Koy was proud of his Pinoy roots as much as he loved poking fun at the people.

The idea behind “In His Elements” is admirable: an hour-long show about Filipinos, for Filipinos. But the question when it comes to Jo Koy will always be, is it funny? And the answer is, not really.

Jo Koy himself said that the special was a "variety show" type because he was trying to cram all the things he wanted to showcase about the Philippines within an hour...and it showed.

"In His Elements" was a mishmash of aspects of Filipino culture, put together without much rhyme or reason, or even flow. It opened with Jo Koy performing in his home country at the Mall of Asia Arena. He then proceeds showing what he and his friends were up to when they visited the Philippines to film the special.

It started out well enough. Jo Koy opted out of filming the special in more touristy areas like Boracay, or Palawan, or Cebu. Instead, he flew his Fil-Am friends from America and took them to the capital: Metro Manila.

He then proceeded to make them wait two hours in the airport only to pick them up in a jeep and take them straight to street food breakfast on the sidewalk.

It was sadistic, and honestly pretty hilarious. Even though he probably didn't mean for it to be.

However, it does get confusing what the special is about, and it's obvious they struggled in balancing Jo Koy's comic act and trying to showcase the Philippines. Is it a show about the Philippines, or a show about Fil-Ams getting culture-shocked in the hometown they barely stepped foot in?

It becomes clear eventually that it’s through his friends that Jo Koy shows what he wanted to show; it was him telling them, and the viewers: this is what you should see.

He took B-Boy Ronnie to dance with breakdancers in the The Tenement in Western Bicutan, surrounded by grime and dust. He introduced producer Ramon Ibanga (!llmind) to young Pinoy rappers, who sang the special's opening song. He took fellow comics Andrew Lopez and Joey Guila on a jeepney ride and introduced street food to them. And he treated comic Andrew Arolfo to chicken adobo cooked in Farmer's Market.

Is it funny? Not all the time. It wasn't meant to be, and therein lies the problem. It's a hard pill to swallow that this time, Jo Koy wasn't funny.

This time, Jo Koy was emotional. He teared up in a rush of Filipino pride recalling Manny Pacquiao's impossible win against Antonio Barrera. He was heartened to meet Pinoy dancers who came to see him in The Tenement, so much that he brought them to dance onstage in his MOA show. He was proud to share the jeepney and the chicken adobo to his friends, and he was shameless in sharing the stage with Filipinos so he can show them to the world.

And for that, the verdict is still: PLAY.

Sure, it gets draggy at times, because let's be honest, we're watching to see Jo Koy, not his friends, and not even our fellow kababayans. There was unfortunately a huge lack of Jo Koy for a Jo Koy special. When the credits roll and you realize that's it, you might be left feeling disappointed or bereft. The "variety show" treatment surely won't fly with all his fans around the world. 

Funny moments were few and far between, but Jo Koy, every time takes the stage, does not fail in making his audience laugh. And we didn't not enjoy it — there wasn't a point in the special where we wanted to stop watching. It was just sort of lacking. Lacking Jo Koy, lacking depth, lacking time.

To those who want to give it a shot, here's your warning: "Jo Koy: In His Elements" is not a comedy, it's a love letter to the Philippines.

And that's also the reason it's worth a click. When you watch it, you won't see Jo Koy. You'll see Filipinos. And for all the strangeness of a comedy turning out to be a clumsily put-together travel show, that's worth seeing.

And Jo Koy tormenting his Filipino-American friends, too. Even if he didn't mean to.

"Jo Koy: In His Elements" is now available for streaming in Netflix.

—JCB, GMA News