The new‘it’ men?
July 9, 2004 | 12:00am
Forget Marc Nelson. Today’s newest matinee idols work hard at not having chiseled six-packs, rely on sarcasm and droll wit to get noticed, and are not afraid to go full monty. At least, that’s what TV show The Men’s Room and its hosts RJ Ledesma and Tim Tayag propose.
The Men’s Room is Studio 23’s newest late-night offering for your average Filipino male. A comedic stress buster inspired by the witty genius of Benny Hill and Dolphy, and pegged after satirical classics such as Monty Phython, Saturday Night Live, and the long-gone Martin After Dark and Not So Late Night with Edu, RJ and Tim’s nocturnal stint sells to the average Pinoy male exactly what they want: some easy-to-ride, no-thinking-required humor with lots of babes, mostly scantily-dressed.
Now almost on its second month of showing, each episode of The Men’s Room unfolds pretty much like an extended music video where RJ and Tim play out antics in situations made humorous while trying to get with sexy girls. They creatively exhaust every possible venue and tactic, going from motels to girly joints to farms to spas to basketball courts where an unspoken challenge for girls’ attentions ensues, a challenge Tim almost always wins. The concern, though, is not who gets the girls but how they even get the girls.
RJ Ledesma, former host of Magandang Umaga Bayan Weekends and "Joey" from that unforgettable Royal Tru Orange ad back in the ’80s, and stand-up comic Tim Tayag are not of the mold that incites swoons and stares from females – and they both know it. RJ and Tim are very "reachable." They fiddle nervously during dates, they tend to over-talk to girls, they disparage each other, they draw a blank when it comes to fashion, and they try hard to make an impression. The average Pinoy male can relate to RJ and Tim; the average Pinoy male is RJ and Tim. They can be funny, they can be annoying, they can be sarcastic, they can be interesting. And when it comes to meeting girls, they can be very, very resourceful.
YSTYLE: It’s been proven that sex sells. Is this what you’re also banking on with The Men’s Room?
RJ LEDESMA: Yes! Yes!
TIM TAYAG: More than sex. We’re banking on humor and sex.
What’s your approach to sex on the show? That it’s supposed to be funny?
RJ: It’s supposed to be naughty. If you were to compare the difference between watching an R-rated movie and an X-rated movie, the R-rated one is all about being naughty and sexy and leaving it all to the imagination. The X-rated one just goes ahead and shows it.
So this would be an R-rated show?
Tim: We’re more like Porky’s Revenge and Zapped without the nipples, without showing anything. It’s made for Philippine TV.
RJ: We’re like Debbie Goes Dallas without the porno. That’s us – without Debbie, just Dallas.
RJ, you’re an MIT graduate. What are you doing producing and hosting a show like this?
RJ: Is that to say that, just because I’m from MIT, I can’t do shows like this? I think I’ve always been interested in doing comedy. My background for hosting really came from when I was still doing debate or public speaking abroad in international debates. The most interesting debaters were the wittiest ones – these were the Scottish, the Irish, the British, and the Australians. I picked up from what they were doing and I thought that the best way to convince people was through humor. I used that when I came back and began to host for Magandang Umaga Bayan, Alas Singko Y Medya. I always thought it entertained people a lot more than very straightforward newsbarking type. So it’s just a hop, skip, and a jump that translated to doing a comedy sketch show.
Based on sex?
RJ: You know in MIT, they also believe that sex sells…The Men’s Room is naughty.
Tim: We’re not offensive yet.
RJ: We have standards and it’s usually my mom.
Who is The Men’s Room targeting?
Tim: Mostly men…and the pink market.
RJ: I think the market for the show is primarily males, say 18-35, and it crosses demographics. The show celebrates what it’s like to be a typical Filipino male, whether it’s good or bad. It’s an irreverent approach that’s why Tim and I laugh at ourselves at the end of the show.
Tim: We laugh mostly at him.
RJ: So we talk about what men like to do generally. They like girls…
They like to pick up girls.
RJ: They like to meet girls. What do they do when they’re not meeting girls? They’re smoking or drinking, going out. Secondarily, it’s the female market we’re also targeting because they also want to know what goes on in the mind of the guy.
Tim: Which is mostly nothing.
So they learn all about men as they watch Tim trying to pick up girls by selling fish balls? (The Men’s Room’s first episode)
Tim: Yeah. But it’s funny because some of the women who saw the first episode were relating to the women that I was trying to pick up. They were saying, "Oh if that had been me, maybe I wouldn’t give my phone number. Or maybe I would."
RJ: The reactions are varied. The girls just laugh. They see themselves. In the show, Tim and I are not matinee idols.
Tim: We’re very reachable and we work hard at being reachable. I work hard at not getting the six-pack abs. If I get it, I say "S%#t!" and I eat some fat…
RJ: We work hard to become reachable just so when people watch out, it’s not so much, "Oh, it’s Marc Nelson…" It’s more like,’"It’s RJ Ledesma and Tim Tayag. Damn! I can take their place". It’s the same thing for the girls. They can relate by asking, "What if I went out with this type of guy?"
You’re not doing this show to get the girls, are you?
Tim: RJ is.
RJ: I’m not going to deny that.
Tim: Aren’t all producers doing that? Wait. Are we supposed to be doing this for the money?
RJ: Well, that’s first but what’s also important is the money.
Tim: And you need the money to get the girl. What happens if you don’t have money? You lose the girl…But RJ and I represent two extremes. RJ is the nice, intellectual guy who gets the girls through words and charm…
But the show makes it seem like RJ doesn’t get the girls, and Tim does.
RJ: Oh, I get the girls.
Tim: He does get the girls. When he has the money, he does.
RJ: And Tim, on the other hand, is very crass but you can see that there’s a certain character, a charisma to him. A quiet energy. Vulnerability.
RJ, do you think people still associate you with your Royal Tru Orange ad?
RJ: I think very much, especially those who are above 23. It’s probably because I still manage to maintain my boyish looks. I made a deal with the devil kasi so I can maintain my boyish looks. But yeah I think they still recognize it. They look back and say, "Oh, I remember him back in the ’80s." I guess that’s why my career was left back in the ’80s. But as Tim would say, it’s cyclical. It has been 15 years since the commercial so it’s about time. It’s my Saturn return. It’s my return to showbusiness.
Tim: Michael Jordan took two years to come back, Magic Johnson took a year, RJ Ledesma took 15 years.
RJ: There is always an opportunity for people to reinvent how the public sees them. I’m just keeping things fresh, just destroying all the memories of the ’80s.
How much of what you guys say is sarcasm?
Tim: Half and half. Half of the time we’re just being sarcastic and joking around.
Do you really mean for people to take you seriously?
Tim: I hope not.
RJ: In real life or in the show?
Doesn’t it overlap?
RJ: It depends on the person watching. Men’s Room may connote toilet humor but it can also be a smart, witty show. Hopefully, people pick it up on that level as well. If they don’t, they get to see skimpily-clad women...The show is very irreverent. Some of the smartest shows were irreverent: Monty Python, Saturday Night Live, Ben Stiller. Even Benny Hill. They made fun of themselves in the end. Benny Hill employed a lot of scantily-clad women on the show but the guy was a brilliant comic genius.
Tim: We also need a way to work with all the different types of men. What we discovered is, besides humor, it’s women that bring all men together. In fact, more than humor even. A guy, no matter from what background, would always rather see a sexy girl than hear a joke…We just want to offer something different to late-night viewers. Nowadays, when you watch late at night, most of the shows are either of Chuck Norris, infomercials featuring the ab machine, or some investigative show. There’s no real good comedy, something that you can just watch and laugh, something that can just relieve the stress of the day.
RJ: At night, there’s also an opportunity to broaden the quality of humor shows and comedy shows that we have right now. Given Tim’s experience of living in the States, and, for me, I’m such a nerd and I’ve watched all the comedy shows in the States, it’s an opportunity to broaden what we have right now. It’s a bit risqué, it involves a lot of spontaneity, it involves a lot of girls. These things combined, we hope, should be something the Filipino market can enjoy.
Doesn’t your show promote the stereotype of the sexy, skimpily-clad woman who panders to the desires of the typical male?
Tim: Well, that’s why we have the interviews…That’s the thing. We’re mocking that stereotype.
RJ: It’s just us being irreverent about things. We’re taking stereotypes and making fun of them. Tim and I make fun of the macho stereotype. We pretend to be macho. I refer to being macho but I need my mom’s help or my yaya’s help to get things done. When people watch the show, we hope they’ll take it with a grain of salt.
But do the women always have to be in skimpy clothing?
Tim: Not necessarily. Sometimes it’s RJ and I who are in skimpy clothing. We have an episode where we’re in a farm. There’s this fence that covers the top and bottom part of the sexy star to make it look like she’s naked but RJ and I are also in that scene without anything on.
RJ: And we’re not matinee idols with picture-perfect bodies so our stomachs are out there. We’re making fun of the stereotype of always having gorgeous men and sexy women. It kind humanizes these characters. The girls also get a chance to laugh at themselves, they’re laughing at the stereotype that has been created for them.
How far would you guys go for this show?
Tim: Let’s just say that RJ and I have rode horses with nothing on except banana leaves…We have to match whatever the sexy stars do. If they’re willing to do that, then we should be willing to do that too. We have to be able to make fun of ourselves. There was this one segment where we body-painted these two girls. In return they body-painted RJ.
RJ: Anything as long as the MTRCB – and my mom – allow it. In other words, we’re there to help make people laugh. At the end of the day you’re tired, you’re stressed coming home from work. At night, you want to watch something entertaining. So hopefully after the news, you’ll switch on to us.
What’s the biggest piece of criticism you guys expect?
Tim: Take out RJ Ledesma.
RJ: "Stop showing your bodies, Tim and RJ." Maybe the biggest criticism is about us having skimpily-clad women on the show late at night. The thing is, we’re just fulfilling the quota of skimpily-clad women because they have it in noontime shows and primetime shows. After primetime, there must be a quota to fulfill and we’re fulfilling that late at night.
The Men’s Room airs every Tuesday night at 11:30 pm on Studio 23.
The Men’s Room is Studio 23’s newest late-night offering for your average Filipino male. A comedic stress buster inspired by the witty genius of Benny Hill and Dolphy, and pegged after satirical classics such as Monty Phython, Saturday Night Live, and the long-gone Martin After Dark and Not So Late Night with Edu, RJ and Tim’s nocturnal stint sells to the average Pinoy male exactly what they want: some easy-to-ride, no-thinking-required humor with lots of babes, mostly scantily-dressed.
Now almost on its second month of showing, each episode of The Men’s Room unfolds pretty much like an extended music video where RJ and Tim play out antics in situations made humorous while trying to get with sexy girls. They creatively exhaust every possible venue and tactic, going from motels to girly joints to farms to spas to basketball courts where an unspoken challenge for girls’ attentions ensues, a challenge Tim almost always wins. The concern, though, is not who gets the girls but how they even get the girls.
RJ Ledesma, former host of Magandang Umaga Bayan Weekends and "Joey" from that unforgettable Royal Tru Orange ad back in the ’80s, and stand-up comic Tim Tayag are not of the mold that incites swoons and stares from females – and they both know it. RJ and Tim are very "reachable." They fiddle nervously during dates, they tend to over-talk to girls, they disparage each other, they draw a blank when it comes to fashion, and they try hard to make an impression. The average Pinoy male can relate to RJ and Tim; the average Pinoy male is RJ and Tim. They can be funny, they can be annoying, they can be sarcastic, they can be interesting. And when it comes to meeting girls, they can be very, very resourceful.
YSTYLE: It’s been proven that sex sells. Is this what you’re also banking on with The Men’s Room?
RJ LEDESMA: Yes! Yes!
TIM TAYAG: More than sex. We’re banking on humor and sex.
What’s your approach to sex on the show? That it’s supposed to be funny?
RJ: It’s supposed to be naughty. If you were to compare the difference between watching an R-rated movie and an X-rated movie, the R-rated one is all about being naughty and sexy and leaving it all to the imagination. The X-rated one just goes ahead and shows it.
So this would be an R-rated show?
Tim: We’re more like Porky’s Revenge and Zapped without the nipples, without showing anything. It’s made for Philippine TV.
RJ: We’re like Debbie Goes Dallas without the porno. That’s us – without Debbie, just Dallas.
RJ, you’re an MIT graduate. What are you doing producing and hosting a show like this?
RJ: Is that to say that, just because I’m from MIT, I can’t do shows like this? I think I’ve always been interested in doing comedy. My background for hosting really came from when I was still doing debate or public speaking abroad in international debates. The most interesting debaters were the wittiest ones – these were the Scottish, the Irish, the British, and the Australians. I picked up from what they were doing and I thought that the best way to convince people was through humor. I used that when I came back and began to host for Magandang Umaga Bayan, Alas Singko Y Medya. I always thought it entertained people a lot more than very straightforward newsbarking type. So it’s just a hop, skip, and a jump that translated to doing a comedy sketch show.
Based on sex?
RJ: You know in MIT, they also believe that sex sells…The Men’s Room is naughty.
Tim: We’re not offensive yet.
RJ: We have standards and it’s usually my mom.
Who is The Men’s Room targeting?
Tim: Mostly men…and the pink market.
RJ: I think the market for the show is primarily males, say 18-35, and it crosses demographics. The show celebrates what it’s like to be a typical Filipino male, whether it’s good or bad. It’s an irreverent approach that’s why Tim and I laugh at ourselves at the end of the show.
Tim: We laugh mostly at him.
RJ: So we talk about what men like to do generally. They like girls…
They like to pick up girls.
RJ: They like to meet girls. What do they do when they’re not meeting girls? They’re smoking or drinking, going out. Secondarily, it’s the female market we’re also targeting because they also want to know what goes on in the mind of the guy.
Tim: Which is mostly nothing.
So they learn all about men as they watch Tim trying to pick up girls by selling fish balls? (The Men’s Room’s first episode)
Tim: Yeah. But it’s funny because some of the women who saw the first episode were relating to the women that I was trying to pick up. They were saying, "Oh if that had been me, maybe I wouldn’t give my phone number. Or maybe I would."
RJ: The reactions are varied. The girls just laugh. They see themselves. In the show, Tim and I are not matinee idols.
Tim: We’re very reachable and we work hard at being reachable. I work hard at not getting the six-pack abs. If I get it, I say "S%#t!" and I eat some fat…
RJ: We work hard to become reachable just so when people watch out, it’s not so much, "Oh, it’s Marc Nelson…" It’s more like,’"It’s RJ Ledesma and Tim Tayag. Damn! I can take their place". It’s the same thing for the girls. They can relate by asking, "What if I went out with this type of guy?"
You’re not doing this show to get the girls, are you?
Tim: RJ is.
RJ: I’m not going to deny that.
Tim: Aren’t all producers doing that? Wait. Are we supposed to be doing this for the money?
RJ: Well, that’s first but what’s also important is the money.
Tim: And you need the money to get the girl. What happens if you don’t have money? You lose the girl…But RJ and I represent two extremes. RJ is the nice, intellectual guy who gets the girls through words and charm…
But the show makes it seem like RJ doesn’t get the girls, and Tim does.
RJ: Oh, I get the girls.
Tim: He does get the girls. When he has the money, he does.
RJ: And Tim, on the other hand, is very crass but you can see that there’s a certain character, a charisma to him. A quiet energy. Vulnerability.
RJ, do you think people still associate you with your Royal Tru Orange ad?
RJ: I think very much, especially those who are above 23. It’s probably because I still manage to maintain my boyish looks. I made a deal with the devil kasi so I can maintain my boyish looks. But yeah I think they still recognize it. They look back and say, "Oh, I remember him back in the ’80s." I guess that’s why my career was left back in the ’80s. But as Tim would say, it’s cyclical. It has been 15 years since the commercial so it’s about time. It’s my Saturn return. It’s my return to showbusiness.
Tim: Michael Jordan took two years to come back, Magic Johnson took a year, RJ Ledesma took 15 years.
RJ: There is always an opportunity for people to reinvent how the public sees them. I’m just keeping things fresh, just destroying all the memories of the ’80s.
How much of what you guys say is sarcasm?
Tim: Half and half. Half of the time we’re just being sarcastic and joking around.
Do you really mean for people to take you seriously?
Tim: I hope not.
RJ: In real life or in the show?
Doesn’t it overlap?
RJ: It depends on the person watching. Men’s Room may connote toilet humor but it can also be a smart, witty show. Hopefully, people pick it up on that level as well. If they don’t, they get to see skimpily-clad women...The show is very irreverent. Some of the smartest shows were irreverent: Monty Python, Saturday Night Live, Ben Stiller. Even Benny Hill. They made fun of themselves in the end. Benny Hill employed a lot of scantily-clad women on the show but the guy was a brilliant comic genius.
Tim: We also need a way to work with all the different types of men. What we discovered is, besides humor, it’s women that bring all men together. In fact, more than humor even. A guy, no matter from what background, would always rather see a sexy girl than hear a joke…We just want to offer something different to late-night viewers. Nowadays, when you watch late at night, most of the shows are either of Chuck Norris, infomercials featuring the ab machine, or some investigative show. There’s no real good comedy, something that you can just watch and laugh, something that can just relieve the stress of the day.
RJ: At night, there’s also an opportunity to broaden the quality of humor shows and comedy shows that we have right now. Given Tim’s experience of living in the States, and, for me, I’m such a nerd and I’ve watched all the comedy shows in the States, it’s an opportunity to broaden what we have right now. It’s a bit risqué, it involves a lot of spontaneity, it involves a lot of girls. These things combined, we hope, should be something the Filipino market can enjoy.
Doesn’t your show promote the stereotype of the sexy, skimpily-clad woman who panders to the desires of the typical male?
Tim: Well, that’s why we have the interviews…That’s the thing. We’re mocking that stereotype.
RJ: It’s just us being irreverent about things. We’re taking stereotypes and making fun of them. Tim and I make fun of the macho stereotype. We pretend to be macho. I refer to being macho but I need my mom’s help or my yaya’s help to get things done. When people watch the show, we hope they’ll take it with a grain of salt.
But do the women always have to be in skimpy clothing?
Tim: Not necessarily. Sometimes it’s RJ and I who are in skimpy clothing. We have an episode where we’re in a farm. There’s this fence that covers the top and bottom part of the sexy star to make it look like she’s naked but RJ and I are also in that scene without anything on.
RJ: And we’re not matinee idols with picture-perfect bodies so our stomachs are out there. We’re making fun of the stereotype of always having gorgeous men and sexy women. It kind humanizes these characters. The girls also get a chance to laugh at themselves, they’re laughing at the stereotype that has been created for them.
How far would you guys go for this show?
Tim: Let’s just say that RJ and I have rode horses with nothing on except banana leaves…We have to match whatever the sexy stars do. If they’re willing to do that, then we should be willing to do that too. We have to be able to make fun of ourselves. There was this one segment where we body-painted these two girls. In return they body-painted RJ.
RJ: Anything as long as the MTRCB – and my mom – allow it. In other words, we’re there to help make people laugh. At the end of the day you’re tired, you’re stressed coming home from work. At night, you want to watch something entertaining. So hopefully after the news, you’ll switch on to us.
What’s the biggest piece of criticism you guys expect?
Tim: Take out RJ Ledesma.
RJ: "Stop showing your bodies, Tim and RJ." Maybe the biggest criticism is about us having skimpily-clad women on the show late at night. The thing is, we’re just fulfilling the quota of skimpily-clad women because they have it in noontime shows and primetime shows. After primetime, there must be a quota to fulfill and we’re fulfilling that late at night.
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