Indignation over Filipino ‘dog eater’ slur in Will Ferrel film ‘Anchorman 2’

Filipinos are apparently up in arms over yet another racial slur against them included in the movie Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (directed by Adam McKay, produced by Judd Apatow).

Anchorman 2 news reporting legend Ron Burgundy

Anchorman 2 news reporting legend Ron Burgundy

In an Inquirer.net piece, Filipino-American journalist Emil Guillermo described his experience sitting through the film an coming across the line “Only Olympic sport Filipinos are good at is eating cats and dogs” delivered by lead character Ron Burgundy (played by Will Ferrell). “I was so irate by the line that I tried desperately to find a pen and scribble in the dark; I believe that’s the line verbatim,” writes Guillermo who says his “sensitivity levels on jokes about Filipinos are pretty high.”

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Guillermo further writes…

To recycle the slur in a movie for a general audience is just plain racist, no matter how they update dog-eating by adding cats to the menu.

And they made it an Olympic sport too. The Winter Games? So that would mean dog and cat, flash frozen, not fresh?

For those who think who still think there’s no big deal, how would you like it if the only time you hear “Filipino” mentioned in global pop culture is as a punch line?

Bad enough to be generally excluded from mainstream pop culture.

Filipinos have long been known (fairly or unfairly, it’s all subject to debate) for their taste for dog meat. In the capital city of Manila, Metro Manila Commission Ordinance 82-05 specifically prohibits the killing and selling of dogs for food. More generally, the Philippine Animal Welfare Act 1998 prohibits the killing of any animal other than cattle, pigs, goats, sheep, poultry, rabbits, carabaos, horses, deer and crocodiles, with exemptions for religious, cultural, research, public safety or animal health reasons. Nevertheless, as is reported from time to time in Philippine newspapers, the eating of dog meat is not uncommon in the Philippines.

Back in 2010, we featured a short piece on a disturbing incident brought to the fore by the Animal Welfare Coalition of the Philippines which involved a series of photos posted on Facebook showing what appear to be Filipino teenagers slaughtering and roasting dogs to be used as pulutan (nibblies) for their drinking session was featured.

Filipino youths slaughtering dogs for nibblies

Filipino youths slaughtering dogs for nibblies

The Facebook album (now unavailable to the public) from which it was lifted was posted by the Animal Welfare Coalition. The caption of the album indicated that the photos were “proudly posted” by a certain Bigleng Arcilla on “November 8 [2010]” and whose friends include “Jeff Pecson, Jannella Cruz, Ar Tubaces Jr., Arian Canlas, Jhenypher Sison, Aljon Masiclat, Jerome Cabuso, Aldwin Arcilla, Darwin Delos Reyes, Emanuel Dane Sevilla, Al Mungcal, Aw Arcilla”.

Up to 300,000 dogs are reportedly killed for meat in the Philippines every year.

[NB: Parts of this article were lifted off the Wikipedia.org article “Dog meat” and used in accordance with that site’s Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License consistent with the same license applied by Get Real Post to its content.]

29 Replies to “Indignation over Filipino ‘dog eater’ slur in Will Ferrel film ‘Anchorman 2’”

  1. I swear, Filipinos like Emil Guillermo secretly love this stuff because it gives them the opportunity to play victim on the world stage.

  2. Only in the Western countries is eating dog considered disgusting. It is widely practiced in Asia. There are so many dogs wandering the streets, shitting everywhere, tearing open bags of garbage, and howling all night long. People in the Philippines do not neuter their dogs. That result is packs of mangy dogs everywhere. You might as well eat them.

    1. I worked with a filipino in the U.S. This man wanted my Dalmation dog. He made no secret that he intended to eat this dog.

  3. as a Canadian Filipino, i can not stop laughing.

    maybe Emil Guillermo should move back here for a few years …

    😉

  4. Its a dog eat dog world – except in philippines, where man eats dog, or in north korea where dog eats man.
    I like mine a la heston blumenthal, partnered with a nice chianti.
    The greater sin in the philippines is not what people eat, but that they can’t cook. Fry everthing and pile the rice high, and hello diabetes.

    1. Taken from the link itself, I believe these traits are very true of our own culture.

      – Eating dogs.
      – Love getting the Catholic church to f’k them around.
      – Being hypocritical moralfags.
      – Worshiping white people.
      – Peeing on walls, streets, car tires.
      – Believing in superstitious bullshit that even their own religion/science/common knowledge has debunked.
      – Voting for celebrities and candidates endorsed by celebrities in politics, no matter how retarded or inexperienced they are.
      – Being Internet Tough Guys online.

    1. filipinos are dumb voters. that’s good for retards who run for president.

      filipinos are irresponsible spenders. that’s good for the oligarchs.

      filipinos are not worthy of bunk houses made to meet international standards. that’s good for the pnoy administration that does not care about its people at all, it’s good for administration mouthpiece lacierda and (useless) senator chiz escudero na kayang sikmurain at tiisin ang paghihirap ng mga yolanda typhoon victims.

      filipinos are proud and easily butthurt at the same time. that’s good for abscbn and the rest of yellow media.

      these are what filipinos are “good” for.

  5. I don’t really see what’s so wrong about being labelled as dog and cat eaters. We really do eat cats and dogs, pulutan and siopao anyone?

    This is just a rehash of the fact that we love making fun of others but don’t like being made fun of. Its the double standard of the Filipino people.

    That and we’re pikon, whatever the direct translation of that in English is.

  6. Jokes are half-meant. It means there’s some truth to it. I’m Filipino. I don’t eat dog or cat meat. I keep them as pets. But I’m not offended. Filipinos joke about other races to the extent of going below the belt. Why the butt-hurt?

    1. One of my friends told me a true story:

      It’s been eight years since the WWE SmackDown! Manila tour and the main event is the match between Batista and Booker T/King Booker. Nung entrance ni King Booker, ung mga nanood na bobo ang nagsigawan ng ‘Negro! Baluga! Ulikba’ Crap, my friend decided to distance himself from those morons.

      No matter how you put it, this is truth: Filipinos are freakin’ racists. And the worse part? Hindi natin alam na racist na pala tayo!

      1. There’s a reason why I abhor the “Pinoy Pride” crap…it turns us into egotistical idiots.

        I guess those people who shouted “Baluga!” forgot that we have the indigenous people called Aetas…yeah, way to piss off your own people, morons.

        1. “Pinoy Pride” pang nalalaman, e mga bandwagon naman! They only become “real” Filipinos every time Manny Pacquiao wins a boxing match, or whenever a person who’s either pure or half-blooded Filipino makes a name to the world!

  7. worse than men p!ssing in the street is girls spitting in the street from makati to davao etc.
    with ‘hygiene’ habits like that, you would be crazy to go near them.
    it is not that you don’t know where they have been, its that you do know where they have been. no excuse for such a public display.

  8. I honestly am flabbergasted why filipinos are so sensitive over something that’s true.

    We filipinos really eat dogs(asusena) and cats(siopao) so is it really something to be angry about?

    We also eat balut which is considered disgusting to foreigners.

  9. “For those who think who still think there’s no big deal, how would you like it if the only time you hear ‘Filipino’ mentioned in global pop culture is as a punch line?”

    I like it medium rare with some fava beans and a nice chianti.

    Seriously, Hangover 2 was set in Bangkok and they pretty much showed the place as some sort of drug-infested slum backwater. I don’t hear Thai people screaming in indignation over it.

  10. I’m surprised that a Harvard educated person like Emil Guillermo, would not know that the early English speaking colonists that came to the new world ate dogs, cats and even rats.

    That is not the whole point in the story. A punchline meant to entertain with strangely hidden coded words was the real message in the story, such as: “for those who think who still think there’s no big deal,” “Olympic sport,” “cats and dogs,” “fava beans and chianti.” Very strange, but I think it has something to do with events past and present.

  11. What the heck of it? You know what there is truth in that. Before only Ilokanos are well known in eating dogs, and those living in relative to Fil-Chinese community are well known as cat eaters because of their siopao. But dogs and cats are not the limitations of some Filipinos, some eat snakes, bugs, worms, rats, and other exotic animals that the West has never been eaten. Since that is in the form of jokes in the movie, it only boils down that many of us Filipinos are egoistic to the highest level. There are things to be proud of but not to step down on others, because there are many things in us Filipinos that are to be disgusted really. One our government, second, the voters mentality, third, ego dramatic of the many that result to being delusional, and many more. Here is my point, I will just be really proud of being a Filipino when our government is not run by syndicates, and the us voters are very smart in selecting their leaders. With this, I don’t think we shall be deprived of true prosperity and blessed nation.

    1. Opps, please let me correct my mistake instead of “their leaders”, it should be “our leaders” and instead of “blessed nation” it should be “be true blessed nation”.

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