While scrolling through the YouTube homepage, I stumbled upon a trending parody video of the popular Filipino song "Sila" by Sud. The video is called "Tinda" and it was released by the non-existent band "FUD" (and sung by Michael V.). The video was initially aired on one of my favorite late-night shows, Bubble Gang, and eventually made its way onto YouTube. For those who don't know, Bubble Gang is a famous Filipino late-night gag show that airs every Friday night or so. They're extremely popular and the gags, comedy sketches, and song parodies they publish online spread like wildfire within the YouTube Philippines landscape. In a nutshell, Bubble Gang is the Philippine version of Saturday Night Live.

Anyway, I saw the song "Tinda" on the Trending tab of my YouTube homepage and I decided to watch it to see why it was trending. To my surprise, it was a really well-made parody of the song "Sila" by Sud. Since it was so well-made, I made the choice to write an analysis of it for my class, and here we are.

Lyrics

Analysis

As I said earlier, the song and the video itself was very well-made. Initially, I was amazed to hear that the instrumentals in the parody video almost match the instrumentals in the original video. Plus, the lyrics sound phonetically similar to the original song, so props to the writers for doing an excellent job at making a spot-on parody.

The song itself tackles on the problem of expectations vs. reality, as well as poor product quality. The guy in the video, as well as the singer, was expecting a warm, refreshing dessert after eating pandesal for the past few days. He had been craving for the sweet taste of arnibal (caramelized brown sugar syrup) and eating taho out of a plastic cup. The guy had been waiting for the taho vendor, Mang Nanding, for the past three days and yet he hasn't come across him until, one day, he finally did.

Once he finally ordered the taho he had been craving for, he was immediately dismayed. Usually here in the Philippines, taho is served warm, so the guy in the video was disappointed when it was served cold. Also, taho is usually contains "clusters" or "layers" of soft tofu, but the singer complained that the taho he got had mushy or crushed layers of tofu, and it had a watery composition, too. His most notable complaint about the taho he got was that it didn't have "sago" (tapioca pearls).

My take on this is that the video and the song itself was a really accurate representation of expectations colliding with reality. You see, while the guy in the video didn't expect a high-class product, he got offered a below-than-average quality of the product he had been wanting (taho, in this case). It offers an insight on how we perceive products to be and often how unsatisfactory they truly are when we finally have them.

While I haven't experienced that feeling recently, I have experienced it with food before. On the menus of most restaurants, the food they're serving usually looks presentable and borderline delectable, but, when you actually receive it, the item's quality has either significantly decreased or is way below expectation.

I believe the song "Tinda" catches this key concept by using a simple example, a taho, and how badly it can be offered despite having few ingredients. Overall, the video was fun, catchy, and (somewhat) meaningful. This song parody, in particular, has got to be one of my favorite song parodies, and I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy it as my ringtone for the next few months or so, until the joke wears off.