A clip of two characters from the American sitcom “Superstore” exchanging straight Filipino lines with each other went viral on social media and impressed the native speakers of the tongue.
The characters of Mateo Liwanag (Nico Santos) and Marcus White (Jon Barinholtz) were seen arguing on the show’s 13th episode titled “Favoritism.”
The NBC series tells the story of a group of employees working at Cloud 9, a fictional store in Missouri, and facing several challenges as they deal with customers and attend to their personal requirements at the same time
The clip of its 13th episode featured the bespectacled Mateo calling out Marcus after the latter shows off his skills for a job position both of them are vying for.
Mateo eventually resorts to throwing Filipino lines at Marcus, who immediately responds in Filipino as well.
The clip impressed Filipinos who praised how American actor Barinholtz delivered his lines with an accurate Filipino accent.
“I like the way he pronounced “g*go!” Not ‘g*gow’ like other American speakers. And with the right amount of disrespect to boot,” a Reddit user commented.
Another Reddit user loved how the Filipino lines were integrated into the conversation and said that it “feels authentic and matches well in the scene.”
“So surreal to hear a white dude not mispronounce ‘g*go’ haha,” another user commented.
One of the show’s characters, Mateo, is played by Filipino-American actor Nico Santos who previously appeared in “Crazy Rich Asians” as Oliver T’sien, Nick’s gossip-hungry cousin.
In an exclusive interview with CNN Philippines, Santos said he migrated with some of his family members to the United States at the age of 16 and discovered his love for drama in high school.
The Filipino language became one of the most widely spoken languages in United States households due to the vast number of Filipino migrants, particularly in California and Nevada.
The scene on a mainstream American TV show crafted to appeal to a Filipino-American audience could be a sign there is an improvement in the representation of the ethnic group in entertainment.
In 2018, British singer and former One Direction member Harry Styles impressed Filipinos when he greeted them in their language with proper pronunciation during a concert.
