 They're very joyful, warm people, but apparently not when it comes to Catholicism. Not with Catholicism, they're very serious. Yeah, you're gonna get a spiritually transmitted disease. Is this Good Friday celebration way too extreme, or does it just show major dedication to the church? I'm here with comedian Vic Tran, Ronnie's Chang's number one favorite up-and-coming Asian comedian to look out for. Shout out, Vic, you're subbing in for David today. Hey, what's up? Yeah, I'm a half Filipino ex-Catholic comedian, so I'm ready to nail this topic. All right, everybody. We're gonna talk about this viral story coming out of the Philippines, it's out of Pampangas. There is a Good Friday Catholic ritual that a lot of people perform annually and they nail volunteers, people volunteer to do this, and they nail volunteers hands to the cross to re-enact Jesus' crucifixion to show devotion to the Catholic church. This has been going on for years. Sometimes there's even a guy in this village that has done it for several years in a row. It's a big event in this part of town. A lot of tourists come and see it. The Catholic church officials in the Philippines have publicly denounced this and said, hey guys, we don't condone this, you don't have to do this. This is not necessarily part of the Catholic church. So, you know, Filipinos, you can do other things to show your devotion, you can do charity work, and things like that. So we're gonna talk about it, everybody, from silly to serious. We're not here to judge the Catholic church, but we are here to just break down this topic. So hit that like button, check out other episodes of the Hot Pop Boys. Vic, interestingly enough, you told me you have seen something like this growing up around Filipino Catholics in Houston. Yeah, yeah, Filipinos, they don't play with Catholicism. I remember when I was a kid. Because they're very joyful, warm people, but apparently not when it comes to Catholicism. Not with Catholicism, they're very serious about it. And I remember, yeah, for Good Friday, my grandma, she used to take me to see like the reenactment of the crucifixion. And we would watch people like get fake nailed to the cross, and afterwards we would go into like this dim church, and then have like this big wax Jesus, and we would all have to like kiss the feet of Jesus. So you saw people reenact, like you saw a Filipino guy reenact the crucifixion, but he was like, just not nailed. Right, yeah, yeah, no, there's like rules here, you know, there's like regulations here. Yeah, yeah, yeah, guys. So the general consensus of what people are seeing is like most people on the internet, and I personally agree, it's like over the top, it's OD. Like right, like you shouldn't have to nail yourself to show devotion to the church. However, there's also some people on the internet that are also like, oh, you know what? Like, you know, I applaud them for their beliefs and taking it to this level. They're clearly showing, you know, their devotion and there might be a little dramatic. But I like it. So let's talk about it. One thing, two things I wanna talk about is why it's bad that they're doing this, why they probably shouldn't be, and then the other side, seeing it from a different perspective is why is it not that bad? And we're gonna play this game, right? I think most people are not participating, you're not volunteering yourself to do this. Yeah, probably not, not anytime soon. Yeah, but I think even when I asked my Filipino pastor friend, I was like, I sent him this story, I was like, yo man, what do you think about this? I was like, is this like, does this show great devotion? He's like, I don't know man, listen man, you can just do worship and do small groups and break bread together and you should just be able to sing some songs and pray and that would be good enough. But let's talk about why it's bad and why maybe they might wanna stop doing this. First of all, I think, I guess someone could get seriously hurt, right? Someone could get an infection from the nails. Yeah, you're gonna get a spiritually transmitted disease. Yeah, I mean, luckily there's a lot of Filipino nurses on stand. Also, I think some people feel like it might be kind of self-serving because you're kind of making Easter in the crucifixion about yourself. Like you wanna be the star of the show, like I am Jesus now, so let me show you, like let me put on this, I guess like performance art, right? Is that, there's some aspect to it? I think so, yeah, you're making it about yourself, you know, you're like the big star of Good Friday. And also I think that encourages other people to start participating in more dangerous behavior, more like self-harming behavior. Right, right. Who knows, like maybe it's just your hands first and then people go to even more extreme lengths, right? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I think I read in that article that like this year eight people nailed themselves to the cross. Right, like people are looking at it like, yo, I wanna be the next one. Yeah, exactly, like the Bible only had one and now we have eight just in the Philippines, that's too many. Yeah, I mean, I would assume that, you know, this guy's like pretty excited about it when Easter comes around. Like he's looking for it. It's my time to shine. Yeah, cause he's probably like, yo, it's my turn, you know? But anyways, I wanna look at it from another lens and ask the question, why is it not that bad? Just for the exercise sake, so you guys let me know in the comments down below. If you've seen anything similar, I guess everybody's a volunteer, so it's consensual. No one's forced to do this. It's not like a sacrifice in like the tribal sense, right? Yeah, yeah, that would be evil if they just crowd worked a guy to get crucified. They just pick straws. I guess there is such thing as like a masochistic club or like people are into like kind of pain to some extent for pleasure, but I don't know if this kind of falls in line with it. Honestly, that is almost in line with Catholicism because I feel like in Catholicism, suffering is often equated with like devotion. Yeah, and then also, I think it gives people purpose, right? Like we said, like this guy is like telling everybody to come out like, hey, you know, like this year, you know, I'm going to be the guy again, so are you guys going to come out and watch my crucifix show? Yeah, I hate to be that guy. Sometimes I feel guilty inviting people to my shows, much less my crucifix. Also, David Blaine nails his hands all the time. So I guess how, I guess the question is how bad is it? I mean, I think the way he does it is different. He does like a thin nail. It's not as gruesome, it doesn't bleed. But yeah, anyway. David Blaine is a hack compared to these guys. Man, go ahead. Yeah, I don't know. I feel like, I feel like who's to say whether what they're doing is right or wrong because maybe it does create a good sense of community and gives these people a sense of purpose, which is like the point of church. That's interesting. Yeah, I mean, I feel like there's other ways that they could do community is like, do charity work and help other people out. I'm sure they might as well, but this is kind of like one of the, I guess the presentations that they put on. And it just happens to be an extremely painful and gruesome presentation, which I, I guess is it any more different than like watching a UFC fight? People go at each other for the entertainment of others and you just fight, is it a sport? This isn't a sport, but it's like, I don't know. I don't know. It's like, this is pretty. I mean, the nails really, but like, you know what I'm saying? Like people get beat to a pulp. Yeah, I don't know. Well, like with UFC, you'd be for like entertainment and this is for like, I don't know, like God. Spiritual devotion, yeah. Yeah. I guess it's for different reasons, but I guess those are questions I'm asking. Either way, I am not, I'm not volunteering for this and nor would I suggest anybody do it. But anyways, guys, you let us know in the comments down below. Again, we are not judging the Catholic church as a whole or Christianity, obviously, you know, like we all grew up going to the church in some respect, but yeah, this might be, this might be a little extreme, but you guys let me know. Let me know in the comments down below. Shout out to Vic for joining. Check out his Instagram down below. He's a standup comedian out in New York City now. Thank you so much for watching and until next time, we out.