Te - Balikbayan Magazine

famous icons like Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, fashion
models, and body builders to name a few. Despite its reference
to pop culture, Johnny Bravo’s character is a reection of several
narcissistic men around us—the point reference of the artist
himself.
“I’ve always been surrounded by guys who got the girl,” Van
explained during the interview. “I was always very jealous of that.
Johnny Bravo is basically me overcompensating my shortcomings
in the dating pool.
“Besides that, I pulled a lot from my life. For example, back in
college, my roommate, Chris Kelly, used to do an impersonation
of Elvis as a skirt-chasing, meat-eating ladies’ man while my other
roommate used to walk around our apartment without his shirt and
have me guess his body fat.”
To balance Johnny Bravo’s skirt-chasing personality, the show
added depth to the story with two female characters—Bunny
“Momma” Bravo, the one, constant woman in his life; and
Little Suzy, the smart, little girl who has a crush on Johnny.
Unfortunately, Little Suzy is the only girl he’ll never run after.
ese two characters were able to highlight the soft, sweet
side of the obnoxious beefcake. Despite his overcondent
ways, Johnny listens and respects his “momma” and eventually
gives in to the whims of his kid neighbor. Fans all over
the world learned to love his character because of his
“endearing honesty and that everybody has a Johnny Bravo
in their life that people can relate with.”
“SHE LOVES ME, MOMMA!”
“I think that growing up in an American culture had a great eect
on me as I was always trying to t in. Having said that, Johnny
Bravo is constantly looking for armation that he is an amazing
catch but no matter what he does, he’s always his own worst enemy,”
Van revealed, explaining the Filipino machismo trait found in
Johnny Bravo’s character.
With Johnny Bravo being a suave ladies’ man and a
mama’s boy, it’s natural to think that his character is
patterned after certain Filipino characteristics. Countless
male characters in the Philippine entertainment are
reminiscent of that distinct Johnny Bravo air. For
the Van, however, Johnny is the misguided attention
seeker who loves women, his momma, and himself.”
ough it wasn’t Van’s intention to make Johnny
more Filipino, the eect of Van’s
surrounding while growing up
left a big impact. Van further
explains that, “Johnny Bravo
symbolizes the men who never
grow up and believe that life
revolves around them.”
Despite Johnny’s shortcomings and somewhat dimwitted
attitude, this suave, self-loving hunk of a man knows how to
strike back and give it a try again and again. Perhaps, this is
Johnny’s most endearing trait that is often overshadowed
by his huge ego and a bigger hairdo.
After four highly successful seasons and a muchdeserved
fame, Johnny Bravo is sitting prettily up there on
a pedestal. But since summer is just around the corner, we
simply had to ask Van what Johnny is doing for the rest of the
year.
“Working on his tan,” Van replied. We simply assume that
Johnny’s currently posing as lifeguard in Salinas, California (Van’s
hometown) checking out the women in bikinis and chasing some.
#P balik!"#"$ February – March 2012
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