1. Philippine wit and humour (English) – History and criticism 2. Philippines essays (English) 3. Humor in literature 4. Popular culture – Philippines – Humor HALAKHAK is an examination of how humor is deployed in Philippine popular cultural forms, a response to the paucity of studies in which Filipino humor is analyzed. In attempting to provide a definition of Filipino national humor, it examines popular cultural forms as repositories of different aspects of Filipino humor, which mine what is laughable in Philippine life, and study why this laughter is so robust and persistent, oftentimes amid truly tragic and pathetic experiences. These nine essays use the tools of the scholarship of humor studies—classical humor theories, linguistic humor frameworks, comic narrative strategies, among many others—to read these popular Filipino cultural forms, as seen in popular theatrical works of the komedyas and sarsuwelas, in the political joke work in the Erap and Gloria-Garci jokes, in the Filipino visual arts such as in the earlier Filipino komiks Kenkoy, in contemporary comic strips by Larry Alcala (Slice of Life), Pol Medina (Pugad Baboy), and Jess Abrera (Pinoy Nga!), in the Dolphy films, in digital media (Maritess vs. the Superfriends), and in contemporary creative nonfiction essays.