“Girls can come and go, but a ‘bromance’ can last forever.” These are the words of Ryan Seacrest, co-executive producer of MTV’s new show, “Bromance,” starring Brody Jenner.
In this show, Jenner, the other co-executive producer, is looking for a male friend to add to his entourage. Even though Jenner’s show is new, the concept of bromances is old.
Celebrity bromances include Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, Rob Dyrdek and Christopher “Big Black” Boykin, and Spongebob Squarepants and Patrick Star.
Bromances are not just limited to celebrities. They can be found here at Jefferson.
Take Oliver Mangibin ’09 and John Paul Ortega ’09. This bromance started in their sophomore year in Phil Tacata’s class when Mangibin sold his Xbox to Ortega. Since then, Mangibin says, “We just became best friends.”
Another senior class bromance can be found between Oscar Cuadra ’09, Augie Martinez ’09, and Julio Rodriguez ’09. Cuadra and Martinez met in the fourth grade through an after school program. In the end of his freshman year, Cuadra then met Rodriguez on a field trip to the University of California Davis. Soon after, all three started their bromance.
Of the junior class, there is also a bromance between Abdullah Jose ’10 and Jonathan Sylvester ’10. This bromance began during football practice in 2006, the summer before their freshman year. Jose had just moved here from New Jersey when Sylvester befriended him; Sylvester claims himself as Jose’s “first friend here.”
According to Jenner, “A bromance is a bond between you and your go-to guy.” It is a male equivalent to females calling one another “BFFs”—translated best friends forever. The term originated in the 1990s from “Big Brother” Magazine editor Dave Carnie, who used the term to describe the relationship skaters had when they spent a lot of time to-gether.
Bromance is a combination of the words brother and romance. Ortega and Mangibin describe their bromance as pretty close, almost family-like. Both share a love for video games, sports, and eating. Additionally, both are Filipino and consider themselves the class clowns. The two nickname themselves, “Oli baba” and “Jaypeezy.”
Although full of laughter, this bromance has also faced its downs. During the summer, Ortega and Mangibin spent almost every day together. Now, both spend less time together. Despite this, the bromance between them is still there and strong, especially when Ortega and Mangibin consider themselves like family.
“We’ve known each other for three years,” Mangibin says.
Ortega interrupts to say, “Our family knows each other.”
“It seems longer than three years,” Mangibin finishes.
Sylvester and Jose also consider their bond as close as family.
“I trust him,” says Jose. “He’s like my brother pretty much.”
“He’s one of my close friends,” says Sylvester.
Although their personalities are different, Jose being the more talkative one and Jonathan being the one who likes to get things done, both love football and girls, both have good grades, and both have every class together this year.
“Before he got a girlfriend, we used to be pretty close,” Jose says. Despite this, Jose and Sylvester live only three blocks away and still see each other almost every day.
Martinez, Rodriguez, and Cuadra are so close that Martinez is naming Cuadra the “godfather of his first born child” and Rodriguez the “godfather at [his] child’s first Communion.”
“You don’t even go to church,” replies Rodriguez jokingly to Martinez.
“We tell each other everything. We talk about our future. We have deep, intellectual conversations over dinner,” says Cuadra.
“We enjoy each other’s company. I am not as happy when they’re not around,” says Martinez.
Rodriguez, Martinez, and Cuadra express that they spend almost every minute with one other. The only time they are not together is when they are sleeping, however they do have sleepovers often.
“People always group us together. It’s always the three of us,” says Rodriguez.
Martinez adds, “If one of us gets invited to a party, we all do.”
When asked what this bromance has in common, Rodriguez says, “A sense of humor.”
Martinez interrupts to say, “At least we think each other is funny, but other people may not.”
Cuadra then adds, “We all put in something different that combines. Like Augie and I share sports and Augie and Julio share art.”
These bromances are genuine and can even withstand the temptations of the opposite sex. When asked what would happen if a girl came between their bromance, Ortega jokingly replies, “Chicks all the way.” Ortega then continues, “No, we’ll still be cool. Plenty of other fish in the sea.”
Martinez claims that no girl has come between their bromance, while Cuadra adds that it “depends on how grave the relationship is.”
Sylvester and Jose have a different approach to girl drama.
“We’ll take turns with a girl. What’s mine is his,” says Jose. He then continues, “We don’t compete for girls, they compete for us.”
Rules of being in a bromance in-clude not letting a girl ruin the bond and staying loyal to one another. Ortega demonstrates this when he says, “I failed a couple of tests for that guy.”
“I was caught cheating for that guy,” Mangibin adds.
“I would take a bullet for them,” says Cuadra. Thinking Cuadra took it too far, Rodriguez lightheartedly interrupts, “I don’t know about that.”
Likewise, Jose is unsure if he would die for Sylvester. When talking to Sylvester, Jose says, “If someone shot at you, I would push you out of the way, but in a way that I wouldn’t die.”
“You wouldn’t take a bullet for me?” questions Sylvester.
Jose clarifies, “I would take a bullet for him, but not to the heart, like a leg or an arm [instead].”
“If anything happens I got his back and he’s got mine. I’m not going to play and say I don’t know him,” Jose says.
Mangibin adds another bromance rule, “Don’t take everything seriously.”
Jose adds, “Don’t fight over dumb things.”
Sylvester advises, “Always have each other’s backs. Be there when needed.”
Cuadra, Martinez, and Rodriguez collectively warn, “Don’t let people’s comments set you back from what you feel for your bro.”
Within the three bromances, all of them have decided to go to separate schools after graduation. However, members of all three bromances promise to keep in touch after high school and to remain friends.