Michael V isn’t just a comedy legend. At this point, he’s an enduring icon of Philippine pop culture. For more than three decades on Bubble Gang and even out of it, Bitoy has been shaping the national sense of humor, slipping into characters and parodies that stick in the zeitgeist long after the punchlines land.

And just when you think he’s done it all, he drops another unforgettable persona (like his highly-anticipated parody of a certain construction mogul coming this weekend).

But when you look back, which of his characters truly stand out as the gutsiest, wildest, and most iconic? Let’s count them down today, knowing full well we’d absolutely need more than 8 if we really wanted to do justice!

8. Pepito Manoloto

If you thought Ang Probinsyano was long-running, wait ‘til you realize that Pepito Manoloto, originally a simple sitcom about a poor guy winning it big in the lottery, has been in existence for the last 15 years. We often associate Michael V with over-the-top antics, but his long-running turn here gives him range.

7. Bebang

As part of Bitoy’s World, this shrill female character was the height of Michael V’s physical comedy powers. A parody of everything and nothing at the same time, it felt like Bebang was him holding up a mirror to the public in general, allowing them to find something of themselves in the patently insane character.

6. Muchas Grasas

A satirical take on the divide between the poor and the rich, Muchas Grasas had Bitoy portraying homeless people speaking as if they were Alabang-based rich kids. The contrast between the visuals and the audio was hilarious on the surface, but made you think upon closer inspection. Why exactly is it funny? What exactly are we laughing at? How you answer that question says even more about you than about the skit itself.

5. Yours Truly, Junie Lee

If you thought Between Two Ferns was brilliant, well, Michael V was doing it at least a decade before Zach Galifianakis even dreamed of it. Playing a very peculiar talk-show host and almost never breaking character, he managed to get some amazing laughs from essentially getting real-life celebrities to break as he asked them questions no sane interviewer ever would.

4. The Most Hated Singer

“If you know this song, just sing along!”

You’ve probably seen these short skits that were unironically hilarious then, and even now. Poking fun at the very obvious tropes in the band scene at the time, from having requests written on napkins to telling long stories before launching into their songs regardless of actual quality, the Most Hated Singer skits really stood out with how relatable it was to anyone in the know.

3. Tom Yum

The song ‘Di Ako Bakla was a massive hit. And while it’s not considered good form to out people in 2025, you can’t deny his instincts on the matter were spot on. Bubble Gang has a long history of both poking fun at while also still advocating for the LGBTQ, and this song is a living testament to that very strange dichotomy.

2. The Sexballs

From being a male parody of the Sex Bomb dancers to essentially becoming an easy shorthand for current P-Pop and Idol culture, the Sexballs has managed to not just evolve as one of Bitoy and company’s most enduring skits, it’s also the epitome of Death of the Author: you want to attribute some sort of deeper meaning to their skits that none of the writers themselves came up with? Knock yourself out! That’s how open to interpretation a lot of this work is, because it has layers upon layers that even Bitoy never imagined when he initially thought these things up!

1. Cecilio Sasuman

How do you get away with saying the most obscene things on primetime television? By using a character with a pronounced speech defect to do it!

Equal parts hilarious because he gets to say dirty words on broadcast television and because he gets to skewer the censors by exploiting obvious loopholes in their guidelines, Cecilio Sasuman’s pronounced lisp and very unfortunate choice of words not only led to comedy greatness, but also us second-guessing where the line is drawn when it comes to risque content on television – and why that line is even drawn there to begin with.