Christine Gambito (born August 16, 1975 in

Virginia Beach, Virginia Virginia Beach (colloquially VB) is the most populous city in the U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. The city is located on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in southeastern Virginia. It is the sixth-most populous city in the ...

, United States), better known by her screen name HappySlip, is an American

Internet personality An Internet celebrity, also referred to as an Internet personality, is an individual who has acquired or developed their fame and notability on the Internet. The growing popularity of social media provides a means for people to reach a large ...

, actress, and comedian. She maintained one of the most-subscribed-to channels on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

, a popular

video sharing website An online video platform (OVP) enables users to upload, convert, store, and play back video content on the Internet, often via a private server structured, large-scale system that may generate revenue. Users will generally upload video content vi ...

. On January 25, 2008, Gambito, who is of Filipino ancestry, was appointed

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

for

Philippine The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

tourism by the Department of Tourism. In March 2007, Gambito's video ''Mixed Nuts'' was nominated for the 2006

YouTube Video Awards The YouTube Awards (also known as the YouTube Video Awards) was a promotion run by YouTube to recognize the best user-generated videos of the year. The awards were presented twice, in 2007 and 2008, with winners being voted for by the site's user ...

for Best Comedy, resulting in second place. In May of the same year, she became one of the first users accepted into YouTube's revenue sharing program. Gambito's performances typically included comedy sketches in which she impersonates members of her family. She also sings and plays the

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

and

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

. As Gambito has stated repeatedly in her videos, she is notably one of the very few top users who are acting, filming, editing and producing her shorts completely on her own.

Before YouTube

Born of Filipino ancestry and raised in the United States, she was involved in

cameo appearance A cameo appearance, also called a cameo role and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief guest appearance of a well-known person or character in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking on ...

s and small parts of television commercials, movies, and industrial and

training film A training film is a form of educational film – a short subject documentary movie, that provides an introduction to a topic. Both narrative documentary and dramatisation styles may be used, sometimes both in the same production. While most ...

Origin of "HappySlip"

Gambito attributes her nickname "HappySlip" to her Filipino mother's mispronunciation of "

half slip A slip is a woman's undergarment worn beneath a dress or skirt. A full slip hangs from the shoulders, usually by means of narrow straps, and extends from the breast to the fashionable skirt length. A half slip (or ''waist slip'') hangs from th ...

": At her personal site, she explains that the phrase is not only a funny phrase from the past, but it also reflects what she would like people to feel when they watch her videos, hoping they will "slip into happiness" while watching.

Videos

Her first sketch, ''Instant vlogging'', was originally broadcast on September 6, 2006 and featured Gambito impersonating four different characters, each representing a different video blogging style. Due to the positive response she received from the YouTube community, two of those characters (the teenager and the girl in the "soap opera" style) were explored further in the following videos, the latter becoming the first episode of a

soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...

spoof featuring two twin sisters both interpreted by Gambito. Her second video introduced many of the recurring themes in her following sketches, such as her parents' attitude towards her growing popularity over the Internet and her family's ethnic habits seen through the mind of an American. Other notable sketches include ''Mixed Nuts'' — a video depicting what she would call "a typical family discussion" which was later awarded with the second place in the 2006 YouTube Video Awards for Best Comedy — and ''Mac Beautiful'', her first musical video, an ironic cover of the song "

You're Beautiful "You're Beautiful" is a song by English singer-songwriter James Blunt. It was written by Blunt, Sacha Skarbek and Amanda Ghost for Blunt's debut album, '' Back to Bedlam'' (2004). It was released as the third single of the album in 2005. In ...

" by

James Blunt James Blunt (born James Hillier Blount, 22 February 1974) is an English singer, songwriter and musician. He is known for his songs "You're Beautiful" and "Goodbye My Lover". As a British Army captain in the aftermath of the Kosovo War, Blunt ...

praising the beauty and efficiency of the Apple

MacPro Mac Pro is a series of workstations and servers for professionals made by Apple Inc. since 2006. The Mac Pro, by some performance benchmarks, is the most powerful computer that Apple offers. It is one of four desktop computers in the current M ...

. Gambito later broadcast two videos containing original songs. Gambito has collaborated with fellow YouTube comedian Kevin Wu (

KevJumba Kevin Wu (born June 12, 1990) is an American monk and retired American YouTuber who was best known under his former username KevJumba. He is currently a member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). The ''San Francisc ...

) and has made five videos with him.

Characters

Gambito is known for playing many characters within her videos. Her characters are easily recognized in her videos for their hair, attire, and personality. When portraying a character, Gambito uses wigs and notable accessories to differentiate each character when necessary.

Major characters

The following characters are still portrayed today in Gambito's videos and are all portrayed by her: * Christine – Known as the main character in Gambito's videos seen to deal with her family's comedic traditions. * Dad – Christine's father who is commonly seen in Gambito's videos constantly eating

pork rinds Pork rind is the culinary term for the skin of a pig. It can be used in many different ways. It can be rendered, fried in fat, baked, or roasted to produce a kind of pork cracklings (US), crackling (UK), or scratchings (UK); these are se ...

. "Disaster!" is his commonly known catch phrase. The upper half of his face is not seen in any of Gambito's videos possibly to conceal Gambito's face and/or for easy recognition. * Mom – Christine's mother known for her traditional antics with her family. * Auntie Babie Cruz – Christine's aunt known in Gambito's videos for her comedic antics and, at times, snobby remarks. * Minnie Cruz – Auntie Babie's shy daughter and Christine's cousin who is constantly embarrassed by her mother. * Lola – Christine's grandmother known for her comedic confusion. * Teenie – A teenager known for her talkative and self-absorbed attitude. Teenie is a parody of a modern, American teenager.

Minor characters

The following characters are known for their role in affecting the HappySlip universe: * Kevin – Minnie's boyfriend whom Minnie met online. Portrayed by Kevin Wu (

). * Fred G (not to be confused with the other

Fred Fred or FRED may refer to: People * Fred (name), including a list of people and characters with the name Mononym * Fred (cartoonist) (1931–2013), pen name of Fred Othon Aristidès, French * Fred (footballer, born 1949) (1949–2022), Fred ...

) – Known for his love interest in Minnie. Also known for being an opponent to Kevin in a

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

battle for Minnie's love. Gambito left the judging to viewers by holding a poll on her official website with Fred losing with 12% of votes. * Christian – Minnie's cousin sent out by Auntie Babie to watch over Minnie as she attends college. Portrayed by ninjadrops. * Sheila & Sally Smoot – Known for their roles in 'Plop & Shop!' imitating

infomercial An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of di ...

hosts. Both portrayed by Gambito. * Claire & Audrey – Twin sisters known for their

acts. The characters became inactive after both allegedly shot each other to death. Both were portrayed by Gambito. After a recent skit they were alive and it has been the most recent of her soap operas.

Live performances

Since 2018, Gambito has been touring independently performing comedy. She toured in 2018–2019, 2022, and 2023–2024 ("Stir Their Emotions" Tour).

References

External links

Official site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gambito, Christine 1976 births Living people 21st-century American actresses 21st-century American comedians Actresses from Virginia American actresses of Filipino descent American comedy YouTubers American women comedians Comedians from Virginia People from Virginia Beach, Virginia YouTubers from Virginia