The Philippines got its first taste of unpretentious, candidly-captured-for-TV Filipino humor on May 25, 1996, from the reality-based comedy show WoW Mali, hosted by feted comedian Joey de Leon.

The actual stars of the show are men on the street - individual Filipinos, caught by the candid camera in bizarre and funny situations.

From its pilot episode, the innovative program's candid camera format increasingly gained popularity among viewers of all ages, even paving the way for countless WOW Mali clones that failed to topple the original show.

"WOW Mali" or "NA-WOW-MALI AKO" is now the common expression whenever one makes a mistake or becomes the victim of a prank or a ruse.

For two years, the show was directed by Edgar "Bobot" Mortiz (a former teen matinee idol and part of the famous Going Bananas gang).

Mortiz gave Joey de Leon a comic puppet co-host called Dennis Wrongman (as vivified by mime actor Totong Federez), another original touch.

The taping of spiels and vignettes was usually held in the studio while candid shots, gag and tease segments were conducted on the streets by a daily roving crew, with the unsuspecting public as so-called "victims."

Hence, WoW Mali became a traveling show, capturing the Filipino brand of humor in different parts of the country, amid the colors and flavors of exotic places, exciting resorts and well-traveled tourist spots.

After the reformat of ABC 5 to TV5, Lokomoko was created which shared the same concept as Wow Mali but focused on school gags.

When TV5 was reformatted in April 2010, Lokomoko morphed into a gag show similar to Bubble Gang and Tropang Trumpo.

Another comedy gag show on TV5 was Ogags hosted by two Brazilian ladies Daiana Menezes and Ariana Barouk.

Mahiwagang Tunog (Filipino for Mysterious Sound) was a game show incorporated into the new incarnation of Wow Mali.

Similar to Wow Maling Mali, Joey De Leon remains as the main host, together with Jeff "Mr. Fu" Espiritu, Calamity Fun, Wanlu, Miko Petito, Maui Manalo, and Jeffrey Tam as the new co-hosts of the show.

Wow Wrong: Double the Correct), is hosted by the comedic duo of Jose Manalo and Wally Bayola and premiered on August 26, 2023.