I nearly always use Donkey Kong. Double dash was the best, since every time you picked up DK's special powerup, you got to throw another giant banana on the course, which split into three small bananas after it was hit.
I'd intentionally stay in last place, so I could keep getting DK's unique powerup and just litter choke points with banana peels! Eventually, someone would scream "who the hell keeps throwing banana peels everywhere?"
And I would laugh maniacally...