Mario, in many of his forms!
Hey there, fans! This week, a particularly famous Italian plumber with a red hat and overalls has caught my eye, as several videos featuring the most famous video game character in the world have recently surfaced and have been buzzing about the web. Though not necessarily uncommon, these videos had their makers pour an extraordinary amount of either talent or time in them, and they are rather awesome. This got me to searching the web a little more to see what other devoted fans have to done to celebrate Mario.
Super Mario Beatbox
This first video is a take on Mario that’s a little more unique than most of the others I’ve seen online. His name, as it appears on the description of the YouTube video, is Hikakin, a self-described “Japanese Beatboxer,” and this video is his beatbox version of the theme that’s an original twist on a theme almost everyone’s heard a million times — no small feat!
(Via Topless Robot)
Real-Time Mario Violin Theme
However, this violinist takes playing the Mario theme up a notch when he: (a) does the entire thing on a violin, a particularly hard instrument to tame, (b) he wears a great looking white suit (because no one wears anything else while playing a violin), and (c) he does the sound effects while playing the theme. THE SOUND EFFECTS. It boggles the mind to see him, Japanese Teppei Okada, do the theme live while watching for the sound effects too. Quite the feat!
(Via BoingBoing)
Paper Stop-Motion Mario
To take this article in a different direction, this video takes the game of the original Super Mario Bros. and plasters it around the walls of what appears to be a Japanese high school. Frame by painstaking frame, the makers of this amazing video used Post-it Notes as the medium for this stop-motion animation. This video is nothing short of awesome, knowing its length, the sheer technical difficulty, and the patience that must have been part of the process.
(Via Unreality)
Rémi Kart
And, finally, an Internet classic to round out this article: notorious French prankster Rémi Gaillard dresses up as the Italian plumber himself, arms himself with bananas, and takes to the roads of France on an actual go-kart. Like racers in the game, Rémi takes actual bananas and pelts them on the roads, thus annoying them to no end. Pranks such as these are the Frenchman’s forte, and he executes this particular tribute to Mario Kart with the perfect combination of humor and disregard for his fellow drivers.
(Via Nimportequi)
And for now, I leave you with the images of enraged drivers and a French funny man as I conclude this week’s segment! Did I leave something out? Was there a particular video of Mario that got you in stitches I didn’t mention? Write them all down in the comments!
About the Author
After finding out that the school's library was a welcome respite from the heat of the tropical island he inhabited, Paolo Jasa found out that books were a whole lot better than being a constant target during P.E. class; so much so that he developed a love for them that would last him a life time. His first forays in Science Fiction were in the novels of the esteemed I. Asimov, R. Bradbury, and D. Adams, while his adventures in Fantasy took him to the realms of Discworld, Hogwarts, and a Chicago that houses the only Wizard-For-Hire found in the local Yellow Pages, Harry Dresden.
Then he found out about Gaiman's Sandman comics, Miyazaki's animé, Pixar's movies, and (almost) every single web-comic on the Internet.
This changed things a little bit. A lot, in fact.
Regardless, Paolo's currently enrolled in the College of William and Mary to get a Bachelor's Degree in ... something. Hopefully in English or in Education in order to become a teacher, and to bend the minds of the next generation towards all things nerdy. While not studying or reading, he enjoys playing the alto saxophone and singing unabashedly around campus when no one’s looking.