Break out the borscht and pierogies comrades cause it's time to celebrate a true soviet hero.
(Intro Music)
Hello internet, welcome to Game Theory. Slightly funnier than Carlos Mencia. Slightly.
Who knew that the Super Mario franchise was so complex?
In Game Theory's most watched episode, "The Problems with Princess Peach",
We dove into Toadstool's psychological issues,
The kidnapping conspiracy between her and Bowser,
and the fact that Super Mario Brothers 3 may actually be a stage play.
Then, coming up in a few weeks, I plan on looking at what the series can teach about quantum mechanics.
because we didn't get enough of that during the Bioshock: Infinite episode
but, while all of this may be shocking,
it pales in comparison of today's topic
That Mario is a communist sympathizer.
Trust me, when loyal theorists of deadly sin asked me to look into this at the SGCGC
skeptical matt was skeptical
until I discovered that everything
from Mario's design
To the mushrooms he eats,
to Japan's political history points in
the direction of our platforming plumber
being a comrade from the motherland.
So is Mario jump man Mario more Russian
than Dolph Lundgren in Rocky four?
We're done Stalin, time to find out.
For those of you who didn't understand the epic
rap battles season 2 finale, here's a
quick two-minute refresher for your
Russian history. The period leading up to
World War One was a difficult time for
Mother Russia. In order to finance the
war, the government began printing
millions and millions of rubles. Ruble
notes and this caused massive inflation.
The prices for food skyrocketed,
quadrupling in the span of four years
but workers saw no change in pay, meaning
that no one could actually afford to
feed themselves. It literally took
wheelbarrows of money to pay for one
loaf of bread. Poor sanitation, dangerous
work conditions, hours of slave labor
that afforded them nothing. You can see
how people were angry and
were angry at the king. Or in Russia's
case the Tsar, Tsar Nicholas the second
On March 7th 1917, The February
revolution- Wait seriously the February
revolution happened in March? Fail,
Russia, Fail -saw the people overthrow
Nicholas and his royal family. Enter
communism, a movement to create a
classless moneyless society in which
everyone from the working-class
proletariat to the rich bourgeoisie
shares the wealth. This was the teachings
of Marx.
The other one. The other other
one. Is that really him? Oh, he looks like
a cross between socialism and Santa Claus.
To the fed up Russians, a system in
which everyone shares the wealth seemed
pretty good and on November 7th of
1917, the October Revolution - you can
probably see a pattern there - the
Communists took over. Now for those of
you who weren't forced to read Animal
Farm four times during your high school
career, there are three important
communists to know; Lenin, Stalin and
Trotsky. *ding* This one led the Bolshevik Party
in the October Revolution and did a lot
to transform Russia into a socialist
state before he was taken down by the
sith. After his death this one got screwed over,
exiled, and assassinated by this one
who took power screwed everything up and
was responsible for nearly 20 million deaths
via his secret police famines and
purges. To put Stalin's actions in
perspective, compare him to Hitler whose
Holocaust killed 12 million people.
Any way you slice it; not nice guys. And that
dear theorists, is everything you need to
know to understand this episode and pass
the Russian unit in world history. So how
could Mario possibly be seen as
communist propaganda well slap my buns
and call me Joseph McCarthy cuz we're
going to expose this supposed Italian
for what he really is, let's start with
his design what color is Mario most
associated with? Red. Ever wonder why red
was chosen the classic story is that it
was to contrast against the blue
background which would make sense if red
was truly the color opposite of
blue but it's not, on any color wheel
orange is the color that is directly
across from blue and orange has just as
many shades of red if not more in the
NES color palette how much orange is
used in the game? Next to none.
How much red was used? A lot.
Back in the real world, communism was also strongly
associated with red being known as
The red threat, the Red Scare, the Red Terror.
Then there's fire flower Mario clad all
in red and white if he wasn't sporting
the communist colors before he certainly
is now the red and white of Lenin's
Bolshevik Party but it's not just his
colors check out the Hat is it a
coincidence that Mario's hat just so
happens to sport a similar shape and
more strangely a similar design as
communism most infamous leader? perhaps.
I mean it is a bit odd that Mario's hat
and Stalin's both have a circle in the
front with a signature logo but we can
pass that off as happenstance. How about
that facial hair though is it also a
coincidence that Mario's moustache looks
like it was directly ripped off the face
of someone in contention for the world's
most evil man? Four out of five communist
leaders agree a good moustache is half
the uniform. Mario is mustache approved
and while we're looking at character
design let's not forget one of the
recurring villains of the Mario
franchise Wario. Wario was created as
the anti Mario am i right? And what are
the two things wario is known for?
*distant* being ten feet tall. Oh shut up. Being fat and
being greedy he's a walking American
stereotype an overweight capitalist pig
who eats way too much, and loves money
just look at his games they're all about
collecting treasure accumulating coins
gaining more wealth. Even back to the first
Wario Land the better endings get you
bigger and bigger houses and achievement
being tied to material wealth is as American as
apple pie. Wario's the bougie fat cat
counterpoint to our proletariat plumber
and let's look at that for a second
shall we? What is Mario exactly? A plumber,
Who started off as a carpenter both
working class physical labor positions
that define members of the Communist
Party remember this was a political
movement responding to the mistreatment
of the working class by the exclusionary
upper classes meaning that blue-collar
Mario would fit the bill perfectly and
while we're looking at Mario's
proletariat predilection what's his
signature weapon again? Oh that's right,
Hammers. Need i say more? If only magnus
appeared in these games then we'd have
the complete communist toolkit but
that's not all dear theorists what's the
goal of super mario brothers? To
overthrow a king. King koopa, and what was
the role of the russian revolution?
To overthrow a king, Tsar Nicholas the
second and what do you do at the end of
every level in mario? Rip down a flag at
the end of every level Mario tears down
a flag to raise his own. A red star on a
white background, no that's not a hostile
macys take over my friends. That's Mario
raising the symbol of his Soviet
brethren along with the hammer and
sickle the red star was the other emblem
of the Communist Party specifically of
the Red Army, with the five points of the
star meant to represent the five fingers
of the communist worker's hand and what's
on that flag Mario tears down? Is that a
pixelated green peace sign? So according
to Mario it's down with peace and up
with the people the people's Mario.
But let's take a break from communism for a
second shall we? And look at the rest of
the game, speculation has always gone on
about the mushrooms Mario uses it's a
bizarre power up right? Well wonder no more,
I give you
the Mario mushroom Amanita muscaria
the fly amanita look familiar? Not only
does it look like Mario's mushrooms, it
acts like them too. As this poisonous
mushroom has been used throughout
history for its ability to cause
hallucinations. And you know where in the
world it's found? Siberia aka the eastern
half of Mother Russia. But seriously if
you're still questioning Mario's loyalty,
stop to consider the development of the
game if Super Mario were developed in
America there would be no chance of any
sort of communist leanings. But as we all
know Nintendo is located in Japan and
while Japan may not be a communist state
the Japanese Communist Party has been a
strong presence in their election since
the 1950s, in fact it was at its
strongest in the 1970s and 80s when
mario games were first being developed
of the nearly 50 million votes cast in
any given election during that time well
over five million or ten percent go to
the Japanese Communist Party is it then
so difficult to believe that one maybe
two of the people involved in the
development of the game could have
subtly worked in some of their political
beliefs? All it takes is one and you know
what they say in soviet russia you don't
play mario games. Mario games play you.
but hey it's just, hold on a sec
seriously, mario is communist come on. The
green peace sign Mario tears down
clearly it's a skull. If it was meant to
be a peace sign there would be one more
green pixel at the bottom on either side
to complete the round lock and while yes
Mario may be overthrowing King Koopa,
he's also instating another aristocracy
this one supervised by a mentally
unstable princess in pink not much of a
people's plumber there huh jump man?
Regardless though it makes you question
right? So is mario communist? Maybe he is
maybe he isn't. I'll leave that for you
to debate but from
mushrooms to his enemies to the design of
the character to Japanese political
history it's definitely not as
ridiculous as it might initially sound.
But in the end it's just a theory, a game theory
Nostrovia.
Welcome back to the super amazing end card tournament for
last episode the Man of Steel got
crushed by old webhead and everyone lost
to the hero Gotham thinks it needs to
deserve to have. This week it's a battle
of the baddies, who is the best nintendo
villain bowser, gannon, or mother brain
click on one of the pictures to choose
but before you do send a click to the
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fill the void that jontron leaving game
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seriously, we've been growing quickly
thanks to your help and support. So thank
you I had the honor of saying that to a
lot of you during the SGC gaming
convention but for everyone who wasn't
there thank you for making this show
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So just so you know we appreciate it you're
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