Growing up, there was one character that was
present throughout my entire childhood - and
that was Mario.
Mario held a place in the hearts of many people,
and still continues to do so to this day.
However, like most characters with an unclear
past, we often pondered about the backstories
of these characters.
I always wondered why a plumber was the chosen
hero to save a princess from a dinosaur-like
villain.
It just didn’t add up.
And after playing through Yoshi’s Island,
another topic came to mind… and that was
- who were Mario’s parents?
We weren’t given much information about
the parents at all, and honestly the image
we saw in the game simply just annoyed me
more because it was such a cliffhanger.
I wanted to know what Mario’s mom was like,
and what his dad did for a living.
More so, and especially due to my own life
circumstances, I became fixated on what Mario’s
father was like.
My own father often worked long hours, and
we would only get to see him half as often
as our mom.
Because of that, there were more mysteries
surrounding him since we only got to see him
in the evenings.
This same feeling carried over to many other
characters besides Mario - as Link was another
character I thought about often.
But Mario was more consistent than Link, as
I quickly got the feeling that the Links I
played as - were different from each other.
It wasn’t until years later when the internet
started to become populated that I could then
indulge in my curiosities.
And, with some recent discoveries - this is
what was found.
Mario’s father has appeared in many forms
of media throughout the years - and many of
these were pretty obscure.
While we are treated with a depiction of what
Mario’s mother looked like - or at least
acted like in the Super Show, we’ve never
been given a full on visual on the father.
Most of the time we were given a really odd
cropped image that hid his identity.
In the Super Mario Amada series, despite the
characters taking on the roles within a fairytale,
we see a glimpse of Mario who is talking to
his father.
In this scenario Mario is the size of a thumb
in order to fit into his character’s role
in the story, but we do see a fatherly figure
with the same mustache who appears to be wearing
a yellow shirt with blue trousers.
Most of the plumber-like characters follow
a similar outfit scheme, so it’s pretty
interesting to see that he is depicted in
a similar outfit.
Another depiction of this fatherly figure
comes from a panel in a comic called Family
Album: The Early Years - which was part of
Nintendo’s Comics System.
In this comic, we see a young Mario who is
running away from his father, but unfortunately,
the father’s head is cropped off again.
Interesting enough though, the color scheme
still matches up like before as he is wearing
yellow and blue.
We are also able to derive that Mario’s
father smokes a pipe too - which Mario “fixed”
per say.
One of the final depictions we have to go
off of is the picture from Yoshi’s New Island
- as the original picture that I thought were
Mario’s parents turned out to not actually
be them at all, as the babies were brought
to the wrong house initially.
In this photo we can see that Mario’s father
has a bit of a husky build, but it appears
he is wearing nighttime garments instead of
just the normal trousers.
But for the longest time, this is all we had
to go off of.
Many theorists depicted that Mario’s father
was actually Jumpman, or the Mario we see
from the Donkey Kong Arcade era, but one could
argue that there are age inconsistencies with
Pauline and her most recent appearance with
Mario and DK, whom should be the children
of Jumpman and Cranky - Cranky whom was the
Donkey Kong of that time.
If this was the case, shouldn’t she be old?
But recently, we had something show up online
that was really fascinating, and something
the world had mostly forgotten about.
And that was this 1989 tin tray that depicts
a scene from the Mario Universe.
Looking around this room there are some pretty
interesting things, but the most interesting
is in the top right corner…
Which is the portrait of a man…
But not just any man - a man who could very
well be Mario’s father.
Blue and yellow shirt?
Check.
Smoking a pipe?
Double check.
Looks like Mario?
Triple Check.
Judging by this picture, could this be Mario’s
father?
And, if it is, is this Jumpman in his senior
years?
We know Jumpman was a carpenter by nature,
and that the Mario of today is a plumber,
so by this knowledge, it might be possible
that they are indeed two separate people.
If we rule Pauline out for now, or assume
this was Pauline’s daughter who goes by
the same name, then this timeline could add
up.
However, despite this gentle stare we get
from this figure in this painting…
The past of this Mario might be a grim one,
as this Mario has shown up before…
And unfortunately, in the form of what appears
to be animal cruelty - I mean, that is pretty
much the same outfit.
Obviously this could take us down a completely
different path, as those of you who have watched
the Game Theorists video on this topic may
be remembering, but I want to purpose something
different.
So, hear me out on this.
What if the Mario we see here in Donkey Kong
Jr isn’t Jumpman from Donkey Kong - and
is actually the father of this Jumpman Mario.
That would put us at three Marios in total
- The Grandfather, the Father, and the Son.
Now some could simply argue that this could
be Luigi as well, given that Luigi also wore
this outfit once in that era - which is completely
valid, but due to the photo from before, it’s
apparent this outfit has existed through the
generations.
Luigi has also gone through tons of outfit
changes throughout the series, so it may also
be possible that he adopted his grandfather’s
colors before finding and settling on his
new identity.
With that said, in Donkey Kong Jr, we see
two Marios pulling up Donkey Kong originally
- and while someone may argue that perhaps
this is just Luigi wearing similar garments,
or just a Mario clone for the sake of having
the manpower to pull up a giant ape, I think
it might be neither.
If this was the case, both of these figures
could not be the Mario of today due to how
much aging has happened to Cranky Kong and
Donkey Kong.
These “Marios” should have rightfully
aged as well.
However, if this was a middle-aged man per
say whom still had his hair color, and his
twenty something year old son - then this
puts an interesting twist on things - as their
build and physique would be similar, thus
their low quality 8-bit rendering may look
the same.
Because now this friendly figure we see in
the painting is the real culprit.
This also makes sense, because truthfully,
I don’t know many people who have a portrait
of their father in their living room sitting
by itself.
Again - that may sound odd - but normally
when I think of old portraits of people that
are placed by themselves on a wall, it is
of their grand fathers or great great grandfathers
or grandmothers respectfully.
There’s usually a sense of history with
the portrait - like, my great grandfather
fought in the civil war - or old papi was
a great sailor!
And this is the feeling I get from this portrait.
It has a sense of history to it despite being
a quirky drawing.
But I’m sure by now you’re all saying
- Swanky, you promised us a bloody history!
Well, that falls into the actual occupation
of this grandfather Mario.
While Mario was a plumber, and Jumpman was
a carpenter, this era of Mario was a barber.
I derive this reasoning from the Barber’s
pole that is next to the painting.
That Barber’s pole is out of place, as it
would normally be outside of a building to
signify whether the barber was in practice
or not.
There’s really only one reason why it would
be inside a living room, and that’s because
it is a memento of the past.
It was placed next to this painting because
it belonged to the barbershop that our old
Mario friend opened either before or after
the events of Donkey Kong Jr.
Back in the day, Barber’s did a lot more
than just cutting hair.
You see, the Barber’s pole, which is what
this thing is called, also signified that
these people performed surgeries and bloodletting
- which is essentially cutting someone and
draining their blood to prevent illnesses.
On top of this, leaches were often applied
as well to help in this process.
While this was a medieval practice, this is
what the barber polls of today are modeled
after.
But the thing is, the Mario Universe takes
place in a hodgepodge of overlapping eras.
The world that has futuristic cities also
has medieval castles and practices - so this
symbol could still very well abide by its
original meaning.
And, if we take that into consideration, and
it is indeed associated with this third Mario,
then this Grandfather has performed a lot
of really weird medical procedures in his
day, and my childhood, is forever changed.
But, now that I’ve dumped that on all of
you, I’d of course love to hear your thoughts.
Now obviously a lot of this is stringing together
instances that are completely up to interpretation,
but it is still a lot of fun to speculate.
With that said, who do you think Mario’s
Grandfather was - or, even his parents?
Do you think it’s farfetched to assume that
their family occupation went from a barber,
to a carpenter, to eventually a plumber through
the generations?
And last, what other character’s parents
do you often ponder about?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments
below or share them with me on Twitter!
I want to give a huge shoutout to GamingReinvented
for helping out with this video.
Truthfully, I was unaware of some of the depictions
of Mario’s parents from long ago - especially
the Super Mario Amada series - I had no idea
that was even a thing.
Because of that, I was able to pull all the
pieces of the puzzle together to help paint
a holistic view about the times that Mario’s
father was referenced.
Also, GamingReinvented has helped me out in
the past with my Luigi’s Mansion video,
so if you have the time, I would definitely
give their website a gander.
You can find a link in the description below.
And with that…
Thanks for tuning in to this lesson on family
history!
If you’d like to join me on my YouTube voyage
and help me figure out the hidden lore of
the Mushroom World, then the subscribe button
is just what you’re looking for.
Thanks for watching guys and gals, and until
my next video, cheers!
You’ve made it to the end of the video!
But wait, your quest isn’t over yet!
If you’re looking for some more Mario-centric
theories, why not check out my video about
Egadd and his questionable acts?
If that doesn’t tickle your fancy, you can
always check out my video about Mario and
Link switching games.
In that video, I drop each character into
the opposite world and analyze how they would
fare.
As always, there’s a slew of other videos
on my channel too, so regardless, I hope you
enjoy!
