A Bunch of People Got Tricked Into Thinking Mario & Luigi Are Gay. Um.

Here’s something that sure escalated quickly: neoGAF user sphinx noticed that at current, there are an absurd number of Spanish websites that report some variation of the idea that Mario and Luigi are gay. Upon further inspection, it seems like it’s dozens of sites who believe this.

So, uh, how did that happen? You’d think this would be the sort of thing that would make a buzz outside of the Spanish-speaking community if it were real, right?

As far as I can tell, the earliest thing related to this mess comes from Ciencia Seminal, who, on July 16th, wrote that on July 12th, Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo, spoke of some “investigation results” where players under 10 years tended to think that Luigi & Mario are a gay couple instead of simply being brothers. There is no link or specific reference to where this comes from, although it cites the bear suit as a possible reason why people would think that of the brothers. The site says that Nintendo took this as a sign of kids becoming more tolerant.

Now, looking through the rest of the site, it almost seems like a satire site in the same vein as The Onion. It’s hard for me to tell, because in some ways, satire only works on those who are already in on the joke. I can read spanish, but I’m not really well-versed in the goings-on of Latin American culture. Still, it’s hard to take, say, a headline like “Internet Police Assure That False Information On The Web Is Near Zero” seriously: it’s gotta be a satire site, right? (For those of you rolling your eyes: my time here has taught me to never say something is for certain unless I can verify it with absolute certainty).

In any case, a follow-up article then appeared on July 19th, alleging that Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto stated that Super Mario Bros was always intended as an allegory for the gay community—and, get this, that they weren’t brothers, but in actuality, gay.

“That was the original intention of the game. It was a game charged with the signs of gay culture, and Luigi and Mario were a gay couple trying to brave a society that rejects them,” Miyamoto supposedly once said.

The site goes on to say that this premise later changed when the game was brought to an international market. Then it goes on show possible “evidence” of gay culture in the game, like how the flagpole at the end of the levels are phallic symbols and Goombas represent balls…or something like that. Seriously! Really, it’s ridiculous and there’s no evidence of Miyamoto ever saying this stuff.

Still, if you do a Google search you’ll find an endless number of spanish sites which aren’t satirical in nature re-reporting the same thing—from newspapers in Mexico to forums from Chile and everywhere inbetween.

It’s something that The Onion is no stranger to, and while funny for those of us who know this isn’t real, it’s still kind of unfortunate to see happen. Misinformation on the web is so easy to stumble upon, folks! Be smart, be wary. Question when people try to tell you Goombas represent balls.