Nintendo Walked Right Into Porn When Promoting Switch Sports

If you’ve been bowling, there’s a good chance you’ve seen those corny 3D animations that unfold whenever you get a strike, spare, split, or miss the pins outright. These 90s relics are having a bit of a horny renaissance right now, thanks to an artist who recently posted a salacious bowling animation that has set the internet on fire. And unfortunately for Nintendo, which is currently trying to advertise the bowling mini-game in its upcoming sequel toWii Sports, this viral trend couldn’t be happening at a worse time.

But the dumpster fire currently plaguing Nintendo’s marketing campaign didn’t start in horny jail. Initially, modern GIF renditions of old-school bowling animations came back in vogue around 2021 by a blender artist who goes by wyerframeZ. The bowling animations that inspired wyerframeZ were quirky and unsettling, but never really abhorrent or salacious. Until some parodies of the bowling GIFs started popping up in 2019 and 2021, including one of Jesus getting crucified by two split bowling pins.

WyerframeZ then posted his own version of a 1990s bowling animation in November 2021 of a ball… ejaculating all over a set of pins to score a strike. Fast forward to this past April Fools’ day, which saw wyerframeZ share another bowling GIF that’s way hornier than the first one. Trust me, click that link. I’m not describing it in any detail lest I die typing this blog. But suffice it to say, the April Fool’s bowling animation has a whopping 72.5K likes on Twitter, so a ton of people have seen it.

That leads to Nintendo of Europe’s April 5 tweet, in which the company is minding its business advertising the upcoming Switch Sports. The tweet itself is harmless. The 15-second Nintendo clip shows various ways the game’s bowling runways can trick you, with slow-moving walls or bars that raise from the floor. It’s not until the end that the bowler finally scores a strike. You’d think the replies to something this benign would be normal, but because of the timing, wyerframeZ’s porn GIFs thrust their way into the replies of the tweet. You won’t see the porn at first, because Twitter has them under “hidden” replies–but nearly every reply under the original video is remarking on the sex regardless.

https://twitter.com/embed/status/1511429687142191106

https://twitter.com/embed/status/1511371362161643521

WyerframeZ told Kotaku over Twitter messages that he always thought bowling animations were “really funny” and found the hardest part about making his own was “getting the comedic timing right.”

“Ending up on a Nintendo tweet was the last thing I would have expected, especially considering my…’regular’ content,” wyerframeZ said, referring toextremely pornographic depictions of Super Mario anthropomorphs he normally creates. “The irony of the whole situation is hilarious, especially considering the pinned comment wasn’t the one people were seeing. It shocked a lot of people when they found out there was another animation.”

I don’t know who would’ve expected to see porn flood the mentions of a Nintendo of Europe tweet—and not even good porn! It’s just strange. I understand the satisfaction that comes with getting a strike, but I’m not sure it compares to the same feeling you get after releasing that sexual tension.

“I think people just like to see funny stuff that’s shocking, but still re-tweetable,” wyerframeZ said. “I’m sure tons of people would be just as shocked (or more) by the stuff I normally produce, but is it’s nowhere near as re-tweetable or relatable. Bowling is super relatable and everyone has that experience of looking up at the screen and being confused as shit.”

Kotaku has reached out to Nintendo for comment.