Game Theory: Mario is COMMUNIST?!? - YouTube

Break out the borscht and pierogies comrades cause it's time to celebrate a true soviet hero.

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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

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