I was enjoying the New Super Mario Brothers on Wii when I came to a slow realization that one of the staples in my childhood may have been a veiled glorification of the "American experiment" (as the Russians would call it).
Super Mario Brothers is the story of two Italian American plumbers that travel through a fantasy land collecting coins and power ups in order to defeat the evil Bowser and save the princess of the mushroom kingdom. Most would not consider looking to deeply into this, though some have. Check out this hilarious video that shows Mario as a communist. It's a popular meme, the idea that Super Mario is really communist propaganda.
Was Stalin a plumber too?
I disagree. It's a child's game and likely not intended as a sociopolitical message to be decoded. Still, I discovered a few interesting parallels that point to the other extreme, that Mario is a Capitalist fighting Communism.
1) Koppas: The main antagonist in the games is Bowser, also known as "King Koopa" head of the Koopa army. The Koopas in the game are turtles. Koopa is a Japanese term for a Korean dish (Kuppa). Super Mario came out in the mid-eightes at the height of the cold war. North Korea, a Socialist workers nation, was isolationist but also becoming militaristic. As with most Asian countries, North Koreans are largely Buddhist or Confucianist; there is no dominant major religion. Just like the Koppa army, North Korea has it's own would be king.
The resemblance is uncanny
2) Drugs: The dominant religion in the US has always been Christianity. If you are familiar with the work of John Allego and his deciphering of the Dead Sea Scrolls, you may have heard the theory that Christianity blossomed from what was once a mushroom worshiping cult. Everything from the holy grail, Santa Claus and the phoenix myth can be traced back to this magical red and white mushroom. You could say, based on it's origins, that America is the "Mushroom Kingdom".
Plumber/Farmer/Capitalist/Drug User
In the game Mario and his brother chase these mushrooms and when they catch them it makes them stronger and more resilient to attack. This is not the typical result of real magical mushroom intake (perhaps metaphorically). Another power-up is a glowing flower that enables the brothers to throw balls of fire. Again, no flower I know of can do this but there are many plants that also have psychedelic/medicinal properties like the Datura or Poppy.
What am I?
Opium is used to make morphine and codine, very common drugs in the pharmaceutical industry. It is also the main crop of Afghanistan which was a mainstage of conflict during the cold war. It is an old problem for another Communist Asian country China, which had many years of wars over the plant with the lovable British East India Company.
3) Coins: Mario is constantly chasing gold coins which can be found hidden in bricks (for which he must be on mushrooms to break open) or floating in areas that require a level of risk to get too. If enough coins are collected, Mario gets to play the game longer by being rewarded with "another life". If he tries to get those hard to reach coins he could end up falling to his temporary doom. Modern banking as well as modern Christianity was borne in Italy. Find out more on this in my other blog. Gold coins are a common item in these types of games. Like in life, it is a reward system that adds another level of gameplay if you have gone passed just trying to get to the end without dying.
Next time, more coins less "power-ups"
So what we have is a couple of working Joes, (the central audience to which the Capitalists and Communists were trying to sell their ideology to) who use drugs and money to rise up against the evil dictator and save the the helpless and hapless Princess Peach and her kingdom. If Mario was a Communist he would be just another turtle. It is a story of personal empowerment in tandem with the approach of 80's hero tales and the American Capitalist ideology that promotes individualism and success through spiritual and monetary means.
I know what you are thinking "someone's been eating too many magic mushrooms".
Look, anyone who comes up with a game idea like this was either tripping balls or trying to make a point artistically. I am simply doing the same.
K
