I will not have much commentary on the top three Weird Mario Brothers Things because they basically speak for themselves.
3) The 1988 Ice Capades! A little introduction is in order here. The Ice Capades, in their last few years, usually had a segment with costumed characters to appeal to the kids whose parents had dragged them to a charmingly outdated ice show. I seem to remember commercials for the Smurf show for years and years, but later on they added new characters. These included the Simpsons and, err, the California Raisins (hark, a prompt for a future post!) They were all brought to life with horrifying, cheap, off-model costumes. If this Super Mario Brothers segment is any indication, then the skits were also written by a person who had been given a small post-it note explaining who the characters were.
2) "Club Mario!"
The Super Mario Brothers cartoon was more correctly known as "The Super Mario Brothers Super Show". The cartoons were introduced by live-action segments starring Captain Lou Albano playing Mario. After a few seasons, these segments were deemed unworthy and replaced with something much, much more "hip" that would better "connect with the young parsons".
The following video contains all of the early '90s. ALL of it. Be warned.
And the number-one weirdest thing ever involving the Super Mario Brothers is, naturally,
1) That one time Mario, Luigi, and the gang met Milli Vanilli. (AKA "Kootie Pie Rocks", an episode of the second cartoon series.)
I have no words for this. Here it is, in two parts. It might be one of the greatest things you will ever see:
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Sketch of the Day!
Old but still cute:
