List of references in live-action television
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30 Rock
In the episode "Mamma Mia," television writer Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) makes an allusion to the arcade game Donkey Kong and Mario's Italian heritage when talking to Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), her boss (who is of Irish descent). She says to him, "Really? You're going to do the repressed Irish thing? Be Italian for like one second." She then, in a faux Italian accent, begins to mock Jack: "I'm-a Jack. I don't know who my father is. I'm-a so emotional. I'm gonna smash these barrels!"
Amazing Race
During the show's ninth season, during the penultimate episode, BJ & Tyler, one of the teams, says that the race "is on like Donkey Kong".
America's Funniest Home Videos
In a specific episode, a kid is seen playing an underground level from Super Mario Bros.. In another, a kid can be seen getting Super Mario Bros. 2.
Bones
The episode, "The Gamer in the Grease," features a fictitious arcade game entitled Punky Pong where the player plays an explorer battling a Donkey Kong-inspired giant gorilla.
Boy Meets World
In one episode, Mr. Feenie talks about how technology is wasted and mentions how it's used to play Super Mario Bros., namely to beat King Koopa and rescue the Princess.
Brain Surge
In one of the episodes, Jeff tells a story about his family; he says that his aunt has a bigger mustache than that of a video game plumber. The aunt is then portrayed with an outfit that is similar to Mario's (one notable difference being a "V" being on the cap as opposed to Mario's "M"), with purple mushrooms in the background.
Al Derecho y al Derbez
In one of the program sketches, two frozen boys can be seen playing Super Mario Bros. They are in World 1-1 near the flagpole.
El Diario de Daniela
Martin, Daniela's best friend, can be seen playing Super Mario 64 in a black N64 with the Atomic Purple Controller in his bedroom. For unknown reasons, later in the soap opera the N64 was replaced with a SNES and some cartridges can be seen too.
Disney Cruise Line
When the show is talking about an arcade room for the kids in the cruise ship, one kid in the background can be seen playing Diddy Kong Racing.
Doc Martin
Martin's aunt Joan tells a group of children that "Life isn't all about Space Invaders and Super Mario."
Drake & Josh
In the episode "The Bet", several implications are made that the game that Josh is playing is a Super Mario Bros.-like level, most notably Drake's telling Josh to "Jump the mushroom." Josh was most likely playing Super Mario World, because if the player has an item in their Item Holder, and if the player grabs a Mushroom, it will replace the item. Another possibility is that the "mushroom" that Drake was talking about is a Goomba. Later in the episode Josh gets a Gamesphere (which is a spoof of the Gamecube). Also, Megan said "Take that Red Turtle Shell!", in which he was talking about a Red Koopa Troopa. She also had a GS (a spoof of a Nintendo DS). Josh is also seen playing a Game Boy Advance SP.
E3
An interview conducted for E3 (Youtube)
Full House
In one of the episodes in season 2, Stephanie Tanner asks her teacher if she can play Super Mario Bros. on the Game Boy.
Gary Unmarried
In one episode where Gary's brother comes to town, Gary asks him if he would like to start off their video game montage with Mario Kart.
GoTV
GoTV, a service that lets people watch shows on their cell phones, had a series of shows about the New Super Mario Bros. They showed one weekly for four weeks.
- May 15, 2006 - Interview with Shigeru Miyamoto
- May 22, 2006 - Review of the New Super Mario Bros.
- May 29, 2006 - Interview with Mario
- June 5, 2006 - Nintendo DS Lite preview
George Lopez
In one episode, George's father-in-law, Vick, dies his hair and mustache black in order to impress a lady. He incidently also wears a red shirt and blue pants. After Vick is turned down, George exclaims "Nice try, Super Mario!"
Good Morning America
A March 1, 2010 segment compared Barack Obama to Mario. The same segment used music from Super Mario Brothers and sound effects from Donkey Kong.
Gene Simmons Family Jewels
In the episode "Geeks Will Inherit the Earth" Gene and Nick go to Comic-Con, and among the characters Boo Mario can be seen.
Hangin with Mr. Cooper
In one episode, the boys can be seen playing an underground level of Super Mario World.
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
In one episode, Wayne can be seen playing as Princess Peach on Luigi Raceway in Mario Kart 64.
iCarly
In several episodes people are seen playing a Guitar Hero-like game on the Wii.
Lock 'N Load with R. Lee Ermy
When Gunny was testing an RC controlled AA-12 shotgun, he said it felt like playing Mario Bros.
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
In a 1983 episode, a boy teaches Mr. Rogers how to play Donkey Kong. After watching the boy play, Mr. Rogers plays for a little while. After that, a man comes by and shows Mr. Rogers and the boy the inside of the cabinet, and how the controls work.
Modern Family
In the episode "Moon Landing", some one draws a moustache on a poster of the main character, Phil, so he starts wearing a fake moustache. Because of this his wife calls him Mario. Also, in the episode Run for Your Wife, Phil and his wife, Claire, race each other. To brag about how fast he is he asks his son if they would would like to play some Mario Kart afterwards.
Modern Marvels
In episode 397, 80's Tech, Mario, Donkey Kong, Pauline, a Red Koopa Troopa, Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, and the ghosts make cameos. An Atari 2600, a Nintendo Entertainment System, a Game Boy, and a Nintendo GameCube are also briefly seen.
My Name is Earl
In the episode "Foreign Exchange Student", Earl and his friends try to convince a Frenchman to stay in Camden County so Earl can cross him off his list. Randy, Earl's Brother, starts listing popular arcade games. Second on his list is Donkey Kong.
Rock of Love 2 with Bret Michaels
In the Las Vegas episode, during a fight with one of the contestants, Jessica, another contestant states that "It was on like Donkey Kong."
Rosanne
In the episode "The Back Story", Rosanne plays on DJ's Super Nintendo towards the end. Although the screen is never shown, Super Mario World's title screen music can be heard. As the title screen can't actually be played on, it can be assumed that Rosanne was just pressing random buttons. When Dan asks Rosanne how she's doing, she responds by saying "Two more swords and I'm Queen of the Monkey People!", further implying that she wasn't actually playing Mario at all.
Sabado Gigante
In Sabado Gigante, there is a short character who dresses as Mario on the show.
Saturday Night Live
Wario Land: Shake It! was referenced in the sketch "Wii Guys" on the 2009 Valentine's Day episode of Saturday Night Live. The sketch begins with two young men playing Wario Land: Shake It! in the basement of their family's house. They were eventually joined by their father, played by Alec Baldwin, who was not a big fan of video games until his sons introduced him to the unique Wii Remote. The sketch parodied the concept of shaking objects and enemies in-game via shaking the Wii Remote. The humor of the sketch was derived from the play-style of the father, who would hold the Wii Remote vertically and shake it with one hand, obviously playing on the similarities between shaking the Wii Remote and male masturbation. The sketch can be viewed at NBC.com.
Sprint 4G TV Commercial
In one segment, when describing using the 4G connection to play games online, five people are shown to be playing Mario Kart DS on white Nintendo DSis. They are on Luigi's Mansion, and out of the five, one is Mario, and another is Yoshi. At the end, one of the men shouts "Eat it, Yoshi!" as an item sound effect plays.
Super Why!
In one episode, two pigs can be seen wearing clothes very similar to Mario and Luigi.
That's So Wierd
In one of the vampire sketches, Count Edwardo The 3rd mentions that the girl next to him is Princess Peach and he is Super Mario.
The Big Bang Theory
- In "The Electric Can Opener Fluctuation", Rajesh calls Howard's new mustache a "Mario & Luigi" look.
- In "The Codpiece Topology", Sheldon's mother sends him his Nintendo 64 along with Super Mario 64. He is seen playing it in a poorly encoded emulator complete with sound effects from the game
- In "The Gorilla Experiment", Raj and Sheldon are playing Mario Kart Wii with the Wii Wheel. Raj is shown playing with Yoshi on a kart and Sheldon playing as Mario on a bike in Mario Circuit. Raj wins.
- In "The Bozeman Reaction", Leonard's and Sheldon's apartment is robbed. Several consoles and games are mentioned as being stolen. The following are Mario related: NES, SNES, Nintendo 64 and Wii, along with Super Mario Bros., Mario Galaxy, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games and three Legend of Zelda games. Sheldon also mentions that "outside, evil lurks, probably playing Donkey Kong on my classic Nintendo."
The Daily Show
During the January 7th, 2010 episode, Jon Stewart talks about two recently retired Democrats. After he brings up the story, a picture of the Democrats' faces pasted onto Mario and Luigi's artwork from Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga appears, along side the caption "Donkey Gone".
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
In the 1991 episode "Love at First Fight", when Kayla Samuels asked Will if "He had ever memorized too many things at once that his head was going to bust?" he responded, "No, but I once got up to the third world of Super Mario Bros., and yo it was hectic up there!".
The Middle
In one episode, Brick is hit with a beer bottle on accident. He says he wants to use the new Super Mario Band-Aids.
The Red Green Show
The "Adventures with Bill" segment from the episode where the lodge members attempt at converting their excess grapes into wine features Bill and his comrades trying to fix a roof. During their capers, Bill begins to climb up a ladderway not unlike the girders of Donkey Kong and Dalton ends up knocking several metal canisters down the staircase, resulting in a Donkey Kong parody as Bill climbs to the roof. As he sees this, Red exclaims, "Hey! Super Mario Brothers!"
The Sarah Silverman Program
In one episode, a commercial for a fictitious video game entitled Cookie Party: The Video Game is shown, which features a Mario-inspired level.
The Sopranos
In one episode, AJ is seen playing Mario Kart 64.
Two Pints of Lager And a Packet of Crisps
In one episode, Gaz is seen trying to help his brother Munch know what is real and what is not real, at one point, Munch says "Not even the Super Mario Brothers?" and Gaz replies "Well okay, that's real!"
Whose Line Is It Anyway?
In one of the games, Wayne Brady had to make up a song based on a random person's profession. During one episode, a videogame reviewer from The Daily Radar was chosen. Both Mario and Donkey Kong were mentioned.
VH1 Commercials
- In one commercial for VH1 Latin America, the VH1 logo can be seen on a Donkey Kong stage jumping barrels.
- In another commercial, Mario appears jumping a Piranha Plant coming out of a Pipe while spinning on a phonograph.
