Elephant Mario

About

Elephant Mario is a powered-up version of Mario in the shape of an elephant introduced in the June 2023 Nintendo Direct presentation during an advertisement for an upcoming 2D Super Mario game titled Super Mario Bros. Wonder. The character quickly left an impression on fans, leading to commentary, memes and fan art in the hours after its introduction.

Origin

On June 21st, 2023, Nintendo held a direct in which the marquee announcement was the reveal of a 2D Super Mario game called Super Mario Bros. Wonder. At the end of the trailer, Mario gets a power-up that turns him into an anthropomorphic elephant (shown below).

Spread

Immediately after the Direct aired on June 21st, 2023, "Elephant Mario" became a topic of conversation for Nintendo fans on social media. For example, that same day Twitter user @TropicalMaku^[1] posted excitement about the character, gaining over 100 retweets and 260 likes in less than an hour (shown below, left). User @ImDeltaOnline^[2] then posted an If You Think We Fuckin meme with the character, gaining over 20 retweets and 90 likes in one hour (shown below, right).

Fan art also quickly appeared on Twitter after the Direct. On June 21st, Twitter user @FieldExplored^[3] posted a comic strip joking about the character, gaining over 140 retweets and 690 likes in less than 20 minutes (shown below, left). User @tribdinosaur^[4] posted art of the character that same day and gained over 80 retweets and 230 likes in a half hour (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References