About

Iolui, Uigiy and Ariol refers to three alternatively colored versions of Mario and Luigi with glitched names from Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels that are considered invalid brothers by the game's code, meaning they are unplayable as they do not follow the correct color schemes for Mario and Luigi. In mid-June 2024, the Super Mario fact X / Twitter page @MarioBrothBlog posted a graphic explaining the invalid brothers, also claiming that "Riolu," the name of a Pokemon, is not a valid string of code. The graphic inspired redraws and works of fan art depicting the invalid brothers.

Origin

On June 14th, 2024, X^[1] user @MarioBrothBlog posted a fact about Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, garnering over 28,000 likes and 5,100 reposts in six days (shown below). In the post, the user explains, "Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels uses a 'brother byte' to determine the current brother. There are two valid brothers: Mario and Luigi, and 254 invalid ones. Out of them, only three have names that are not glitched: Iolui, Uigiy and Ariol."

Along with the post is a graphic showing what the three invalid brothers look like, as well as an image of the Pokémon Riolu, explaining, "Despite 'Riolu' being a valid string in the code, none of the brothers have this name."

Spread

The post inspired redraws and memes based on the invalid brothers. On June 14th, 2024, X^[2] user @Keroberry1 posted a piece of art, writing, "I love the Mario Brothers. All 6 of them," garnering over 33,000 likes in six days (shown below, left). On June 15th, X^[3] user @JavTropic posted a drawing of one of the brothers that gained over 12,000 likes in five days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References