About

Shy Guys are antagonists in the Super Mario franchise known for wearing hooded robes and white masks with large eye holes.

Origin

On July 10th, 1987, Shy Guys were first introduced with the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) game Super Mario Bros. 2, in which they serve as minions of the primary antagonist Wart. The character, and much of the entire game, had been remade from the Japanese Famicom game Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic.^[2] The character later appeared in subsequent games in the Super Mario franchise, including the Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Yoshi, Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros. and Mario Party series.

Spread

On December 11th, 2005, a Shy Guy page was created on the Mario Wiki.^[1] On June 19th, 2006, a page for "Shy Guy" was launched on the Nintendo Wiki.^[3] On June 9th, 2011, artist Mike Puncekar posted a horror-themed illustration of Shy Guy on his personal blog^[10] (shown below).

On January 31st, 2012, the tech news blog Venture Beat^[5] published an article regarding various fan theories about the fictional origins of the Shy Guy character. On August 8th, SmashBoards Forums^[4] user Ghirahilda submitted a thread titled "What is behind Shy Guy's Mask?" On September 14th, 2012, DeviantArtist^[8] QuadForceFive uploaded a comic in which Shy Guy goes on a date with the Super Mario character Boo (shown below).

On October 11th, Redditor JayBowls submitted the QuadForceFive comic to /r/gaming,^[9] where it gained over 2,500 votes (95% upvoted) and 350 comments prior to being archived. On November 16th, 2014, YouTuber Koopa Kart uploaded a video titled "What is Under Shy Guy's Mask?," featuring a Shy Guy animation and scenes from various Super Mario games with speculation about the character's true face (shown below).

On February 5th, 2015, Redditor Mr. Lovenstein submitted an original webcomic about an unmasked Shy Guy to the /r/comics^[7] subreddit, where it received upwards of 5,300 votes (91% upvoted) and 185 comments in the first four months (shown below). On February 8th, a page for Shy Guy was submitted to the Giant Bomb Wiki.^[6]

Shy Gal

Shy Gal is a rule 63 female depiction of the Shy Guy character, which can be found under the tag "#shygal"^[11] on DeviantArt. On September 29th, 2014, YouTuber BotanicSage uploaded a Shy Gal GIF by artist Minus8 with the 1992 hip hop song "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-a-Lot playing in the background (shown below, left). On December 17th, 2014, YouTuber CreamBRabbit uploaded a speed drawing of a Shy Gal (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References