About

What Happened To Toadsworth or Toadsworth Is Dead refers to the sudden and unexplained disappearance and seeming retirement of the Super Mario character Toadsworth, an elderly toad who works for Princess Peach, designed with a large mustache, small glasses and a toadstool-topped cane.

Toadsworth first appeared in Super Mario Sunshine in 2002, and last appeared in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team in 2013, appearing in numerous games in between, most notably the Super Mario RPG games. The only games he has appeared in since 2013 have been remakes and remasters, or he has appeared as a collectible, such as in the Super Smash Bros. games and Mario Party: The Top 100.

As early as 2016, online discussions about the disappearance of Toadsworth increased. Some theorize that the character was retired in accordance with changes to the Paper Mario series of games, which were purportedly required to stop including unique Toad designs in 2012 with the release of Paper Mario: Sticker Star.

Discussions, memes and posts about Toadsworth experienced a surge in popularity in early August 2026 after Nintendo released a recreation of a piece of artwork from Super Mario Sunshine to celebrate the game's release on the Nintendo Switch Online GameCube emulator. The art notably does not feature Toadsworth, despite his presence in the original artwork.

Origin

Toadsworth is a character from the Super Mario series who first appeared in Super Mario Sunshine in 2002. He became well-known for his appearances in the Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario games, and also appeared in numerous sports and spin-off games. His last appearance was in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team in 2013.^[1]

Around the release of Paper Mario: Sticker Star, allegations of a set of rules known as the "Mario Mandate" spread online. While some parts of the Mario Mandate are unconfirmed, others have been confirmed, including a claim that Toads in Paper Mario games can no longer have characteristics like age or gender.^[2] It has been theorized that this is why Toadsworth was retired from future Super Mario games.

The earliest known online discussion about the disappearance of Toadsworth was posted to the /r/nintendo^[3] subreddit by a now-deleted Redditor on September 13th, 2016, titled "What happened to Toadsworth?" that gained over 165 upvotes and 115 comments in 10 years.

Spread

Discussions about Toadsworth's fate and retirement became increasingly popular online throughout the late 2010s and early-to-mid 2020s.

On July 24th, 2021, Squid Dude released an essay on their WordPress^[4] blog titled "Is Toadsworth Dead?" exploring the retirement of Toadsworth. On August 26th, 2023, YouTuber^[5] GameXplain posted a video essay theorizing about Toadsworth's disappearance that gained over 85,000 views in three years.

On June 4th, 2024, X^[6] user @SuperWiiBros08 posted a meme about Toadsworth disappearing back to Hell after appearing in the Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remake on the Nintendo Switch, garnering over 7,000 likes in two years.

On July 31st, 2026, X^[7] user @Cheesebrackers quoted a post sharing an official redraw of a piece of key art from Super Mario: Sunshine, drawn in celebration of the game's release on NSO's GameCube emulator, writing, "Okay but genuinely why won't nintendo bring up toadsworth anymore?" garnering over 11,000 likes in three days. Notably, the redraw of the art omits Toadsworth.

Later that day, X^[8] user @mariocircuit_ posted a meme where they've edited screenshots from Super Mario: Sunshine to redact Toadsworth, writing, "new screenshots of sunshine on gamecube NSO just dropped‼️" gaining over 19,000 likes in three days.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References