Man Sues SNL For Stealing ‘Mario Does Shrooms’ Joke From 2008 Newgrounds Cartoon

Saturday Night Live has been an unrivaled bastion of highbrow comedy since its inception in 1975, with absolutely no down periods whatsoever where the show wasn’t funny for an entire decade. The sheer fact that this variety sketch show has continuously produced so many skits for so many years with unwavering quality is utterly unprecedented. But the pillar of late-night programming was nearly toppled when they dared to hijack one of the greatest gaming jokes ever conceived.

The idea of equating psychedelic mushrooms with the iconic power-ups eaten by Mario blew everyone’s minds when it first appeared online in the iconic cartoon short Mario Get High and Fuck Princes Peech. This short is considered so important to the history of modern comedy that when Adobe Flash support ended in 2020, the SWF file was converted and archived in the Library of Congress.


Charlie Duddley, more widely known by his username PuffPuffAss69, is both proud of his creation and very protective of his intellectual property. His litigious nature is well documented, most famously in the case where he sued Smosh for using the joke in 2014, ending with the YouTube creator duo owing Duddley 50% of their total ad revenue. Many consider this to be the breaking point for their disbandment in 2017 and the reason why they avoid video game-based humor in favor of weird short-form improv videos.

The consequences have been dire for all those involved in the sketch. NBC announced the immediate dismissal of long-time executive producer Lorne Michaels. Tesla stock has plummeted in the wake of Elon Musk’s involvement as Wario. Grimes was hospitalized for being in a state of shock after the backlash, although her decision to give Princess Peach an Italian accent has been met with high praise from critics.

It comes as a surprise that SNL would even try to steal a joke that’s so profoundly embedded in the zeitgeist of gaming culture, especially considering that the sketch would have been a quintessential piece of writing without its addition. Perhaps they should have learned from the case of MADtv v. FuttBucker when the former attempted to point out that Link smashes pots in other people’s houses.

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