Maybe this belongs lost to history.
January 3, 2021 10:40 AM Subscribe
When I was in middle school (around 2001) there was a web-based video game that was popular among my classmates that we called "Jewish Mario".
It was similar in style to a Mario game, but was "Jewish" themed, with menorahs, gelt... and Nazis and Klansman. If I'm pretty sure we downloaded a file to play it, and didn't play it within the web browser. I'm not sure how it reached my 25% Jewish middle school, but there is no longer any evidence of it on Google, and my husband thinks I imagined it. Do you remember this game, or can you help me find it? (Asked anonymously because I realize as an adult how distasteful and anti-semitic this is.)
It was similar in style to a Mario game, but was "Jewish" themed, with menorahs, gelt... and Nazis and Klansman. If I'm pretty sure we downloaded a file to play it, and didn't play it within the web browser. I'm not sure how it reached my 25% Jewish middle school, but there is no longer any evidence of it on Google, and my husband thinks I imagined it. Do you remember this game, or can you help me find it? (Asked anonymously because I realize as an adult how distasteful and anti-semitic this is.)
So I am a professional degreed librarian and very curious about solving problems, so my online search history is already all sorts of grunged up and I took a swing at Racist Mario. Behold! You are correct, a Mario with swastikas and Klan robes existed:
" The WAR site offered modified and downloadable versions of the “Original Mario Brothers” game as well as “Super Mario Brothers 2.” Both games maintained the same basic premise and set-up as the originals but with modified graphics. In the WAR version of the “Original Mario Brothers,” Mario was a skinhead, when he powered-up he appeared in a white Klan outfit, and when he had fireball powers he was in a red Klan outfit. .... Additional alterations to the game included power ups changed from mushrooms to White Klan robes, Question Blocks were Swastikas, and the mushroom enemies were replaced with dark black babies in diapers. The rest of the game including the music and background graphics were the same as the original."
From Selepak, Andrew. "Skinhead Super Mario Brothers: An Examination of Racist and Violent Games on White Supremacist Web Sites." Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 2010. vol 17, issue 3, pages 1-45. Here is the TOC for the journal and a direct link to the free PDF that looks kinda curious as a link so perhaps the TOC will work better.
It's a lengthy document where an academic person systematically searched common hate sites, downloaded, played and classified all the hate video games they could in the mid 2000s. I only read up until they mentioned this first paragraph about Mario on page 26, so perhaps the remaining pages include further different Mario information that better matches your memory, or perhaps you're remembering two different Mario games. As Rhaomi has located in their searching, it's a common idea to flip Mario games into hate symbols, so you may have also played a random variant(s) that has been erased in the intervening 20 years or that was perhaps made locally to you.
posted by holyrood at 3:26 PM on January 3, 2021 [8 favorites]
" The WAR site offered modified and downloadable versions of the “Original Mario Brothers” game as well as “Super Mario Brothers 2.” Both games maintained the same basic premise and set-up as the originals but with modified graphics. In the WAR version of the “Original Mario Brothers,” Mario was a skinhead, when he powered-up he appeared in a white Klan outfit, and when he had fireball powers he was in a red Klan outfit. .... Additional alterations to the game included power ups changed from mushrooms to White Klan robes, Question Blocks were Swastikas, and the mushroom enemies were replaced with dark black babies in diapers. The rest of the game including the music and background graphics were the same as the original."
From Selepak, Andrew. "Skinhead Super Mario Brothers: An Examination of Racist and Violent Games on White Supremacist Web Sites." Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 2010. vol 17, issue 3, pages 1-45. Here is the TOC for the journal and a direct link to the free PDF that looks kinda curious as a link so perhaps the TOC will work better.
It's a lengthy document where an academic person systematically searched common hate sites, downloaded, played and classified all the hate video games they could in the mid 2000s. I only read up until they mentioned this first paragraph about Mario on page 26, so perhaps the remaining pages include further different Mario information that better matches your memory, or perhaps you're remembering two different Mario games. As Rhaomi has located in their searching, it's a common idea to flip Mario games into hate symbols, so you may have also played a random variant(s) that has been erased in the intervening 20 years or that was perhaps made locally to you.
posted by holyrood at 3:26 PM on January 3, 2021 [8 favorites]
Just trying to understand the question - when I read it, it sounded like Mario seemed like he might be a Jewish character because the power ups (good things) were Jewish symbols like menorahs and gelt and the bad guys were racist/anti-semitic characters like Nazis and KKK.
This is the opposite of a racist Mario where Mario is a racist/anti-semitic character.
posted by metahawk at 4:25 PM on January 3, 2021 [7 favorites]
This is the opposite of a racist Mario where Mario is a racist/anti-semitic character.
posted by metahawk at 4:25 PM on January 3, 2021 [7 favorites]
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posted by Rhaomi at 3:16 PM on January 3, 2021 [1 favorite]