Moment Subpages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned.
Oh, come on, Mario. You look great in that hat.
- Mario's new ability to capture nearly any enemy or NPC (so long as they aren't wearing a hat that he can't knock off), with them gaining his signature mustache and cap, is sure to lead to hilariousness. Highlights include possessing a T. rex, a human businessman, and a taxi cab! (though only the first can be used as part of the normal gameplay). He can even capture inanimate objects, such as trees, boulders, cacti, and traffic cones, and hop around in them! Speaking of taxi cabs, know what's even better? When you jump on them, they squeak like squeaky toys.
- When Mario performs his first capture at the beginning of the game on a frog, you can hear him go "ribbit ribbit", in his own voice. It makes it funnier afterwards when he lets out a moan of shock.
- Players have proved that it's totally possible to safely clear the opening stage without capturing a frog via clever jumping, but if you return there some other time having captured other enemies along the way? Yup, you still get that cutscene.
- When Mario performs his first capture at the beginning of the game on a frog, you can hear him go "ribbit ribbit", in his own voice. It makes it funnier afterwards when he lets out a moan of shock.
- On a related note, the first time he captures a spark pylon to travel from the Cap Kingdom to the Cascade Kingdom, he goes so fast that he and Cappy are screaming in fear the whole way. When Mario reaches his destination, he's obviously not used to it yet and is launched right out of the pylon before smashing his face into the ground upon landing. Cappy acts super happy and jittery, and exclaims he's never done that before and needs to wear it out.
- Seeing Peach and Bowser endlessly tug on the Binding Band is pretty funny, especially if you were expecting the ring to be regular-sized.
- Everything involving Cookatiel is hilariously bizarre.
- The scenario is that a giant chef bird is trying to take over the stew pot on the volcano (already bonkers), so Mario's first strategy to reach it is to go up to a plateau where a piece of meat is being salted and to Capture the slab of meat. The meat gains Mario's cap and mustache and you control it to hop around and make it look as enticing as possible to catch Cookatiel's attention.
- Cookatiel's boss fight itself is a moment where the player may feel compelled to sit back after, laugh, and ask what they just played, since the setup is so weird: you control a ball of lava in a hot stew pot, avoiding a giant bird kacking fruits and vegetables into the soup until it vomits lava, which you can climb up to its head to hit it.
- When you defeat Cookatiel, she will lose the strength to fly and will fall into the boiling stew of the arena. Later, Volbonans in the post-game will say something about the stew being "stewier" and chewier this time around.
- If Mario jumps out of a Goomba's sight
, it'll look around in confusion wondering where he went. The poor thing doesn't have object permanence! - A few of the ways you can kill Mario off in the game are pretty humorous. For example, if you make Mario run into a cactus in Tostarena, Mario turns to the camera staring at the multiple cactus prickles sticking out of his nose with a hilarious expression on his face before jumping off the screen. Another one is having Mario freeze to death in freezing water, in which he turns to the screen like usual... and doesn't move afterwards, being frozen solid under the icy waters.
- Try jumping on and swinging Cappy at NPCs. Their reaction, depending on the kind they are, can be hilarious.
- Their freaked-out reactions when seeing Mario as an enemy can be funny too.
- Koopa NPCs, by contact, react more in annoyance than fear at a Mario-captured enemy.
- Put Mario directly under a waterfall. His face is priceless.
- In Tostarena, if you talk to one of the residents in town (before primary) or near the Inverted Pyramid (after primary), he'll ask if you know about the Action Guide. If you select "I know already", he'll say, "What a relief!"
- Some Moons require Mario to capture a Goomba, stack on top of other Goombas, and then meet Goombette, who happily gives him the Moon. However, once Mario leaves the Goomba, the poor girl makes a very hasty retreat.
- Some of the costumes/costume combinations deserve a laugh. Ever wanted to see Mario as a clown pirate? Now you can!
- One of the alternate costumes is simply Mario in boxer shorts. And yes, he has nipples. Not to mention these simple standalone shorts cost a whopping 1,000 Coins (they're the most expensive outfit before you beat the game, so you're paying a lot to take off your clothes)!
- Another one is Peach's wedding dress, complete with her earrings and heels. Doubly funny is that the outfit has Cappy crossdressing as well, as the cap portion essentially has him dressing up as his little sister, Tiara.
- One of the best has to be the skeleton costume. Yes. One of the costumes is a skeleton with the hat and mustache. Just wait til you read the description. Also comes as a Stealth Pun.*
- You can buy both a straw hat and a pirate costume in the Seaside Kingdom. Mario's (the guy who's) gonna be king of the pirates!
- Wearing the Classic Cap and Caveman Outfit makes Mario look like Grand Dad!
- Here's a nice little Stealth Pun. You have a football costume and a king costume that Mario can wear. Mario has a mustache and can go to space via the Moon. Think on that.note
- The descriptions of the costumes themselves can be hilarious, with some of them being very self-aware.
- Wario's cap is stated to chafe, while the suit is said to be something one would want to wash before wearing.
- Waluigi's is described as making you want to lurk in the dark, waiting for the moment to shine, while the cap mentions that it's "barely used", both referencing the fact that Waluigi has never appeared in a Mario platformer or RPG, always relegated to sports and party games.
- The L on Luigi's cap stands for winner!
- Whoever's writing the costume descriptions has no idea how the skeleton costume even works. "But it's cool, right?"
- The Classic outfit from Donkey Kong is described as very nostalgic, though DK's never been a fan.
- The Pirate's hat doesn't bother with a description, and instead just goes "YARRR!"
- The Invisibility Hat is described as easy to lose in the closet.
- For the Fashionable Outfit: "I'm not clashing! YOU'RE clashing!"
- The Snow Suit lampshades how after decades of ice levels, there's "FINALLY a good, warm jacket" for Mario to wear.
- The Golf Outfit lampoons its own flashiness: "What?! Wait, let me turn down my outfit so I can hear you!"
- Most likely unintentional, but the male New Donker Crazy Cap employee has a voice blurb that sounds almost exactly like he's saying "I just want to die."
- Bowser actually has the gall to send Mario a wedding invitation for when he intends to marry Princess Peach. The way he taunts Mario like this is so audacious, you can't help but find it kind of funny. It's even better when coupled with one of the Broodals saying that Mario wasn't invited!
- The Broodal was correct, but this just makes things more hilarious. When confronting Bowser for the last time, he decries Mario for crashing his wedding (claiming it's tacky even for Mario), not being fancy enough, and not being invited.
- In the beginning of the game, Cappy lands on Mario's hat in his normal wedding style hat form, and Mario's reaction is priceless.
- Made even funnier when the wedding suit Cappy conjures for Mario before the final area also includes a white top hat, which Mario doesn't object to then. Perhaps that time, he just resigns himself to Cappy's efforts to dress him that way.
- The fight against Bowser in Cloud Kingdom (and the final fight in the Moon Kingdom) becomes this upon realizing that the height difference between Mario and Bowser results in Mario repeatedly punching Bowser in the crotch!
- Right once Bowser gets defeated at the end of the Moon Kingdom fight, he crashes into a rocky pillar, which collapses and sends him falling onto the battlefield... but, not before his wedding suit instantly tears off and reverts him to his traditional appearance. While this is funny on its own, imagine if it were a human character in his place. Suddenly Bowser's loss of clothing takes on a whole new turn!
- The game's ending cutscene. Mario finally decides to propose to his longtime kinda-maybe girlfriend, before Bowser butts in because that's just what Bowser does. The two get so caught up with competing with each other that Peach puts her foot down hard, rejecting both Bowser's and Mario's proposals, much to their obvious dismay. Even the Piranha Plant bouquet Mario was holding is shocked silent.
- Additionally, playing the cutscene as Invisible Mario is chuckle-worthy on its own. Bowser ends up pushing what appears to be nothing out of the way to get Peach's attention, and when they jump up to the Odyssey, it looks like Bowser just got smacked by thin air onto the moon!
- Speaking of Invisible Mario, try walking along NPCs who talk when you pass them. All you will get is a "???".
- More ending hijinks happens when wearing the Super Mario 64 outfit; it feels like a lost episode of SMG4's work!
- Additionally, playing the cutscene as Invisible Mario is chuckle-worthy on its own. Bowser ends up pushing what appears to be nothing out of the way to get Peach's attention, and when they jump up to the Odyssey, it looks like Bowser just got smacked by thin air onto the moon!
- The fact that any Moons you find in the Mushroom Kingdom appear as Power Stars, and even come with the jingle from Super Mario 64 when you collect them (triples as a Moment of Awesome and a Heartwarming Moment).
- Despite obviously being Power Stars, they're called Power Moons.Cappy: Some moons are in different shapes. I didn't know that.
- Despite obviously being Power Stars, they're called Power Moons.
- When you're on the menu and hover over the Save option, Mario puts on a very ridiculous-looking smile, as if he's super excited about saving the game or something.
- Post-game, you unlock new animations of Mario and Cappy looking out the window of the Odyssey when you're traveling between kingdoms. One of them is Cappy sleeping on Mario's head, in his true form.
- Most friendly NPCs wear hats, or other headgear, to keep Mario from being able to capture them, including the Toads that show up. That is, they tend to wear much too small hats on top of their mushroom caps. While the visual is funny enough, considering how the Mario series has never been clear about whether or not a Toad's mushroom cap is a part of their anatomy or just a fancy hat, the idea that they're wearing hats on top of their hats is even more absurd.
- When capturing Chain Chompikins during the Madame Broodal fight, a Chain Chomp's barking is added to the music. It slowly gets louder until it overpowers the music.
- When you manage to launch Broode's Chain Chomp back at her, it flies into her face, covering it and for a brief moment, making it look like the Chomp's face is her own.
- In various kingdoms, you can find and capture a Lakitu, and use him to fish up Cheep Cheeps including big ones holding Power Moons. In Bowser's Kingdom, instead of normal water, Lakitu is fishing in a poison swamp, and when you fish up the Power Moon carrier, it's not a Cheep Cheep, but Poochy who's holding the Power Moon. And when you go to fish in the sand in Tosterana, you can actually see fish swimming in it. Fish out the biggest one and you'll pull out Captain Toad!
- The final boss fight has different dialogue depending on what Mario is wearing:
- When wearing the Skeleton, Zombie, clown, boxer shorts, gold, or 8-bit costumes, Bowser states that he's not scared, but a stutter clearly betrays his bravado. Yes, you've read this correctly: Bowser is actually terrified of Mario's nipples.
- Wearing the Dr. Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, or N64 suit outfits will cause Bowser to remark how he's seen that look before, but can't exactly remember when.
- Wearing Peach's bridal dress causes him to say Mario looks amazing, while wearing Bowser's outfit has him compliment Mario on being classy.
- Wear the Invisible Cap, and Bowser will just wonder where Mario went... then just say that Mario wasn't invited. This is particularly funny considering his behavior in the events up to that point do not change at all, as though he could see Mario perfectly fine despite the Invisibility Hat.
- Mario Capturing Bowser is hilarious all on its own, but there's a couple standouts:
- The 8-bit segment: Bowser's sprite still has the hat and mustache.
- The fact that they modernized the colors on Mario's sprites but didn't bother changing Bowser and Peach's sprites at all. At least Peach's outfit has the minor excuse of wearing a white dress due to the wedding she was forced into, but her hair and Bowser have no such excuse.
- Doing a triple jump with Bowser. The last jump has Bowser take on Mario's iconic jumping pose, and he even goes "Woo-hoo!". It's a hilarious reminder that it's still Mario in there.
- Mario-as-Bowser and Peach capturing the pylon, resulting in both their faces (with Mario still having Bowser's face) being awkwardly crammed onto the ball of electricity, with Peach looking quite confused.
- The 8-bit segment: Bowser's sprite still has the hat and mustache.
- One of the milestones is "achieve world peace" (complete the main path in each kingdom), which is rewarded with one Power Moon.
- When you reach the Mushroom Kingdom, Peach is missing again...but she just went on a vacation with Tiara.
- Even better is the reaction of the Toad who tells you this, clearly panicking about Peach calmly packing a suitcase and walking out of the castle of her own volition.Toad: Awful news, Mario! Princess Peach has gone missing AGAIN! She packed her suitcase, happy as can be, and walked off! We can't find her anywhere. Where IS she?
- Even better is the reaction of the Toad who tells you this, clearly panicking about Peach calmly packing a suitcase and walking out of the castle of her own volition.
- Peach and Tiara traveling the world on their own is mostly heartwarming, but there's a particularly funny moment later on. One of the places you can find them is the Ruined Kingdom, right next to the Ruined Dragon. The camera even pans out to show the dragon when you talk to Peach. Neither Peach nor Tiara even mention it.
- When you achieve one of the Moons in the Lost Kingdom, Cappy will praise you and then say, "I'd tip my hat to you, but..."
- The Mario 64 outfit, which is exactly what it sounds like: an incredibly faithful recreation of the low-poly Mario from Super Mario 64, with all the awkward details intact. His hair is a shapeless mass, his eyes are too small and too close together, his skintone is an odd yellowish shade. Switching back and forth between that and Mario's proper modern model is both hilarious and shows just how far Nintendo has come with their character models.
- And it comes in Metal Mario form, which is a faithful recreation of the N64 Metal Cap outfit.
- If you let Mario sleep through his Idle Animation in certain kingdoms, a regional bird will eventually fly down and perch on his nose. The bird you get for sleeping in the Snow Kingdom is a penguin. Yes, you read that right. Penguins in this game can fly. The "bird" on the moon is a tiny UFO.
- Eventually, inhabitants of other countries will start visiting Bubblaine, including a Steam Gardener in the hot spring. As it's a robot not meant to be submerged in water, it sits motionless at the bottom of the pool, all rusted up... but it still says it feels incredibly relaxed anyway.
- The Shiverian racer Mario must Capture to participate in the races is too afraid to come out because he's intimidated by his competitors. From his perspective, he just blacks out before a race, then comes to and finds everyone acknowledges him as a champion.Shiverian Racer: I'm the... champion?
- And as Mario continues to win races for (or rather, as) him, he starts growing to like the experience.Shiverian Racer: Racing is fun!
- And as Mario continues to win races for (or rather, as) him, he starts growing to like the experience.
- Another Shiverian will give you a Power Moon if you wear a specific article of clothing. What is that, you may ask? Your boxer shorts. In the Snow Kingdom. The name of the mission for this Power Moon? "I'm Not Cold".
- Can we just talk about how hilarious some of Mario's idle animations are? There's the classic Super Mario 64 habit of Mario falling asleep when he's left alone (with Cappy falling asleep along with him) of course, but Mario will also shiver or wipe off some sweat when in a hot or cold environment respectively (or if you decide to wear completely out of place clothing...), and when next to a source of music he'll do a funny little dance.
- Unlike the other Crazy Cap salespeople throughout the world, who try to welcome Mario to their store, the Steam Gardener salespeople cut right to the chase and say "Spend money!" as soon as Mario speaks to them. And as Mario leaves, they invite him to come back later and buy more things.
- A hatless New Donker can be found clumsily trying to control a remote-controlled car, wondering how his kids are much better at such play. Ground-pounding and smashing the car will leave said New Donker disappointed.
- One Power Moon is hidden in the back of the Tostarena Crazy Cap shop. If Mario speaks to the employees there, they'll both deny that they were scared by him showing up back there, and then inform him he has to make his purchases in the front of the store.
- After Mario finishes the main Sand Kingdom levels, a Tostarenan decides to travel the world, which he does via a taxi driven by a New Donker. Somehow, the Taxi is faster than the Odyssey if you decide to hightail it to the next location the tourist goes, even with a (not blimplike) sail put onto it.
- One location the Tostarenan asks to go to is the Moon. After he requests to go somewhere new, the taxi driver says he's going to need to get a lot of fuel first. That's right, they drove all the way to the Moon.
- Though given one Power Moon requires looking at a taxi with a sail, this might be plausible In-Universe.
- He probably stuffed the exhaust pipe with match heads.
- If you answer the Sphynx's riddles, he'll admit it wasn't much of a riddle anyway, accuse you of simply lucky-guessing, or something akin to that line of logic, before giving you your reward, anyway.
- "You guessed, didn't you! You're a GUESSER!"
- Several of the Sphynx's extra riddles offer amusing answers:
- "The one who gallops across the sand... how many coins are needed to ride on its back?"1
30
100
Like, a billion - "What is my name?" (A minor and amusing Interface Screw also occurs during this question, as the Sphynx's name is replaced by "???")Mr. Questionface
Suffix Wizard
Quiz Kitty
Sphynx
- "The one who gallops across the sand... how many coins are needed to ride on its back?"
- Early in the game, one Tostarenan is horrified by seeing someone stuck in the ice. Not because he's concerned for the person's well-being, but because the frozen guy owes him money.
- In the Wooded Kingdom, there's a charging station for the Steam Gardeners that's been having a very busy day. While one Steam Gardener is taking his sweet time, two others are so agitated they're in a panic cycle, one of which comments his patience is expiring and he is "initiating passive-aggressive commentary" in response, a third is repeatedly asking if it's his turn, and lastly, the one that takes the cake is a rusted Steam Gardener lying on the ground. All he can muster up the power to say is "Waited... too long..."
- One of the Steam Gardeners in the Wooded Kingdom will say that the Steam Gardens are "objectively superior to other regions." And then cheer. That's some serious patriotism there.
- This might even steer into Black Comedy, since, if its pre-release name "Kogwald" is anything to go by, the Wooded Kingdom was meant to be a stand-in for Germany. That's right. Extreme German patriotism. They seriously went there.
- Walking around New Donk City in a sailor suit.
- The Beach Volleyball mission in Bubblaine is something of That One Sidequest, to the point where one recommended plan of attack is to go into 2-Player mode and use just Cappy for the mission. Thing is, Mario still falls asleep if he doesn't move for long enough, even when Cappy's zipping all over the place. As if that wasn't amusing enough, if you put Mario inside the volleyball court before starting, you may be lucky enough for the opponent to volley the ball to his position after he's gone to sleep. Watch and laugh as Mario abruptly wakes up and stands up to volley back before just as abruptly going back to sleep. And they say Luigi falls asleep fast...
- If you talk to Luigi while wearing his outfit, he will say some extra dialogue where he's briefly bewildered about seeing another of himself before realizing it's Mario. It's even funnier when you remember this actually happened once in Super Mario Galaxy.
- Talk to Luigi while wearing Peach's wedding dress outfit and he'll say, "Whoa, Bro, you're getting married?! AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME?!". He'll also say the same for Mario and Bowser's wedding suits, but they don't have quite the same impact.
- If you wear any of the outfits Bowser finds scary, such as the Clown and Skeleton, Luigi will be startled, but reassure Mario it looks good on him anyway. Yes, even the boxer shorts.
- If you wear the Invisible cap, he'll get scared, because he thinks he's talking to no one.
- Luigi will shiver and talk in a shaky voice in the Snow Kingdom.
- When Mario starts having pasta dreams in his sleeping Idle Animation, when he utters the pasta "pici", he realizes how its name is a single "E" sound off from sounding like "Peach" and giggles to himself. While still sleeping.
- The 1.2.0 update introduced more costumes, with some released on later dates. Among those are the outfits the Broodals wear, complete with oversized rabbit ears. Hariet's also includes heels.
- The description for the Rango Suit.A humble outfit that does the job effectively, if not glamorously. Or efficiently. Or smartly. Or even not-dumbly.
- The description for the Rango Suit.
- The Sand Kingdom has a building that Mario can only enter while wearing a sombrero and poncho, while the Seaside Kingdom has one requiring a Resort Hat and Outfit. In the post-game, some confused Shiverians wear Resort Hats in the Sand Kingdom, and get denied access.
- The hats that some enemies wear to make Captures more difficult are often quite funny. There's often the question of who put the hats on them as well, and why some are so specific, making it extra funny.
- Sherms will usually wear Uncle Sam hats in what seems like a joke on the United States, but in the Steam Gardens, they wear brown forest ranger hats as if trying to blend in as staff.
- In the Lake Kingdom, Goombas wear bridal veils.
- In the Luncheon Kingdom, Hammer Bros wear chef hats and go the extra mile by throwing frying pans.
- Hats in general are extremely common to the point of comedy. Of special note are sheep, which are always found wearing sombreros as their standard attire, even when they are in the Mushroom Kingdom. The way they flip and fly when you hit them with your hat makes things even better.
- Two traveling Volbonans in the postgame can be seen discussing Goombas, with one swearing they're mushrooms and the other convinced they're acorns. While it's fitting for food lovers, it's also a nice nod to the way fans have been confused by the designs. The truth just adds to the joke, as both Volbonans are wrong: in Japanese, Goombas were named for their resemblance to chestnuts.
- In the postgame, you unlock the Dark Side, whose main attraction is a tower hosting a Boss Rush against the Broodals. However, you are free to leave the tower after each fight before the top and even go back to the Odyssey and change costumes without your progress resetting. And also unlocked to buy in the postgame are the Broodal outfits. This means you can fight each Broodal while wearing their outfit to humiliate them further in your final faceoff against them. Though you don't deal extra damage against Hariet when in her outfit...
- One Volbonan is seen with an unlit campfire that he needs to cook on. Light it and you'll get a Power Moon... but the Volbonan sheepishly realizes he forgot to bring ingredients.
- All of the enemies at Bowser's wedding (except the Chargin' Chucks) are wearing white formal top hats, even Sherms. This includes one point where you approach a wall and a Banzai Bill wearing an appropriately giant top hat comes crashing through.
- If Mario falls a substantial height and lands on his feet without taking damage, he'll shiver with a hilarious "Ooh, that smarts!" expression.
- During the invasion of Piranha in the underground of New Donk City, one of the guards ask Mario if he brought a sort of weed killer or something.
- Mario's Idle Animations can be induced in the damnedest of places, including on top of New Donk City Hall's lightning rod, which doesn't even have enough space for him to lie down. He must have stellar core strength.
- A couple of the Power Moons in New Donk City require you to park a scooter on top of a building. To get to one of them, you need to drive a scooter off the top of New Donk City Hall down to the buildings across the street and a couple hundred feet below you. The New Donkers manning the meters cheerfully note that you are their parking spots' first customer.
- One of the enemy types in the Luncheon Kingdom is the Magmato, a tomato that collapses into a puddle of lava. Anybody who's ever cooked with tomatoes or eaten pizza will be intimately aware that this is entirely accurate because tomatoes always feel like the hottest part of a heated dish, so tomatoes being lava hardly feels like a stretch!
