Mr. Stick

> *"I don't care about this fortune nonsense. Just tell me if we can patent this bot thingamajig."*
> **— Mr. Stick (Via Toppinbot)**
>
>

**Mr. Stick** is an NPC in the Hub area of Pizza Tower.

He appears to rent boss gates to Peppino in exchange for money earned from rescuing Toppins from the levels, and sometimes as a fill-in for Gustavo during Pizza Time.

## Description

Mr. Stick is a slim, fair-skinned man with glasses, a bald head, and a comically large nose. He wears an orange suit and pants that visually looks like a jumpsuit over a white dress shirt and a black tie. He also sports a pair of long, black shoes, a pair of white gloves, and an orange fedora with a black strip on it.

As "Mr. Mooney", he wears a fake grey beard and mustache fastened onto his face with a string, an orange hat with with a black strip on it and the top of it popped open, and an orange blanket with a white patch draped over his body. He's also usually seen holding a tin can in his right hand.

He is not native to the tower, but asks Peppino for money to construct the boss gates. He's an inventor and a salesman who is always looking to make a profit.

## Behavior

Mr. Stick is a shrewd businessman and will appear on the Hub near every boss gate. Mr. Stick requires an arbitrary amount of money from Peppino before they are allowed access to the boss gate, forcing the player to collect a certain amount of Toppins before being allowed to continue their quest. Despite taking advantage of Peppino in such a manner, he does seem to genuinely care about him, or, at the very least, his continued ability to give him money, guiding him to level exits during Pizza Time along with Gustavo.

After purchasing all 5 boss gates from Mr. Stick, a new character (who is actually Mr. Stick in a disguise trying to take away the player's remaining money) will appear next to the Pizzaface boss gate. This grey bearded character, Mr. Mooney, will ask the player for a little "charity", requesting the last $90 dollars the player can get. Once the money is given to Mooney, the player will unlock Mooney Orange.

## Scrapped Boss Fight

Originally the 4th boss of the game was supposed to be Mr. Stick, before being replaced by Fake Peppino.

### Boss Behavior

Mr. Stick will never attack the player directly, as he instead opts to get away or lead the player into a trap. Due to this, there is no way to parry Mr. Stick, but he has no parry either. Instead, he summons other bosses to distract the player, in the hopes that they'll be too busy fighting them off to attack him. In fact, if the player goes roughly 10 seconds without approaching Mr. Stick, he will pull out a beach chair and relax.

## Trivia

* He was first said to be Peppino's accountant, then later on his landlord. But in the final game, he has no previous relation to Peppino whatsoever.
* Mr. Stick's original name was Mr. Stiff, but was changed for sounding too much like a phallic innuendo.
* McPig has gone on record to say that Mr. Stick was a character before Pizza Tower, and is probably his second most drawn character. Peppino was the fifth.
* McPig has talked about an idea for a Mr Stick centered game. It would be a puzzle platformer about his daily life in his apartment complex where he has to deal with the supernatural.
* He has a friend named Burton that never appeared in Pizza Tower but does appear in a lot of McPig's earlier as well as more recent sketches.
* Mr. Stick originally could have been hit to get a free boss fight once per save file. After the second attempt to hit him, he would have defended himself with a big shield. Despite this idea not being used, a single frame of it is still in the files of the game.
* In the same way Peppino is based on Wario and Gustavo is based on Mario, Mr. Stick may be based on Waluigi, a frequent partner-in-crime of Wario's and rival of Mario's brother Luigi.
* Mr. Stick bears more than a passing resemblance to Wes Weasley, a character from the 1993 television series *Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog*, based on the Sonic the Hedgehog series of video games. Both are bald, skinny, humanoid salesmen dawning glasses, orange suits, and fedoras.
	+ Though this hasn’t been officially confirmed by McPig himself, this would not be the only reference to Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, as one of Peppino's taunts is a reference to a frame of Dr. Robotnik holding a diploma.
* He also bears a very strong resemblance to Gus Flynn, the main character of the french comic *Gus* by Christophe Blain. They are both tall and skinny and have the same iconic nose, Gus even wears a suit and hat just like Stick in some instances.
	+ Though McPig has said that he had never read the comic before and that this was a complete accident.

* Below is an old comic featuring Mr. Stick and his friend Burton, here is a *rough* translation of the text.

1. 1: B: "See Mr Stiff, we will jump at the bottom of this little hill. And like I told you, we will land at the same time. My weight will not change the speed at which we will fall." | S: "Having to do a demonstration for a commoner is ridiculous. It's a waste of time." | B: "Come on Mr.Stiff." | S: "I keep my position! You will land first and you will be embarrassed."
2. B: "There's nothing embarrassing, We're just jumping off a small hill." | S: "Wait! Before being stupid (???) I want to make sure no one is watching us!" | B: \*Exasperating\*
3. S: "Of course I doubt he's right, but I've been so supportive of my position... I can't take a step back! That would be absolutely embarrassing!" "I have installed this propeller helmet under my hat. When I pull that rope, I'll have momentum in the air that will allow me to land last."
4. 4: B: "Ready?" | S: "Ready!"

## Gallery

*For more images, see the gallery here: Mr. Stick/Gallery*

Spr stick idle 0.gifMr. Stick's default idle animation.Spr stick idleanim1 0.gifMr. Stick's first idle animation, where he puts his hands together and grins.Spr stick idleanim2 0.gifMr. Stick's second idle animation, where he pulls out a beach chair and starts drinking some coconut water.Spr stick idleanim3 0.gifMr. Stick's third idle animation, where he points at a comically oversized watch.Spr stick exit 0.gifMr. Stick pointing towards an exit gate.Spr stick takemoney1 0.gifMr. Stick taking the player's money.Spr stick helicopter 0.gifMr. Stick flying away.Spr stick towercollapse walk 0.gifMr. Stick's walking animation during The Crumbling Tower of Pizza.Spr mrsticknotification 0.gifMr. Stick on a TV, appearing when the player has enough money to purchase a boss gate.FB IMG 1676092720037.pngOld comic of him and Burton