SMG4

*This article is about the series. You may be looking for the character of the same name.*

### Producer

Luke Lerdwichagul (2011-2016) Kevin Lerdwichagul (2016-present)

### Language

English

SMG4, also known as SuperMarioGlitchy4 after its creator, or SuperMemeGuardian4 and formerly known as Super Mario 64 Bloopers, is an Australian adult computer-animated science fantasy machinima situation comedy web series created by Luke Lerdwichagul, appearing on the YouTube channel of the same name.

It is the second notable adult animated series to be produced in Australia, the first being John Callahan's Quads!, and the first completely produced in its home country.

The series is a parody of many game franchises and many cultural references, particularly of Nintendo's Mario franchise. Its first episode, *The Cake Is a Lie!*, aired on May 7, 2011. Though the show was created in Australia, the content primarily targets American audiences.

As with most SM64 machinimists, it first started off as dialog-based series that inserted captions over Super Mario 64 game-play. Later, Garry's Mod was introduced in the middle of the first season, and the series made a full transition to it in the seventh season.

The series gained a cult following due to its abundance of memes, parodies, and its surreal and dark humour, ones akin to that of *South Park*.

Since the last few years, we can see that SMG4 try to less use other IPs and became its own original IP. Several signs show that, such as: GMOD being used more often that SM64, the title of the videos starting with "SMG4" instead of "SM64 Bloopers" since "SMG4: Mario goes to DIDNEY WORL", most of the Mario characters having a smaller role and being replaced by original characters, several characters being redesigned, the meaning of "SMG" being changed from "SuperMarioGlitchy" to "SuperMemeGuardian" or Peach's castle being permanently destroyed and be replaced by a new one.

It currently has 620 episodes, 4 movies, and two spin-off shows.

## History

The history of *Super Mario 64* parody videos date back to 2006, when Super Mario 64 Bloopers were being created by a YouTuber named MegaMan765 (however ShadowMario64 is credited as having started the this trend). The videos featured gameplay footage of a hacked *Super Mario 64* with various tropes SMG4 would eventually use himself, such as self-inserts and subtitle dialogue. These kinds of videos were made by various YouTubers at the time, such as MarioMario54321.

A young 11-year-old Australian boy named Luke Lerdwichagul used to watch these Machinima YouTubers and they inspired him to make his own bloopers. He uploaded his first episode of the soon-to-be SMG4 series on May 7, 2011. It was an episode called *The Cake Is A Lie*, and as to be expected for his age, was unprofessional since it was in low-resolution and only took up 1/2 the screen. Later that year, he introduced *War of the Fat Italians*.

In June 2012, Lerdwichagul got 1,000 subs and he introduced his next episode type *Ssenmodnar*. In February 2013, he reached 10,000 subs. In August of the same year he introduced yet another episode known as *Retarded64* (now known as **R64**). the May of the same year, Luke got 30,000 subs. In February 2014, SMG4 introduced his 5th episode type, *Guards N' Retards*. A month later he got a whopping 100,000 subs. Three months later, he introduced an episode type known as *Sonic the Derphog*. A little more than a year later he introduced *If Mario was in...*. In the fall of 2016, SMG4 finally got 1 million subs and released a *Ssenmodnar (Deluxe Edition)* video to celebrate. Around this time, he started using more GMOD in his videos and his brother Kevin started working with him by writing out a bunch of ideas for the videos.

In March 2017, the traditional SM64 Bloopers were rebranded to the current SMG4, due to YouTube's strickened copyright policies. Although, unlike Retarded64's rebranding to R64 later that year, Luke did not go back and modify the videos under the SM64 Bloopers title to the aforementioned SMG4 title. In July of the same year, Luke discontinued *Retarded64* along with *Guards N' Retards* and merged it with *The Bloopers* as the use of the word "*Retard*" caused the videos to be demonetized as a result of YouTube's new policy, which was the reason for the previously mentioned rebranding to **R64**, while the series completed the full transition to GMOD in the same year.

In 2018, the SMG4 series began drifting away from its original style to experiment with different genres. Around this time, the series took on a more serious tone, with a story-driven format and established continuity, similar to shows like *Steven Universe* and *Gravity Falls*. With this came story arcs, which introduce more threatening antagonists, feature character development, and involve permeant deaths that affect the series. Currently, seven arcs have been released. The original Nintendo 64 graphics would also be phased out in favor of using Garry's Mod to produce the series. Beginning in 2019, original characters were being introduced more frequently as part of the main cast, and SMG4 started redesigning their "parody" characters. This was to give the series more originality, make the characters easier to market, and to avoid copyright infringement. Following the conclusion of The Lawsuit Arc, almost every major character taken from an existing property was redesigned, including the titular character. These changes were met with mixed reception from longtime fans of the series.

## Characters

### Main/Major Characters

* **SMG4**: One of the main protagonists of series. He is a partially amnesiac Super Meme Guardian who gets dragged into Mario's adventures.
* **Mario**: One of the main protagonists of the series. He is an Italian-American plumber. He is also depicted as the dumb man of the channel. He is typically presented as the comic-relief of the channel.
* **Luigi**: One of the two deuteragonists of the series. He is Mario's younger foster brother. He is often called gay by his brother and gets scared very easily. But nonetheless, from friendly ghosts to knocking into strangers' houses, he acts bravely when he needs to.
* **SMG3**: The former main antagonist of the series. He is a partially amnesiac Super Meme Guardian and the former arch-nemesis of SMG4 who becomes his rival after they first met. After he was banished to the Internet Graveyard by Susan Wojcicki, he became ruler of said realm. As of Season 11, he is an ally of the gang.
* **Meggy Spletzer**: One of the two deuteragonists of the series and the main protagonist of Season 9. She is a former Inkling, and later human, who is friends with Mario and the others. She likes action and adventure but doesn’t like anime. Her dream career is to be a lawyer. She's a complete failure at cooking. She was transformed into a human upon being shot by Super Saiyan Blue Goku's energy beam in SMG4: Final Hours.
* **Fishy Boopkins**: A jolly Spike and the son of Joe Boopkins that loves eating rocks and anime. His species is endangered.
* **Bob Bobowski**: A Garo who constantly wants to be in SMG4's videos during Season 6. He is friends with the cast but more so Fishy Boopkins. He is the focus of Season 8's second story arc that centers on his career as a rapper, but it caused him to strain his relationship with his friends. He loses his fame and is able to make up with his friends during Season 8's conclusion.
* **Shroomy**: A mushroom boy scout and former demon hunter hailing from the Luncheon Kingdom. He is an innocent denizen but tends to suffer from PTSD and a sadistic mindset he obtained during his former life as a Demon Hunter.
* **Saiko Bichitaru**: A girl from *Kevin's School* who was mentally unstable due to her wanting attention. She eventually reformed in SMG4: Luigi's Lesson. She has since gradually grown to be good friends with most of the cast.
* **Tari**: A shy and quiet girl who's a pro in video games. She also loves rubber ducks, as she is frequently seen with one. She is also a cyborg who can manipulate the properties of video games.
* **Melony**: A literal watermelon used to replace Meggy that was later transformed into a lazy human girl by Fierce Deity Mask and the late Axol's best friend/crush.

**Kaizo Koorumaniru**: A demon who was a friend of Saiko. He was created by the fans in a live stream.

## Humor style

At first, the humor was based on dialogue and satire, however as time went on, the humor still had subtitles but also had perverted cartoon slapstick and cultural references. More recently, some of the humor that the series was known for was substituted with drama and horror, but still generally remains as a absurdist and surreal perverted comedy.

## Appearances

Appearances are divided into four sections, the main, the major and the recurring and the minor. The main characters are the most important characters in the series, usually the roles of the protagonist and the deuteragonist. The major is subordinate to the main, where they still play a prominent role, such as being the tritagonist or antagonist. Recurring characters play major roles too, but are more prominent than minor roles.