DJ Luigi is an image macro and video remix format built around a scene where Luigi stands behind a pair of turntables in the 1989 episode Bad Rap of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!.

Where did Dj Luigi come from?

The scene first aired on October 26th, 1989, and the earliest known image macro use was posted on TG Chan on July 15th, 2010 with a caption parodying NWA's Straight Outta Compton.

What does Dj Luigi mean?

The joke is built on how out of place Luigi looks running a rap DJ set, and editors use the frame to caption song lyrics or layer new tracks over the original clip.

How do you use Dj Luigi?

People typically caption the still frame with rap lyrics, swap the episode's audio for a different song on the video clip, or place the shot in a two-panel comparison with a deep-fried edit.

Is Dj Luigi still popular?

Its biggest spikes were Slingshot Feather's 2016 video remix, which passed 100,000 views, and Bilbo-Baggins-Jr's 2019 Reddit post, which picked up more than 65,000 points and 1,100 comments in two days.

Dj Luigi

2010image macroclassic

Published August 17, 2026

DJ Luigi is a still image and video remix format based on a scene from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! where Luigi stands behind a pair of turntables. The 1989 clip from the episode Bad Rap started circulating as a captioned image on TG Chan in 2010, then spread across 4chan, YouTube, Twitter, and Reddit as a remix template.

mario nintendo memes mashup video memes image macro memes hip hop memes

Overview

DJ Luigi is an image macro and video remix format built around a short scene from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! where the character Luigi stands behind a pair of turntables during a rap-themed episode1. The captured frame has been reused for over a decade as both a still-image caption template and a video clip whose audio gets swapped for different songs2.

The joke rests on how out of place Luigi looks running a DJ set, with a Nintendo mascot dropped into a hip-hop performance. Editors caption the frame with rap lyrics, layer new tracks onto the video, add deep-fried filters, or place the shot in a two-panel comparison with an edited version3.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

TG Chan / 4chan (early spread), YouTube and Reddit (later viral spread)

Date

2010

The clip comes from Bad Rap, the thirty-second episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, which aired on October 26th, 1989. In the plot, King Koopa kidnaps King James of Rap Land, and the Mario brothers stage a musical rescue, with Luigi handling a pair of turntables during their performance1.

The earliest known image macro use of the frame was posted on TG Chan on July 15th, 2010, where the still was captioned with a mock version of NWA's Straight Outta Compton lyrics3. The image then circulated on 4chan for roughly three years before jumping to bigger platforms.

How It Spread

On October 3rd, 2016, YouTuber Slingshot Feather uploaded a video remix of the turntable scene that replaced the episode's soundtrack with a different track, and the upload passed 100,000 views over its first three years online2. Other creators started layering their own songs onto the same footage, and the video branch of DJ Luigi grew alongside the still-image version.

The following year, Twitter user @FizzySodaWave posted a two-panel meme pairing the original DJ Luigi shot with a deep-fried version of the same frame, pulling around 4,500 retweets and 6,400 likes over two years3. On March 18th, 2019, Redditor Bilbo-Baggins-Jr tied DJ Luigi to the Last Online 5 Years Ago format in a two-panel post that picked up more than 65,000 points and 1,100 comments within two days3.

How to Use This Meme

Common uses typically fall into three formats. The still frame gets a caption written in rap-lyric style, often parodying famous hip-hop tracks. The video clip gets its original audio swapped for a different song, with the fit between Luigi's arm motion and the beat driving the joke2. The two-panel version pairs the clean image with a deep-fried, distorted, or crossover edit for contrast.