Lario (Pizza Tower) — Crude MS Paint drawing of two gnome characters flanking a blue hamster creature in a party hat under the word LARIO in a green forest

Lario (Pizza Tower)

2022viral videoclassic

Published November 14, 2026

Lario is a nickname fans gave to a background character seen in the loading screen for the Gnome Forest level of indie game Pizza Tower, turned into a meme by a repetitive TikTok slideshow set to Young Thug's "Everybody Wanna Be A Superstar" layered over Kevin MacLeod's "Sneaky Snitch." The October 2022 TikTok sat quiet for months before Pizza Tower Discord servers pushed it onto Twitter and YouTube in early February 2023, where extended cuts and fan art pulled in tens of thousands of views. By mid-February 2023, artists were drawing high-quality redraws of the three-character huddle and producing YTPMV edits of the loop.

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Overview

Lario refers to one of three figures sitting in the grass on the Gnome Forest loading screen in Pizza Tower, a 2023 indie platformer by Tour De Pizza1. Fans latched onto the squat, mustached character because he looks like a budget Mario, and the nickname traveled with a slideshow format that cycles the same loading-screen image again and again while Young Thug's "Everybody Wanna Be A Superstar" plays over Kevin MacLeod's "Sneaky Snitch"2.

A typical Lario post is either the frozen slideshow itself, an extended loop version, or fan art that redraws the three-character huddle in sharper detail3. Artists on Twitter treated the figure like an unofficial mascot, giving him cleaner lineart and sometimes a full color scheme4. YouTube producers took the audio and built YTPMV edits around it, chopping the vocal line into musical patterns synced to the image5.

Origin & Background

Platform
TikTok (origin) / YouTube and Twitter (viral spread)
Creator
Unknown
Date
2022

On October 3rd, 2022, TikTok user @guythmind uploaded a video that repeated the same Pizza Tower loading-screen image across its runtime, pairing it with the Young Thug and Kevin MacLeod audio mashup6. The image was pulled from the Gnome Forest level screen, which shows three characters sitting in the grass7. In a later YouTube reupload, @guythmind said in the comments that he grabbed the picture from a Twitch stream by McPig_Jr, the alt account of Pizza Tower developer Pizza Tower Guy2.

The original TikTok only drew about 350 plays over its first four months, so the clip effectively sat dormant through late 20222. Pizza Tower itself did not launch publicly until January 2023, which gave the dormant clip a fresh audience of players looking up every background character in the game.

How It Spread

The video likely circulated in private Pizza Tower Discord servers through late 2022 and early 2023 before breaking out onto public platforms2. On February 4th, 2023, Twitter user @TheNerdFella posted the clip and picked up around 1,000 views and 19 likes over 16 days2. The next day, February 5th, YouTuber ScruffTuna uploaded an extended version that drew roughly 34,800 views and 1,900 likes in 15 days, which gave the meme its biggest early boost8.

Fan art followed quickly. On February 13th, 2023, Twitter artist @KetArtDragon posted a self-drawn high-quality take on the Lario image and gained around 11,400 likes in a week9. YouTuber Rolobi had already uploaded a YTPMV edit on February 7th that reached about 25,000 views and 1,800 likes in 13 days, giving the audio its own remix lineage separate from the slideshow format10.

By spring 2023, Lario was a running joke inside Pizza Tower fan circles rather than a format with wider platform reach. Searches for the nickname still pull up the same cluster of edits and redraws from that February window2.

Timeline

2022-10-03

TikToker @guythmind posts the original Lario slideshow video using an image taken from a McPig_Jr Twitch stream.

2023-01-26

Pizza Tower launches on Steam, giving the dormant Gnome Forest clip a wider pool of players familiar with the loading screen.

2023-02-04

Twitter user @TheNerdFella reposts the video, one of the first public spreads outside Discord.

2023-02-05

YouTuber ScruffTuna uploads an extended version of the meme that pulls in around 34,800 views.

2023-02-07

YouTuber Rolobi publishes a Lario YTPMV edit that reaches roughly 25,000 views.

2023-02-13

Twitter artist @KetArtDragon posts a high-quality redraw of the Lario image, gaining around 11,400 likes in a week.

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How to Use This Meme

Lario posts typically reuse the Gnome Forest loading-screen image without edits, letting the song do the work, or swap in a redrawn version that keeps the same seated pose4. YTPMV creators often cut the Young Thug vocal into rhythmic stutters while flashing the image in time with the beat5. Artists sometimes isolate the Lario figure from his two companions and give him his own portrait, treating the nickname as if it were an official character name.

Frequently Asked Questions