# Mario Punching Yoshi Mario Punching Yoshi refers to the long-running fan debate over whether Mario hits Yoshi in the back of the head to make the dinosaur's tongue shoot out in Super Mario World, released in 1990. In September 2017, Nintendo developers Takashi Tezuka and Shigefumi Hino confirmed the punch was the original intent, which sparked a wave of Kotaku and Verge coverage and a dedicated Twitter Moments page. ## Origin Super Mario World launched on the Super Nintendo on November 21, 1990, introducing Yoshi and his unfurling tongue. The jokes about the activation animation date back to the game's release era, but the earliest documented online reference is an April 8, 2006 DeviantArt illustration by user Ryvius titled 'Super Mario Donkey Punch,' showing Mario hitting Yoshi while yelling the title phrase[3]. Nintendo developed the game; the meme itself grew out of fan illustrations and sprite breakdowns, with no single confirmed creator for the format. The Ryvius piece is the first known riff, though the debate itself circulated in forums and schoolyards long before it made it online[3]. - **Platform:** DeviantArt / Reddit (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2006 ## Overview The debate centers on the brief riding animation in Super Mario World, where Mario's arm extends toward the back of Yoshi's head right before the dinosaur's tongue lashes out. Fans split into two camps: one reading the gesture as a friendly point forward meaning 'Go,' the other arguing the sprite shows a straight-up punch that startles the tongue out of Yoshi's mouth[3]. Close-up slow-motion clips of the SNES sprite became the standard way to make the case[1]. Posts about the topic typically pair a zoomed pixel-art still with a caption riffing on animal cruelty, with Yoshi wincing before Mario's fist lands[2]. Supper Mario Broth, a Tumblr blog devoted to Mario minutiae, pushed back with side-by-side frames arguing that Yoshi scrunches his face before Mario's hand even overlaps his head, and that official box art shows Mario pointing[4]. That counter-argument held up until Nintendo's own developers weighed in years later[5]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Mario Punching Yoshi? It's the long-running fan debate over whether Mario hits Yoshi in the back of the head in Super Mario World to make his tongue shoot out, officially confirmed by Nintendo developers in 2017[2]. ### Where did Mario Punching Yoshi come from? The earliest known online reference is an April 8, 2006 DeviantArt illustration by user Ryvius titled 'Super Mario Donkey Punch,' though the argument circulated among fans well before that[3]. ### What does Mario Punching Yoshi mean? It means Mario's gesture during the Yoshi-riding animation was originally designed as a punch to the back of Yoshi's head, with a 'bop' sound effect, before Nintendo softened the framing to make it look like he was pointing and saying 'Go'[6]. ### How do you use Mario Punching Yoshi? Fans typically share slowed-down sprite footage or zoomed pixel-art stills to argue the case, often with captions joking about animal cruelty toward Yoshi[1]. ### Is Mario Punching Yoshi still popular? The debate was settled by Nintendo's 2017 developer interview, which Kotaku, The Mary Sue and The Verge all covered, and it still resurfaces as classic Nintendo trivia[5][6]. ## References 1. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G_SeBVYHLI]() 2. [https://kotaku.com/confirmed-mario-was-originally-punching-yoshi-1818873540]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/mario-punching-yoshi]() 4. [https://topics.nintendo.co.jp/c/article/cb34ab17-9135-11e7-8cda-063b7ac45a6d.html]() 5. [https://www.themarysue.com/mario-punches-yoshi-confirmed/]() 6. [https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/28/16378760/nintendo-super-mario-world-yoshi-punch]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/mario-punching-yoshi Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library