What is Wawario and Wawaluigi?

They are fan-made rival characters to Wario and Waluigi, with Wawario drawn as a bulky, eyeless, orange-and-green version of Wario and Wawaluigi as a lanky, grotesque take on Waluigi.

Where did Wawario and Wawaluigi come from?

Wawario first appeared in a June 23rd, 2015 YouTube animation by Theguywhoplaysgames, and Wawaluigi's design was documented on a Fandom wiki page in September 2016. The now-standard Wawario look was posted to Fantendo in September 2021.

What does Wawario and Wawaluigi mean?

The names extend the Mario naming pattern by adding another "Wa" prefix, positioning them as rivals to Wario and Waluigi the way those two are rivals to Mario and Luigi.

How do you use Wawario and Wawaluigi?

Creators tend to drop them into Mario Bros. character lineup videos or fan art, either in retro 8-bit style or as detailed illustrations that lean into how off-model the pair look.

Is Wawario and Wawaluigi still popular?

The characters had a fresh spike of virality across X and TikTok in late August and September 2026, with posts from creators like @muddyk1pp, @Redbassdumb and @V0IDEYEDPANDA pulling in tens to hundreds of thousands of views and likes.

Wawario and Wawaluigi

2015fan art / charactertrending

Published September 18, 2026

Wawario and Wawaluigi are fan-made rival characters to Wario and Waluigi, drawn as grotesque, off-model doubles of Nintendo's mustachioed antagonists. Cobbled together from fan wikis, DeviantArt uploads and YouTube animations across the mid-2010s, the pair exploded on X and TikTok in late August and September 2026 as one of the year's breakout Mario fan-art edits.

mario fan art memes nintendo memes character design memes deviantart memes

Overview

Wawario is a bulky, eyeless man with a missing tooth, an orange cap and shirt, and green overalls, styled as an even uglier mirror to Wario. Wawaluigi is his lanky, ratty counterpart with a blue shirt and black overalls, a stretched-out gremlin version of Waluigi1. The pair sit inside a wider Mario Bros. fan-character tree that shipping-obsessed corners of the internet like to draw as rows of increasingly cursed doubles3.

On X and TikTok, the joke is usually the reveal itself: someone lists off the normal Mario cast, then keeps going, and Wawario and Wawaluigi appear as characters that look like they crawled out of a bootleg NES cartridge5. Fan artists lean into the ugliness, drawing the two in classic 8-bit Super Mario Bros. style or in polished, high-detail illustrations that make the deformed proportions even funnier6 9.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

YouTube / DeviantArt (source creation), X and TikTok (viral spread)

Date

2015

The name Wawario first turned up on June 23rd, 2015, when YouTuber Theguywhoplaysgames uploaded a short animation in which Wario meets a shadowy rival called Wawario1. Wawaluigi's earliest known appearance came a little over a year later, on September 19th, 2016, when Fandom user JoeTheDerp created a page on The Amazing Waluigi wiki showing Wawaluigi as a lanky, grotesque Waluigi variant2.

The modern look for Wawario was locked in on September 18th, 2021, when Fantendo wiki user Cutman1987 made a page for the character and posted the orange-and-green design that later versions copied4. Nintendo made Wario and Waluigi; the Wawario and Wawaluigi characters are entirely fan creations, and the artists behind the individual designs that went viral in 2026 are largely uncredited.

How It Spread

The characters lived in a small pocket of Mario fan-wiki and DeviantArt culture for years before breaking out. On November 6th, 2017, X user @kiophen posted a Mario Brother Cube chart that mapped out fan-made rival characters including Wawario and Wawaluigi, which picked up more than 4,900 likes over the next nine years3. On December 12th, 2024, DeviantArt user marioandpvz2021 uploaded a clean illustration of both characters as they appear in a RedMario YouTube video, pulling in over 3,800 views6.

The real inflection point was a June 23rd, 2024 YouTube video by RedMario that walked through a lineup of Mario Bros. fan characters, naming each one, including Wawario and Wawaluigi, and racked up more than 800,000 views over two years5. On July 9th, 2026, YouTuber A.J.N. posted a similar lineup video set to a song about the characters, which pulled in over 100,000 views in two months7. TikTok picked it up on September 2nd, when @muddyk1pp reuploaded a chunk of the A.J.N. video with the caption "Saw this absolute gem of a video on YouTube," hitting over 133,000 views in two weeks8.

From there the pair spilled into fan art on X. On September 9th, 2026, @Redbassdumb posted an 8-bit Super Mario Bros. style drawing of the characters that got over 1,600 likes in nine days9. TikToker @tabbyarrow13585 posted a meme referencing the pair on September 12th that pulled in over 99,000 views in six days10. The next day, X user @V0IDEYEDPANDA posted fan art of Wawario and Wawaluigi that gained more than 5,900 likes in five days11.

Timeline

2015-06-23

YouTuber Theguywhoplaysgames posts an animation featuring a Wario rival called Wawario, the earliest known online reference to the character.

2016-09-19

Fandom user JoeTheDerp creates a Wawaluigi page on The Amazing Waluigi wiki with the lanky, grotesque design.

2017-11-06

X user @kiophen posts the Mario Brother Cube chart of fan rivals including Wawario and Wawaluigi.

2021-09-18

Fantendo user Cutman1987 posts the orange-and-green Wawario design that becomes the standard look.

TikTok

How to Use This Meme

The format is usually a lineup reveal or a fake character select screen. Creators list off the real Mario cast, then keep adding uglier and uglier doubles, with Wawario and Wawaluigi as the punchline pair5. Fan artists also redraw them in retro Super Mario Bros. sprite style or in glossy, over-rendered illustrations that lean into how off-model they look6 9.