“Saturday Night Live” used Pablo Pascal’s appearance as host to push a few buttons on HBO.
The NBC sketch comedy show featured a pre-taped segment imagining what an HBO drama using the famous Nintendo videogame characters Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach would look like. The answer: Pretty dystopian.
In the vignette, Pascal plays Mario and tells Peach that “Karting out here isn’t a game. If we’re going to make it, we’re going to need all the help we can get.” His backup? Luigi.
The spoof suggested that viewers were likely to see “all your favorite wacky racers reimagined as complex, dramatic HBO characters.” Yoshi and Toad were among the characters making appearances, and both came out as bisexual. Bowser also made an appearance.
The show is billed as coming from “the producers of ‘The Last of Us’ and the master storytellers behind Mario Kart 1 through 8.” And an announcer says that “all your favorite wacky racers are reimagined as complex, dramatic HBO characters.”
Some fake review blurbs suggested HBO had erred in launching the concept — including one from Variety.
Watch the sketch below: