Mario of Super Mario Bros. has come a long way since Mario battled Donkey Kong more than 35 years ago. He has traveled all over the world, became an athlete, a doctor, and a professional go-kart driver, and even starred in a terrible live-action movie. Amid his many, many adventures saving Princess Peach and the Mushroom Kingdom from the likes of Bowser, however, he has always had a much more normal and stable job—at least until now.
Mario has a new and updated profile on Nintendo’s Japanese website, and according to a translation from Kotaku, Mario is no longer employed as a plumber.
All around sporty, whether it’s tennis or baseball, soccer or car racing, he [Mario] does everything cool. As a matter of fact, he also seems to have worked as a plumber a long time ago…
To be fair, plumbing wasn’t Mario’s first job. When he fought Donkey Kong in 1981, he was employed as a carpenter due to the game’s construction site setting, but that changed once Luigi and the underground settings were incorporated in 1983’s Mario Bros. Mario’s career as a plumber was a key part of him no matter what kind of powers he gained from mushrooms, flowers, leaves, and stars. He was the little guy who saved the princess and saved the world.
Change is hard, and Twitter quickly took notice that the world’s most famous video game character has changed jobs.
Look it's simple. Mario is an Italian plumber who fights evil turtles & mushrooms ruled by a dog-turtle-dino-dragon who kidnapped a princess
— Sean T. Collins is seantcollins.bsky.social now (@theseantcollins) September 4, 2017
https://twitter.com/InternetEh/status/904763015853072384
Maybe not professionally but come on guys, you don’t just unlearn a skill like that because you play tennis and shit https://t.co/BLA9VUoJb2
— Ben Silverman (@ben_silverman) September 4, 2017
The vanishing working class https://t.co/MbrNLCQDhk
— Vince Mancini (@VinceMancini) September 4, 2017
https://twitter.com/kumailn/status/904903042230661120
Even the fact that we learned about Mario’s unemployment on Labor Day wasn’t lost on people.
mario lost his job on labor day are you fucking kidding me https://t.co/WRqd1b8V5M
— alex (@shitshowdotinfo) September 5, 2017
But you know what? Maybe it could be a good thing. At 36, he’s still got plenty of time to try out some new careers.
https://twitter.com/DeMarko/status/904828764139520000
Heard Mario officially isnt a plumber anymore. See you dont have to only be one thing! Congrats on breaking out of that societal box my dude
— Austin Creed (@AustinCreedWins) September 5, 2017
And maybe he wasn’t such a great plumber anyway. Have we ever actually seen him at work?
https://twitter.com/steamedhamms/status/904804461805268993
No matter why he’s no longer plumbing, we hope he’s happy. We tip our hats off to you.
H/T Mediaite