Following the announcement that actor Charlie Day will play Luigi in the upcoming Super Mario Bros. animated film, a fan video has remade the conspiracy meme from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia using the beloved Nintendo character.
Posted by TOGK on YouTube, the video shows Luigi and Mario re-enacting the Pepe Silvia meme from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The episode from which the meme originates is Season 4, Episode 10, " Sweet Dee Has a Heart Attack." In the meme-inspiring scene, Charlie Kelly -- in this case Luigi -- tries figuring out the real identity of someone named "Pepe Silvia." The search is, of course, taken to comical extremes. Since the episode aired in 2008, the scene has been turned into a meme regarding conspiracy theories.
Created by Rob McElhenney, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia premiered on FX in 2005, later moving to FXX. The show itself follows Dennis (Glenn Howerton), Deandra "Sweet Dee" Reynolds (Kaitlin Olson), Charlie Kelly (Day), Ronald "Mac" McDonald (McElhenney) and Frank Reynolds (Danny DeVito) trying to run Paddy's Pub. As of writing, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has been running for 14 seasons, making it the longest-running live-action American comedy, and there are at least four more planned.
Nintendo and Illumination's Super Mario Bros. animated movie is slated to hit theaters in North America on Dec. 21, 2022. In addition to Day, the movie stars Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, Michael Richardson as Kamek and Sebastian Maniscalco as Spike. Additionally, Charles Martinet -- who has played Mario and Luigi in various video games since the early 1990s -- will have "surprise cameos" in the movie. Currently, the movie's plot is unknown.
Super Mario Bros. isn't the first time Nintendo's most iconic plumbers have made their way to the big screen. In 1993, a live-action movie starring Bob Hoskins as Mario and John Leguizamo as Luigi hit theaters. Titled Super Mario Bros., the film was a box-office bomb, grossing only $38 million against a budget of between $42 and 48 million, and derided by critics. Despite the movie's finale teasing a sequel, no second Super Mario Bros. film materialized. However, in 2012, one of the original writers, Parker Bennett, collaborated with Steven Applebaum, Ryan Hoss and Eryk Donovan to make a webcomic sequel.
Source: YouTube