The Josh Innes Show - What Happened To Mario?

Episode Date: March 23, 2026

This weekend I saw a trailer for the new Mario movie.. I was blown away to learn that Mario no longer sounds like Mario.. What are we doing here? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Okay, let's see here. So I went to the movies. This is where the whole thing started before I went on the diatribe two episodes ago. But I went to the movies this weekend to see this Ready or Not. Oh, so that's how I got down that path. Talking about how Ready or Not came out in 2019 and Time Flies. Yes. Okay.

So I saw the movie. I liked it. It was mostly the same as the first movie, but I like it. I think it's funny. It's horror, comedy. I enjoy it. But some of the trailers that ran before the movie had my attention. Okay.

So let's do this. Let's play a couple commercials, and I will talk about what had my attention about these trailers. One Plus 1 equals more of the greatest stories. Hulu on Disney Plus. Stories about survivors. The most dangerous planet. Family. Retribution.

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Amazing. Have it all with 3-1 Disney Plus. First of all, I know very little about Spider-Man. Last time I watched any sort of Spider-Man movie, it had Toby McGuire in it. I'm not a comic book superhero dude. It's just not my thing. So I don't really pay a lot of attention to it. But one thing I did notice, and granted, this is not the most important thing in the world.

And it's not something I'm going to yell and scream about. It's not something that's going to get me all worked up. I'm not going to run to Facebook and tell you about the death of Disney and all the shit. But I did notice that, Mary Jane is now black, which, hey, rock on. I'm fine with that. I don't really care. I mean, look, when we live in a world where there'd ever be a white black panther? No, but okay, fine. It is what it is. I don't care. It's not like I'm upset over it. Although, in hashtag my Spider-Man, Mary Jane was like some red-haired chick from what I recall.

But I'm not passionate enough about superhero movies to be super angry or, like, you know, pissed off about the fact that, you know, Spider-Man, his late is now black. Don't care. It's noticeable. I just don't care. Right? That's how things are supposed to be, right? Like, anytime you say, I don't see color, well, then people say, you need to see color. Well, okay, then I see color. And fine, but I don't care. So I'm a perfect human, I guess. But then something else that did bother me, because I did not know this, because I don't really pay attention to Mario. But there's a new Mario brother's movie coming out with, with, you know, Mario and his Padna, Luigi, his brother. because they're the Mario brothers. And which is weird considering that they're the Mario brothers, but Mario and Luigi are two separate people. Whatever. That said, something really stood out to me about this, and I'm well aware that I'm well behind on this.

I get that. But I noticed, because it's obvious, that Mario doesn't sound like Mario anymore. He sounds like Chris Pratt. Over my dead body. That's the voice of Mario apparently now. The voice of Mario is Chris Pratt. Over my dead body.

And this bothers me because in my mind, as a boy of bygone era, I am of the belief that Mario should sound like an old school immigrant, Italian immigrant man. And that's how he should sound. It's me, Mario. That's how Mario should sound. Mario should not sound like Chris Pratt. Mario, like, in case you didn't know, Mario was an immigrant, an Italian immigrant,

and he, like, migrated to Brooklyn or some such shit, and it ended up in, like, the mushroom world. But he's supposed to sound like this. He's not supposed to sound like Chris Pratt. He's not supposed to sound like just a basic human. He's supposed to sound like a stereotypical Italian man. He's supposed to sound like the kind of. kind of stereotypical Italian man

that would be a character in a Spike Lee joined. That's what he's supposed to be. He's not supposed to sound basic-ass Chris Pratt. He's supposed to sound wacky. That's what he's supposed to sound like. But instead, now what we've done is we've taken Maury. I don't know if this is, I don't know if this is woke culture. I don't know what it is.

I don't know who to blame for this because I don't think it's super offensive. Like, when has anybody ever cared that they offend Italians? Like we're allowed to make Italian characters and stereotypes all the time. That's all Italian movies are. But like Mario is supposed to be in a world where he sounds like he's having Sunday dinner with his Mamma Mia. That's what he's supposed to sound like. He's supposed to sound like he calls the sauce the gravy because he's a daddy and he dips the bread and the gravy. That's what he's supposed to sound like.

He's supposed to sound like a stereotypical. Like he's supposed to sound like what the Italian. Italian guy on the pizza box looks like. But instead, we don't get that. What we get is Chris Freakin Pratt, which nobody wants. You're wild. What? You're wild.

Wrong drop. That is from dirty dancing. You're wild. What? You're wild. Why does Josh have a drop from dirty dancing that's unlabeled, you might ask? Well, that's because, going back to our boy, Justin Timberlake. Oh, you guys are wild men.

You guys are wild. man and then that goes back to you wild. What? You're wild. All that said, when I watch Mario, and again, I don't follow it closely anymore and I don't play a lot of, you know, video games and all this shit. But when I think of Mario, I think of stereotypical Italian voice. I don't think of Chris Pratt.

That's what I think of. And I'm disheartened by the fact that we have taken Mario and we've ruined it. I don't care that Sleeping Beauty or Snow White or whoever the fuck it was is some Mexican chick or Hispanic chick. That doesn't bother me. You know, black, you know, black Superman, black Captain America, that shit doesn't phase me because that's not something I'm interested in. I don't care about that shit. But I grew up playing Mario. And I grew up for decades hearing.

Mario's voice. Let's higgle. Sound like that. What I didn't grow up with is Mario sounding like Chris Pratt. Over my dead body. Who wanted this? I'm sure there were other.

I know I'm way behind on this because this is the second movie with Chris Pratt. I'm well aware that I am way behind the times on this. But I saw the trailer. Like I didn't care that what's his name, Jean Ralphio from Parks and Recreation, did the voice of

Sonic, because I never really thought of Sonic's voice. You know what I'm saying? But it'd be like if they took Sonic and they made him like, you know, like neon orange or some shit. You know, if they changed the color of Sonic. No, Sonic at his core is like the blue little hedgehog and fine. They didn't really go and change anybody at the core of that. I mean, the voice of Mario is part of the core of Mario. It's not this.

Over my dead body. He's a plumber. He's an Italian plumber. What have we done? Let's Hegel. We've ruined it, is what we've done. We can't have anything. It's me, Mario.

But instead, what do we get? We get Chris Freaking Pratt that nobody asked for. What do you guys think Mario does, like, in a spare... Like, I think about this a lot. I say a lot. I thought about it a lot today because after I saw that trailer and talked about it on the radio show a little bit. Like, I wonder what Mario does.

Just, like, as far as, like, on his day-to-day, like, day-to-day, what does Mario do and how does he sound whenever he's, like, doing some actual plumbing? Because he's a plumber. Do we ever see, like, Mario actually, like, get called in? Like, is he on call? Like, when he's down in, like, mushroom world or whatever, does he, like, is he on call? Does, like, is he, like, is he, like, roto-ruder or some such shit? Is he an independent? Does he work on his own?

Does he just have his own truck? You know, kind of like a janky type person who's his own boss, but like his truck is sort of janky. Like the kind of place you wouldn't actually call because he doesn't put a lot of effort into his logo and shit. So you call the chain place or the big, big name place that'll probably be more money, but you're not going to call this guy because like, bro, put a little bit more effort into your logo. You look like a bum. Like, is that what Mario does? And is Luigi, who's his brother? Is he also a plumber?

Are they both plumbers? Or is he like a plumber's apprentice? Or, like, does he do some other type of thing? Is he like an electrician? I assume they're both plumbers, but still. And then, like, when he goes in, like, does he have, I mean, I would imagine he has the accent when he goes in and does some plumbing work, too. So he goes into someone's house. He's like, oh, your sink is stopped up.

We need to us snake it. I don't know. I'm disappointed. The world disappoints me is what I'm getting at here. And I know it's my fault for, you know, allowing myself to maybe believe that, you know, in magic. Maybe it's my fault because I still believe that there were certain things that were sacred. You know, sleeping beauty, not sacred. Snow White, not sacred.

Captain America not sacred. Captain America be black. Captain America can be a woman for all we care. Who gives a shit? But one thing that I thought was sacred is that Mario sounded like a stereotypical Italian man. Like I want my Mario to be involved in like racial conflict with, with, you know, Spike Lee in a Spikely joint. That's what I want here.

What I cannot have is Mario sounding like Chris Pratt. You've taken everything that makes Mario awesome. Like, anybody who grew up watching that shit doesn't want to see this. They don't want to see just normal voiced person being Mario. We're here for stereotypes. It's the only stereotype that can still be allowed. And we can't even do that. Because we're broken as a society.

And this proves it. I didn't want to believe that we were dead as a society, dead inside that we were broken. But we're broken. And this was the straw that broke the camels back for me. We're officially broken. More to come. Getting ready for a game means being ready for anything.

Like packing a spare stick. I like to be prepared. That's why I remember 988, Canada's suicide crisis hubline. It's good to know just in case. Anyone can call or text for free confidential support from a train responder anytime. 988 suicide crisis helpline is funded by the government in Canada.