In August and September 2024, social media users resurfaced a claim that Nintendo character Mario's catchphrase is actually "Itsumi Mario" — not "It's-a-me, Mario."
For instance, one Facebook user claimed "itsumi" translated to "great or superb" in Japanese, "so he's really just saying super Mario," the name of a game series within the Mario franchise.
The rumor circulated online in English, French, German and Spanish, with a post in the latter language amassing more than 362,000 views as of this writing. It also cropped up on X in July (archived), with a post on that platform attracting more than 4.1 million views.
In fact, the claim has circulated on various platforms, such as TikTok and Reddit, for years. Some examples date back to 2021 and 2023.
However, Nintendo's website always referred to the catchphrase as "It's-a me, Mario," and never as "Itsumi Mario," which is why we rated this claim "False."
The Japanese video game company had a Mario figurine called "It's-A Me, Mario™! Figure" for sale on its online store. The product description read:
Kids of all ages will have endless fun with the 12-inch tall Mario™, packed with over 30 phrases and sound effects from the games. Includes the voice of Mario with iconic phrases like "woo-hoo", "it's-a-me" and many others!
In fact, there were multiple references to the "It's-a-me" catchphrase across Nintendo's website in several countries, including its French-Canadian store.
In contrast, there were no examples of the video game company referring to the catchphrase as "Itsumi Mario."
Mario voice actor Charles Martinet also wrote "It's a me" in his Instagram bio, and his account name, charlesmartinetitsame, also referenced the catchphrase. Likewise, Martinet appeared in a Guinness World Records YouTube video titled "Charles Martinet: It's-A Me, Mario! - Guinness World Records," on Dec. 19, 2018.
Charles Martinet's Instagram bio and account name referenced the "It's a me" catchphrase. (Instagram account @charlesmartinetitsame)
There were also three different movie transcript websites all saying the catchphrase was "It's-a-me, a-Mario" in the film "The Super Mario Bros. Movie."
Using Google's translation tool, "super" translated to "Subarashī (素晴らしい)" and "superb" translated to "Subarashīdesu (素晴らしいです), not "Itsumi."
Likewise, "Itsumi" in the Japanese language — which is both a Japanese surname (逸見) and a female name (逸美) — translated to "Hemi" and "Itsumi," respectively, in English.
Super Mario simply translated to "Sūpāmario (スーパーマリオ)" in Japanese.
On Nov. 10, 2024, X user @JoFrhwld (The Fruehwald) said via email that he "may have been the originator of the 'Itsumi Mario' trend."
Fruehwald said the social media posts investigated in this article were written after he posted the following item on X (archived).
However, in his email, he said the X post was never meant to be taken seriously by anyone.
I wasn't trying to plant the seeds of an urban legend. I just thought it was a good post, and an obvious language based joke.
Prior to Fruehwald's post, there were no earlier examples of the "Itsumi Mario" rumor on X, nor on Facebook. Therefore, it appeared to be the first iteration of the claim.
Snopes contacted Nintendo for comment and will update this article if we receive a response.