Maltigi

About

Maltigi also known as Evil Luigi or Luigi.exe, is an altered version of the character Luigi from the video game franchise Super Mario. The image shows Luigi covered in blood splatter, his teeth sharpened and his eyes like pinpricks. The image originates from the cover of the 2001 Nintendo game Luigi's Mansion, which previously spawned the Wega meme. The image is often accompanied by a distorted scream sound and is used for bait-and-switch videos, in YouTube Poops (YTP) and memes online.

Origin

On September 14th, 2001, Nintendo released the action-adventure game Luigi's Mansion featuring Luigi as the main character for the GameCube console.^[1] The cover art for the video game featured Luigi sporting a shocked expression with his hands on his face surrounded by ghosts (seen below).

While the exact origins of the Maltigi image are presently unknown, the character came to be used in humorous GIFs and YTPs from March 2023 onward.

One of the earliest notable GIFs to use the Maltigi image was one showing him slamming into Mr. Potato Head from Toy Story. X^[2] user @Flubber_2 posted the earliest known version of the GIF on March 26th, 2023. The clip was reposted to the subreddit /r/okbuddyretard^[3] on March 28th, and by X^[4] user @db_witch on April 25, who gathered over 38,000 likes in eight months.

Spread

Maltigi continued to gain traction online in 2023, as seen in an April 9th, 2023, YTP posted by @VeryCivilizedMonkey,^[5] gathering over 30,000 views in a year. On April 17th, YouTuber^[6] The Tylernator also posted a Maltigi meme edit, gathering over 60,000 views in a year.

Twitter / X user @TheSillySnail is often credited with popularizing Maltigi by repeatedly featuring him in their meme edits. On September 21st, 2023, the creator^[7] gathered over 14,000 likes on a GIF featuring Maltigi.

On November 9th, 2024, X^[8] user @Swag_K1RBY posted a tweet that read, "Da Wega or Da Maltigi for the day," gathering over 2,000 likes in a month.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References