Super Mario World Ending Theme / Monkey Circle

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About

Super Mario World Ending Theme refers to the credits song from the 1990 video game Super Mario World. The song is associated with several meme formats, most notably Monkey Circle and Pet the X.

Origin

On November 21st, 1990, Nintendo released platform video game Super Mario World for Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES).^[1] In the credits of the game, ending theme, composed by Japanese composer Koji Kondo, plays (game credits and music video shown below).

Use In Memes

6O163's DOG

The earliest meme format associated with the song is 6O163's DOG, a series of videos based on viral 2012 YouTube video by YouTuber^[2] 6O163 (it is a mystery) titled "DOG" (video shown below, left). In the video, an image of the dog is flipped and turned to the beat of the composition. The video, posted on March 26th, 2012, accumulated over 6.4 million views in eight years inspired multiple parodies (example shown below, right).

Monkey Circle

The most notable meme format associated with Super Mario World's ending theme is Monkey Circle, a series of videos in which a group of characters or objects are shown one after another, with the video them cutting to them moving in a circle.

On July 14th, 2019, content creator DitzyFlama posted the original video within the format to Twitter,^[3] with the post gaining over 152,500 views, 4,300 retweets and 12,500 likes in one year (shown below). July 15th and September 7th YouTube^[4]^[5] reuploads of the video gained over 151,000 and 970,000 views in the same period, respectively.

On July 31st, 2019, Twitter^[6] account The monkey video everyday (@FunnyMonkyVideo) was created for the purpose of reposting DitzyFlama's video every day. On September 22nd, 2019, DitzyFlama^[7] posted another version of the meme that received over 189,600 views, 6,100 retweets and 16,800 likes in one year (shown below).

The video inspired multiple memes in which various characters danced in a circle to the song. For example, on November 3rd, 2019, content creator @KinoFabino^[8] posted a Quake meme that received over 11,400 views, 420 retweets and 1,300 likes in one year. On January 3rd, 2020, Twitter user @tortellinidance^[9] posted a Squidward meme that received over 35,000 views, 1,100 retweets and 4,100 likes in ten months (shown below).

Pet the X

Pet the X refers to a series of wholesome snowclone video memes featuring a large, disembodied hand petting various characters to make them happy. The memes are commonly set to Super Mario World's ending theme.

The trend started with a YouTube^[10] PETTHE edit posted by user manwel super on July 26th, 2020 (shown below, left), with the song becoming associated with the meme after on July 27th, 2020, content creator nitro.if posted another meme to Instagram^[11] and YouTube^[12] (shown below, right).