Yoshi

About

Yoshi is an anthropomorphic dinosaur from the Super Mario series by Nintendo. Since his debut in 1990, Yoshi has been included several Nintendo games, including several of his own spinoff games and many Mario-themed sports and racing games. His ubiquity in Nintendo products has led to online jokes about the character.

History

Yoshi first appeared in Super Mario World for the SNES, which was released in Japan on November 21st, 1990.^[1] Nintendo president Shigeru Miyamoto had wanted to include a dinosaur-like character to the series since the beginning of the Super Mario series, but was unable to do so due to the limitations of the NES.

After proving extremely popular in Super Mario World, Nintendo released Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, which featured members of the Yoshi race. After that, Yoshi appeared in dozens more Nintendo products, including series Super Smash Brothers, Mario Kart, Mario Party, Mario Tennis and many more. The character also had its own games, including Yoshi's Safari, Yoshi's Story, Yoshi's Woolly World, and others. He has been well-received by critics, with several publications listing Yoshi as one of the best sidekicks in all of video game history.

Related Memes

Online, Yoshi's popularity has led to memes featuring the character.

Yoshi Committed Tax Fraud

Yoshi Committed Tax Fraud refers to jokes that Yoshi illegally evaded paying his taxes. The joke saw minor spread on social media before being popularized by several Siivagunner videos in April of 2018.

On May 28th, 2016, Tumblr user Druddigon responded to a post by user drn-000 stating Yoshi has never done anything wrong by saying "Yoshi has committed tax fraud." After drn-000 demanded proof, Druddigon posted a photoshopped image of Yoshi with a text bubble saying "I committed tax fraud." The post has gained over 120,000 notes (shown below).

The joke saw a wider spread in April 2018 when popular Soundclown SiIvaGunner began uploading tracks referencing the joke to YouTube. On April 17th, the channel uploaded a 5-song playlist of tracks, each gaining tens of thousands of views (examples shown below).

Fat Yoshi

Fat Yoshi refers to an artistic re-rendering of a large Yoshi from game Super Mario RPG. After being posted online in January of 2017, the character was joked about and inserted into various image macros. On January 13th, 2017, Tumblr user suppermariobroth posted their reconstruction of lost artwork of the character Big Yoshi from Super Mario RPG, gaining 9,500 notes (shown below).

Mario Punching Yoshi

Mario Punches Yoshi refers to the ongoing debate among fans of Super Mario about whether or not Mario punches Yoshi in the back of the head to activate the dinosaur's tongue. In a 2017 interview, Nintendo video game developers confirmed that Mario was in fact hitting Yoshi. While the debate about Mario punching Yoshi may have existed since Super Mario World's release, the earliest available reference to it online comes from DeviantArt user Ryvius. On April 8th, 2006, Ryvius published an illustration that featured Mario hitting Yoshi and screaming, "Donkey punch!"As of September 2017, the image (shown below) has received more than 280 views.

On September 28th, 2017, Super Mario World developers Takashi Tezuka and Shigefumi Hino confirmed that Mario was indeed hitting Yoshi in the back of the head. Hino said:

"Lots of people think that while Mario is pointing his finger forward, he’s saying ‘Go,’ and Yoshi’s tongue comes out. However, the set up that I drew was that when Mario punches Yoshi in the head, the character’s tongue shoots out in surprise […] What’s more, there’s an added ‘bop’ sound. However, it seemed like people would say ‘Poor Yoshi,’ so that’s why it became that Mario is saying ‘Go.’"

Yobby

Yobby is the fanmade father of the fictional dinosaur character Yoshi from the Super Mario video game franchise. On February 22nd, 2016, Tumblr user iguanamouth posted an illustration of a blue-colored dinosaur along with the caption "I had a dream where I met Yoshi's dad but his name was Yobby and he looked like this" (shown below). Over the next two years, the post accumulated more than 146,400 notes.

Search Interest

External References