A Kiss That Rekindles a Meme
Bowser plants a big, sloppy kiss on Mario in the Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and a 30-year-old joke suddenly feels like prophecy. For decades, fans swore Mario was yelling "So long, gay Bowser" while chucking the Koopa King into bombs in Super Mario 64. Charles Martinet has since said the line was actually "So long, king Bowser," but compressed N64 audio and that bouncy Italian cadence made the mondegreen stick. Now a new on-screen smooch gives the meme fresh legs — and fresh fuel for those arguing Bowser isn’t straight.
It’s a cheeky nod whether intentional or not. The film barrels through 98 minutes of Mario history winks, so believing the kiss riffs on that infamous mishearing tracks with the movie’s reference-heavy spirit. As one fan put it, Bowser reads like "a pendulum swinging both ways." That’s a joke with teeth because the on-screen text supports it.
The Art on Bowser’s Walls
Context helps. In the film’s back half, Bowser’s been shrunk to pocket size and stashed in a cozy little terrarium of a house. He can’t menace anyone, so he picks up a hobby: painting. The results range from puffed-up self-portraits (ripped Bowser posed with Peach) to macabre gags (a skeletal Mario). But one canvas stands out — Bowser enthroned, worshipped by admirers of multiple genders. There’s even a piece where Luigi clings to Bowser’s leg, lips to thigh, eyes adoring. Who paints that if they aren’t, at minimum, curious?
Sure, Bowser’s fixation on Peach is canon, in games and on film. That throughline is baked in. Yet these new images complicate the character. They aren’t background Easter eggs tossed in for a half-second; they’re readable, deliberate gags about how Bowser imagines himself desired. And desire, as the movie frames it, isn’t limited to one gender.
Bowuigi: The Ship That Won’t Sink
This is where Bowuigi returns to the surface. The first film already flirted with that dynamic during Bowser’s interrogation of Luigi — all mustache-twirling menace and prickly chemistry. The sequel teases it harder. Despite Bowser actually kissing Mario on-screen, it stops just shy of making anything explicit with Luigi. That restraint is probably strategic; the Bowuigi corner of the fandom is small but loud, and a full-on kiss would send timelines into meltdown.
Even so, the movie throws out crumbs: softened glances, friendly proximity while Bowser’s under house arrest, and, of course, those paintings. It’s the kind of playful bait that keeps fan artists busy and keeps the ship alive without stamping it canon. You can practically hear the storyboard note: suggestive, not conclusive.
From Misheard Line to On-Screen Possibility
Why does this resonate? Because the "So long, gay Bowser" mishearing didn’t just become a meme; it became a lens for reading a big, blustery villain as something other than a one-note kidnapper-in-chief. Martinet’s clarification — "king Bowser" — tidied up the record, but the culture moved on. Fans already had a punchline that doubled as a headcanon. When a modern movie then shows Bowser kissing a man and painting himself adored by both men and women, it feels like the series winking back.
That doesn’t erase Bowser’s Peach obsession. It broadens the canvas. Between the kiss, the art, and the playful framing of his friendships while miniaturized, the Super Mario Galaxy Movie sketches a Koopa King who might be, to borrow the fan phrasing, "swinging both ways." It’s subtext served with a knowing grin — plausible deniability for cautious execs, but plenty to chew on for everyone else.
There’s also a thematic throughline that works: Bowser as a character defined by outsize longing. Sometimes that longing points at Peach. Sometimes it scans as hunger for adoration itself — power, attention, romance, all tangled up. This film leans into that elasticity and, intentionally or not, makes space for queerer readings that feel supported by what’s actually on screen.
Where does it go from here? If Nintendo and Illumination want a layup, they’ll keep playing at the edges — more jokes, more flirty tension, more Easter eggs to screenshot. If they’re feeling bold, they’ll give Bowuigi an arc with real stakes: a "forbidden" crush, a prickly rapport, an annoyed older brother who eventually realizes Luigi’s happier. You don’t have to rewrite canon to let that breathe. Give us the romcom energy and watch the fan art — and the box office — take care of itself.