151: Mario

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Mario
Why would anyone ever, ever say that? Please, nobody ever say that.
Title text: Why would anyone ever, ever say that? Please, nobody ever say that.

Explanation[edit]

One-upmanship is the act of surpassing another person. In this case, one female character is one-upping her friend's claim of being taken on a mountain hike with a claim that she was proposed to.

Mario is the major figure in the Super Mario series. In the games, completing specific conditions causes a "1-up" (but the marks are chevrons («»), used in some languages like French or Russian instead of quotation marks) to appear on screen, referring to an additional life. The comic relies on the homonym of the action of one-upmanship and the event of one-ups in Mario.

In the title text, Randall says that this is a pretty bad joke and he doesn't wish to hear it.

Transcript[edit]

Megan: For our anniversary, my boyfriend took me hiking in the mountains.
Ponytail: My boyfriend proposed to me.
Ponytail: They should call you Mario, 'cause you just got <<1 up'd.>>


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Discussion

Mario is not the star, Mario's the plumber. Muahaha. --Kronf (talk) 12:24, 29 August 2012 (UTC)

Am I the only person intrigued by the fact that he used European quotes («»)?162.158.79.185 22:21, 2 February 2017 (UTC)

     Those aren't European; they're French.  And I don't think he meant them to be quotation marks, they remind me of how the work "1-up" flashes on the screen in early mario games.  That's a hard thing to 
     represent with text, so maybe that's what he was going for. 162.158.79.185 19:07, 27 September 2017 (UTC)
iirc chevrons are also used in Russian. 172.70.134.161 17:47, 13 February 2022 (UTC)Bumpf

Bowser is definitely better! And the trash talk is ON POINT! Nice work, Ponytail! 172.68.34.61 19:30, 6 February 2024 (UTC)