Posted on 10/15/2015 12:24:14 PM PDT by nickcarraway
This version of Super Mario turns him into a Syrian refugee attempting to get past rickety boats and border agents
Mario, of Nintendo's Super Mario franchise, had to navigate treacherous turtles and evil mushrooms before getting to the next level (and the damsel in distress) in the famous video game. This version, however, is a little different. Instead of turtles there are border agents and the chasms have been replaced by treacherous water passages. Winning, in this version, doesn't mean reaching the princess: Instead, it's just about managing to get to a refugee camp.
Created by Samir Al Mufti, a pseudonym for a Syrian man based in Istanbul Turkey, Refugee Mario uses the video game's architecture to tell the story of what it's like for Syrian refugees to make the dangerous journey to Europe. This version of Mario only gets coins in order to give them to smugglers who can get him out of Syria, while barely making it onto a raft and avoiding being jailed at borders.
"Five months ago my best friend drowned in the sea while travelling from Ismir (Turkey) to Greece. The engine on the boat exploded. That's when I got the idea for the video," Al Mufti told the BBC. "It needed to be a simple and clear idea which would work irrespective of language. I used Super Mario because it's famous all over the world. It's like music - a universal language," he said.
This isn't the only time Al Mufti has chosen satire as a way of telling stories about the Syrian experience. Claiming his voice is much like reviled Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, Al Mufti has made a number of videos on his YouTube channel that are specifically aimed at caricaturing the leader who has overseen the bloody civil war.
Super Mario also turns out to be fertile material for satire, with Indian comedy troupe All India Bakchod showing us what an Indian Mario would actually look like.
Did he tell the part about all the ambassadors being Muslim so all the Christians are sent back to die while Muslims get to go?
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