Unexceptional Mario

Today, let's return to September 23rd, 1983, to a small coffee shop in Milan, where three young men were eating cannoli and drinking cappuccino. Sr Caporaso, Sr Malinconico and Sr Ricci were celebrating the videogame they were going to create. They had thought of a main character (an Italian plumber named Mario), his favorite dish (baked mushrooms with garlic), and what his mission was (to save a princess). They even had a name for the videogame: Unexceptional Mario.

They had talked about this all day and all three of them believed that, without a doubt, Unexceptional Mario could become the new hero of Italian videogame culture, maybe even the entire world! Just a simple unexceptional plumber, no more, no less, like any honest Italian worker you could find on any street, and this regular town hero would save the princess each and every time.

Laughing and talking about what they would do with all the money they were about to earn, when suddenly Sr Bellagamba, their boss, stormed into the coffee shop. "So here you boys are. You were already late this morning and now you're late again? Always talking and dreaming about things. These toilets aren't going to install themselves on this new apartment block. Back to work with you!"

And thus the young lads adjusted their overalls, got up and walked with Sr Bellagamba to the apartment building across the street where they were installing the lavatories. Their momentary dreams of glory again replaced with the harsh reality of the day.

About five minutes later, Mr Miyamoto, Mr Yamauchi and Mr Tezuka, who were on a business trip, walked into the very same coffee shop and sat down at the very same table where Sr Caporaso, Sr Malinconico and Sr Ricci had been sitting just earlier. As they sat down, Mr Yamauchi noticed a drawing of a little Italian plumber on one of the napkins, the name of the plumber written right underneath it.

Mr Miyamoto asked: "So this is where we'll have lunch, but where will we be having supper?"

"Mario," said Mr Yamauchi, reading the napkin.

"Supper Mario. Interesting," said Mr Tezuka.

One year later, a "p" was dropped. Another year later, Super Mario was launched, becoming the most well known videogame character across the world.

But of course, we all know that Super Mario is actually still Unexceptional Mario in our hearts, the true regular folk hero who arrives late for work, slacks off during lunch, prefers his mushrooms baked and with some garlic, but who also does his job when needed, because that's what people ask him to do!

And what about Sr Caporaso, Sr Malinconico and Sr Ricci? Just a day after their little meeting at the coffee shop, they saw a teen boy kicking a football around on the town square. He said his name was Paolo Maldini. He said he wanted to be a football player. They laughed and said: "Silly boy. Come with us, we'll call you Unexceptional Paolo, we'll teach you how to do real work."

The boy got scared and ran away with his ball to the soccer stadium, where he got put on the pitch just two days after they saw what he could do with a ball. And that is the story of how Sr Caporaso, Sr Malinconico and Sr Ricci unknowingly launched Super Mario's and Paolo Maldini's career in the span of two simple days. And the toilets? They had to never be replaced, because they were installed perfectly.