The “M” man

Back then, the tool need for animation wasn’t for everyone to access. If you wanted to animate, you have to pay for it and we talking about loads of money that not everyone has. Plus, you have to get into college to understanding the uses of animation and it mainly huge animation businesses that do that since independent animation wasn’t widespread other then Newgrounds.

So, what can you do with a very limited option? Well, if you got any video game (Let's say you got Project64) and video editor, you can pull off Machinima style video and those were everywhere on YouTube and one of them was Super Mario 64.

There were a lot of Mario Machinist around on YouTube and at the time, those video they made are usually popular with around thousands of views or so (if you were on YouTube back in 2008, that number was big for the creator) and almost every SM64 feature Mario and their Character. What character am I referring to?

No, not Waluigi but rather a Recolor Mario that represents who the YouTuber is. These recolors Mario was everywhere and becoming one of the Mario 64 Blooper trends. So pretty much, a bunch of Mario took over YouTube in the late 2000s. Sadly., I didn’t grow up around this era other than seeing a bunch of Mario YTP shitfest on Youtube.

What Glitch?

There some iconic Machinists such as MarioMario54321, FighterMario, Xboxfan997, Enzo, and most importantly Megaman765. These are the people who have been doing SM64 Blooper since the late 2000s, the year that started it.

But one day, on May 7, 2011, one person uploads a video called “The Cake was a Lie” and there is a reason why I am talking about this specific video. This video is how this man started his own YouTube Career and becoming one of the most successful YouTuber on the platform. He goes by the name: SMG4 / SuperMarioGlitchy4 or Luke in real life.

Why this guy? If you look back to these SM64 bloopers, all of them shared a familiar style that Involved Mario and their Recolor, going around the world and such. SMG4, on other hand, has made Blooper in an entirely different style apart from other Machinima. Instead of wholesome Blooper featuring Mario and other people, SMG4 changed Mario from being Hero everyone know of into a fatass Italian who has a spaghetti fetish and another Recolor Mario (aka SMG4) who considered to be a Homo who make youtube video. Now other machinists make a cameo in SMG4 Blooper, most famously “FM” and “X” and they did have their role at the time.

How Famous?

Even though that, throughout 2011-12 was considered Luke edgier years ( IT WAS ALSO the time when Youtube WASN’T CENTRALIZED place at the time), it considered being different from other bloopers that other machinist made, and when people discovered Luke video, oh boy, it skyrocketed.

To give in more context, most SM64 Machinists only have around 1K subscribers or even less and those are big numbers back then. Around 2013, Luke managed to get around 10,000 Subscribers. 10,000 people followed him after 2 years of forming his youtube channel.

What makes SMG4 impressive at the time is the fact that his blooper was more than just SM64 but rather a mix between Gmod and Sm64 (using green screen). Now, of course, that was done before with a video called “Why Luigi Wasn't in Super Mario 64” but the video was so old, I don’t think Youtube even existed at the time but rather it was posted on Machinima.com (which no longer exist). The uses of Gmod and Sm64 was something that everyone finds impressive. Now you have to understand that, at the time, rarely (and I mean very rarely) people can pull this off.

In later time, SMG4 form series after series most famously is Ss3nmodnar and GnR as well as “If Mario was in..”. Despite growing his own Youtube Channel, Luke remanded the same; having different series and even going to a different style. For example, one time Luke managed to mix up between SM64 and even Real life and that was around 2014 when he has around 200K Subscribers and that number continues to grow.

The Present and reverent

I can go all day talking about SMG4 but the point of this Zine is to talk about SM64 and like any other stuff, it has to end in some way. Fast forward to around 2015 and 2016, Sm64 Blooper (and Machinima as a whole) is started to becoming more of a thing from the past and the company known as Machinima.com (like I mentioned before) was started to fall apart due to their god awful business practice. Aside from that, Youtube was changing in opposite direction, starting to become more shitty and more cash grab rather than having fun making these types of video.

Onward to 2020 however, SM64 Blooper has started to arise from the grave slowly and marched its way to Youtube and that is thanks to SMG4 for having its growing fanbase while caring for his fan. SMG4, unlike any other big-time creator from the early 2010s that once died out, is continuing to strive on Youtube to this day and even going beyond what they can do. Founding his own company (Glitch Production) with over 20 Workers and having their animated show: Meta Runner can show that there is no limit to what you can do. Of course, most importantly, SMG4 still makes Sm64 Blooper, in a different format where there now a full-blown story-telling arc and original character to show off.

If you haven’t been watching SMG4 for a long time, there lot of stuff you can catch up on, and the fanbase is bigger then ever with a recent blooper that their fan decides to reanimated (or Rebloopered) SMG4 most popular video known as “Who let the chomp out” and that stuff is fucking art.

The Rebloopered version of "Who let the chomp out" by an groups of 20 people who recreated this. Check them out!

Stay fresh my glitch fans.