Koala Mario
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About
Koala Mario refers to a statue of the Nintendo character Mario in the shape of a koala bear, created for the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital Foundation in the Gold Coast of Australia. Various pictures of the character have gone viral numerous times and appeared in multiple meme formats as a cursed image since first appearing online in mid-2015.
Origin
In 2015, the "Koala Mario" statue was created by artists Kate Clarke and Bernadette Wallace for the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital Foundation in the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.[1] The earliest known appearance of the statue online was a July 18th, 2015, 9GAG[3] post by user okanozgurunver (shown below).
Spread
Over the following years, the "Mario Koala" became an infamous "cursed image" around the internet as it spread. On February 1st, 2017 the Tumblr[2] account SupperMarioBroth posted an image of the statue, gaining over 100,000 notes, largely due to people talking about how unsettling it was (shown below, left). On April 21st, 2018, Twitter account @arfsama[4] posted the image with the caption, "God has abandoned us," gaining over 31,000 retweets and 100,000 likes in five years (shown below, right).
The popularity of @arfsama's post helped the statue go viral, and on May 2nd, 2018, it was notably covered by BuzzFeed.[5] It was covered again in August 2022 by Kotaku,[1] with writer Ruby Innes discussing how she saw it in person four years ago, around the time it went viral.
On July 26th, 2023, YouTuber Polygon Donut posted a video about the statue, gaining over 370,000 views in eight days (shown below).
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