Shigeru Miyamoto Explains the Origin of Mario’s Iconic Mustache and His Name

For their ongoing 8-Bit Legacy series on Watchable, the Great Big Story crew met with Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto to listen to explain the origin story of the heroic video game plumber’s iconic mustache and name. The name itself came to be in the early 1980s thanks to a Seattle warehouse landlord who was named Mario Segale.

Gamer or not, you know Mario. Nintendo’s high-pitched, turtle-squashing Italian plumber has become a beloved stalwart of pop culture. But how did this video game icon come to be? Meet the man behind the mustache, Shigeru Miyamoto. As the artist behind 8-bit classics such as Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros., Miyamoto is largely responsible for shepherding Nintendo’s golden age of video games. Now, about that mustache…