Blooper

A Blooper in New Super Mario Bros.
Blooper
Origin	Mushroom Kingdom
Type	Squid
Debut	Super Mario Bros.

The Blooper is a squid-like creature that commonly appears as an aquatic enemy throughout the Mario series.

Information

Bloopers are squid-like creatures found primarily underwater. They float through the water and will direct themselves towards Mario when they see him. In later games, Bloopers also exhibit the ability to spew ink. Bloopers have also been shown as capable of surviving outside of water in many games. In The Lost Levels, pinker Bloopers appear outside of water, floating through the air as if they were underwater. Other games, such as Super Mario Sunshine, feature landbound Bloopers that spit out goop. Those Bloopers are also known for having a different physical appearance, as they have a visible mouth and longer tentacles.

Most Bloopers are weak against fireballs, or in RPG games have a weakness for fire in general. The flying Bloopers in The Lost Levels could be taken down with a simple jump as well. In Super Mario Galaxy, they instead were destroyed through either spins or Koopa shells. The landbound Bloopers in Super Mario Sunshine can also be beaten by being jumped and are also destroyed by falling into water, although spraying them with water also stuns them.

Bloopers are also capable of growing to great size and thus often appear as bosses. The most commonly-appearing Blooper boss is Gooper Blooper, who originally appeared in Super Mario Sunshine and is a larger version of the land-based Bloopers appearing in that game. Giant Bloopers also appear as minibosses in Paper Mario, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Super Paper Mario. Paper Mario features two later miniboss battles with stronger versions of the Blooper boss, the Electro Blooper and Super Blooper, the former capable of generating electricity while the latter produces Blooper offspring to aid in the battle. Other Blooper bosses have included King Calamari in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars and a Blooper statue in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story.

There are also friendly Bloopers from time to time such as Blooey, who acted as one of Luigi's partners during his sidequest in The Thousand-Year Door. Blooper racing is also a minigame in Super Mario Sunshine, where Mario can ride one of three different types of bloopers. Green Bloopers had the best steering while being the slowest, Yellow Bloopers were average, and Purple Bloopers were the fastest with worst steering.

Variations

There have been a few variants of the Blooper appearing over the years.

• Baby Blooper - A small Blooper offspring. Several of them usually trail a Blooper Nanny. They appear in Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario, the New Super Mario Bros. games and Super Mario Maker. In Paper Mario, they are released by the Super Blooper, and due to its giant size are more like normal Bloopers.
• Blooper 10-Stack - A stack of ten Bloopers that attack together in Paper Mario: Color Splash.
• Blooper Nanny - A Blooper that is followed by Baby Bloopers, making it more dangerous. Appears in Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, the New Super Mario Bros. games and Super Mario Maker.
• Bubble Blooper - In Bowser's Inside Story, a version of the Blooper found within the Pump Works of Bowser's body when the area is filled with water. These are blue Bloopers that are bloated with water and attack by rolling at Mario and Luigi, but can be countered by hammers. When the area is drained of water, they become Dry Bloopers.
• Dry Blooper - In Bowser's Inside Story, a version of the Blooper found within the Pump Works of Bowser's body when the area is drained of water. These Bloopers are thin and have a pinkish color, and use basic slamming attacks in battle. They become Bubble Bloopers when exposed to water.
• Glad Blooper - An emotional variant appearing in Super Princess Peach. It swims in figure eight patterns.
• Jumping Blooper - These are jellyfish-like Bloopers appearing only in the Ricco Harbor area of Super Mario Sunshine. As their name implies they spend most of their time jumping up from the ocean, and spraying them with water will temporarily turn them into platforms.
• Mecha-Blooper - A mechanical version of the Blooper found in the Oho Ocean Seabed in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. This machine is armed with five Bullet Bills that it has in the place of tentacles. It attacks by firing off any number of its Bullet Bills and after using them all will spend a turn to reload. They are vulnerable to Luigi's Thunderhand technique.
• Poison Blooper - A poisonous version of the Blooper with a slightly different coloration seen in Paper Mario: Sticker Star and Paper Mario: Color Splash. They are shown to become poisonous and aggressive through other sources - a Royal Sticker in the former game and Petea Piranha in the latter.

Appearances

Bloopers have made semi-regular appearances ever since their debut in Super Mario Bros.. Among the adventure titles, they have appeared in Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Princess Peach, New Super Mario Bros., Yoshi's Island DS, Super Mario Galaxy, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Super Mario 3D Land, New Super Mario Bros. 2, New Super Mario Bros. U, Super Mario 3D World and Yoshi's New Island, as well as being available in Super Mario Maker. They looked and acted similarly in most of these appearances, with the main exception being the landbound Bloopers featured in Super Mario Sunshine.

They also appeared in Yoshi, among the different enemies that could be stacked upon plates for Yoshi. In Yoshi's Safari, flying Bloopers appeared as enemies, and Iggy Koopa also used a Blooper-like mech during his boss fight. They also made an appearance as enemies in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, where they were found at the Sea and the Sunken Ship. This was the first game in which they could spray ink, and it also featured a boss for the Bloopers in the form of King Calimari. In Paper Mario, instead of appearing as normal enemies, a large floating Blooper appeared as a boss that could be faced within the Toad Town Tunnels. Two stronger Blooper bosses, Electro Blooper and Super Blooper, guarded other parts of the tunnels and could be battled as well. The Super Blooper would also release Blooper Babies to help in its fight, which was the closest thing to a 'normal' Blooper appearance in the game. A Blooper later also appeared as a boss of the prologue of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. It was faced in the Rogueport Sewers while en route to Petal Meadows. During battle, it hung from the ceiling, and its tentacles had to be attacked to make it fall down. Bloopers also appeared as enemies in the underwater level of Bowser's playable segment, and Bowser claimed to have swallowed one during the experience.

In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, they appeared as enemies on the Oho Ocean Seabed, where they used attack patterns based on their irregular movements from the platforming games. Mecha-Bloopers also appeared in this game. A Blooper also appeared in the Nintendo Puzzle Collection version of Yoshi's Cookie as the aquatic enemy faced in normal mode. In Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix, a large Blooper guarded one of the Music Keys and had to be defeated through dance. During the dance, its tentacles and smaller Bloopers also acted as steps alongside the arrows. Missing the Bloopers would make them cover part of the screen in ink temporarily. Bloopers also appeared in Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis at the Tropical Island area, marking one of the few appearances of traditional Mario enemies in that series. There, they would alternate between resting on platforms and leaping into the air, where they hovered for a few moments. The Mini Marios had to run underneath them while they were in the air. Bloopers later appeared as regular enemies in the Tide Pool area of Super Paper Mario, with a giant Blooper acting as a boss. They were again weak against fire, especially Bowser's flame breath.

In Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, there were only several variations of Bloopers that could be fought, as well as as an early boss battle with a Sea Pipe Statue, with a Blooper being part of the statue. Normal Bloopers could also be released by an enemy called the Bloopurn during battles in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. In Paper Mario: Sticker Star, a group of Bloopers led by Gooper Blooper were corrupted by one of the Royal Stickers, having originally been a group of music/dance lovers, and they became Poison Bloopers. Mario battled them in the third world, and after he defeated Gooper Blooper to win back the Royal Sticker, they were returned to normal. Bloopers also appeared in several areas of Paper Mario: Color Splash as enemies. This included several Poison Bloopers appearing at Plum Park until the source of the local poison, Petea Piranha, was defeated.

Sports

Bloopers have made occasional appearances in sports games, either as items or obstacles. In Mario Kart DS, Mario Kart Wii, Mario Kart 7, Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the Blooper appears as an item that sprays ink to temporarily blind the other racers. In Mario Hoops 3-on-3, 8-bit Bloopers make cameo appearances in the Bloocheep Sea level.

Bloopers have also made playable appearances in Super Mario Sluggers (unlocked by recruiting the Blooper in Challenge Mode) and Mario Tennis Aces (unlocked by participating in an August 2018 online tournament or through a free update the following month). In the latter game, the Blooper also appeared as an opponent in Adventure Mode.

In the Mario Party games, Bloopers commonly minigames. They were featured in the Deep Bloober Sea board of Mario Party 3 and Blooper Beach in Mario Party 9. A Blooper made a playable appearance in Mario Party 8, where it was unlocked by completing the Star Arena mode and choosing the Blooper as the opponent in Bowser's Warped Orbit. A giant Blooper also appeared as a boss in Mario Party 9, and a Blooper also appeared as an item in Mario Party: Star Rush, where they reprised their Mario Kart action of covering others' screens with ink.

Other Appearances

Video Games

• Bloopers appeared as enemies in side-scrolling underwater segments of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, where they could be destroyed by simple sword strikes. In the Switch remake, they could also appear at Mabe Village's fishing pond, where they were rare and difficult to catch. A Blooper figurine could also be obtained from the Trendy Game and put on display in Ulrira's house.
• In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the giant Blooper from The Thousand-Year Door appears in the background of the Paper Mario stage when it is in the form of the S.S. Flavion, and it rocks the ship around. A trophy of the normal Blooper also appears in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U. In Ultimate, the Blooper was represented by a Novice-rank Primary Spirit with the added effect of decreasing the fighter's weight. In a Spirit battle, the Blooper's Spirit possessed three shrunken Inklings that mostly jumped around in an area with low gravity, in simulation of the way Bloopers typically move around.
• In Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition, Bloopers and Blooper Nannies appear as opponents in water-themed areas.
• Bloopers are included as part of the Super Mario Mash-Up Pack available for Nintendo releases of Minecraft, where they replace the game's Squids.
• In Splatoon and Splatoon 2, images of Bloopers can be seen on surfaces in some areas, in reference to the series starring advanced squid-like beings.
• They make cameo appearances in Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. In the Sherbet Desert area, some of them are seen frozen in ice. Pictures of them can also be seen on crates, and there is a weapon called the Blooper Shooter with a design based on them.

Other Media

• They appeared in several episodes of the Super Mario Bros. Super Show and Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 as Bowser's main aquatic minions, including the Blooper Nanny and Baby Blooper variants.

Trivia

• Its Japanese name is Gesso, from the Japanese term for squid legs.
• Its English name is a play on 'bloop', which is a type of onomatopoeia that can be associated with sounds made in the water.
• While they were called Bloopers in some of the materials related to Super Mario Bros., they were originally referred to as Bloobers for most of their early appearances. The official transition back to Blooper was made during the Nintendo 64 era.
• Bloopers have also made cameo appearances as part of an image for a Battle Card in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, as a statue in Super Mario Run (during the Mario Kart event) and as a design on Princess Peach's paper fan in Super Mario Odyssey.
• The Blooper Bay level of Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour is named after them, and they are featured in scoreboards, despite not actually appearing at all in the game.