SNL skit and Pedro Pascal give Mario Kart the HBO Last of Us treatment

I just need to feel big!

A recent Saturday Night Live skit imagines what Mario Kart could be like if Pedro Pascal and HBO gave it The Last of Us treatment, and the result is equal parts ridiculous and compelling. The Mushroom Kingdom has fallen, and a random stranger asks a cargo transporter to escort their only hope across the country: Princess Peach.

That transporter is none other than Mario, played by Pedro Pascal with a joke accent that still manages to sound more Mario-like than Chris Pratt’s version in the Super Mario movie. Off he and Peach go in his kart, before meeting up with Luigi, a rifle-toting recluse tucked away in a haunted mansion, bisexual Yoshi (why not), and Toad (also bisexual), who randomly pops up from time to time to produce a shotgun loaded with – what else – red shells.

A Goomba – a sentient mushroom with feet for legs, as Mario’s companions helpfully explain – stalks the team in the museum, while Ellie chastises Joel for eating those poisonous things ravaging the kingdom: mushrooms.

“I just need to feel big!” he shouts in response, before it cuts to a scene where Toad bravely sacrifices himself by taking a shell for the team. Mario-Joel’s demand that he dodge is futile. The shell is red. Death is inevitable.

There’s a surprising level of detail for just a skit, from the apocalyptic version of the Mushroom Kingdom to the computer-generated kart ride. The chances of HBO actually commissioning such a show and Nintendo approving it are pretty much nonexistent, but who knows. Stranger things – like the 1993 Super Mario Movie – have happened.