Super Mario Bros.: Why all the floating money?

[Pokun]

6-3 was one of my favorite levels. I assumed you just got to a black & white area though, with no explanation of why it's missing color. This level has always intrigued me, and I was disappointed when they removed this unique feature of it in Allstars.

I thought of world 7 as just a snow world just like world 5 (at least after playing Allstars, as white trees and no snow on ground didn't really look like a snow world to me). Looking at the map, I see that the world's athletic level isn't snowy, but that's also true for the athletic level of world 5. I guess they never made those levels snowy (except the black & white one if it really is frost).

[aa-dav]

I always tought those mushrooms were highly toxic.

Pale sorts are extremely toxic and part of pileus could be enough to kill human by slow are painfull death of multiple organs failure.
But these with light red caps are low in toxicity and death dose is about 15 caps. And this is a lot. Like 10 litres of vodka taken in once. Which is also death.
So they were used as psychoactive drug in many cultures.
Moreover - russian mycologist says it is safe to eat after two boilings: https://youtu.be/FppuDnKe5zc (video is in russian, so it's just for picture of him boiling these).
Psychoactive properties and toxicity are reduced greatly after that. However he also admits (hints) that he used them in 'recreational' purposes.
So, Mario definitely could be high.

[Bregalad]

Thanks for all that information on forest mushrooms. Sounds like you're an expert on the topic

Like 10 litres of vodka taken in once.

You ought to be russian to have such an idea
However with both alcohol and mushrooms normally you'd vomit the toxic substance which is supposed to save you. Mario obviously doesn't do that when taking a mushroom ^^

[aa-dav]

Thanks for all that information on forest mushrooms. Sounds like you're an expert on the topic

I just watched serval youtube videos of mycologist mentioned above. Pop-science channels where he is one of the residents.
And there is a lot of interesing about shrooms (beginning from beginnig of life and onecellular fungi).
Some northen nations used hallucinogenic shroom like time machine: beginning long distance travel (from village to village) they eat shrooms and open eyes in the target with hangover, but without memories of travel.
Maybe Mario's jorney is nothing more but that?

[Nikku4211]

But these with light red caps are low in toxicity and death dose is about 15 caps. And this is a lot. Like 10 litres of vodka taken in once. Which is also death.
So they were used as psychoactive drug in many cultures.
Moreover - russian mycologist says it is safe to eat after two boilings: https://youtu.be/FppuDnKe5zc (video is in russian, so it's just for picture of him boiling these).
Psychoactive properties and toxicity are reduced greatly after that. However he also admits (hints) that he used them in 'recreational' purposes.
So, Mario definitely could be high.

You seem to underestimate how many mushrooms Mario eats. Especially in the harder sections of the game.

Also, he definitely doesn't boil them. Blocks can't boil food.

[Pokun]

Though the mushrooms in Mario games only got their looks from fly agaric (and in SMB they are even not the same colors). They are inspired from the magic ones in Alice in Wonderland which she eats to grow or shrink depending on what side of it she eats. The poisonous mushrooms aren't introduced until SMB2j.
Maybe Alice in Wonderland is inspired from the micropsia effects of the fly agaric though?

The red fly agaric is common in mythology and shamanism. There where old theories that vikings were using it for their berserk warriors to get in a berserk trance, but there is no historical proof for that, and no scientists really believes it anymore.


The white variants of the fly agaric (amanita virosa or "destroying angel" in English apparently) are widely known in Sweden to be extremely deadly, and even a tiny amount is dangerous to try and can cause permanent damage (even if you vomit). And since they look similar to many edible mushrooms such as the agaricus (that white mushroom common in European food such as pizza) they are the most common case of death due to eating mushrooms.

The red fly agaric isn't as bad, but it's still listed in mushroom handbooks as psychoactive and toxic, although not directly deadly like the white ones.
I had no idea you could eat the red fly agaric after boiling it.
In Sweden people eat a brown mushroom (gyromitra esculenta) that is also highly toxic. It must be boiled at least twice and throw away the water inbetween before it's safe to eat. And even then I'm not sure if it's really safe, because there is apparently a small chance that it's about 400% more toxic than normal, and which means boiling won't help. If you survive, you may be crippled and live in great pain for the rest of your life.

[tepples]

Moreover - russian mycologist says it is safe to eat after two boilings: https://youtu.be/FppuDnKe5zc (video is in russian, so it's just for picture of him boiling these).
Psychoactive properties and toxicity are reduced greatly after that. However he also admits (hints) that he used them in 'recreational' purposes.

This boiling twice sort of reminds me of the procedure to make delicious fruit in I Wanna Be the Guy safe to eat, which is to puncture and boil thrice.

So, Mario definitely could be high.

Not to mention words for "high" and "tall" are the same in a few Romance languages, including Italian. (Though I admit they might not use their word for "high" for "intoxicated.")

[Nikku4211]

[...](that white mushroom common in European food such as pizza)[...]

Lol, that's probably why they put mushrooms in Mario, though in none of the Mario games are they white.

[Bregalad]

that white mushroom common in European food such as pizza

Pizza as we know it is american food, and was made popular in Europe by the US influence in the second half of the 20th century. Only in a very small region of southern italy the dish was known before 1950 and most northern italians born before 1950 grew up without knowing what is a pizza (without even mentionning the rest of Europe where the dish was even more unknown).

[Pokun]

Heh didn't know that. Nevertheless agaricus is common in Europe as well as America I believe. It's almost unheard of in Japan though, or at least very uncommon in grocery stores. Shimeji, shiitake and enoki are the typical ones, all uncommon in Europe (which is a shame because they are all delicious and great for stew or soup).

[tepples]

Lol, that's probably why they put mushrooms in Mario, though in none of the Mario games are they white.

At least not until Super Mario Galaxy (2007), where the white mushroom turns Mario into a spirit creature.

[Nikku4211]

that white mushroom common in European food such as pizza

Pizza as we know it is american food, and was made popular in Europe by the US influence in the second half of the 20th century. Only in a very small region of southern italy the dish was known before 1950 and most northern italians born before 1950 grew up without knowing what is a pizza (without even mentionning the rest of Europe where the dish was even more unknown).

I don't know if Mario is northern or southern Italian.

Lol, that's probably why they put mushrooms in Mario, though in none of the Mario games are they white.

At least not until Super Mario Galaxy (2007), where the white mushroom turns Mario into a spirit creature.

Heheh, ironic that the safe mushroom is the one that makes you gotta go ghost.

[Pokun]

Unless it's the destroying angel I mentioned earlier. That would make you a ghost literary.

[Nikku4211]

Unless it's the destroying angel I mentioned earlier. That would make you a ghost literary.

Wow, a literature ghost. How does that work?

[lidnariq]

There was a documentary in the 1990s called Ghostwriter