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.

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 and New Super Mario Bros. In Paper Mario they are released by the Super Blooper, and due to its giant size are more like normal Bloopers.
• Blooper Nanny - A Blooper that is followed by Baby Bloopers, making it more dangerous. Appears in Super Mario Bros. 3, New Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars.
• 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.

Appearances

Bloopers have made semi-regular appearances ever since their debut in Super Mario Bros.. Among the Mario 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., 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 and Super Mario 3-D World, 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.

Yoshi, Yoshi's Safari, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Paper Mario, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix, Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis, Yoshi's Island DS, Super Paper Mario, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, Yoshi's New Island, Paper Mario: Color Splash

Sports

Bloopers have made occasional appearances in sports games, either as items or obstacles. In Mario Kart DS and Mario Kart Wii, 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 (where it will become available sometime post-launch). In the latter game, the Blooper also appears as an opponent in Adventure Mode.

In the Mario Party games, Bloopers often make appearances in minigames. They were featured in the Deep Bloober Sea board of Mario Party 3 and Blooper Beach in Mario Party 9. The Blooper was also added as a playable character in Mario Party 8, where it is 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 appear as enemies in underwater segments of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, where they can be destroyed through simple sword strikes.
• In Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition, Bloopers and Blooper Nannies appear as opponents in water-themed areas.

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.
• They were alternately referred to as Bloobers for most of their early appearances after being called Blooper in some materials related to Super Mario Bros.. The official transition back to Blooper was made at some point during the Nintendo 64 era.
• The Blooper appears as a trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U.
• 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.