Blooper

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

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

Information

Bloopers are squid 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.

Sports Appearances

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. The Blooper could also be unlocked as a playable character in Mario Super Sluggers. In Mario Hoops 3-on-3, 8-bit Bloopers make cameo appearances in the Bloocheep Sea level.

In the Mario Party games, Bloopers often make appearances in minigames. They were featured in the Deep Bloober Sea board of Mario Party 3. 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.

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.

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.

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

• They were originally referred to as Bloobers. The transition to Blooper was made at some point during the Nintendo 64 era.
• The Blooper appears as a trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
• 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.