In terrible news, during an interview to celebrate the release of the new SNES Mini, Super Mario World developer Shigefumi Hino admitted that Mario is, in fact, punching Yoshi in the back of the head to make him stick his tongue out and eat stuff in the game. Come on — that’s no way to treat your mount.

“Lots of people think that while Mario is pointing his finger forward, he’s saying ‘Go,’ and Yoshi’s tongue comes out. However, the set up that I drew was that when Mario punches Yoshi in the head, the character’s tongue shoots out in surprise.”

“What’s more, there’s an added ‘bop’ sound. However, it seemed like people would say ‘Poor Yoshi,’ so that’s why it became that Mario is saying ‘Go.'”

Wow, that ain’t right. I feel so bad now. I don’t even know how many times I punched that poor little dinosaur in the back of the head when I was growing up, but it was definitely in the thousands, possibly in the tens of thousands. I blame Mario. Well, I guess there’s only one thing left to do. “Play Super Smash Bros as Youshi and rip Mario a new one?” That guy’s gonna have like thirty buttholes when I’m through with him.

Thanks to n0nentity, Christine and Adam, who agree all that turtle stomping wasn’t cool either.

Source: Geekologie – Well That Sucks: Mario Was Actually Punching Yoshi In The Back Of The Head To Make Him Stick His Tongue Out