FINALLY: We Now Know Whether Toad’s Wearing A Hat Or Just Has A Huge Bonce

Have you ever looked at that little mushroom fella Mario hangs around with and thought, ‘I wonder if the majority of that small man’s bulbous head is a hat’? Yeah, me too.

His name is Toad and he’s been a part of Nintendo‘s Mario universe since the beginning, but there’s never been a definitive answer for whether his enormous bonce is all his, or mostly a cap. But Dorkly and YouTube channel Shesez have gathered the evidence and presented a compelling argument.

For the case of Toad wearing a huge puffy hat, they present exhibit A, a screenshot from the live-action / cartoon crossover TV show, Super Mario Bros. Super Show, which aired in the late 80s.

Yep, that’s a cap alright. But there’s been so many different depictions of the Mushroom Kingdom across all kinds of media, so which ones can be trusted as canon? It’s safe to say a poorly-made TV show carries less weight than the actual games, particularly the ones made by Nintendo themselves, rather than a third-party studio.

Dorkly make a great point here – If you’re willing to accept that Toad is wearing a hat because of a horrible TV show from the 80s, then you’d also have to agree that “Mario’s full name is “Mario Mario” by citing the beautiful shitshow that is Super Mario Bros: The Movie“. Also on that note, you’d have to be willing to accept that Mario yells “Pasta Power!” on a regular basis.

But there’s also some games that seem to hint at Toad having a head underneath that mushroom cap, some because of protruding hair and others due to seemingly interchangeable headgear.

Even the shocked state of Toad from Super Mario Strikers Charged shows a separate, fully-formed head.

But in the case of Toad just having an enormous, mushroom-shaped bonce, the most compelling evidence is presented in the YouTube clip below.

Going back through numerous Mario games, Shesez clips through Toad’s cap, showing he has no head underneath. Now, the nerds out there might argue that, since no one’s going to see underneath, why unnecessarily render the top of his head? That’s a fair point, but in later games, other characters have plenty of hidden parts that are rendered unnecessarily – such as the inside of Bowser’s shell – while Toad’s inside-head is still nowhere to be seen.

Dorkly also argue that in the latest game, Super Mario Odyssey, a heap of Toads are wearing hats on top of their mushrooms.

But even more compelling is the fact that in the game, Mario can use his cap (Cappy) to possess other characters in the, unless they’re already wearing a cap. If Toad’s mushroom head was indeed a cap, Cappy should not be able to sit atop it as the image below shows.

So there you have it, folks, given the evidence above, coupled with a Twitter poll in which 66 percent of 3,000 participants agree, Dorkly have sided with team head.

Toad does indeed have a gigantic, mushroom-shaped head. Pray for him.


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At PEDESTRIAN.TV, we independently choose and write about stuff we love and think you’ll froth too. We have affiliate partnerships so we might get a bit of money from any purchase you make based on our recs, cool? Cool. FYI – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

More Stuff From PEDESTRIAN.TV