So … Conan O’Brien started his new gig as host of The Tonight Show this week and a few folks noticed something … familiar about the backdrop background of his newly designed set. After careful consideration (and genius side-by-side comparison), it seems pretty obvious that Conan‘s new background came straight from the Mushroom Kingdom of the Super Mario Brothers video game:
From Gizmodo: Conan’s new Tonight Show set sure is nice, but the guys at Serious Lunch noticed that his new monologue backdrop looks pretty familiar. As in Mushroom Kingdom familiar. Chen and I are in disagreement as to whether or not this is intentional. I say it’s a coincidence, but he’s convinced that Mario was a definite inspiration for this background.
OMG … of course this background was inspired (to say the least) from the Super Mario Brothers video game. There is no way in hell that the indenticalness of the background to the layout of the video game can be mere coincidence:
LMAO! I bet Conan had no idea … but, yep, seem pretty clear to me. What do y’all think?
[Source via Source]
haha, wow thats crazy. Not sure how impressed they’ll be with the guy that came up with the background.
how do people notice that? lol i wouldnt have never noticed if it wasnt pointed out
Stop.it. This is awesome. It’s no coincidence — I think Conan is in on the joke too. Trent, thank you for posting this, I just sent it to a whole bunch of people.
Wow thats both random and crazy. Why would someone create a background based on a random still from a old computer game? And if it isnt based on the still from the computer game its a weird concidence. Furthermore how on earth did someone discover that it looked familar to a still on a computer game?…my brain hurts.
THAT’S AMAZING
that’s hillarious!
Coincidence or not, this is AMAZING!!!!
Haha, the flashing screen is hilarious, how could someone be on the fence as to whether or not it was a coincidence or not! It’s pretty much paint by colours, lol!
hahaha, that is so funny! i love conan….AND i love super mario!
SUPERMARIO<3
I got the theme in my head now.
That is nuts! How someone figured that out I have no idea but I LOVE that game!!
I can see how it looks like L.A. but there’s no denying that It looks like the designer is a big fan of old-school Mario bros. Seems L.A. and the Mushroom Kingdom have a lot more in common than I thought!
I’d like to hear from the designer of this backdrop, Lol.
That’s actually pretty funny. I’m sure it’s on purpose. I would like it better if it were in more color though like the original. I don’t like it the way it is, it’s really boring looking.
That is CRAZY !! I agree how in the world did someone figure that one out? I would have NEVER been able to detect that NEVER !!! Its is amazingly the same perfect!!!
haha that’s awesome!
@Rossboss “paint by colors”… LOL! So true! That is pretty funny/amazing
How anyone couldn’t notice that, is beyond me. All the details are there, from the eyes on the green hills and clouds, the moles, bouncy music notes, feather, star and mushroom power… no cooincidence here, folks. Major flashback though- I wanna play me some Mario!
has anyone noticed the similartiies of the entire set to kimmel’s set? the rounded curtain/stage is totally copied from jimmy. i’m actually pretty disappointed in the lack of creativity in late night sets for fallon and conan. it’s the same old shit.
LOL! That’s hilarious! I have the mario theme song as my ringtone! I love it!!
Ya Conan knows about this. Conan is a huge Nintendo fan. He loves Mario to death. He supports Nintendo like a hardcore gamer.
That is AWESOME! It will be more hilarious if the presenter has NO idea – GO set designers!!!!! :-D
i love it! haha so great
hahahaha I love it! That is so great. When I first saw it, it reminded me of Arsenio Hall’s background, what with the cheesy blue color (am I remembering it right??)
Anyhoo, I love Conan and am glad he’s the new Tonight Show host! I am a BIG FAN of the string dance! lol
Wow…..that’s awesome, lol
He did it because LA is hosting E3…the big video game conference….
This isn’t an actual layout from any Mario game. The shapes were just similar to some commonly used pieces of the games so someone pretty much filled in the clanks with a bunch of random parts of different mario games. They did painted it in.
oh gosh- i just noticed the underground part they added to the stage in the comparison pic. clever!
i mean, obviously it was chopped together, but its totally inspired by the mario backgrounds.
and that is why i love conan.
That’s awesome!!! Now where the hell is my Nintendo?! lol
Haha that’s pretty cool/random.
However Conan’s backdrop looks unfinished. If that is seriously just his backdrop, like WTF? It looks like the first layer and then they are gonna add colour or something else.
@J – The backdrop is actually pretty fancy for its use. Any fancier would deter from the host and be too distracting. The traditional is a plain dark cool color.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Conan mentions this :)
For anyone who has played all the Mario games you will notice this is a hoax. The top middle section is not from any Mario game and neither is the bottom purple block . This was photoshopped to common pieces that you may see in a Mario game but are not directly from it. The blogger from SeriousLunch.com made it all up as listed here http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/06/psst-conans-super-mario-backdrop-was-a-hoax.html. Sorry guys.
Fun fun fun post – love it!
Hafta say, as I scrolled down thru the comments, my jaw implant hit the keyboard as I noticed you’ve worked out Tori and Kylie hat-tricks later this year. I do get quite a quick out of such blatant concert gluttony! Not to mention the fact that I’m SEETHING with envy you lucky duck, you.
@Alicia – Um, no shit. It looks cool, which is why we’re impressed.
How could anyone think that is coincidence?!?!
yeah that’s not real. not to sound nerdy but there is no mario backdrop that looks like that. it looks like pieces from different screens put together. i noticed it right away.
i LOVE THIS! LURVE IT
hahaha that is hilarious!
Those two are die-hard supermario fans! :D Wonder what Conan will say about it.
There is no way Conan DIDN’T know. That’s so his type of humor.
of course its copied, there cant be any idiots out there that think its a coinky dink. right? it is really amazing some dweeb noticed in the first place though.
Hey Trent! Looks like someone ditigally made the set look like a Mario screenshot. Too bad, bc this version of the story was way better than the real one!
http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/06/psst-conans-super-mario-backdrop-was-a-hoax.html
@Jill — yes, it appears the pieces were concocted but the shapes in the background still look very much inspired by Super Mario Bros.
thats amazing!