Summer of Mario, Diamonds, Wrestling and more!
A recap of this month at Glitterjaw.
Let’s-a-go, paizanos!
Glitterjaw was thrilled to be joined by its newest show and creator in July: Hamish Steele’s Super Mario Moment, a weekly podcast dedicated to covering every moment in the Mario franchise’s storied history.
While Super Mario Moment is new, Glitterjaw listeners are likely familiar with Hamish’s voice, having joined Skreeonk! multiple times to talk all about kaiju and appearing on Gimmicks to discuss Doctor Who and Broad City. But even if you aren’t familiar with his Glitterjaw appearances, you probably know him as an award-winning, London-based creator of comics and animation best known as the showrunner of Netflix’s Dead End: Paranormal Park.
But what about everyone’s favorite Italian plumber? In his introductory episode, Hamish explains he’s been eager to start a Mario podcast ever since the cast of the recent Super Mario Bros. film was announced. But his fandom is so much deeper.
“I’ve been a Mario fan my whole life. Genuinely,” Hamish says, “By the time I was delivered home from the hospital as a baby, my two older brothers were playing Mario 1, 2, and 3 on loop. One of my very earliest memories is playing Duck Hunt, so I feel like I’m as good as anyone to make this podcast.”
One promise for listeners of the show: in spite of the name, Super Mario Moment isn’t just about the eldest Mario brother. As he attempts to cover every game, film, episode, toy, comic and crossover in the Mario universe, experts and passionate fans will join to cover characters that originally appeared in a Mario game, or a moment that’s important to the IP.
During its first month, Super Mario Moment has already discussed two games where Mario isn’t the central figure. On the first official episode, Hamish invited his brother Harry Steele, co-host of the Games on Film podcast, to talk about some of their early memories of Mario, and the the good, bad, and ugly of Mario Kart World. And most recently, Samanthuel Louise Gillso aka splendidland, joined to discuss the Metroidvania Wario Land 3.
Of course, the titular Mario won’t ever be that far out of the spotlight. In episode two, Drew Green, storyboard artist and comic creator, joined Hamish to talk all about the Switch launch title Mario Odyssey.
Another promise for the show: It will present a balanced look at the Mushroom Kingdom’s overlords—Nintendo.
“This show is going to be positive, but also critical. We all know Nintendo is not a perfect company, and we all know that their games are also far from perfect,” Hamish explains. “But that’s what we love in podcasts. We love a discussion.”
If you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe to Super Mario Moment wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube!
More episodes happening around Glitterjaw
Skreeonk! headed to divorce court to talk about climate change metaphors and weird uses of nuclear weapons in the next Monsterverse installment, Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019). Then, Derek and Doug teamed up with Vicki from Novel Gaming to take on the divisive children's fantasy movie about bullying, All Monsters Attack (1969).
The Q Division called on one of their top agents, writer, podcaster, and James Bond Scholar David Lowbridge-Ellis of the fantastic website and podcast License to Queer to help take on the case of 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever. The trio discussed David’s website, Connery’s last outing as the EON Bond, and multiple queer Blofelds.
Lee Carvallo’s Podding Challenge donned their tights and took to the squared circle to face-off against the infamous The Simpsons Wrestling. Enlisting the help of Stik “The Tall Guy” Braxton, the Carvallo Boys discussed the game’s fraught timeline, studio meddling, and a brief history of the origins of The Attitude Era.
Distant Echoes: A Star Wars Podcast said goodbye to Andor, concluding their coverage of the second season in July. And to send the show off in style, Cass and Tommy returned to one of their favorite episode formats, creating tabletop roleplaying character sheets for several characters from the show—Luthen, Cassian, Saw, and Nemik!
Falling with Style celebrated host Doug Fink’s birthday this month, taking to the skies with Toothless and Hiccup to cover one of his favorite movies, Dreamworks’ How to Train Your Dragon! They discussed director (and gay bear icon) Dean DeBlois, the film’s queer themes, and how they will not be starting a Dreamworks podcast.
The Mixed Reviews headed out for a vacay to look at the ultimate getaway in movies — the grand tradition of summer vacation on film! They talked about everything from National Lampoon's Vacation series to Barb and Star, to Girl's Trip to The Green Ray and more!
Gimmicks was so excited…and so scared to discuss Saved by the Bell’s “Jessie’s Song,” a textbook example of the Very Special Episode and drug story gimmick popular in the 90s. Then, David and Derek went back to school once more to talk Part II of the Abbott Elementary/Always Sunny crossover and began their summer revisits with Moonlighting.
Novel Gaming! dated everything as Doug and Katie played….Date Everything for their game club episode this month. Then, for their book club episode, the duo discussed their first nonfiction book—2024’s Play Nice: the Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment by Jason Schreier. They also talked at length about Ultimatum: Queer Love Season 2!
Fear Coded took listeners to the theaters in July, covering Summer Blockbuster films all month long. First up, the gang took on 1997’s I Know What You Did Last Summer. Then, Tyler, Merrilee and David opened up the beach to discuss 1975’s Jaws, before heading to Camp Crystal Lake for Friday the 13th (1980). Wrapping up Summer Blockbuster Month, the crew cooled off by saying yes to Jordan Peele’s Nope (2022)
Are You My Mother? saw dead people and listened to the sound of music this month, examining two disparate mother figures in July. First, Andrew, host of The Revisionist Almanac, joined David to discuss the incredible Toni Collette as Lynn Sear in the 1999 film, The Sixth Sense. Then, Clayton from Men Who Like Men Who Like Movies joined the podcast to climb every mountain, ford every stream, and follow every rainbow until you find your dream…to talk about Maria from the 1965 film The Sound of Music.
Walloping Websnappers! released two Patreon episodes on the main feed discussing Greg Weisman’s Peter Parker/Miles Morales team-up comic, The Spectacular Spider-Men. Derek and Doug talked all about what makes Weisman’s stories so appealing and everything they love about this run.
