Mario, the world’s most famous and beloved plumber, has officially retired from his longtime profession.
The news was pointed out by Kotaku, after Nintendo's official Japanese site updated the iconic character’s profile. It read: "All around sporty, whether it’s tennis or baseball, soccer or car racing, he [Mario] does everything cool. As a matter of fact, he also seems to have worked as a plumber a long time ago…"
It’s unclear if Mario lost his job or simply abandoned it; though the latter seems much more likely considering his wildly successful video game career. Whatever the reason, the career change definitely makes sense as we rarely see the man do any actual plumbing.
Shigeru Miyamoto, the man who created Mario, discussed the character’s occupation during a 2010 USA Today interview. Miyamoto spoke about Mario’s introduction as “Jumpman” in 1981’s Donkey Kong, and how the setting dictated his occupation:
With Donkey Kong, we have this gorilla who grabs this gal and runs away with her and you have to go chase the gorilla down to save the lady. And the game's stage was a construction site, so we made him into basically a carpenter. …. With (1983's) Mario Bros., we brought in Luigi and a lot of the game was played underground so we made him to fit that setting and, we decided he could be a plumber.
Honestly, it'd be more appropriate to refer to Mario as a "Jack of all trades," as he's taken on a wide range of gigs. We're talking everything from an archeologist and doctor to chef and race car driver to referee and demolition expert. It just wouldn't be fair to limit him to one title.
