Nintendo Confirms That Toad’s Hat Is Actually His Head, and the Internet Loses It

This morning Nintendo sent out a tweet containing an eye-opening interview with Super Mario Odyssey producer Yoshiaki Koizumi. Several fan questions were sent in and answered, and this time they don’t waste any time before getting to the super tough questions. The entire interview literally opens with a question about why Mario has nipples, but no belly-button, and whether or not fan reaction to those nipples was expected. The most interesting question, though, has to do with Toad and his massive hat, which may not be a hat at all. Check it out:

The question is simple, and it’s something we’ve been wondering for years and years, now. “Is Toad’s head a hat or a head?” Koizumi-san answers directly, and without hesitation. “So that, as it turns out, is actually Toad’s head. I’m going to have to leave it to all of you to figure out exactly how that works out. Maybe there’s something inside (laughs).”

This is not the way we expected this to go. That thing is huge, and different toads have heads of different colors. They’re designed to resembled mushrooms, and “mushroom caps” are totally a thing, so it just made sense to assume that they were all hats, right? Of course, that led to a lot of crazy fan art, as players tried to imagine what Toad would look like without his massive hat on:

There’s also this screencap from an old episode of the Super Mario Bros. cartoon series, which shows Toad removing his “cap:”

Those images, apparently, are not canon, and now we know that if Toad were to remove his cap like he did in the image above, it would be a very different and horrific scene. Brains will spill out everywhere (or is his head full of spores?).

The fan reaction to this revelation has been predictably over-the-top:

We’re just as shocked and confused as you guys are, but it’s always better to know the truth, right? If you need someone to talk to, we’re here for you.