Funny / Paper Mario: The Origami King

Swan Lake by way of Paper Mario.

General

• The bosses for the game include sentient stationery: a large case of colored pencils, a "being" made of rubber bands, and a giant tape dispenser.
  • Said case of colored pencils is named Jean-Pierre Colored Pencils the 12th. And he also acts like a massively pretentious artist. His name is even longer in the French translation: "Côme Raoul Aimé Yves Oscar Nicolas Siméon de Couleur, 12ème du nom". And to top it all off, his first seven names are an acronym for "Crayons", the French word for "Pencils", leading up to "Crayons de Couleur, 12ème du nom", meaning... Colored Pencils the 12th.
  Olivia: Legion of Stationery?! Jean... Pi...pi... That's too long for me to remember! I'm just gonna call you Colored Pencils, OK?
• The game features several musical numbers that tend to all be equally random. Especially since the "lyrics" are sung in complete gibberish.
  • The "My heart's a-burnin'" song takes credit as it sounds like some sort of song you find in an anime complete with Mario, Professor Toad and the bird statues waving glow sticks around like this is a concert.
• The secret cafés in the game each have their own funny moments.
  • Sandpaper Desert: When Mario orders the "Mega Tasty Coffee", he is given a tiny cup. When the customer sitting next to Mario, a tiny Goomba, requests another cup, the barista pulls out a ginormous one the size of Mario for him. The Goomba contemplates if it would be enough...then a swarm of little Goombas appear from behind the counter and begin chugging it. If you interact with the Goomba after the drink, he says "Hey, barista! Got any bigger cups back there?"
  • Spring of Rainbows:
    • The normal drink is instant coffee, which is consumed on the spot with no fun dialogue, making the joke the utter lack of the expected whimsy.
    • If Mario orders 'Today's Special', the lights in the café will become bright pink and the barista will summon Birdo, who blows a kiss to Mario. What really sells it is the over-the-top reactions of the customers, who flail their arms excitedly and even begin blowing whistles!
  • Shangri-Spa: The Toads will talk about how useful Bowser's minions have been in helping the Shangri-Spa staff, only proven when one Toad spills his latte and a Shy Guy immediately pops in from outside to mop it up.
• Many of the Toads you unfold from origami have different stuff to say.
  • A Green Toad questions if he's become the "Luigi of Toads".
  • One Toad states how everything is okay and it's a beautiful day. Then he immediately adds that he has amnesia.
  • On Overlook Mountain, a few Toads are buried, with one only having his arm sticking out. When you pull him out, he states that the Folded Soldiers buried him deepest because he's the one they are most afraid of, then runs off.
• There's a house in Toad Town where a large group of Goombas have taken refuge in a wardrobe, and keep the door closed after you talk to them. When the Toad owner returns, the Goombas decide to stay and live with him. Check the wardrobe, and one Goomba remains inside, and simply says "I ain't leavin'".

Intro/Red Streamer

• A common reaction to folded-up Bowser is finding him to be adorable, hilarious, or both. Especially when he "runs".
  • Upon encountering the folded Princess Peach during the rooftop confrontation, Bowser mutters that she can't see him like this. He also mutters "Now THAT'S dysfunctional" in response to Olly and Olivia being brother and sister.
• After the Mario Bros. enter Peach's castle, Luigi realizes that he forgot Peach's gift, but the front door closes behind them, locking them in. Luigi calms himself down by reminding himself that if he doesn't know what to do, ask Mario. Who is standing right in front of him.
• An ironic meta example: The Goomba you meet after falling into folded Peach's trap says that he never met a Toad. This carries on after he's been turned into a folded Goomba. Which is almost certainly impossible given the frequency of Toad encounters since Sticker Star.
• During the Graffiti Underground sequence, Mario gets ambushed by some Origami Scaredy Rats and some Origami Swoops. His reaction is just a shrugged off "whatever" as he's cornered by them.
  • Adding onto the Graffiti Underground, later in the game new art gets added on top of it where Bowser comes in, and defeats both of the Mario Bros, which leaves the line of Toads trying to protect Princess Peach but Bowser reaches her in the end. In the room after that Peach stands over a defeated Bowser, much to the surprise of Mario, Luigi and Toad.
• At one point, you use the 1,000-Fold Arms to uncover a Dry Bones behind a wall in Overlook Mountain. Olivia immediately gives a eulogy for what she assumes to be a long-since deceased Koopa Troopa who met a tragic fate, after which the Dry Bones protests that they've always been a skeleton.
• The Sacred Earth Vellumental Temple turns out to be a religious tourist trap, complete with a bunch of pay speakers spinning mundane rock formations as part of the legend of the Earth Vellumental.
  • A Koopa Troopa outside is terrified of an enemy and asks, “What am I gonna do? Walk slowly into it?”
  • Mario saves a Toad from one of the speakers, who tells Mario that he can now use it, only to realize that you broke it in the process... after the Toad ripped out some parts in a desperate attempt at freedom. He then says to just pay and he’ll give Mario the spiel.
  • Mario can save the Toad running it from Folded Soldiers and he admits the whole thing was a coin grab.
• When Olivia gets the Earth Vellumental powers, she shows off her excitement by dancing around like a cheerleader, complete with pom-poms. She even does this again during the Purple Streamer quest.
• In the Overlook Tower Restaurant, Mario and Olivia can chow down on a meal left out on one of the tables where after Olivia asks if you were gonna pay for it.
• The kitchen in Overlook Tower turns out to be infested by Folded Mini Goombas, which are played like cockroaches, crawling with their faces on the floor and with Mini Para-Goombas even flying around to evade you. Seeing the familiar enemies played like pest insects is hilarious.
• After the streamer is cleared, the assistant Toad in the kitchen has this to say:
  Assistant: Hey, I'm not the chef. I'm sous chef to the sous chef. ...OK, I'm the dishwasher. OK, I'm the sous dishwasher.

Blue Streamer

• When Bobby the Bob-omb is trying and failing to describe amnesia, he ends up calling it "Thinky-Thinky Panic".
• After Bobby gets knocked off the bridge in Autumn Mountain, Olivia freaks out while Mario just looks over the edge of the bridge with a "welp, shit happens" look on his face.
• After freeing Shogun Studios, one of the Toads is angry at the price of admission. And then shouts, "Let me in---LET ME IN!!!!!"
• When Mario wears the Samus helmet at the Shogun Studios staff room, Bobby mentions that it would look better on some other kind of M.
  • The staff Toad present lets Mario take the costumes and says he isn’t paid enough to stop you.
• The performances at the Big Sho' Theater are pretty amusing.
  • The second vignette features Mario playing in a gang romance with Birdo being the leading lady. She gives a verbose, impassioned performance and even manages to make Mario flustered— she has to calm Mario down, since it's a "stage kiss". After she leaves, the Toad presenter notes that she was only scripted with two lines from what he saw in rehearsals.
  • The entirety of the sequence featuring the Royal Shy Guy Ballet Company is utterly ridiculous, with Mario being forced into a performance of Swan Lake. That is bizarre enough on its own—but when Mario accidentally defeats one of the performers, the other Paper Macho Shy Guys get angry, then proceed to attack him via a perfectly choreographed ballet number. Even better, the music of Swan Lake continues to play, only this time remixed into an upbeat ska piece.
  • If you go back to the theater and talk with the Shy Guy at the entrance line, you can see the dance routine again!
• The bell in the tower at Shogun Studios drops items until it's been rung 100 times. Afterward, the staff Toad up there will tell you you've gotten all the prizes already and begs you to stop ringing it.
  • Before that, at thirty whacks, turns out there was a Toad inside the bell who was at the epicenter of every gong from the bell and is hard of hearing as a result, talking in shouts.
    "GAH! MY HEAD IS THROBBING. THANK YOU? I THINK?"

Yellow Streamer

• If you ask around Breezy Tunnel, during or after the fallout from Bobby's Heroic Sacrifice, you hear a Monty Mole talking about his brother, referring to another Mole on Overlook Mountain:
  Tunnel Monty Mole: Hey, you from aboveground? My big bro couldn't shovel it anymore down here so he moved up there. Last I heard he was sellin' trinkets on the roadside. You see him, you tell him he stinks! And I love him.
• At the start of the Fire Vellumental Cave, Professor Toad opts to wait at the entrance, being terrified of fire. Olivia cheerfully agrees, saying "Why don't you wait here and try not to catch on fire while Mario sorts this out?"
• In the Temple of Shrooms, there's a doorway that can only be opened when Mario and Professor Toad are each standing in the plates of two mechanical figures on either side. However, there's no way to get Professor Toad to stop following you...but the ancient writing above one of the plates tells you the message above the other one is more important. That message ends up stumping the expert translator that is Professor Toad, allowing you to leave him there and stand on the other plate. The actual message is written backward to explain the mechanism, but stumping the translator turns out to have been an equally viable way to keep him there.
• At multiple points in the Temple of Shrooms, a black Folded Shy Guy might appear from the wall and whack Mario with a harisen, dealing 1 damage. It may catch you off-guard when it happens for the first time, but when it does happen, it's simply giggle-inducing.
  Professor Toad: Mario! What hit you? Logic dictates that this "isn't a thing", but...could it have been the temple's curse?!
• Upon seeing the faceless Toad, Professor Toad freaks out in horror. Olivia then floats behind it like she's at a kitschy cutout stand, not realizing something is wrong and imitating the Toad's face, which freaks the Professor out even more. When she finally realised this, she Freak Out and when Madness Mantra for a bit.
• The Toad DJ at the Temple of Shrooms dance floor is having trouble finding a track to satisfy Hole Punch, primarily because Hole Punch is using outdated disco-era slang to describe the kind of music he wants. Later on, when he gives you a boombox with the right song so you can round up faceless Toads to dance, he calls it an "ancient portable music machine".
  DJ Toad: He keeps asking for "groovy" music to "cut a rug" to. Do I look like I'm 100 years old? I'm a DJ, man! I have no idea what that means!
• How do you finally get Hole Punch to come out so you can fight him? Mario and the Toads all disco dancing of course!
• The Ancient Language of Captain T. Ode turns out to be how everybody else speaks, but written in italics.
• Professor Toad asking a very important question for the cryogenically frozen T. Ode: how did he take his coffee? "Cream and three sugars."
• Shroom City was taken over by Snifits in the absence of its resident Toads and renamed Snif City. When the Toads return, one tries to reconcile the changes.
  Toad: Well, Shroom City is really bustling now! Wait, sorry...Snif City. Wait...I've got it! Shnroomf City!
• A Toad takes over the magic lamp booth after you beat the Snifit scammer, and decides to start peddling lamps. He gives you a Collectible Treasure of the booth, which happened to be the only lamp he had.
  Lamp Booth Toad: Welp, it was good while it lasted. But I'm out of lamps, so I guess I'll shut it down.

Purple Streamer

• After freeing Captain T. Ode, Olivia wonders where the next streamer is? The only witness there at the moment? Mario! He tries to somewhat charade about the Great Sea, but it comes out of absolute nowhere.
• Spade Island features a Toad trapped in a barrel, and the other Toads on the island shove themselves into slots in it to bust the barrel open. The Toad inside turns out to be missing his vest, and so the other Toads surround him to protect his dignity.
  Toads: We won't let our friend be humiliated! Dignity huddle, ACTIVATED!
  Shamed Toad: Phew. I suppose the only thing any Toad really needs is good friends. And a backup vest. For emergencies.
• During the Trial of Courage on Diamond Island, you have to stop a rope before something hits the ground. In the first two tests, it's a washbin. You'd expect it to be the same for the final trial. Nope! It's a Thwomp.
• In an entirely unexpected turn, Tape's personality is based on a stereotypical mob boss. He treats his case like an expensive suit/motorcycle and him donning a cutter in the middle of the fight is presented as him putting on brass knuckles and getting serious. The loose piece of tape on top of him could even be interpreted as a pompous haircut.
• After freeing all of the Toads on the Great Sea, they'll return to the Princess Peach ship, where they have some funny dialogue.
  • One purple Toad at a table says to his friends, "I propose a toast. Here's to great friends, good food, and family-friendly glasses of fruit juice!"
  • The vest-less Toad is panicking on the deck without his friends covering him, and a Toad at a table reacts.
  Seated Toad: I love everything about this cruise...Even that naked guy who's causing a scene!

Green Streamer

• The front-desk Toad at Shangri-Spa attempts to sugar-coat the admission cost.
  Front-desk Toad: The suggested donation for admission is 1,000 coins, and it is mandatory. Might I suggest you make that donation now?
• There's something darkly funny about when Bowser Jr. heads for Bowser's Castle to rescue his dad, only to be greeted with a pair of Scissors that cuts him up. His Oh, Crap! face just adds to it.
• There's a Buzzy Beetle resting in its shell on top of some wooden buckets. Flipping the Buzzy and the buckets with your hammer will turn it on its back, and when you talk to it, all it has to say is "Dude. Why?"
• When arguing on which path to follow in the jungle, Kamek's argument for taking the path he thinks is best is that Bowser always does the opposite of everything Kamek says, and Mario always defeats Bowser. His path is the correct one each time.
• Mario's epic Oh, Crap! face when the Paper Macho Chain Chomp jumps out at the group.
  • Kamek then explains to Olivia that they are horribly twisted versions of some of Bowser's best minions...then adds that Bowser would probably love them and that he's going to order some for him.
• After the ordeal reaching the Spring of Jungle Mist, whereupon you also have to plug the pool, the staff Toad says "Sorry about...well...everything."
• The intro to "Shy Guys Finish Last", a surprise game show, is pretty funny. The host Emcee Shy Guy says "You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wish you were in the audience instead of onstage!", and his intro card is subtitled "Sassy bow tie!"
• The staff Toad at the Spring of Rainbows gives some information about the spring.
  Staff Toad: Did you know that all rainbows in the world are simply light refracting through the steam of this spring? That's according to our marketing department, and marketing is a form of science, so it must be true.
• After Bowser Jr. finally gets his colors back through the bath in the Spring of Rainbows, Olivia immediately gushes over the newly-restored vibrant colors... all while she's staring at the face on the Clown Car.
  Bowser Jr.: Hey, lady, my face is up here!
• A subtle visual gag occurs during the Boss Sumo Bro. fight when the smaller Sumo Bros. steal action panels from the board. At the beginning, one is guaranteed to steal the ON switch, and when he puts it on his back, it flips upside down to read NO.
• After Bowser is freed, he tasks Mario with solving a security system to access the protected castle hangar, boasting that it's complex enough that he doesn't even fully understand it. Once you succeed, he has this to say.
  Bowser (joyfully): Bwahaha! I should have known you'd figure it out. Time to get a refund from my security guy.
• When the group boards the airship, Olivia (still laboring under the impression that Kamek was Shangri-Spa's groundskeeper), asks if Kamek is also the airship groundskeeper. Kamek replies that the broom he's carrying now is meant for flying...but he does see a few spots that could use a sweep.
• At the beginning of the flight:
  Olivia: This is amazing! I can't believe this heavy boat can fly through the air. I have to work pretty hard to float just a little bit. And this thing is HUGE! It's very you, Bowser.
  Bowser: Bwahaha! I'm glad you like it. They tell me it's the most powerful and least efficient vehicle ever produced.

Finale

• During the cannon minigame, there's a Koopa Paratroopa being pursued by two paper airplanes. You're supposed to save it by destroying the airplanes, but you can alternatively shoot the Paratroopa yourself, causing him to descend and somehow still survive to give you a heart.
• After the airship crashes:
  Bowser Jr. Aww, man! Dad's not gonna be happy about the airship. His insurance premiums are already so high!
  • This is especially funny when you consider that he's saying this to Mario, whose destruction of the vast majority of Bowser's airships and weapons is probably the reason the premiums are so high in the first place.
• The fact that, unlike the other members of the Legion of Stationery, who have humanlike manners, Stapler acts more like an Angry Guard Dog.
• While what he wants to use them for is very sinister in itself, the fact that Olly spent the whole game folding almost 1,000 origami cranes is worth a chuckle.

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