The series had a lot of ideas that were eventually tossed out in their videos. Here are the following examples:
- In the description of Tubbie TV, SMG4 said he was originally going to make the video in the form of a Ssenmodnar, but he decided to use a few new ideas instead of random things to keep it "PHRESH". Given the initial reaction to the final video, it's safe to say this backfired on him.
- "Hotel Mario" was originally going to be named either "Bellhop Mario" or "Live Like Hobos".
- "Freddy's Spaghettiria" was also originally going to be named "Five Days at Mario's".
- "Seaside Stupidity", the episode introducing Boopkins, was supposed to only be a single episode, but it became a two-parter (a first for the series) because Luke couldn't finish it all in time.
- Il Piantissimo from "Stupid Mario Sunshine" was going to be a recurring character. This never came to pass for one reason or another.
- "If Mario was In... Splatoon":
- Meggy was intended to be a One-Shot Character, but her unexpected popularity among the fanbase convinced Luke and Kevin to give her more and more focus until she became a main cast member.
- The Splatfest was originally scripted as an entire multi-round tournament, but Kevin realized it would be too much work for them back then. This concept would be recycled for Meggy's Destiny.
- Meggy's team was originally going to win the Splatfest, but Luke convinced Kevin to change it so they lost. They both consider this the first great "mistake" they made with her, crediting it as the reason Meggy became a Breakout Character.
- The Waluigi Arc was, in Luke and Kevin's own words, a complete accident. There were many aspects of it that were revised and changed as Luke and Kevin decided to roll with it and give the characters development. It was to the point that the arc almost didn't come into being at all.
- "Waluigi's Time" was originally going to have Waluigi leave the Mushroom Kingdom after being rejected and go to a temple to undergo training, meeting Desti along the way, before returning stronger than ever.
- "Mario and The T-Pose Virus" was originally going to end with Shroomy eating the T-Pose Mushroom without Waluigi's involvement, but they thought there would be no point to the ending and decided to have Waluigi be behind it. It was after seeing the huge amount of positive fan reaction to the episode that they decided to keep it going and plan out the whole arc from that point on.
- For "War of the Fat Italians 2018", SMG4 went through 3 iterations of the rap battle before settling on the final product. Also, the therapist at the end was originally going to be a bootleg Dr. Phil model rather than SMG3.
- Tari was going to have a much more robotic appearance with headphones, a Bomberman-style antenna, a Rayman-style lack of a neck, and a D-pad for a right eye. This orignal design would show up in "Into The Marioverse" and is the only Tari in that episode to not be voiced by Celeste Notley-Smith.
- "Mario the Ultimate Gamer" was conceived over a year before its release. It was going to be about Mario competing in Esports and needing a trainer; said trainer would've been Tari in a dumpster in the back of Peach's castle.
- Collab entries by Meneer en mevrouw trein and Akuago220 were planned to appear in the 3 million collab, but were ultimately scrapped. Despite this, their names are still listed in the credits.
- The Anime Arc was also largely different than what it ended up being:
- Boopkins was originally slated to be the main character, and he would be trying to make a company for smuggling anime into the Mushroom Kingdom following the Anime Ban. There was even a logo made for the company. Luke and Kevin ultimately didn't think they could make an entire arc out of the idea, so it was changed into what it is now.
- The Splatfest half of the Arc was originally its own arc idea, with Meggy going to do Splatfest until she gets attacked in the middle of the competition. The conspirators would've originally been an alien/shark species with their own location, but Luke and Kevin realized it would be too much work for them, especially since they were still working on Season 1 of Meta Runner. They ultimately kept the base idea and merged that with the base idea for the Anime Arc.
- Axol originally was supposed to be the Big Bad of the arc, as many had speculated, but Luke and Kevin ultimately didn't know how Axol would be able to pull off kidnapping the Inkling population on his own (this was before they came up with Inkweaver), nor what his motive would be for doing so. He was ultimately switched over to the good guys' side in order to make everything easier to explain and Francis was made the Big Bad in his stead. The others listing Axol as a suspect is a remnant of this scrapped plot.
- Meggy's human redesign had many iterations made, with the development spanning months, before settling on the final product.
- Melony's human form was supposed to debut in "War Of The Simps" after falling into Nathaniel Bandy's waifu machine. However, the model wasn't completed in time, so Melony was just relegated to a cameo (as NB's streaming rival). Her human form debuted a couple episodes later in "Mario's Mask Of Madness". This meant that Melony almost wouldn't have gained Fierce Deity powers.
- The "Welcome to GLITCH" video has a shot of beta and alpha designs for Axol
, showing he was originally going to be a human in the beta stage before becoming an Axolotl in the alpha stage. His alpha design also has differences from what he would become, most prominently a moustache and large eyebrows. - The Genesis Arc was first revealed in its official playlist under the name "Super Meme Genesis", but was quickly changed to its current name not long after. Of note is that the original name matches up to the SMG acronym, implying it may have been considered for being its true meaning before "Super Meme Guardian".
- "She's Back!" originally did have a skit for Luigi, but the team ultimately forgot to add it. The skit itself is about Luigi realizing he wasn't included in the main cast's then-recent adventures.
- Concept art for SMG0 shows that he was originally envisioned as a simple stick figure with a red eye in his eldritch form (which fits the look of his arm to a T). Then the team went through more monstrous designs (some which look even creepier than his final design) to fit in with the theme of Zero being corrupted before finally settling on his current design.
- Mario catching Meggy in "The Cursed Tapes" was one of three adlibs the editor MediExcalibur2012 (a.k.a Paul Stylianou) had in mind. The others included having Meggy escape and land on her feet, and her slamming into the wall. These others scenarios were scrapped when Paul decided, after doing a lot of research into why Meggy had become so divisive, to get Mario more involved and revitalize his friendship with Meggy. Fan reaction to that scene proved his theory correct.
- In a similar vein, "Mario Reacts to Nintendo Memes 11 Feat. Meggy" was supposed to have an additional scene at the end of the Mario Kart Wii sequence after Meggy crashes into the wall and explodes where Mario catches her and tells her "You're the superstar!". Paul was disappointed it was cut because he loves the wholesomeness of it.
- Another scene changed during production was where Mario crashed the girls' slumber party pretending to be gay. In the final cut, Mario sits between Tari and Meggy while pointing cooly at Tari with both hands. Paul's original cut had Mario point with only his left hand while using his right arm to pull Meggy into a side-hug.
- The new banner after the release of "Goodbye, SMG4" was supposed to be a lot darker, but was scrapped in favor of the remaining characters under Lawyer Kong's shadow.
- Then show-writer, Colin Rodgers, pitched an arc about SMG4 learning to accept his content without worrying about what others think, but it was scrapped in favor of the perfect video and "IT'S GOTTA BE PERFECT" saga. While some ideas are shared, there are drastic differences:
- Mr. Yeast's role was originally given to the "Meme Lords", who brush off SMG4 and want SMG3 to rule alongside them.
- SMG1 and SMG2 were major players, and were proactive when SMG4 starts shutting everyone out.
- SMG4's pitch for the Meme Lords is very similar to the perfect video, complete with SMG4 using an outside force to help him create it.
- As in the movie, the outside force corrupts SMG4. However, Mario deliberately corrupts the video to save him, instead of SMG3 snapping him out of it and helping him finish the video.
- The repercussions of the Lawsuit Arc would have been explored, with SMG4 being banned from Bloopersville, X and FM helping him get in, and SMG3 revealing that he sneaks in with a recolor mask, having never wanted a new body to begin with.
- This arc would have also spared Peach's Castle, which gets sunk permanently during the movie.
- "War of the Fat Italians 2023" is full of these moments, given the episode was written with the idea of fans choosing the next course of action for SMG3 and 4, the biggest one being that the episode could have ended with Mario and Marty escaping with SMG3's notebook if the fans had picked enough bad options. In particular, the soundtrack version of "Roll the Die" has an unused ending that sounds somber (while also containing the Puzzlevision Leitmotif), presumably reserved for a potential bad ending.
