About
Luigi’s Death Stare is a meme originating from the eighth instalment of the Mario Kart franchise, Mario Kart 8, featuring the character Luigi making a number of uncomfortable looks during gameplay of the game. After these scenes were posted online, the meme grew in popularity, spawning many parodies.
Origin
The meme originates from a video titled “Waluigi vs Luigi” (shown below, left), which was posted to Youtube by YouTuber Rizupicorr[1] on May 30, 2014, showing a section of a highlight reel in which Luigi knocks out Waluigi using a green shell, before giving him an uncomfortable stare as he continues to drive past, and gained over 60,000 views. Another video, titled “Mario Kart 8 – Luigi’s Death Stare” was also posted to Youtube the same day by user Mega Beardo[2](shown below, right), featuring Luigi attempting to overtake Mario, gaining over 5,000 views.
Spread
The meme did not grow in popularity until May 31, when Youtuber CZbwoi[3] posted a parody of the video using the original clip (shown below), showing the scene alongside the 2006 song Ridin’ by Chamillionaire. As of June 2, the video has over 400,000 views and over 11,000 likes.
Them meme further grew in popularity after a post titled “Luigi Death Stare” featuring a GIF of the scene was posted to Reddit’s r/gaming board on June 1[4]. The post received a positive reception from the community, garnering over 3,000 upvotes and over 800 comments, enticing other users to post parodies of their own. The topic was soon brought up on a number of different gaming forums and news sites, such as The Independent[5], IGN[6], Polygon[7] and N4G[8].
Notable Examples
External References
[1]YouTube – Rizupicorr’s Channel
[2]YouTube – Mega Beardo’s Channel
[3]YouTube – CZbwoi’s Channel
[4]Reddit – Luigi death-stare
[5]The Independent – Luigi’s ‘death stare’ will instantly make you want to buy Mario Kart 8
[6]IGN– Luigi Death Stare in Mario Kart 8
[7]Polygon – Luigi isn’t playing games with his ‘death stare’ in Mario Kart 8