# SMG4
**SMG4** (short for SuperMarioGlitchy4, later also SuperMemeGuardian4) is an Australian machinima comedy web series created by Luke Lerdwichagul, in which characters from [Super Mario 64](https://www.edgepedia.org/super-mario-64) and other Nintendo properties, alongside original characters, are animated using video game engines and placed in chaotic, meme-driven stories. It was released on the SMG4 YouTube channel from May 7, 2011 to December 27, 2025, running to 742 episodes across 15 seasons.[1](https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4_%28series%29) • [2](https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/Blooper_Guide) • [3](https://www.pluggedin.com/youtube-reviews/smg4/) The channel of the same name, created in February 2009, grew into one of YouTube's long-running machinima outlets and became the seedbed for the animation studio [Glitch Productions](https://www.edgepedia.org/glitch-productions).[4](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/smg4-supermarioglitchy4) • [5](https://www.glitchprod.com/about)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Format | Machinima comedy web series, originally filmed inside Super Mario 64 and later mostly in Garry's Mod[6](https://sm64community.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4_%28series%29) |
| Creator | Luke Lerdwichagul, an Australian-Thai YouTuber who began the series at age 11 (almost 12)[1](https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4_%28series%29) • [4](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/smg4-supermarioglitchy4) |
| Run | May 7, 2011 ("The Cake is a Lie!") to December 27, 2025 (the movie SMG4: THE END)[7](https://thetvdb.com/series/supermarioglitchy4s-super-mario-64-bloopers) • [8](https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4_%28channel%29) |
| Output | 742 episodes across 15 seasons, released weekly on Saturdays[2](https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/Blooper_Guide) • [3](https://www.pluggedin.com/youtube-reviews/smg4/) |
| Subscribers | 1 million in 2016, 5 million in 2021, and about 9 million by 2025[9](https://youtube.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4) • [10](https://glitchproductions.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4_%28channel%29) |
| Studio link | Produced uncredited by Glitch Productions from 2017 to 2025; the studio was founded by Luke and his brother Kevin Lerdwichagul[1](https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4_%28series%29) • [5](https://www.glitchprod.com/about) |
## Spoilers
### Ending
On October 29, 2025, Lerdwichagul announced that the series would end after 14 and a half years. In a video addressed to viewers, he said he felt he had creatively fulfilled what he wanted to do with the series and wanted to give it an ending it deserved: each remaining episode would follow SMG4 spending time with a character on their last adventure, culminating in a full movie on December 27, 2025, after which the channel would be left as it stands.[8](https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4_%28channel%29) • [15](https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/Thank_You_for_Everything/Transcript) The final movie, SMG4: THE END, premiered on that date and concluded the series; the channel is now inactive, with all uploads preserved.[8](https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4_%28channel%29) • [16](https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4%3A_THE_END) The finale drew over 12 million views, the largest figure for any recent video on the channel.[17](https://www.speakrj.com/audit/report/UC8LcA3grYZg0GNpxlXh8owg/youtube/media-stats)
## Origins
Super Mario 64 blooper videos, gameplay footage of a hacked Super Mario 64 with subtitle dialogue and self-insert characters, were already a YouTube genre by 2006, with creators such as MegaMan765 and MarioMario54321; ShadowMario64 is credited with starting the trend. Luke Lerdwichagul watched these machinima channels as a child and began making his own. His first two uploads, made in 2009, showed glitches in [Super Mario Sunshine](https://www.edgepedia.org/super-mario-sunshine) and a [Super Smash Bros.](https://www.edgepedia.org/super-smash-bros) picture slideshow; the earliest surviving video on the channel is the first blooper, "The Cake is a Lie!", uploaded May 7, 2011.[1](https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4_%28series%29) • [11](https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_videos_%28SMG4_channel%29) • [9](https://youtube.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4)
The early episodes were simple and crude: low-resolution footage, background music played over the game's own sound effects, and jokes built on randomness. Lerdwichagul switched to Sony Vegas around the end of 2011, which let him replace in-game audio cleanly, and he introduced the eponymous SMG4 character, a blue-and-white recolor of Mario standing in for the creator, in the 24th episode, "Account Loss".[8](https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4_%28channel%29) Recurring formats followed, including the Ssenmodnar random-video specials from 2012 and the yearly War of the Fat Italians, in which the cast performs dares submitted by commenters.[1](https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4_%28series%29)
## Production and style
The series is machinima, animation made by manipulating a video game's graphics engine, and it relied on pastiche and sampling of copyrighted game characters, sounds, and songs.[4](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/smg4-supermarioglitchy4) Episodes ran about 10 minutes on average, released weekly on Saturdays, with Mario's foolish behavior typically driving plots that required SMG4 or other characters to intervene.[4](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/smg4-supermarioglitchy4) • [7](https://thetvdb.com/series/supermarioglitchy4s-super-mario-64-bloopers) Running time grew over the years, from 1 to 15 minutes in seasons 1 through 3 to 9 to 15 minutes by seasons 8 through 15, with movies at 40 to 50 minutes.[1](https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4_%28series%29)
The humor is adult slapstick mixed with internet meme culture; the channel's best-known recurring format is a series in which machinimated Mario and other characters react to Nintendo memes in the style of YouTube reaction videos.[4](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/smg4-supermarioglitchy4) • [6](https://sm64community.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4_%28series%29) Lerdwichagul has said the channel is careful never to place third-party characters in a hateful or defamatory context, out of respect for the copyright holders whose characters the videos use.[12](https://www.inverse.com/gaming/smg4-luke-lerdwichagul-interview)
## Evolution and story arcs
From 2018 the series began drifting away from self-contained gag episodes toward serialized storytelling. According to IMDb, the series has featured seven story arcs and one saga: the Waluigi Arc in 2018, the Rapper Bob Arc in 2018, the Anime Arc in 2019, the YouTube Arc in 2020, the Genesis Arc in 2021, the Revelations Arc spanning 2021 to 2022, the Lawsuit Arc in 2022, and the Puzzlevision Saga running from 2023 to 2025.[13](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7029396/trivia/) From 2018 onward the yearly War of the Fat Italians specials generally served as finales for these arcs.[1](https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4_%28series%29)
In 2023 the series became an animated show with an original intellectual property, with more fluid animation, redesigns of SMG4, SMG3, Fishy Boopkins, and Meggy, and the phasing out of miniseries built on Nintendo properties such as Stupid Mario and If Mario was in...[1](https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4_%28series%29) The focus shifted increasingly from Nintendo characters to the cast of original characters, including Tari, Bob Bobowski, and SMG4 himself.[3](https://www.pluggedin.com/youtube-reviews/smg4/)
## Channel milestones
The channel passed 1,000 subscribers in June 2012, 1 million subscribers in October 2016, and 5 million in 2021; by 2025 it had reached about 9 million.[1](https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4_%28series%29) • [9](https://youtube.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4) • [10](https://glitchproductions.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4_%28channel%29) Its most-viewed upload, "super mario 64 bloopers: Who let the chomp out?" from September 7, 2014, has almost 60 million views, and the first blooper itself passed 1.4 million views over a decade.[4](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/smg4-supermarioglitchy4) Video quality improved in stages, including a move to Bandicam for recording in 2015, and the first episode titled with the "SMG4:" prefix, "SMG4: Mario goes to DIDNEY WORL", appeared in 2017.[8](https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4_%28channel%29)
## Glitch Productions
In 2017 Luke and his older brother Kevin Lerdwichagul founded Glitch Productions (originally Glitchy Boy) in Sydney, Australia, with the stated goal of changing how the West makes teen and young adult animation.[5](https://www.glitchprod.com/about) Luke had dropped out of university that year to work on the channel full time with his brother.[12](https://www.inverse.com/gaming/smg4-luke-lerdwichagul-interview) The studio produced SMG4 uncredited from 2017 to 2025, and its own series, including [Meta Runner](https://www.edgepedia.org/meta-runner), Sunset Paradise, Murder Drones, and [The Amazing Digital Circus](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-amazing-digital-circus), moved to or launched on the separate GLITCH channel; Meta Runner season 1 had aired on the SMG4 channel until 2020.[1](https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4_%28series%29) • [8](https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4_%28channel%29) • [14](https://lackadaisy.fandom.com/wiki/Glitch_Productions) The company remains fully self-funded and independent, with over 250 staff members.[5](https://www.glitchprod.com/about)
## References
1. [SMG4 (series), The SMG4 Wiki](https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4_%28series%29)
2. [Blooper Guide, The SMG4 Wiki](https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/Blooper_Guide)
3. [SMG4 YouTube Channel Review, Plugged In](https://www.pluggedin.com/youtube-reviews/smg4/)
4. [SMG4 / Supermarioglitchy4, Know Your Meme](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/smg4-supermarioglitchy4)
5. [About, Glitch Productions](https://www.glitchprod.com/about)
6. [SMG4 (series), SM64 Machinima Wiki](https://sm64community.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4_%28series%29)
7. [SMG4, TheTVDB.com](https://thetvdb.com/series/supermarioglitchy4s-super-mario-64-bloopers)
8. [SMG4 (channel), The SMG4 Wiki](https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4_%28channel%29)
9. [SMG4, Wikitubia](https://youtube.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4)
10. [SMG4 (channel), Glitch Productions Wiki](https://glitchproductions.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4_%28channel%29)
11. [List of videos (SMG4 channel), The SMG4 Wiki](https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_videos_%28SMG4_channel%29)
12. [SMG4: The trippiest gamer on YouTube reveals the one line he'll never cross, Inverse (2022)](https://www.inverse.com/gaming/smg4-luke-lerdwichagul-interview)
13. [SMG4 (TV Series 2011–2025) Trivia, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7029396/trivia/)
14. [Glitch Productions, Lackadaisy Wiki](https://lackadaisy.fandom.com/wiki/Glitch_Productions)
15. [Thank You for Everything/Transcript, The SMG4 Wiki](https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/Thank_You_for_Everything/Transcript)
16. [SMG4: THE END, The SMG4 Wiki](https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/SMG4%3A_THE_END)
17. [SMG4 YouTube Video Stats, SpeakRJ](https://www.speakrj.com/audit/report/UC8LcA3grYZg0GNpxlXh8owg/youtube/media-stats)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Web-native and streaming-original series › Early English-language web series (1997–mid 2010s)*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license