Kooky and Kuki

Here's another Ides of March quickie I just whipped up. Like that other one about Toad's mixed colors, this one looks at an oddity of the DiC-produced Super Mario Bros. cartoons. To be more exact, the fact that DiC gave the Koopalings different names other than their official ones because they didn't have names in the Japanese version of the game. If you've read my parody fanfic, King Koopa Katastrophe Spoof, you may have noticed that I made a running gag where Wendy O. Koopa is irritated with everyone calling her "Kootie Pie". However, Wendy is not the featured character here. Rather, it is her older brother Ludwig Von Koopa, who has a less recurring running gag of irritance of his cartoon name, "Kooky". Yeah, I know, that word does indeed fit him well, just as the cartoon names for Morton Koopa Jr. (Bigmouth) and Roy Koopa (Bully) do. But when you spell Ludwig's name another way, you think to yourself, "Isn't that a girl's name?" That's what I did.
And so, I drew this. It's Ludwig (colored in pencils and markers), telling an offscreen person that his name has been confused with that of Numbuh Three of "Codename: Kids Next Door" (colored in just markers). I had originally thought this up with Dr. Robotnik of "Sonic the Hedgehog" fame telling us that the "Eggman" monnikor is actually the name for the enemy drones of the Fiendish Organization of World Larceny from "Darkwing Duck". I never turned that sketch into a full picture, but it did lead to this when I realized that Ludwig's cartoon name has the same pronunciation (and almost the same spelling) as Numbuh Three's real name. This picture's also another milestone for me, as it's the first time I've ever drawn anyone from "Codename: Kids Next Door".
Ludwig is © Nintendo. Kuki is © Cartoon Network and Curious Pictures.