There are a lot of covers are the mario bros theme, but Jimmy Wong’s version is especially cute and singable because it goes beyond the source to make something really fun:

And as if the song itself weren’t amazing, the artist himself is a pretty neat guy. Check out the NPR story on him: Jimmy Wong Saves The Internet:

Jimmy Wong reminded me that the tools that can be deployed by the so-called cyberbullies are also freely available to those they harass.

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The lyrics are funny and good-spirited, and effectively turn the tables on the original rant. And the song itself has a catchy hook, has been viewed about 800,000 times, and is now for sale on iTunes.

When I was a kid, here’s one thing I never thought of saying to a bully who was about to pummel me:

“Hey, don’t mess with me. I’ve got a quirky sense of humor, a great singing voice, and I know how to code!”

But Jimmy Wong and many others are proving those types of creative skills could be a decent way to put up a defense.

Jimmy’s Mario song is available on iTunes along with a bunch of his other music, and proceeds are currently going to the Japanese relief efforts.

Those of you who follow me elsewhere may notice I wrote this post originally for cuwise, but I love the song so much and we’re overdue for an open thread so I’m re-using the post for this open thread. We try to have these regularly to give you a chance to talk about whatever you’d like. So nothing is off-topic here as long as you stay within our comment guidelines. Talk about music, games, or whatever else you think you’d like to level up in…