Remember That Time Luigi Was Said to Be Promoting Lesbianism in a Video Game?

Luigi of the beloved Super Mario Brothers and that famous Nintendo video game franchise has worn many hats: plumber, adventurer and, apparently, lesbian rights activist? Yes, a Luigi lesbian debacle once pegged the Italian plumber as a supporter of lesbian rights due to his appearance in a 2003 video game. Was there merit to those claims, or are people just sitting too close to the TV and losing their minds?

Houston Press, a local paper in the Texas city, writes, “In Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, Luigi celebrates good shots with an L-shaped hand gesture. Some interpreted that as the American Sign Language word for ‘lesbian,’ and it caused a very mild controversy.”

Of course it caused controversy, because … you know … people are bored.

Here’s a clip showing the Luigi lesbian gesture in action:

Is Luigi really signing the word “lesbian”? Probably not. First of all, he’s using the wrong hand, as the below clip demonstrates:

Most likely the plumber is signing “L” for, uh, Luigi. You know, his name.

But don’t get it twisted: the Super Mario Brothers are strongly pro-LGBTQ. The series has featured a trans character (Birdo) since Super Mario 2. And the helpful ghost Vivian in Super Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Girl is trans as well.

Mario, his brother Luigi and everyone else in the Super Mario Brothers universe is queer-friendly and fancy free. So while this Luigi lesbian debacle isn’t truly ‘a thing’ and he’s not spelling out his support for our lesbian sisters, he’s no doubt a staunch lesbian ally.

In other news, in case you hadn’t already heard, someone calculated the length of Luigi’s penis, and the internet lost its damn mind. Of course, what’s new? (Luigi’s penis is 3.7 inches flaccid, by the way, which fits the human average.)

Had you ever heard of this silly Luigi lesbian debacle?

This article was originally published on March 3, 2017. It has since been updated.