It's finally time that we unravel the mystery
of the magnificent and manipulative Mr. Mr. Mxyz...sps...oh my god. “It’s Mix...Yez...Spit...Lick.” I know
there's like six other ways to say it, but you can handle this,
and we can all still be friends, capisce? Mr. Mxyzptlk is the little floaty magic
dude who flips our heroes on their heads on a regular basis, and sometimes, but not always, sounds like Gilbert Gottfried. “How can you not know me?
You’re breakin’ my heart!” He's appeared in nearly
every single version of the DC Universe, causing problems for Superman
and his super friends since the original wartime
Superman comics, by use of a variety of diabolical pranks
ranging from harmlessly turning people into farm animals
to destroying all of existence, and then bringing it all back
with a giggle. Curiously, in a 2017 issue of Action
Comics, Paul Dini introduced the concept of Mr. Mxyzptlk
always being the same Mr. Mxyzptlk every single time
we see him, no matter the medium, that there aren't
two different versions of him in every reality,
there's just infinite realities and one single Mr. Mxyzptlk,
cruisin’ and bruisin’. But is Mr. Mxyzptlk truly always the same guy? Or are there any contradixyzptlks? Really tried to make that work. I'm James Strecker, and today we're going to be looking at 80 years
of Mxy across comics, cartoons, TV shows, video games, and everything
in between, to figure this out... ‘cause this is what I do
to feed my family now. “I’m going to kill you!” “You shouldn't get ahead of yourself!” [FIGHTING SOUNDS] Look, we all want to be kids
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for sponsoring this video. Now let's get back to
Mr. Mxydadabada... [KISSING SOUNDS] When Mxy’s design from
“Superman: The Animated Series” showed up
in the backup story of Action Comics #975, it was a real treat for me. Mr. Mxyzptlk weaves a stunning
visual tapestry describing how each and every time you see him anywhere
ever, he's always the same little guy... ...or not so little. Thomas
Lennon is 5’ 8”, after all, and that's not SHORT short, That's Ted-sized, at least
according to his driver's license. Don't ask questions. Now, tons of DC characters get reintroduced
across different media all the time with the same backstories or cheeky
references to past versions of themselves and that doesn't mean
they're THE same character. When we see Christian Bale Batman it's not the same Batman as George Clooney
or the other George Clooney. Are these the same George Cloo--? Never mind,
that's not what we're talking about. From a certain point of view, that's what Mxy writers
have been doing for forever, too, taking the established 1940s comic book imp and going,
“and here's my interpretation.” So with the “same guy” retcons,
how does that work? What makes Mxy so different? You're smart. You've seen the latest Spider-Man
and Doctor Strange movies. You've watched Rick and Morty. You know what the multiverse is...
or you haven't seen any of those things, thereby creating another universe
where you have. See? You get it. You're smart. DC Comics’ multiverse
has been around a while, and a few years ago, Grant Morrison and Rian Hughes
actually mapped the thing, showing the grouping of different Earths
surrounded by layers of different realms and afterlifes
and this, that, and the other. But all of this exists
in the 3rd dimension. Mxy comes from two dimensional planes
higher than that, one of many 5th dimensional beings
in DC like Bat-Mite, Qwsp, Zook, Thunderbolt,
even Larry from “Teen Titans.” Well, actually Larry comes from Dimension
4 and 9/8, but you get it, you're smart! “The Periodic Table of DC” states: And as our boy Ted put it so eloquently on a recent episode
of our podcast, “Jump on the Bat-Wagon”... “Parallel Earths are separated by different
frequencies, but different dimensions... “I mean, think about a 2nd
dimensional thing. “That's a piece of paper.
We're in a three-dimensional world. “So think about what our world looks
to 4th dimensional beings “and even 5th dimensional beings like Mr. Mxyzptlk.”
“Yeah.” “And thank you for continuing
to say his name like pretty dang good.” Seems to mean he’s even the same Mxy down to
when he's in a kids’ book or when he's a toy or something. Hello...? The recent “My Adventures with Superman”
cartoon also has a Mxy explaining how he's messed with Superman across
several realities, including the DCAU, continuing to solidify this concept. And the most recent edition
of the “DC Comics Encyclopedia” says: It's canon
in the eyes of the almighty publisher. “I have been present through
all of what has been and what will be!” So, why question it then? If it's in official guides
written into a comic, written into a show... isn't that enough? Well, you may have heard of a little thing
called retroactive continuity. It wasn't always meant to be this way. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
certainly didn't have any of this in mind when they wrote the first Mxy
comic during World War II. But after retcon, after reboot, after
relativity remix, that's the idea today. Plus, when have official guides ever
been 100% reliable? It's always
just Scott Beatty doing his best. Keep up the good fight, Scott,
we love ya! So, like the ridiculously nerdy nerd
that I am, I'm going to fact check our friends in the biz. I'm going to figure out if Mr. Mxyzptlk is really
always the same guy. But, like, what, do you expect me to read and watch every single appearance
of Mxy from the past 80 years? [CHUCKLING] “Well, I did, right up until you chuckled
like that.” Well, no, there's no way. But calm down! Here's what I did consume,
because it's still a lot. Every cartoon episode he’s
appeared in from the 1960s to today. Every live action television episode
he's in or mentioned in. Every video game he’s in. Every official DC guidebook
that gives him an entry. And of course, like a good boy,
every major comic story he's featured in, including his very first,
and at least one issue, if not multiple, from every era of DC: Golden Age,
Silver Age, Post-Crisis, New 52, Rebirth, the works...which is still 94 things in three weeks! “This is too much!
Ah ha ha!” This has led to being confident
in the basics of what makes Mxy Mxy, which we can bounce off each version and determine whether or not
they're the same purple-hatted prankster. He comes from the 5th dimension,
specifically a world called Zrfff. From here,
he can view events of the 3rd dimension. “I can see everything
from the 5th dimension.” He's centuries
old, screwing with the 3rd dimension nearly just as long. His consistent goal for hopping dimensions is: “I can't help
if I keep goofing on that big lug. “It's what I do!” And, when he's tricked into saying his name backwards, he's banished
back to the 5th dimension for 90 days, all his magical f*ckery undone. For a dude
so chaotically unpredictable, he's surprisingly consistent. And here's something that doesn't matter: him looking different
than the last time we saw him. Mxy can magically change his appearance, he can fit each reality's “style,” he can disguise himself as anyone
and anything. And also, exhibit
“different lens,” which imps are probably even aware of. The “Mxy en scène” is always
some fresh retake. He's a “Dragon Ball” character in MAWS. He's even Howie Mandel in this one.
Count down to Mr. Mxyzptlk accidentally posting
a TikTok of a prola-- Mxy has been puppeteered by
so many writers across so many instances, there's no way they all talked to each other
to keep cohesion. In fact, some of those writers were born
after others had already passed away. So we have to come at this subjectively
and form our own opinions. These are just my findings, but damn if I don't think I'm the first person
to really do this and do this right, and I don't know if I deserve an award or
retirement. But nevertheless, here we go! And for the sake of a smooth entry point,
because this is the Watchtower Database, we're going to begin...
with the DC Animated Universe. “Don't worry, though, I'll be hitting
those other spots soon enough.” Mr. Mxyzptlk’s first appearance
in the DCAU...was actually as a toy in the apartment of robotics engineer
Karl Rossum, with Krypto the Superdog, Streaky
the Supercat and Bat-Mite. [KISSING SOUND] But the real Mxy popped
into the “Superman” animated series in the episode “Mxyzpixilated,”
also written by Paul Dini. Does this version fit the bill? “I’m a superior
being from the 5th dimension.” “That’s him!” “For the centuries now, “I've been pitting my interdimensional
magic against schmoes.” “That’s him!” “But then you showed up: Superman! “You, my friend, are
the ultimate challenge!” “That’s him!” “You make me say my name backwards
and I'll split. “Oh, three months, eh, give or take.” “That’s him!” Now, tiny thing here. Mxy does change the rule
to where he now has to say his name backwards twice in a row. But that could easily just mean
Mxy himself is setting up the game and the universe
forces him to abide by it. At the end, Mxy has walls of Superman memorabilia
lining his home, potentially from countless other super-
rendezvous, and he even transforms himself into a missile
with a kryptonite warhead, despite not even a mention of kryptonite
before in this episode. So he's got to have met
other Supermen before this, or at least been spying on DCAU Supes. Brian pointed this out on the podcast,
actually. [SNIFFS]
Old man's growing up. I asked Paul Dini on Twitter
if he had the “same guy” idea in mind when writing this, and he responded: There's a funny Iago
parallel somewhere in there, but I digress. The episode's director, Dan Riba,
also chimed in with: A mythical creature’s name
having power over them is present in many fairy tales
as well, like “Rumplestiltskin.” “I'll let you keep the child if... “...and I just love this part...
if you can guess my name.” [EXPLOSION] So while the showrunners’ heads weren't
necessarily in the same place back... ...oh god, bordering on 30 years ago...
as they'd be today with Mxy, it's nice to know all the pieces of the puzzle
are still there. When Mxy appears in Superman
Adventures, his stories almost always amount to him
manipulating time. He runs everything in
Metropolis backwards. He time travels to Clark
Kent's teen years. Parasite steals his powers,
and he uses them to manipulate time. And Mxy goes back in
time to before Krypton exploded. So, we get a “That’s him!”
for that whole “beyond time itself” thing. My guess is time travel
stories were just the easiest method of staying out of the way of the cartoon’s continuity,
though ironically Mxy’s first Adventures issue hit shelves months before
“Mxyzpixilated” aired. “You blew it, you jerks!” While usually the “name backwards” thing sends Mxy home, in his JLU
comic appearance, he just decides that's not a thing anymore. And we even see Superman escape the 5th dimension
once by saying his own name backwards. So this seems to be our first sort
of contradictory element here, even within the same or very,
very adjacent universes. Is Mxy the one making the rules,
or does he have to abide by predetermined ones? Keep this in mind
as we go. On a positive note, Mxy knows the names of various
Superman villains and supporting cast he's, to our knowledge,
never met, even down to Catwoman. So that's a “That’s him!”
for bearing witness to 3rd dimensional events,
which segues us nicely into Mxy’s second and only other on-screen
DCAU appearance, “Little Big Head Man.” Here, he manipulates Bizarro
into doing his dirty work so he can skirt around
technically messing with Superman. “Mr. Mizzy...plizzy...?” “Eh, don't bother,
you'll give yourself a hernia.” But the 5th dimensional tribunal
doesn't really buy it and say he's broken interdimensional law,
which Mxy’s girlfriend Gsptlsnz echoes is
“For the umpteenmillionth time...” The judges say Mxy is “repeatedly determined
to invade the 3rd dimension,” at which point we're shown the cover
of Action Comics #80 from 1945. Clearly, the DC Animated Universe
is not the first time Mr. Mxyzptlk has caused chaos for Superman. So what better opportunity than now
to roll back the rock to the dawn o’ time and check out Mxy’s
very first comics ever? What's fun is the way “Mxyzpixilated”
takes a lot of cues from Mxy's first ever comic, which was technically
his second appearance since some Mxy newspaper strips that were drawn
later wound up being published first. “You blew it, you jer--!” Superman #30
gave us “The Mysterious Mr. Mxyzptlk.” Or, wait, that was “Mxyztplk”?
The T and the P are flipped? Must be a typo....nope!
That's how it's spelled the whole issue, and the next issue,
and the next issue, and the next-- It’s even how it's spelled on that comic cover
in STAS! “Confusing, ain't it?” Strangely enough,
the original Golden Age appearances of Mr. Whatever are all spelled
this way, on record by various Schwartzes is being pronounced either
“mux-itz-pulk” or “mix-yitz-pulk.” Supposedly, as the story goes,
when Mxy showed up in the Silver Age in the late ‘50s, writer Jerry Coleman
just plain forgot how to spell the name and we wound up with “Mxyzptlk”
for the rest of time. In “Who's Who,” we get two side-by-side entries for Mr. Mxyztplk and Mr. Mxyzptlk who, despite being
pretty much identical in power sets, motives, and so on, are said
to be separate characters. However, if you recall, Paul
Dini's Action Comics story establishes that he's gone by this name
and many other variations, and he's even made light of this concept down the road,
like he's aware of the change. So, one more thing I should mention
doesn't matter if it's different: the spelling or pronunciation of his name. Every writer,
editor and actor says it differently. “My name is
Mix-iz-pittle-ick.” “Mixel-plick!” “Mix-yez-pittle-ick.” “Mix-yez-spit-lick?” “Mix...what?!” [CHARACTERS TALKING OVER EACH OTHER]
“...say your name forward!” You can handle this and we can all still be
friends, capisce?! Anyway, those fun nods in STAS?
That’d be Mxy looking all over for “McGurk!” Walking into traffic,
interacting with Rodin’s Thinker, and otherwise almost
shot-for-shot-ing the original comic. It can be assumed that the episode isn't just adapting the comic,
but Mxy is almost purposely repeating his old hijinx in STAS
as a callback that he knows is a callback. This being the first time Mxy
came into existence, at least for us, he, of course, exhibits all the expected
qualifications, so he gets all the “That’s him!”s. But the most interesting thing
we learn about him in this original comic is how he got to the 3rd dimension
in the first place. We see Mxy in the 5th dimension
pulling a big book off the wall, described as being from “the secret volumes
of a brilliant scholar,” labeled “Mxyztplkology.” “The study of [Mxyztplk]?
It’s first grade, SpongeBob.” With this book, he learns magic words
that enable him to hop between dimensions. “She about to start some sh*t, Zed.
Those books are way too advanced for her.” Since “Klptzyxm,” his name backwards,
seems to be the one that sends him back, it can be presumed that “Mxyztplk”
gets him there, but does that mean “Mxyz-whatever” isn't his actual name,
but just the name he goes
by because of this big honkin’ book? “The DC Encyclopedia” says
his name is “untranslatable,” and the “Periodic Table” book calls it
“unpronounceable.” So, much like the look of him,
it seems Mxy’s name, his true name, is incomprehensible to 3rd dimensional
beings such as ourselves. In the “World’s Funnest” comic from 2000, he even tells Bat-Mite his first name, and it's exceptionally long. [TRYING TO PRONOUNCE] “You might as well forget it,
‘cause you’re never gonna get it!” “Crisis” this and “Crisis” that later,
the typo, or lack thereof, however you want to spin it, has since been
retconned out of being a problem at all. The two are the same Mxy. He would go on to appear in dozens,
hundreds of comic books over the decades, a couple of which will come back to, but meanwhile, he found himself on our TVs
pretty regularly, even outside of Paul Dini's hands. “The universe we know as ours
may not be the only one, “a fact that the Super Friends
are about to become all too aware of.” Mxy was brought out of the comic page and onto the screen
for the very first time in 1966, in “The New Adventures of Superman.” Yes, very “new” indeed. This was a few years
after his name changed, so we get a nice “Mxyzptlk.” “I come from the 5th dimension.” “That’s him!” “The only way
I can return to my own dimension “is to say my name backward.” “That’s him!” So good, so far. Now, I'm
no expert in these older cartoons, but supposedly this is the same continuity
as the string of “Super Friends” animated series
that would come a few years later. David Gallaher, somebody, correct me
in the comments if I'm wrong. Either way, same universe or
“not quite the same,” Mr. Mxyzptlk like shows up in 8 “Super Friends”
episodes. Or, sorry, that's: “Mixel-plick.” “Mr. ...Mixel-plick?” “He's a cosmic joker
from the 5th dimensional world of Zrfff, “and he gets no greater pleasure
than to make a fool out of me.” “That’s him!” And preemptive... “That’s him!” [REPEATED] We're speedrunning this sh*t now. In every “Super Friends” Mxy episode,
it's more or less the same thing. He shows up, goofs around for somewhere
between 7 and 22 minutes, they get him to say his name backwards, he’s sent home, the end.
Despite the fact that “home” is pretty empty and we never see any other 5th
dimensional imps in this show. But my favorite aspect of these episodes
is that almost every single one of them revolves around Mxy forcing
the Super Friends into some kind of trap to do with a storybook or film
or other piece of fiction. He scoops them up into a drive-in movie. He writes his own movie and casts
the heroes as actors against their will. He even once
puts them inside “The Wizard of Oz.” Ah, I get it. Like “Man of Steel,” but now he's the “Man of Tin.” “Well, well...it looks like the Man of Steel
is now the Man of Tin!” [LAUGHS] Yeah, that's what I just f*cking said. It's as if he knows this is a TV show
and he can't help but have his pranks reflect that. “Ever hear of reruns with changes?” A couple times, he even looks
at the camera like he's on “The Office.” He knows he's on a cartoon,
the little f*cker. He also adds to our understanding
of that big magic spell book or whatever from his very first comic
when he...uh...let me see if I have this right...tricks
the Super Friends into turning their costumes
or bodies into different made up technobabble elements,
which he then combines and drinks, and says will make it so he can never be
sent back to the 5th dimension again. “We figured out your little scheme
hours ago.” “So I changed my Kryptoleadnium
suit back into tin!” ...what? Also, I just really like this part
where Superman almost sounds sarcastic when he realizes
Aquaman's been sent to his doom. “Oh no, what have I done?” But interestingly, in that very
first ‘60s cartoon, Superman dresses down to Clark Kent
to try and trick Mxy into saying “Klipple-skim” or whatever the hell passes
for his name backwards in this continuity, and Mxy...doesn't recognize him. In nearly
every other appearance ever, he just automatically knows
Superman and Clark are one and the same. Which begs the sidebar...does time
perhaps still pass in the 3rd dimension the same way, for Mxy anyway, despite
which universe he hops to? Like, is there a progression of some kind
from Mxy’s POV? For example, in a “Super Friends” episode,
we get: “My mother taught me never to lie!
I never lie!” and then he
literally learns how to lie from Lex Luthor in an ‘80s comic, then lies
constantly in “My Adventures with Superman.” “I went through some really excellent lies
to avoid this exact scenario!” So it's not like every Superman's life
is happening simultaneously across Earths. A ‘60s cartoon
Mxy story is literally earlier on than a ‘90s cartoon Mxy story. Each of his appearances is at least
90 days apart, or roughly three months 3rd dimension time, or George, Relish, Pants, whatever
5th dimension time. 634 comics times three months, spread out
gets us to 158.5 years bare minimum, that Mxy
has been messing with Superman. And that's not even counting any TV show
or anything else. Plus, Mxy himself even says in Dini’s
comic that sometimes he just forgets and: This number is almost twice the amount of
time Superman's even existed at all! But while that was just a tangent
for the sake of chaos, if time does march on for Mxy,
so it must for the history of television. For his debut in 1989’s first season
of “Superboy,” he was played by Michael J. Pollard, who you may know from...
I don't know, “Roxanne”? “Scrooged”? That one episode of the original “Star Trek” where the Enterprise saves a group of kids whose parents were all killed
by a deadly virus? Yeah, I don't remember it either. And let me tell you, the dude is just...
like, he must be drunk, right? “Look, I know these losers are your people,
and I love you for your loyal to him...really.” “The 5th dimension is another...universe!
It’s a parallel universe!” Why is he moving his hands like he's
giving a fourth grade class presentation? “Superboy” Mxy hits all the check
marks as well. He's defeated by saying:
“...a heartfelt Kltpzyxm.” “Good-bye, Mxyzptlkt.” “That’s him!” And he's even there in the first place because of an ancient dimensional seal. “The tribe shaman devised this totem to block the gate
from their world to ours.” And Superboy
just yanked that sh*t out of the ground. “That’s him!” So while this guy's clearly like 20
Budweisptlks in, it seems he's still the same Mxy. “Ready or not, here he comes!” Debatably better is his next live action appearance
on a 1996 episode of “Lois & Clark.” “Name’s Mxyzptlk.
Mr. Mxyzptlk. “It’s spelled the usual way.” He's from the 5th dimension,
exhibits the powers we expect, all of that. “That’s him!” [REPEATED] Though one particular scene
early on gives us some interesting dialogue. “See, in the past, when I used to come here,
there would always be “some joker who’d figure out how to banish me
back to the 5th dimension, “but not this time. “See, there's only one
three-dimensional biped that can stop me, “and I have tracked him
right here to Metropolis.” He speaks as if he's met Superman,
or at least some Superman, or men, before. Mxy’s more determined than ever to try something new and not
fall prey to the same defeat once again. But of course, he does anyway. “Oh, rats!” And by 2017, we've made it to the most recent and perhaps most peculiar
instance of live action Mxy: the Arrowverse. In particular, “Supergirl.” “M...Mix...”
“Mxyzptlk. It’s spelled like it sounds.” You used that one already! Mxy originally shows up on this show as a dashing
young British man played by Peter Gadiot. He's next in, so far, a pretty long line of,
“Yeah, I have no reason to believe “this isn't the same guy.” “Between genies, jinn, and leprechauns, [”THAT’S HIM!” REPEATING]
“humans have been documenting contact for centuries.” [”THAT’S HIM!” REPEATING]
“Why don’t you just say your name backwards, buddy, [”THAT’S HIM!” REPEATING]
“and just--just zap back to wherever you came from?” [”THAT’S HIM!” REPEATING]
“I watched you across the dimensions.” “Without McGurk-El around!” But, this Mxy adds a new dynamic: extra rules in the rulebook. “I'm not going to marry you, Mxyzptlk.” “That's one of the few things “I can't make you do. That,
and make you fall in love with me “and/or stop you from killing yourself, “and/or make you drink orange juice
for some reason!” “It's not a pretty picture. “I don't like doing it!” See, as seasons pass and Mxyzptlk reappears
many more times on this show, now as Thomas Lennon...which he says is because
he doesn't need to look all hot anymore. But, you know, to each
their own. “New boot goofin’. Oh!” ...it's clarified
that imps from the 5th dimension simply cannot kill anyone
in the 3rd dimension, which seems pretty antithetical
to what we've seen of Mxy elsewhere. “Fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly, “I've gotta bug that jerk ‘til I die! “Or HE does!” In “Justice League Action,”
Mxy straight-up drops the Daily Planet globe onto Green Lantern.
Like, he just murders him. It's reversed shortly after, but he does! In “Superboy,” Jaws from “James Bond” is another 5th dimensional imp who
literally turns a man into a giant tomato and then explodes him
onto the windshield of a car. Jesus Chri--! Bat-Mite and Mxy even kill
the whole multiverse in “World’s Funnest.” They reset everything at the end,
but they still do it! And maybe that's just it. If it's undone after the fact,
it doesn't count? Feels like a loophole
the tribunal wouldn't love. But even past that, Thomas Lennon Mxy
just kind of becomes a sympathetic ally to Supergirl
and her team over the course of the show, even helping them to fight the main
antagonist of the final season, all of which doesn't
really jive with... “I’m Mr. Mxyzptlk, an interdimensional
peacekeeper, and I need your help!” “Nope!” If this is you, you won our latest
giveaway! Congrats! We left a reply to your comment for what
to do next. Make sure it's really us,
with the checkmark! Next giveaway is this stuff! You can enter
to win by leaving a comment below answering our Question of the Day
from the end of this video. Unpause! Welcome back to Thomas Lennon in a sec, but our analysis requires
that I got to toss this guy into the mix... ...yzptlk. “This is Mxyzptlk. “He calls himself the chaos god.” Honestly, probably my favorite Mxy
story of the bunch. He doesn't just show up, do some crazy
sh*t, say “Kltpzyxm,” and go away. “Everybody knows the wizened old man
from the comics “or the slightly cuter wizened old man
who Gilbert Gottfried played.” “Right.” “We didn't want to do what people have seen
before. “Our memories as kids of being like “ ‘Mr. Mxyzptlk was very sinister!’” “Yeah.” “It's like, ‘Oh my god, he's turning people at a cats!’
Um... “But that was the memory “was he’s a sinister guy.” “Yeah.” “So we want to play that up.” This, uh, “Miyazakiplk”
wants to rule the multiverse and will destroy anyone who gets in
his way. As is probably obvious, since this guy's half the basis
for this whole video, this Mxy is no stranger to countless
Supermans across the multiverse. He even knows the Earth designation numbers
for various realities. He's a seasoned pro... ...even if he does
mix up the Earth numbers a little bit, but that is for another video. Oh... Uh...right. But what does connect him
back to the “Supergirl” version? His little...purple...hat. Both Mxys, at one point or another,
are shown to derive their 5th dimensional powers from the classic bowler
hat, like it's an anchor and conduit for the energies of their home
dimension. In MAWS, Mxy’s hat is being held
at the League of Lois Lanes’ HQ, he steals it back,
he gets his powers back. In “Supergirl,” Mxy’s hat is being held at L-Corp, he steals it back,
he gets his powers back. Even curiouser? The writers of these two shows
never talked to each other. “It's another one of just parallel ideas. “A lot of it is, like, all of us
wanting to pay “a little bit of homage to, like,
you know, that classic Mxy “that we all see.”
“Yeah.” “That, like, bowler hat
is, like, such a big part of him, “more than almost
any other part of his outfit. “The animated series, he’s in a little suit.
When he‘s, like, futzin’ around with, like, “Superman in, like, the John Byrne stuff,
he's wearing like a weird leotard, like, “it’s the bowler hat that remains.”
“But the hat’s always there.” “Yeah, yeah.”
“Oh yeah, that’s right.” “I worked at L-Corp for about two years
before Lena found me out. “We caught a criminal.
He didn't have a name, but he had a hat “they you could pull anything out of.” “Old drinking buddy of mine.
I lost that had to him in a poker game. “That hat contains a lot of 5th
dimensional magic.” Oh, no. There's a whole ‘nother character earlier on in “Supergirl” who stole Mxy’s
hat, named...The Hat? What was he called before he had the hat? Yes, a season prior, Supergirl
faced The Elite, which included this Hat character. In the comics, The Hat was just a regular ol’ Japanese
guy whose hat was powered by a demon. But here... “I've seen hats like that before. “They use 5th-dimensional energy.” He continuously pulls weapons out of it
and uses it to teleport himself and the other villains around. We never learn how the Arrowverse Hat
got Mxy’s...hat. But when I asked one of the episode's
writers, Eric Carrasco (you know, who also co-wrote
Justice League vs The Fatal Five), he told me: Dude even kept the Mxy hat prop.
Has it on a shelf in his house. Why does he get to be this cool?! This connection between characters never made it into any episode,
and Eric was only involved with the show through the end of this season,
but he'd been seeding 5th-dimensional-related subplots
for a while, with Mxy’s first episode even having J’onn J’onzz and Mon-El
both mention encountering 5-D imps before on their home planets.
And the great Carl Lumbly, playing J’onn's dad, referred to J’onn's
childhood imaginary friend... “Zook.” “Zook!”
“Zook!” You remember Zook. We showed him earlier for, like, 3 seconds. Eric was even gracious enough to share with me
some plot idea notes he found from a 2018 writers’
meeting on “Supergirl.” Half or more of these Hat/Mxy
plot points never actually saw the light of day, and with the show being over now,
are probably just going to be unresolved forever. But does that mean that “Mxy 911”
and “Miyazakiplk” being
so different is really a problem? “Now, I can't use any of my powers
except to help those whom I have wronged. “Great news: you’re the last one.” “I am court-ordered to do so. Boop!” By...these guys? They turned him into a fire
hydrant for 90 days once, you think they're going
to be okay with him finishing his “I'm sorry” list and then
going apesh*t on the multiverse again? Unless...they're all gone in “Super Friends”
because...Mxy...killed them? “As judge, jury, and executioner
of my very own 5th-dimensional universe, “I hereby declare you both...guilty!” Ohhh, time DOESN’T work the same for him, he's hoppin’ all over the when!
Do not let this guy near the big grippy hand! When I asked Eric Carrasco about “Supergirl”
Mxy being the same Mxy as always, he said: Now that I would have loved to see. “Nuts, nuts, nuts!” Not every version of Mxy has the bowler hat,
but not every version sounds like Iago, or spells their name
the same, or isn't drunk. In fact, my favorite Mxy hat tidbit is that he's not wearing it
when he first pulls the Mxyztplkology book off the shelf.
He GETS it after figuring out dimensional travel.
He earns that little hat, or crown, or whatever it really is.
And you know what? Good. That just makes me happy. I feel pretty swell about all this. All these Mxys share near-identical histories, motivations,
and overall elevator pitches. Well... ...most of them. You may have noticed,
I skipped one live action Mxyzptlk: the one from the 2004
WB drama, “Smallville.” This here is Mikhail Mxyzptlk,
the latest in a long bloodline of people from Balkan legend
who could “control luck.” “Stop.” “Cut.” “Choke.” “We were obviously in a very different
comic book depiction in mass media moment. “Teen heartthrob, CW/WB kind of ethos.” He's young, handsome, and basically only
Mxyzptlk in last name, which he...doesn't even say right? “Mix-yel-pittle-ick.” “Mix...yel”? Where's the other L, Mikhail?
Where's the other L?! “Heh. Say that three times fast.” It seems fans of the show
have basically written off this character is not possibly being able
to be the same imp we see everywhere else. But, with that centuries-old bloodline,
could he potentially be at least related to the real deal? “Oh, for sure. “We’d always look for ways
to suture to the true canon. “It was a very ‘general audience’
kind of show. “You, in the more geek mode...you gotta think that
so much of our audience was not you. “We were always trying to make sure
we were tapping into a touchpoint “that could link back to some basis
within the comic books. “There was a lot of thought
put into stuff like that.” So...problem solved. He's not Mxy, but he is Mxy’s, like,
great-great-great-etc. -grandson or -nephew or something. And before you run to the comments, it's not out of the question for Mxyzptlk
to...get busy. He's got, like, half a dozen other kids
or future descendants over the course
of comics history. He gets around. There are a few other brief instances
over the years that seem to contradict everything we've established. For instance, in “Doomsday
for the Fifth Dimension,” Superman's baby rocket goes through a wormhole
to the 5th dimension where he wreaks havoc on “us all Mxys big and Mxys small,”
populated entirely by Mr. Mxyzptlks, with even a King Mxyzptlk,
in place of the usual King Brp...ux...ez...yeugh... ...who rallies the others and defeats Superman. “And so in the Fifth Dimension,
all was once again as it had been before.” So this is somehow
a different 5th dimension, or Mxy is just projecting this,
or in the middle of a temporary takeover, or he JUST took over
like he did in “Super Friends.” There's Bizarro Mxyzptlks
we see across various art forms, all of which are clones of either Bizarro or Mxy himself,
and are never really him to begin with. A Mxy from the Crime Syndicate’s anti-matter universe makes a single comic appearance,
who's much more proper and helpful, and whose being is horrifically affected
the longer he stays in the positive matter universe. Clearly a different character. And, of course, one of Superman's
most famous stories, “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?”,
which Paul Dini even referenced as an influence on his STAS writing,
featured a memorable appearance of Mr. Mxyzptlk, who sheds his 3-D disguise and appears
as a walking mold of 5-D energy. Superman seemingly kills Mxy by hitting him with the Phantom Zone
projector at the same time that Mxy says his name backwards, thus ripping
him in half between the two places. But, Mxy has been “killed”
other times as well, usually by laser through the chest, weirdly, and always
comes back anyway... ...because he’s Mr. Mxyzptlk. “Now I get to kill him...
many, MANY times!” And as far as contradictory elements
go, like whether or not Mxy makes up the rules that send him home, or if he can
or can't kill people, I'm going to chalk those up to us never getting a look inside
this beefy book. “I've been using it to update
my Watchtower databases from home.” “And to be honest, I'd appreciate it
if you eased up off my back about it.” Who is the “brilliant scholar”
whose library it sits within? What secrets and bylaws of the universe
does the study of Mxyztplkology reveal? Is the recipe for Poison Ivy’s
delicious green cookies in there? I have to know! “Somebody tell me! It's not fair!” “Fair? Hey, if life was fair,
would I look like this?” So, after all of that,
is it safe to say that Mr. Mxyzptlk is always the same guy? [GASPS]
“No spoilers.” Mr. Mxyzptlk is a character
that is so malleable and fun no matter what medium. Baldy, Baldy 2, Gizmo from “Gremlins,” pointy-eared elf demon
with a hat full of Supermans...whatever. It's even possible that he's
The Impossible Man from Marvel Comics! But I do not have time to get into
all that here. We'll do a Short about it. Did you know we do Shorts,
like, all the time? What we can gather right now is...yes, he's usually the same guy...most of the time...
except for when he isn't... ...and the “no”s are very few and far between. I mean, even that toy in Karl Rossum's
bachelor pad is probably actually him, or the target practice cutout that's on screen for like four frames
in this “Justice League” epis--jeez, Superman! The full picture? “Start again...
and start slow.” In the 5th dimension, a little bald dude who’s as old as hell, or maybe even older, found and studied the book of Mxyzptlkology,
or Mxyztplkology, or whatever, nabbed a dope little hat, and figured out
how to go to the 3rd dimension. There,
he hopped between different realities, pestering
different tribes of humans, eventually... um...making Mx-whoopee with at least one of them on Earth-167. But he got bored. Nobody could offer him a challenge. Then one day, presto, Superman!
He messes with him here, there, everywhere. This cartoon, that CW drama,
this video game, that coloring book. Along the way, he fell in love
a couple dozen times, had another kid or two or five, got involved with various interdimensional conspiracies
and lawbreaking and supervillainous debauchery, died
and came back to life a few times, even lost his powers to the Joker once,
that was a doozy. After the tribunal
forced him to repent with those he'd hurt, he helped Supergirl and the gang defeat
their 5th-dimensional foes, and it seems his most recent role is thinking
he looks best as a Supreme Kai. Also,
he potentially runs the 5th dimension now? Is that the biggest
takeaway of all of this, that I've somehow stumbled on some 50-years-long conspiracy
to put Mxy on the throne of Zrfff? Grant Morrison, hit us up, our email’s
in the About tab! “That explains everything!” In the end, countless Mr. Mxyzptlk stories
are going to be written past the publishing of this video. He will go on to pester and prattle
and prank his way around Superman until the end of days. A comic could be released next week
that shows Mxy was actually Darkseid's grandpa or has been made of Havarti cheese
this whole time, and we'd have to be like...okay? “I’m what happens when the cosmos turns itself “into a funny little man in a purple hat.” “In the course of your comic reading,
you've no doubt met many odd characters.
But none, we'll wager, more unusual than the absurd
being known as Mr. Mxyzptlk.” [SCOFFS]
“What a name!” “DC’s the multiverse publisher.” “Right.” “It’s the one who made up the multiverse,
‘Crisis on Infinite Earths,’ everything. “So it is kind of fun to be like, okay,
but there is one set “point in every universe...
and it's this assh*le?” [LAUGHING]
“Yeah!” So that's that. And until next time, Rek...
Er--what does that say on the teleprompter? “Rekcerts Semaj”? Wait, no. No! NOOOOO!!! Boy, does HE have it all backwards. You said it! [BOTH LAUGHING] For my Question of the Day,
I just want to know your favorite Mxy actor. Who personifies
the essence of Mixed Pickle the best? Thank you so much to Timothy Banfield
for the delightful Gilbert Gottfried impressions,
Eric Carrasco, Tim Sheridan, Mark Warshaw, and Josie Campbell, who helped me glue
all of this together properly. And of course, thank you
to BigBadToyStore for sponsoring and to all our
lovely Patreon supporters seen here. We just need, like, 75 more of you
so we can make that “Teen Titans”/“The Batman” video.
Thank you! I posted a purple
bowler hat as a teaser for this video, and so many of you
thought it was about The Riddler. The Riddler's hat is green!!! “That’s him!”
