Chris Pratt Claims He Played ‘Super Mario Bros.’ for 25 Million Hours

Chris Pratt says that he was absolutely obsessed with the Mario video games when he was a child, claiming to have played the game for a total of 2,853 calendar years and change — and yet he still can’t do the voice.

Last night on Late Night with Seth Meyers, an enthused Pratt appeared to promote The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and the Parks and Recreation star made a bold claim about his relationship with his title character’s history. When Meyers asked Pratt if he played the original Super Mario Bros. video game as a kid, Pratt replied, “If I had to count up the hours, and this is no hyperbole, I think it’s close to 25 million hours that I’ve played Super Mario Bros.”

Normally, we’d take this as a joke that indicates how Pratt spent a lot of time playing the original game, but the Guardians of the Galaxy star clearly stated that this claim is not hyperbolic — so Pratt has been playing Mario at least since the birth of Shoshenq IV, pharaoh of the 22nd Dynasty of Egypt. Maybe that’s why there’s a pyramid in the trailer.

“It was in the late ‘80s when I was first introduced to the Super Mario Bros,” Pratt of the primordial abyss of Nun recalled. “I grew up in a very small town, and there wasn’t anything to do.”

Pratt recalled going to the laundromat after school and staring at the Super Mario Bros. arcade console, unable to participate without any quarters. He learned of a pizza place down the road that had a jukebox with a coin return on the back of the machine, where he would hunt for abandoned change to play the game. If there wasn’t a quarter for him at the pizza joint, he’d return to the laundromat and earn his play another way.

“I’d talk to Jason, who was the teenager, who seemed like an adult at the time, who ran the desk at the laundromat,” Pratt explained. “He would give me a quarter, and in exchange, I would have to get in the tumble dryer.” Pratt would have to ride in the dryer for five full minutes to make his Mario money. “I’d come out a little smaller.” 

Pratt’s anachronistically heartwarming story paints his journey to the starring role of The Super Mario Bros. Movie as one that was many, many years in the making — and Pratt couldn’t be happier. “I don’t think people are quite ready for what’s coming to them,” he explained. “But it’s very promising for us. I think there’s going to be a lot of these movies coming out because it’s so good.” 

And we’re inclined to believe him — no one survives the Black Plague and two World Wars without knowing what’s coming.