The phrase mamma mia is a traditional Italian exclamation, but this version comes from Nintendo's Mario, voiced by Charles Martinet and popularized by Super Mario 64 in 1996. As Mario repeated it across games, the clip spread from gameplay recordings to YouTube edits, GIF captions, and meme soundboards. Its association with Italian food jokes and gaming nostalgia kept it circulating long after the original console era, and creators still reuse it as a shorthand for cheerful shock that audiences recognize in under a second.