The Scorpion with mate is back on everyone’s lips with a possible reference in the Mortal Kombat 1 trailer. We spoke with the very creator of the meme who told us the whole story.
Scorpion with mate was undoubtedly one of the funniest and most used memes in Argentina for a long time. Now, thanks to some details in the Mortal Kombat 1 trailer, we can see a thermos and kettle in the undead fighter’s kitchen. This is why we couldn’t resist and at Cultura Geek we talked to Luciano Castilloself-proclaimed Scorpion with mattewho told us the whole story behind that photo that remained in the history of gaming and Argentine memes.
“The meme arose unintentionally, we dressed up with a friend for a costume party, and we took some photos to mess around a bit, we uploaded them to Taringa (the Argentine mega-forum hit in the 2000s) and someone made the meme, the The rest is known history…”tells us Luciano, the 34-year-old from La Plata who is studying biology today, has a craft business with an Instagram plagued by his work and is also a wildlife caretaker in the Bioparque de La Plata.
Luciano knows that he was left in history when ed booncreator of Mortal Kombatechoed the meme through his twitter: “When I saw that, it blew my mind, (laughs). It was understanding the massiveness of a simple meme, I knew that in Argentina it was widely used, but reaching the world level was an interesting change “he confesses between laughs and adds: “I’m a big fan, I’ve always played with Scorpion, that’s why the suit, and although I stayed on the old consoles (for economic reasons) I’m still watching and attentive to everything that comes out, I love Mortal Kombat.”
—Ed Boon (@noobde) September 18, 2017
The famous photo dates, according to Luciano, from a previous to a costume party in 2010 in the City of La Plata. The party was going to be in the already non-existent bowling alley “Schapo” but before, they decided to make a set of photos with an idea that today the creators of Mortal Kombat decided to include as a detail in the new trailer. This inclusion of the thermos and the kettle, whether on purpose or simply by chance, already makes our Scorpion with mate a canon in the world of video games
“It is very funny to see the mate and the thermos in the trailer, it is interesting to see how it came to have an impact on a level beyond the internet, and to see how a drink as ours as mate is recognized throughout the world. It is a huge satisfaction”confesses Luciano, although the mate itself does not appear in the video.
Although there are several articles on this subject with differing data, Luciano assures that Scorpion with mate is him and he proves it not only with more photos of that day, where he is seen in the same kitchen and with an unmistakable tattoo.
This meme broke out in thousands of variations and uses that spread throughout the internet and is still valid as a strange way of explaining what Argentina is like in a single photo. Mattes, patches, photos, animations, dolls, figures, and above all, the inevitable cosplay in every gamer event that exists from here to eternity.