Gadd Is Great

Today, we’ll delve back into the Mario universe for a look at the mad scientist Professor Elvin Gadd, often simply called “E. Gadd.” In the original Japanese, his name was Oya Mā, which means “oh my,” while also referring to Nintendo animator Yoshiyuki Oyama. While his English name isn’t quite as complex, it retains the same basic pun. Anyway, the Professor first appears in Luigi’s Mansion, in which he provides Luigi with his ghostbusting equipment. He doesn’t actually appear in Super Mario Sunshine, but two of his inventions do, the artificially intelligent Flash Liquidizer Ultra Dousing Device (more commonly known as FLUDD) and the magic paintbrush that Bowser Jr. uses to vandalize Delfino. He shows up as the proprietor and baristo of Starbeans Cafe in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and I understand he plays an even more significant role in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. He invents the time machine that the Mario Brothers use, and they have to interact with him in both the past and present.

An inventor character like Professor Gadd is always useful for a fictional universe, because whenever an odd device appears, this character can be credited with its creation. Since Gadd wasn’t yet a part of the Mario universe at the time of the Super Mario Bros. Super Show (really, very few characters were), the cartoon writers often created their own one-shot scientist characters. As the Mario Wiki points out, Dr. Nerdnick from the episode “Robo Koopa” bears a certain similarity to Gadd, in that he’s an eccentric old man who speaks in gibberish that needs to be translated. While automatic translations are provided in the games featuring the Professor, Nerdnick’s talk had to be translated by his robotic assistant Bunsen.

Another episode, “Mario Meets Koop-zilla,” introduces Dr. T. Garden, inventor of the Super Sushi that turns Bowser and Mario into giants.

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