Former Nintendo employees Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang recently recalled on a podcast that Nintendo management disliked the 2021 Saturday Night Live sketch featuring Elon Musk as Wario. Both were still working at Nintendo at the time and stated that the company was not involved in producing the sketch.
The sketch frames a post-karting accident as a murder trial: Wario, played by Musk, is on trial for Mario's death, with Luigi testifying that someone threw a banana peel at Mario's kart, causing the crash.
Ellis and Yang said the sketch came out of nowhere, with some content touching on themes Nintendo deemed inappropriate. They emphasized that the company was not happy with the parody at the time.