Mario Kart Cheater Gets Schooled By Her Awesome Dad

Matt Bull isn’t a dad to be messed with when it comes to video games. When his daughter un-paused a game of Mario Kart while he was out of the room, he plotted his revenge and wound up creating an equal parts hilarious/ seriously heartwarming video.

His daughter had submitted her artwork to the school of her dreams, and was waiting for a reply. Matt decided to craft an alternate letter for her to call attention to her dastardly game play. The range of emotion is great and it has so much win at the end.

We had a chance to ask Matt about the video and his amazing family. Here’s what he said about it all.

What kind of artwork does your daughter do?

Her favorite medium is a combination of very detailed ink work with watercolor, usually its half pretty, half dark. She has a print she sells copies of that’s a lovely, cute mushroom cloud with the caption, “When it comes, you won’t feel a thing.”

Were you afraid she might get overly upset reading that she hadn’t been accepted at first?

My big fear was that she’d do exactly what she did, which is skim the letter for “rejectiony” language without reading it. I knew if she actually read the thing she’d love it. I’m still kinda surprised she listened to me when I told her to go back and read it out loud.

Which version of Mario Kart do you play and who’s your character?

Right now, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. She’s peach, I’m baby Mario. Always baby Mario. Top speed and control beat acceleration and stability.

Can you make the jump on Rainbow Road in N64?

No. That move still pisses me off.

We kill that move, for the record.

Do you typically show mercy to your kids in Mario Kart, or are you merciless like us?

I’ve never shown my kids mercy in any competitive endeavor, that’s a short cut to personality disorders. They have to beat me fair and square. I will give myself handicaps, like left-handed one-handed Foosball, or Halo with only the plasma pistol, no melee or grenades. But I always play to win.

What do you do to support your daughter’s artistic ambitions?

We don’t do anything consciously above and beyond, but we live in a very art-oriented neighborhood, and good number of my close friends are full-time artists, so support just kind of happens. She takes sculpting lessons from my friend Hobbes, who’s an amazing sculptor (and got me on the front page of Reddit a while back with something he did for me), another friend owns an art shop in the neighborhood that offers portfolio classes, another friend has conscripted her into a big charity art event. Oak Cliff (part of Dallas) is a weird, wonderful place. I do help her print and sell her work though, which can be time consuming.