WTF is a GOOMBA?!?!?!?!

alright... i'm ashamed to say this... but for anyone who has ever played Super Mario Bros. for ANY nintendo system... can ANY of you tell me what a GOOMBA actually is? i mean... i know its an enemy... and i know if i touch it... i turn into a midget or get this super happy face and fall off the screen and lose a life... but.... WTF is it?!!?!?!? i mean... Koopa's are turtles... but wtf is a goomba?

i have been playign video games for almost 2 whole decades now... and one fo the first games i've ever played (actually not really cuz i owned atari before the first Nintendo system)... but Super Mario Bros. has been etched as the perennial video game that has got me hooked for the rest of my life... and the FIRST enemy you see... is a freaking goomba!!!! and what do you do??? u jump on it and smash the shit out of it until it looks like a retarded pancake...

and its sad that all my life... i've been killing these guys and not even knowing what they were... makes me feel kinda sorry inside...

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and in a debate between me and johnny... this is what we were trying to figure out what a goomba is... i dunno how i come up with these intriguing thoughts... i just do...

Me: hey
i have a question
you know super mario bros right?
WTF is a goomba?

Johnny: ahahah
its like...
err...
umm...
an squishy owl?

me: i know it eventually turns into a pancake

Johnny: no...more lke a triangular rat
i dunn actually...

me: its been 20 years for many of us
and we have no freaking idea what a goomba is till this day
how sad

Johnny: well goomba is like saying a racial slur to an italian guy

me: HAHAHA
but... wtf is it?

Johnny: if you call him a goombah you're using an offensive racial slur
accoring to hungarian its called a mushroom
goombah that is

me: dood
nobody knows what a goomba is

Johnny: hahah i dun think the creaters know what a goomba is

me: so how did they come up w/ the drawing of it?

Johnny: probably high

me: what is it based off of?
is it just a triangle
w/ fangs
eyes
legs

Johnny: dood the creaters of mario were high

me: and a sprout?

Johnny: when they made that game
they were smoking shit
who the fuck jumps in pipes, eats flowers spits firebals and kills turtles
takes a star and starts glowing rainbow
they were all HIGH

me: no... the other stuff makes sense
cuz i do that too sometimes
on a daily basis
y'know
go into pipes
and shit

Johnny: ahahah

me: and sometimes turn invincible
usually at my own discretion

Johnny: shit nukka prease
ahaha

me: i've just never encountered a goomba before
and how the hell am i gonna know what hurts me and what doesn't hurt me

Johnny: no seriously, they were freaking high man

me: when i touch
it
and accidentally turn into a midget

Johnny: ahaha
Sent at 11:37 AM on Thursday

me: i mean... koopa's are turtles
that's obvious
but WTF is a goomba?
Sent at 11:41 AM on Thursday

Johnny: ahahah dood i think its an owl
that got twisted with evil powers

me: i think its a symbolic representation of psychotic mushroom drug... and you must pound that mothafucka down so u can sniff that shit...

Johnny: ahahah

me: and sometimes... they fly

Johnny: or it could be that
shit it could be anything

me: so u must fly too

Johnny: i could draw a fucking polygon
put fangs and eyes and wings on it
and call it anythig i want
like..say...iit sa tooomba
or a foomba
or bagoom

me: i have no idea what it is... but for some reason... i actually feel for it..
i mean.. every kid in this world has smashed the shit out of these guys

Johnny: ahahah
Sent at 11:44 AM on Thursday

me: its things like this that makes me think about the larger picture in life...
maybe.... WE are goombas


Johnny: haha maybe we are...
maybe!
just maybe!
were gonna one day get stompt on

me: and turned into pancakes!!!
man... if that plumber tries
i'mma beat his ass

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According to Wikipidia this is what a goomba is:

The Goomba (Japanese: クリボー; Kuribō; kuri, "chestnut", + bō, possibly meaning "people") is an enemy character from Nintendo's series of Mario video games. Goombas are the first enemy character to appear in the original Super Mario Bros., for the NES. Due to the widespread popularity of that game, the Goomba is the first enemy character many game players from the 1980s saw. Alongside Shy Guys, Bob-ombs, Piranha Plants, Snifits, and Koopas, they are the most common enemies in the Mario series. Most Goombas harm Mario by touching him. However, various other types of Goombas can fly, or hop onto Mario to attack him. "Little Goomba" is the name sometimes used for a regular Goomba in the games. However, the other distinct types of Goombas have their own names.

After Mario was named after Nintendo landlord Mario Segali, a number of other Mario characters were named with an Italian theme. The name thus is believed universally to have come from the slang word "Goombah" used by Italian-Americans to describe themselves; over time, it has gained a slightly derogatory connotation. The Italian-American slang term originates from the Italian word compare (akin to Spanish compadre), which was already (and still is) used in south Italy abbreviated in "compa'" and literally means "friend" and it is used colloquially mainly to address people living in the same town. Additionally, and likely coincidentally, the Hungarian word gomba means "mushroom."

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UPDATE: The answer to all the mystery is found HERE and yes... they are mushrooms... mushrooms gone bad...

they still look like little pieces of doodie to me that gets stuck under ur shoe...