Super Mario is now the face of TikTok Shop AI slop, and it's fooling millions

AI TikTok accounts sharing sob stories to sell a product has become a cottage industry on the platform Few things sell a product as well as a good sob story, and unfortunately, AI-savvy TikTok merchants are taking advantage of that. The platform is rife with users who shill products sold on other sites, and now that anyone can feed a script to an AI, the video platform has become inundated with fake people selling real products. One such item that has spawned an entire AI cottage industry is a Super Mario lamp. It's easy to understand why a video game fan might want the lamp. It shows an evocative Super Mario scene, with our favorite plumber happily riding a green Yoshi as a Boo chases after them. The ethereal starry blue background is reminiscent of Super Mario Galaxy. The product is real. The people selling it usually aren't. There are dozens of TikTok accounts dedicated to selling this lamp, and most of them feature completely different people telling variations of a similar story. The format pushes the narrative of an underdog entrepreneur who is getting bullied over their art. One of the most effective formats has the AI person 'responding' to a mean comment revolving around t

Apr 13, 2026 → Apr 15, 2026