What’s the Correct Way to Pronounce Mario’s Name?

This past week, the Retronauts public feed got the first of two episodes about my Mario history project. And while good discussion was had about the weird inconsistencies in the lore of the Super Mario games, this post will focus on a subject I have not addressed previously: how to pronounce Mario’s name. To be blunt about it, if you speak English, you’re probably not pronouncing Mario’s name correctly, at least by Italian standards. But it remains to be seen if that’s the standard we English-speakers should be following.The Retronauts panel for this episode included three Americans — me, Bob Mackey (no relation) and Jeremy Parish (also no relation) — and we all pronounce Mario’s name the same way, despite having grown up in different states. The fourth panelist was Stuart Gipp, an avowed Britisher who pronounces Mario’s name in a way most Americans would probably find wrong and offensive: more like “Merry-o” as opposed to “Mah-rio.”So what gives? And who is the least incorrect…