Lady Gaga Was Supposed to Disappear Into a Pipe at the Olympics

That's right. According to leaked documents obtained by Bunshun, the star was the Games' first choice to perform at the opening ceremony for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics — dressed up as Nintendo's Mario, no less.

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As part of the over-the-top show, the Olympic Committee initially wanted Gaga to appear remotely as the beloved video game character, red hat and all. And the plan of action? To have her jump into a warp pipe and reappear in the arena as Japan's comedy queen, Naomi Watanabe, in a nod to a stunt by former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe at the 2016 Olympics. Which would've been a time warp, indeed.

Obviously though, Gaga's Mario performance only exists on another timeline as her name disappeared from the committee's plans from spring 2021. And though it seems like the ceremony still took some inspiration from her legendary Super Bowl performance, here's to hoping we get more than a few drones next time.

Until then, check out the report for yourself, below.

what might be the most noteworthy cut for non-J-pop followers....the Mario pipe thing from the Rio handover ceremony was set to appear again...but this time Lady Gaga would deliver a remote message, put on a Mario hat and go in the pipe...with Naomi Watanabe coming out in Tokyo pic.twitter.com/PUQRKYZHdP

— Patrick St. Michel (@mbmelodies) July 28, 2021

Photo via Getty / Dimitrios Kambouris