Lame Brainer

The Lame Brainer is a special helmet created by Kooky von Koopa which is capable of turning anyone who wears it into a mindless drone, complete with a hypnotic voice and red pupils, until it is removed.

In The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 episode "Oh, Brother!", Kooky, having successfully captured Mario with his Plumber Pole, used the Lame Brainer on him to force him into obeying his every command. To demonstrate the Lame Brainer's effects on Mario to Bowser, Kooky presented Mario with a bowl of pasta. Although Mario wanted the pasta at first, Kooky told Mario that he hated pasta. Unable to think for himself, Mario then agreed with Kooky and rejected the pasta.

Bowser then asked for Mario to fix the broken Power Shower pipe, and Mario did so. When Mario finished, Frog Luigi arrived to save him. However, as Mario was still under his control while wearing the Lame Brainer, Bowser ordered him to attack Luigi with a wrench.

Luigi, unable to reason with Mario, tried to talk some sense into his uncontrollable brother, but was having trouble. When talking about their past experiences didn't work, Luigi aggravated Mario by pulling down on the Lame Brainer (in place of his cap), his overalls and his mustache. By doing this, Luigi bypassed the effects the Lame Brainer had on Mario, overloading it.

Luigi's actions caused the Lame Brainer to pop off of Mario's head, freeing him from his trance, and onto Kooky's head, forcing the Koopaling into behaving like a mindless drone. Mario then took advantage of the situation by ordering Kooky to attack Bowser, and Kooky had no choice but to chase his own father out of the dungeon.

The fate of the Lame Brainer, including how it was ultimately removed from Kooky's head, is unknown. As it was never seen again, it's possible that Bowser simply destroyed the Lame Brainer afterwards, due to the trouble it caused him when it was misused on Kooky.