With athletes and viewers exhausted, the closing ceremony for Rio2016 was passing off as expected...
Until Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe popped out of a giant green pipe dressed up as video game character Super Mario, one of Japan's best-known exports.
It was then the world got a clue that, for Tokyo2020, the next Olympic hosts would take full and shameless advantage of Japan's pop culture icons.
Abe making pipe-dream a reality
The Tokyo2020 video beamed to audiences in Rio showed Mario running excitedly around Tokyo then jumping into his famous green pipe.
Cue the slow rise of the green pipe in Rio with a hunched Mario-like figure perched on top.
Japan's Prime Minister, not famous for his extrovert displays and pop culture references, emerges dressed as Super Mario and doffs his hat to enthusiastic crowds, then setting social media alight.
Some were quick to point out that Mr Abe was clearly the star of the show, overshadowing Tokyo's newly-elected mayor, Yuriko Koike, who was in attendance waving the Olympic flag and dressed in a kimono.
The parade ended with Mr Abe holding aloft a now glowing red ball, Japan's rising sun.
Super Mario for the uninitiated
Super Mario is a fictional character in the hugely popular Mario video game franchise created by Nintendo. A stout Italian plumber famous for his red cap and blue overalls, he has appeared in scores of video games, becoming the world's biggest selling video game franchise of all time.
