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In Super Paper Mario, whenever Mario, Bowser or Peach use the Return Pipe item, they simply raise their hands and spin rapidly before disappearing. However, whenever Luigi uses it, he flails his arms around instead. While there are instances of Luigi flailing his arms in the game’s story and this can as such easily assumed to be intentional, it is actually an oversight in the code.

Unlike all other playable characters, Luigi uses two sets of sprites, one with the L emblem on his hat appearing normal and one with it being mirrored. All sprites in the data point to the left; whenever a character is looking to the right, the sprite for looking left is simply mirrored. As such, the ones with the regular emblem are used for looking left, and the ones with the mirrored emblem are mirrored again to create correct-looking sprites when looking to the right.

Due to being unique in this manner, an oversight arises when using the Return Pipe. Luigi restarts his “raising arms” animation whenever he turns around, as a new set of sprites with the mirrored emblem are loaded. As such, the animation has a few chances to complete all the way before being stuck in the first few frames when he is spinning very quickly.

Top: how the animation appears in-game. Bottom: how the animation appears when Luigi is prevented from spinning. Note the emblem on his hat changing in tandem with him restarting the animation.

Been rewatching King of the Hill since it got added to Hulu. I did puppet shows at churches and stuff as a kid, so the Manger Babies always stuck with me.