| “ |
Please don't do that. |
” | —Mr. Monitor's catchphrase | ||
Hal Monitor, also known as Mr. Hall Monitor or Mr. Monitor, is a modern recurring character in the SMG4 series.
He is programmed to be an overpowered and over-responsive police officer, devoted to eliminating crime across the Mushroom Kingdom. Most of his appearances involve him antagonizing SMG4's Gang when illegal acts are committed, but he was Meggy Spletzer's partner-in-crime in SMG4: Officer Meggy before she left the police department.
He has not appeared in recent bloopers following the recent acts of police brutality in America aside from bloopers with fan-submitted plots, with Peach Toadstool acting as his replacement as the proper authority figure until SMG4: Cooking with Mario & Bowser: World Tour, where he is shown to be working in a U.S. prison.
Appearance
He is a tall, thin man with a computer monitor for a head. He wears a traditional security guard uniform.
Background
Almost nothing is known about Mr. Monitor's past. According to himself, his father died at some point in his life, as he told a disguised Mario in SMG4: Mario Runs Out Of Toilet Paper. It was likely that event which pushed Mr. Monitor over the edge and gave him an immense hatred of what he deemed "illegal."
In SMG4: Officer Meggy, he was revealed to have a somewhat lonely life, as he apparently lives in an appliance store and treats both a microwave and a toaster as his wife and child respectively. However, it is never said that they're not alive. It's possible they are still communicating with Mr. Monitor, possibly through beeps that are too high-pitched for Meggy's ears.
Personality
Due to his temper, Mr. Monitor is usually seen with a disturbing angry face which gives flashbacks of the Angry Moon
Despite appearing kind and normal, whenever he sees or hears disorder, he shows his true colors as a psychopathic mood-swinger who hates any type of disorder or illegal activity and will give out severe and gruesome punishments to anyone who does so, which includes tearing out genitals and organs and blowing victims up, sending them to the sky burning. He also attacks people whose crimes are justified or are incredibly minor issues (examples being when Wario was going to get across the street when there was a red light and Bob Bobowski insulting him and the school). However, such actions of his made himself breaking police protocol, due to attacking the plaintiff without ever thinking, and terrorizing criminals or even those he deems as criminals in a fashion much like a criminal himself, except with the power of law enforcement behind him. As a result of his temper, he is usually seen with a disturbing angry face. However, despite of his law-enforcing nature, there are hints of him not being above his standards, as when he sees a monitor-headed girl, who's just a dummy made by Mario as a distraction, his reaction is hoping that girl is of legal age before pursuing her.
History
SMG4: Mario School Club
In Mr. Monitor's debut episode, SMG4, fed up with Mario's horrible club ideas, decided to leave the school despite Mario telling him they were trespassing. Mr. Monitor, upon noticing him, made several disturbing faces and repeated his words over and over as he begins to chase SMG4 back into the room for trespassing. He later overheard the commotion in the room when Mario accidentally summoned Satan and revealed to tear apart the genitals of people who commit disorder, as evidenced by the quote "I don't want to tear another anus today." It is only by Mario and Bob pretending to be a student and a teacher respectively that Mr. Monitor leaves and goes back to his shift.
At the end of the episode, when Bob insulted the school and Mr. Monitor by saying he "can go eat a chode", the guard barged into Peach's Castle and threatened not only Bob but the rest of SMG4's Gang with a bazooka.
SMG4: If Mario was in The Sonic Movie
To stop Dr. Eggman from capturing Sonic the Hedgehog, Mario writes "free candy" on his van, causing a nearby Mr. Monitor to mistake Eggman for a pedophile and blowing him up (though due to Gmod physics, his monitor head is also blown away by the explosion).
SMG4: Mario's Magical TV
He appears in one Jesus Christ's TV in a commercial selling safety camera. These cameras will allow him to teleport through them if they catch any illegal activites, such as Wario stealing a delivery box, and attack the offender. His name is also revealed to be Mr. Hall Monitor.
SMG4: Mario Commits Tax Fraud
After Mario commited a tax fraud due to not knowing how to do taxes (as he never had any training and he had a reason for doing so), Mr. Monitor arrests Mario for having committed tax evasion and beats him up severely when he tries to escape via the sewers. After Mario and Yoshi escape the prison, a guard attempts to warn Mr. Monitor, only for Yoshi to make him fall endlessly through portals with the Portal Gun. Yoshi then forces Mario into the Council of Tax Fraud, but after learning what its members do all day, Mario tries to quit, only to be captured and sentenced to execution by the leader, Beeg Yoshi. Mario is forced to call Mr. Monitor (who was strangling Wario for trying to walk across the street on a red light), to help him. Mr. Monitor easily dispatches the Yoshis and as a thank you to Mario for exposing the biggest tax evaders in the kingdom, allows him to go free. He, however, threatens to rip Mario's heart out should the latter commit any other crimes.
SMG4: Mario Runs Out Of Toilet Paper
He appears briefly selling one toilet paper to each customer as the Mushroom Kingdom was running low on said supply. This results in a large line of customers desperate for toilet paper. Bowser can be seen getting choked for attempting to take more than a single roll, once again showing how serious Mr. Monitor is about rules. Mario tries to fool him by sticking a computer screen to his own face, attempting to look like Mr. Monitor's father. After making this claim, Mr. Monitor mentions that his father is dead, ruining Mario's disguise. Mario manages to escape the situation by splashing Mr. Monitor with water, making the computer head electrocute himself, nearly being killed.
SMG4: Mario's Inside Story
He makes a cameo in the episode where he is shown in a photo in Luigi's phone trying to arrest Mario for public nudity with Luigi dragging him away.
SMG4: Wario Tries To Stop Himself From Dying
In one of Wario's time loop, when he decided to cause as much chaos as he wants due to being unable to die, Mr. Monitor saw him driving his car at top speed, and transforming into a turret, attempted to stop him. Wario however, avoided his gunshots and ran him over. After Wario died once again and restarted the loop, Mr. Monitor was most likely revived.
SMG4: Meggy Moves In
At the end of the episode, Mr. Monitor, with an angry look on his face, visits Meggy's new house and tells Mario about the property that he stole to fill up Meggy's new house. When Mario tried to deny having any involvement, Mr. Monitor responded by again setting Mario's cap on fire.
SMG4: The Totally Legit Learning Show With SMG4
He appears in one of the segments with a young Toad named Jimmy where he taught the audience the meaning of the words "legal" and "illegal". To show how serious he was at enforcing order, his explanation for "illegal" was extreme compared to "legal", showing a Teddy Bear robbing a convenience store for an apple and barely escaping the police. Just as Jimmy (who did not understand anything) declared he was about to do something "illegal", Mr. Monitor was naturally triggered and angrily apprehended Jimmy, swearing to lock up the boy for life for saying such a thing. This forced SMG4 to come out and try to drag him away.
SMG4: War On Beeg SMG4
Mr. Monitor was one of the many citizens who were reacting negatively to the approaching Beeg SMG4, who would collide with the Mushroom Kingdom and Termina in 3 days. Naturally angry at the idea of mass homicide, Mr. Monitor tried to stop Beeg SMG4, fruitlessly shooting at him with a gun.
SMG4: Officer Meggy
Mr. Monitor is first seen as a test dummy for Meggy to practice intimidation tactics, teaching Meggy throughout the video how to be an enforcer of justice. It's also revealed in this video that Monitor has a "wife and son" (in reality a microwave and a toaster) and that his full name is Hal Monitor. However, he and Meggy are called in to stop a smuggling case, performed by several Shy Guys trying to traffic monitors.
SMG4: Mario VS Siren Head
Hal Monitor makes a cameo looking surprised at Siren Head's new looks.
SMG4: SSENMODNAR - 3,826,412 SUB SPECIAL
Mr. Monitor appears as Meggy's Jojo stand. Later on, an alternate timeline is shown where Mr. Monitor is a criminal. He assaults an elderly woman and knocks over the scissors that Hideo Kojima is using to cut a rope to open a hospital. As he is about to assassinate Steve, he is confronted by Wide Putin who takes him to his world where everything is "thicc".
SMG4: War Of The Fat Italians 2020
Saiko Bichitaru and Anti-Shroomy are challenged to commit various illegal acts without him catching them. They fail, as Anti-Shroomy jaywalked at a red light and Saiko was in a "no-thot" zone.
SMG4: Cooking with Mario & Bowser: World Tour
Mario and Bowser stop at Mr. Monitor's prison where Mr. Monitor teaches them how to cook prison sludge. The two are disgusted, but Mr. Monitor gets angered at the possibility that they would not eat the sludge despite him taking much time to make it. He leaves Melony to watch them as they eat the sludge. Mario and Bowser later tried to escape, causing Melony to fall down and press a button to call Mr. Monitor, who arrived with seconds.
SMG4: If Mario Was In... Cyberpunk 2077
Hal Monitor tries to arrest the Cybertubbies for illegal smuggling of Tubby Custard. However, Mario distracts him long enough for everyone to escape by creating an inanimate girlfriend for Mr. Monitor called Miss Monitor. He immediately falls in love with the dummy and hopes that she's "legal". He later returns with his new "girlfriend" to attempt to arrest the Cybertubbies again, but Miss Monitor gets shot by Johnny Silverhand in the chaos. Enraged, Mr. Monitor declares that Johnny's free subscription of life has ended and tries to kill him, but Mario saves the day by using his new cybernetic hacking abilities, reprogramming Mr. Monitor into a hostile unit that specifically targets law enforcement.
SMG4: The Melony Felony
After Axol almost shot the Goombas that were going to hurt Melony, Mr. Monitor popped out and asked if he was about to do something illegal.
SMG4: Mario's Amazing Bed and Breakfast
Mario gives him tools to "interrogate" Don Resetti.
SMG4 Movie: 10 Year Anniversary Special
He appears with his family, watching Axol's live show of Two Piece.
SMG4: If Mario Was In Friday Night Funkin 2
He appears as a member of Mario’s team but he was looking with the bathroom, In Week 5 he goes up against Tankman, where they both pull out their guns and begin shooting to the beat of Fresh (a reference to the mod Friday Night Funkin’: But with Guns) In the end, Hal ultimately wins after shooting Tankman in the head and taunted him. At the end of the video he is removed from the curse like everyone else (even though he never got it.)
Powers and Abilities
- Warping: First seen in SMG4: Mario's Magical TV, he has the apparent ability to warp to a given location through screens. This is shown when he warps through one of his security cameras and begins attacking Wario when he tries to steal a package. He later uses this ability to warp to Mario's location when the latter was about to get executed by the Council of Tax Fraud.
- Superhuman Strength: In SMG4: Mario Commits Tax Fraud, he saved himself and Mario from getting crushed by a giant spike-ball and hurled it into the sky.
- Crime Sensing: Mr. Monitor can somehow instantly arrive at the location of a criminal the moment they commit a crime, even minor ones, as shown when he barges into Peach's Castle after Bob insults him and Mario and Luigi's house not long after Mario committed tax fraud.
- Indescribable Ability: In SMG4: Mario Commits Tax Fraud, he punished Mario with an indescribable ability that is powerful enough to send him flying to the sky set on fire. This ability was used again when Mario tries to escape the prison through the sewers.
- Transformation: In SMG4: Wario Tries To Stop Himself From Dying, he turned himself into a sentry gun in order to stop Wario from committing crimes.
- Explosion Immunity: In SMG4: Officer Meggy, Mr. Monitor protects Meggy from a Bob-Omb explosion by shielding her with his body. Mr. Monitor appears to be entirely unaffected by this.
- Video Capability: His head, being a computer monitor, is fully capable of playing videos on it. He utilizes this against criminal Shy Guys in SMG4: Officer Meggy, by playing a video of a kawaii Mario dancing in order to distract them.
Weaknesses
- Water: With his head being a computer monitor, realistically it short-circuits when exposed to water, as demonstrated in SMG4: Mario Runs Out Of Toilet Paper. Ironically, his temporary partner Meggy used to have the same weakness. In SMG4: Officer Meggy he and Meggy shown to hide in a lake to ambush Tari for breaking the law, yet is shown to be fine despite his head being completely submerged.
- Hacking: Also with his head being a computer monitor, he is also considered a computer, making him vulnerable to hacking, shown in Mario using his hacking ability to trick him into attacking those who committed legal acts in SMG4: If Mario Was In... Cyberpunk 2077.
Criminal Record
Despite being a police officer and claiming to hate anything illegal, he has actually committed more crimes than stop them, but he has never gotten into trouble due to his status.
- Murder: He has killed several people during his attempts to uphold the law, innocent or not.
- Threatening: He threatened to kill the SMG4 Gang just because he thought Bob was insulting him.
- Kidnapping: In SMG4: Mario's Bed and Breakfast, when Mario delivered supplies to him, it was revealed that he was holding somebody hostage, which Mario completely ignored.
Trivia
- Mr. Monitor is the first original character to be introduced in Season 10.
- He is the fourth major character to be voiced by a Speakonia voice, the first three being Chris Gordman, Swagmaster69696969696, and Grand Dad.
- The voice used for Mr. Monitor specifically, Adult Male #2 American English/the BonziBUDDY voice, was also used for Bingus in SMG4: The Tari Abnormality.
- It's possible he is a robot, suggesting by his computer head.
- However, he still needs to use the bathroom as implied in SMG4: If Mario Was In Friday Night Funkin 2, though this was likely played for laughs.
- Hal Monitor's name is a reference to his job (a hall monitor) and his head being a computer monitor.
- His father is revealed to have passed away in SMG4: Mario Runs Out Of Toilet Paper.
- Mr. Monitor commits Invasion of Privacy himself at the beginning of SMG4: Mario Commits Tax Fraud and at the end of SMG4: Mario School Club to detect actions he deems 'illegal'.
- However, in SMG4: Officer Meggy, he states that "Nothing's illegal when you're on the side of justice", so this was most likely pardoned.
- This character's model is currently not available to the public for download on Steam Workshop. However, the models that make up Hal are:
- Hal's body is a National Bank Security player model, uploaded by currently-named Colonel Canny on Steam.
- Hal's hat is from the "Pyroland Protector" prop set; custom-made for Team Fortress 2, created by Steam user Astute.
- Hal's monitor used is the [OR] Monitor content [PROP], created by STeam user ТЮЛЕНЬ. *He is revealed to be married and has a child in SMG4: Officer Meggy.
- Comedically, his family is revealed to be inanimate electronics. Additionally, he also views other electronics as "humans" and compares electronics smuggling to human trafficking.
- In SMG4: If Mario Was In... Cyberpunk 2077, he technically cheats on his wife by flirting with Mrs. Monitor (a dummy created by Mario).
- In SMG4: Mario's Magical TV, he is referred to as "Mr. Hall Monitor", but in SMG4: Officer Meggy, his name is revealed to be Hal Monitor.
- He is similar to Robocop, as both are robot police officers who brutalize criminals and are incredibly powerful. However, unlike Robocop, Hal is both emotionally and mentally unstable, his ways of punishing criminals are arguably more brutal than Robocop's, and his "acts of justice" break the law numerous times. Still, his actions are justified as he's trying to protect and serve.
- Excluding Beeg SMG4 and Long SMG4, Mr. Monitor and Fuego the Water Bottle are the only major original characters introduced in Season 10 that is not part of the Anti-Cast.
- They are also the only original characters to not be released on the GMod workshop.
- Excluding Some Cameos, Hal didn’t make any appearances from May-November after the criticisms from SMG4: Officer Meggy, with his Line “Nothing’s Illegal when your on The Side of Justice” presumably in light of the recent acts of Police brutality in the United States after the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. He finally made his return in SMG4: Cooking with Mario & Bowser: World Tour.
- Despite his name being spelled as "Hal" SMG4 and Kevin revealed that it is actually pronounced "Hall" in a Hobo Bros video reacting to Meggy's wiki page.
- In the teaser trailer for Glitch Productions' upcoming spin off series Sunset Paradise, there is a TV monitor with an angry scribbled face displayed on its screen, bearing a visual resemblance to Hal Monitor. He is attached to a buff guy's waist and appears to be the boss of a gang of criminals.