This page explains in detail the interactions between the Glee series and the Mario series.
Glee episode Laryngitis[]
May 11, 2010
Glee
Mario
In the eighteenth episode of the series, Puck starts dating Mercedes and in a scene Quinn says to her that now that he's dating someone else at least she "won’t have to spend so much time listening to his insane theories on how Super Mario Brothers changed civilization."
In fact a later scene opens with Puck saying to Mercedes that "what made Super Mario Brothers 3 so amazing was the Star Worlds. None of the other versions had anything like that."
Note that Star Worlds are actually only in Super Mario World, not Super Mario Bros. 3, so he is actually mistaking.
License[]
The creators of Glee didn't hold any right over Nintendo's Mario, but they only included a minor reference in the episode.