The last time we were forced to reckon with Smash Mouth was when the band used its irresistible ska-rock stylings to help worsen the spread of COVID-19 at this year’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. If we had only been able to stop the group in its tracks—if we had found a way to deny them the level of continued success that’s led to them extending the misery of the pandemic—the world would, demonstrably now, be a better place. But we can’t. Smash Mouth has grown too powerful. It has, as shown most recently in a new deepfake video that combines the band’s “All Star” with a bunch of movie clips, become a thought virus that will forever infect our minds and bodies.
Watch the latest evidence of the song’s undeniable imprint on our culture and understand its eternal strength for yourself. Having mutated into new forms over years of remixes, successfully traveling from host to host so it can never truly die, “All Star” has now wriggled its way into the DNA of your favorite actors. The track plays as deepfaked versions of everybody from Tom Hanks and Rutger Hauer, American Psycho’s Christian Bale and 300's Gerard Butler, sing along to the immortal words of the 1999 pop hit. Each actor’s computer-twisted mouth warps and distorts into a vessel for Smash Mouth’s message. The peak comes when Kate Winslet, standing with Leo on the Titanic, is made to sing, “All that glitters is gold” like a horrible zombie.
The creator of this latest manifestation of the “All Star” curse is a YouTube channel called “ontyj,” but there’s no use putting the blame for yet another Smash Mouth meme on their shoulders. The band is a self-perpetuating entity now, more meme than anything else. They will continue to thrive no matter what we do.
Send Great Job, Internet tips to [email protected]