smashmouth egg eating contest kicks off fullblown egg holocaust. chicken cloacas dryly gulp. egg goen. ate all the eggs. ate all of them

July 5, 2011 5:51 PM

After Twitter user @fart directed several non-sequitur tweets at Shrek soundtrack favorite band Smash Mouth's Twitter account, something strange happened: people across the Internet began demanding that the band eat a lot of eggs for charity. What began as a Twitter meme quickly spread across the Internet, from newspaper comment sections to YouTube (actually kind of catchy song!). Predictably, Wikipedia editors spent more than a page arguing over whether or not this was notable. Others on Twitter speculated about the band's reaction. Today, the band finally broke the silence: Smash Mouth has agreed to attempt to eat 24 eggs if they receive $10,000 in donations to St. Jude's Children's Hospital.

• The meme had nothing to do with charity at its inception, and was arguably even a bit mean-spirited, but the charity angle appears to have won the band over. This is not unprecedented for lead singer Steve Harwell: Following the loss of his son to lymphatic leukemia, he and his wife started a foundation to raise money for children with leukemia. Today's tweet announcing the news referred to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, known for its contributions to the field of leukemia treatment, as the band's favorite charity.
• The sole "Position" listed on the band's cause page: "Smash Mouth should eat 24 eggs for the kids."
• The band announced that it will "attempt" to eat two dozen eggs if the fundraising goal is met. This works out to six eggs per member. This sounds very reasonable, but if they need encouragement, there's always this

posted by cobra_high_tigers (61 comments total)

Good for Smashmouth.
posted by jonmc at 5:54 PM on July 5, 2011 [2 favorites]

Cracking idea.
posted by punkfloyd at 5:56 PM on July 5, 2011

I didn't realize summer 2011 was when American pop culture would dissolve in a flurry of benevolent surrealism.
posted by benito.strauss at 5:56 PM on July 5, 2011 [34 favorites]

...

that really doesn't seem to be all that many eggs. It's effectively 8 standard omelettes
between 4 band members. so that's 2 omelettes each with no guaranteed time frame.

(the notability discussion on Wikipedia is not very lengthy by Wikipedia's standards and it would seem pretty clear that this falls short of Wikipedia notability consensus benchmarks blahblahblah yadayadayada)
posted by Bwithh at 6:00 PM on July 5, 2011

Paging Mr. Eggman.
posted by defenestration at 6:01 PM on July 5, 2011

I would go pickled or deviled.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:01 PM on July 5, 2011

Okay, Internet. This kind of makes up for the Rebecca Watson thing. You're off notice.
posted by schmod at 6:13 PM on July 5, 2011

This is actually Something Awful's work.
posted by LSK at 6:15 PM on July 5, 2011 [3 favorites]

Bwithh: I found the badgering of a major recording artist into doing something innocuous by unrelenting social spam the interesting aspect, not so much the sheer number of eggs to be eaten

LSK: (That link is in the post dogg)
posted by cobra_high_tigers at 6:19 PM on July 5, 2011

The egg: a symbol of life
posted by Rangeboy at 6:22 PM on July 5, 2011

I would go pickled or deviled.

Oh, God, yes. I love pickled eggs and I could eat dozens of deviled eggs (as long as they are not made with relish, which is just wrong).
posted by jonmc at 6:22 PM on July 5, 2011 [2 favorites]

Hooray! Smash Mouth is going to eat the eggs! It's what we all want, after all. If they ignored this outcry, they might as well be walking on the sun.
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:25 PM on July 5, 2011 [4 favorites]

And overhead, without any fuss, the hey-now-you're-a-rock-stars were going out.
posted by penduluum at 6:39 PM on July 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

If this was any other band, I would be cheering. Instead, though, I am suffering from this horrendous earworm infestation.

Thanks a lot, jerks.
posted by Sys Rq at 6:45 PM on July 5, 2011

They are setting the bar too low.
posted by timsteil at 6:49 PM on July 5, 2011

Eh, for what they were, Smashmouth were alright. Ans wouldn't wish that tragedy on anyone, and I hope this event is fun and raises some money.
posted by jonmc at 6:52 PM on July 5, 2011 [3 favorites]

What we have here is not a failure to communicate.
posted by Smart Dalek at 6:53 PM on July 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

I sure hope these band members are up to eating 2 three egg omlettes each.
posted by mulligan at 6:54 PM on July 5, 2011

that really doesn't seem to be all that many eggs

My boy can eat fifty of those eggs.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 6:55 PM on July 5, 2011 [3 favorites]

We all remember that moment in the opening of Shrek 1 when it dawned on us that yes, they are going to play through that entire song.
posted by kurumi at 6:59 PM on July 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

Eggs are the worst most vile god damn thing in the world and these gentlemen are heroes.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 7:05 PM on July 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

Bah. The original thing was for Steve Harwell to eat 24 eggs by himself. 6 eggs each isn't even a challenge.
posted by kafziel at 7:11 PM on July 5, 2011 [3 favorites]

Kinda surprised not to see the SomethingAwful links on this topic. One, two, three.
posted by Sticherbeast at 7:18 PM on July 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

It was either eggs or watch a Shrek marathon, I guess.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 7:20 PM on July 5, 2011

When I was in high school I used to really hate Smash Mouth because I thought the line 'all that glitters is gold' was a direct and purposeful refutation to the line in Stairway to Heaven. This should tell you an awful lot about the sort of person I was in high school.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:21 PM on July 5, 2011 [3 favorites]

(also, I love eggs. Eggs Benedict, my wife's amazing egg salad, the perfectly fried eggs at the Oasis in Burlington, VT, spicy pickled eggs, roasted quail eggs, huevos rancheros, Sausage McMuffins with Egg, Hash with Poached Eggs, Scotch Eggs, and 'Egg Frosting' the snack my nonna used to make me and my sisters when we were kids consisting of sugar stirred together with egg yolk.

It's the Incredible Edible Motherfucking Egg, folks)
posted by jonmc at 7:25 PM on July 5, 2011 [2 favorites]

Sticherbeast: Thanks for the third link - it wasn't on the first page of Google results, so I missed it. But like I told LSK, the first link is in the post, as is the youtube video from the second.

(and the Cool Hand Luke egg eating video too)

...is this thing on?
posted by cobra_high_tigers at 7:26 PM on July 5, 2011

Eggs Benedict

The egg is the only food that can be served on itself as though it is a different thing.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:26 PM on July 5, 2011 [10 favorites]

and the chipotle deviled eggs at hill country BBQ. overpriced, yes, but tasty as hell.
posted by jonmc at 7:27 PM on July 5, 2011

The egg is the only food that can be served on itself as though it is a different thing.

Yes! I thought of this as I stirred mayonnaise into my deviled egg yolks.
posted by moonmilk at 7:29 PM on July 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

shakespeherian: pigs would beg to differ!
posted by cobra_high_tigers at 7:30 PM on July 5, 2011

Dad, those all come from the same animal!
posted by nomisxid at 7:39 PM on July 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

shakespeherian: pigs would beg to differ!

I'll bet they wouldn't.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:45 PM on July 5, 2011 [2 favorites]

There it goes: It's officially impossible to bring up egg eating on MetaFilter without bringing up Cool Hand Luke.
posted by jimmythefish at 7:49 PM on July 5, 2011

"I can eat 50 eggs"
posted by greenhornet at 8:26 PM on July 5, 2011

Paging Mr. Eggman yt .

Wasn't that the villain from Now and Again?
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 8:31 PM on July 5, 2011

If you got the eggs they'll come and buy it just to stay in the clique
posted by NoraReed at 8:44 PM on July 5, 2011

twitter plus SA is the grossest thing i've heard this week
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 8:47 PM on July 5, 2011

Metafilter: Not so much the sheer number of eggs to be eaten.
posted by mendel at 9:12 PM on July 5, 2011

I first saw this on SA with no context. I think i liked it better that way, but its a nice return to form for a site that's getting killed by Cracked and 4chan.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 9:14 PM on July 5, 2011

@fart is a sweet twitter nickname.
posted by ph00dz at 10:15 PM on July 5, 2011

> @fart is a sweet twitter nickname.


i think it stinks.
posted by mulligan at 10:26 PM on July 5, 2011

The comments on that Mercury News article had me laughing so hard I was in tears.

"We'll put the eggs in your mouth, all you have to do is show up."
posted by bpm140 at 10:47 PM on July 5, 2011

Kinda surprised not to see the SomethingAwful links on this topic.

Especially since that's where the 'twitter meme' originated - @fart and the other people shown in the SA article are members of an SA subforum noted for exactly this sort of humor. (Along with a lot of other things, but those are better left unsaid)
posted by flatluigi at 12:24 AM on July 6, 2011 [1 favorite]

Guys what's the deal? Next time should I explicitly include the phrase "THIS IS A SOMETHINGAWFUL LINK" next to the link to the page on somethingawful that is actually in the FPP? Literally three people now have expressed disappointment or surprise that I didn't provide a link to SA when there's one right there.

If it's the way that I said "started on Twitter" that's rubbing people the wrong way, well, okay, but people I follow on Twitter were making jokes about it for two days before the SA article was posted. Yes, the guy who started it was an SA author. But not every single person on Twitter who ran with it was, and certainly not everybody who started spreading the Smash Mouth + Eggs theme everywhere else since then is.

So... goondolences for the offense and everything, but seriously, what?
posted by cobra_high_tigers at 1:20 AM on July 6, 2011

Eggiwegs. I would like to... smash(mouth) 'em... and pick 'em all up... and throw, ow! Fucking hell.
posted by Elmore at 2:30 AM on July 6, 2011

also, I love eggs

So one of those Egg Council creeps got to you too, huh?
posted by russm at 2:41 AM on July 6, 2011

cobra_high_tigers, we will acknowledge that you included an SA link, but only if you eat 24 eggs first.
posted by yankeefog at 3:13 AM on July 6, 2011 [1 favorite]

"eggs" is a slang term that means testicles. there it is, thats the joke
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 4:35 AM on July 6, 2011

"smash mouth ate my balls"
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 4:36 AM on July 6, 2011 [2 favorites]

Maybe they're trying to effect an actuarial kill on the band by inducing heart disease.
posted by kpdawes at 5:25 AM on July 6, 2011

I feel bad about that guy's son dying and all, but their music is just so bad I have to say it: couldn't they, like, suck eggs instead?
posted by Mooseli at 6:30 AM on July 6, 2011

For a little bit of background on real-life competitive egg eating Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas has eaten 65 eggs in 6 minutes 40 seconds and 52 eggs in 5 minutes. The latter record was to set the 5-minute record; the former record attempt was halted when the organizer ran out of eggs. So yes, a 135-pound woman can not only easily out-eat Smash Mouth, but Cool Hand Luke as well.

Apparently she also just won the women's title in the first ever gender segregated installment of the Nathan's Famous Hotdog Eating Contest.
posted by Dr. Eigenvariable at 7:41 AM on July 6, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'd rather see Smash Mouth listen to "All Star" 24 times in a row. No bathroom breaks!

(I actually like Smash Mouth a little bit and I recognize this means I have terrible taste, also I kind of like a couple Sugar Ray songs, I'm sorry everyone, this is why I own headphones)
posted by Metroid Baby at 8:03 AM on July 6, 2011

I read it as

The ego is the only food that can be served on itself as though it is a different thing.

Which is sage advice.
posted by Not Supplied at 9:06 AM on July 6, 2011 [1 favorite]

Damn, I love it when everybody wins.
posted by kinnakeet at 10:32 AM on July 6, 2011

I'm just impressed that Kids These Days know that eggs come out of a cloaca.

Maybe our educational system isn't as bad as I thought?
posted by ErikaB at 6:48 PM on July 7, 2011

Maybe our educational system isn't as bad as I thought?

By 'educational system' you mean 'Cracked, SA, and that IndieTits comic by the guy who does Questionable Content', right?
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 6:52 PM on July 7, 2011

This post made it to the front page of Smashmouth.com
posted by rollick at 9:38 AM on July 8, 2011

MetaFilter: the front page of Smashmouth.com
posted by Sticherbeast at 9:38 AM on July 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

THIS JUST IN: $10,000 goal reached, and before some concert that took place this weekend, a couple of band members posed for four pictures with a carton of eggs
posted by cobra_high_tigers at 9:18 AM on July 11, 2011