For about the past year, covers of Smash Mouth’s All Star have become something of an in-joke on the internet – with efforts ranging from the bizarre to the sublime.
This week, Twitter user Richard Cook created the latter option. Disguised as innocuous yet entertaining tweets and unbeknownst to his followers, the 27-year-old smuggled the song’s first verse into his Twitter feed.
Pay attention, because here it is in all its glory…
Somebody OUGHTA GO BACK AND READ THE FIRST WORD OF MY TWEETS FOR THE LAST WEEK.
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) July 4, 2017
Once seen, cannot be unseen. https://t.co/UvRT5k2zda
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) July 4, 2017
"Told you this was a terrible terrible idea" – my last words as I starve to death trying this new fad diet pic.twitter.com/NZznz4vOHz
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) July 4, 2017
ME: GoT-based advertising is so overdone and bad, i'm glad we're past all that
KFC: hold my fries pic.twitter.com/bzv041TwnC
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) July 4, 2017
The state of this. https://t.co/VghleNUtZH
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) July 4, 2017
World War Three confirmed. https://t.co/gVA0S0tuif
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) July 4, 2017
Is this planet truly beyond saving? Did we go too far? https://t.co/91geMNyXiH
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) July 4, 2017
Gonna be a long train home pic.twitter.com/XuUkye7K6Y
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) July 3, 2017
Roll my eyes at people who tag their friends into Facebook videos of cool things abroad that they'll never go to or experience.
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) July 3, 2017
ME: I need to start taking my LinkedIn more seriously
ALSO ME: pic.twitter.com/Ga17X3U0MP
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) July 3, 2017
I played myself https://t.co/slFIEXrT67
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) July 3, 2017
Ain’t ever gonna describe my shopping as a “haul”. I simply won’t ever do it.
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) July 3, 2017
The absolute genius of @TheInspiroBot pic.twitter.com/ZenbjdYV0c
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) July 3, 2017
Sharpest take of the week https://t.co/luyRlaVh7Z
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) July 3, 2017
Tool.
(and a rake!!!) pic.twitter.com/PGSkMzl452
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) July 2, 2017
In my newsfeed and I love it? pic.twitter.com/cHL5TT1Edp
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) July 2, 2017
The boy. Drinking bourbon through a cow's bone marrow. @SmokeWorksBBQ pic.twitter.com/ZRCgXHh7Sp
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) July 2, 2017
Shed loads of reasons to play Risk Legacy. https://t.co/DhSnZrifbZ
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) July 2, 2017
She will inexplicably be a giant screaming gramophone
^ My prediction for the return of Audrey in Twin Peaks Season 3.
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) June 30, 2017
Was this the point at which civilisation ended?
"That place where the wave finally broke and rolled back" ??? pic.twitter.com/hLNNc0jA07
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) June 30, 2017
Looking closely at the trailers, it seems Inhumans and Jumanji 2 both take place on the island from Lost. pic.twitter.com/tT0K5pWyRT
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) June 30, 2017
Kind of mad that in other counties their public holidays aren’t all Mondays, so they get these weird ‘bridge days’ off AKA free holiday days
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) June 30, 2017
Of course. I use the same excuse in practically every meeting I attend these days. pic.twitter.com/C3ad5AmqkT
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) June 30, 2017
Dumb question, but is there an app which automatically saves money based on what you can afford and there’s a £10 signup code offer? Anyone?
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) June 30, 2017
With every fibre of my being I do hereby declare that I will never knowingly watch a single episode of Love Island.
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) June 30, 2017
Her opinions seem particularly out of place given that we live in progressive Europe and it's LITERALLY Pride month. https://t.co/vJaFiec5VT
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) June 30, 2017
Finger never recognised by macbook/phone fingerprint scanners. Might as well smear grease on them at setup to save time.
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) June 29, 2017
And I hear that George Osborne is now attempting to manually boost the economy by personally doing every job in it.
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) June 29, 2017
Her is a film that I still think about loads. Not just the technology, but the overall aesthetic, which I hope to one day achieve. pic.twitter.com/nBBeoWONCW
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) June 29, 2017
Thumb up review for Baby Driver. Very decent soundtrack too.
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) June 29, 2017
In ten years time, it'll be revealed that all of Neil Buchanan's big art attacks were themselves part of an even LARGER art attack.
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) June 29, 2017
The police cba to look at the CCTV directly overlooking the bike rack, so I guess I'm never getting my bike back 😢 pic.twitter.com/33OLKaWTlP
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) June 29, 2017
Shape of the magic money tree pic.twitter.com/lKyNIMw2nl
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) June 28, 2017
Of course, follower numbers is a meaningless metric.But that doesn't stop me endlessly obsessing over it daily.
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) June 28, 2017
An enormous thanks to each and every one of my now 600 followers ❤️
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) June 28, 2017
LOL pic.twitter.com/DadjjPBCVN
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) June 28, 2017
On what planet is an in-hospital Burger King a good idea? pic.twitter.com/8ynBEhetRe
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) June 27, 2017
Her.She's ruthless, cunning, and will do anything to hold onto power. I didn't say her name, but she just popped into your head didn't she? pic.twitter.com/65wZCWOyT7
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) June 27, 2017
Forehead, meet palm pic.twitter.com/1mJhtIrCqj
— Richard Cook (@cookywook) June 27, 2017
A truly inspirational effort – but Cook, from Cambridge, thinks he could have taken it even further.
“I should have done the whole song over a month or something” he told the Press Association. “But I don’t think I’d have had the patience.”
Hey now! You're an all-star!
— Kelly Scaletta (@KellyScaletta) July 4, 2017
Cook, who works in social media for Spotify, said the whole process was “nowhere near as difficult as people might think” though.
“I just wrote down the first verse backwards and tweeted like normal,” he said. “All you have to do is reword your tweets to have that first word. Nothing complicated.”
I bow down to you, the King of Twitter
— Skylar Baker-Jordan (@SkylarJordan) July 4, 2017
You are a criminal and a genius and I applaud you pic.twitter.com/Q9kMbzuJqE
— Will Overgard [T]/ (@Will_Overgard) July 4, 2017
He said he was worried someone would work out what he was doing or somehow beat him to it, but he’s “very happy” with the reaction his creation is getting online.
“I’m glad it only took 21,000 bad tweets to get here,” added Cook.