On December 26th, 2023, TikTok star Jonah Who embarked on a musical meme mission that would take him an entire year to complete. But the payoff was absolutely worth it, with his long-awaited finished product – a viral cover of Shrek soundtrack hit “All Star” by Smash Mouth – amassing an incredible 5.4 million YouTube views within a mere nine months of hitting the site.
Music Man readers can watch Jonah’s one-of-a-kind rendition unfold in the video below!
But why on Earth did a simple pop/rock cover take Jonah a whole year to perfect? The answer may blow your mind…
This isn’t your bog-standard cover crafted from the mind of a seasoned, pro musician. Rather, Jonah’s expertise lies in the world of internet memes, with his TikTok and YouTube pages featuring a number of joke tunes, beatbox snippets, and more, alongside his usual cosplay content.
As if the Shrek hit couldn’t get any more meme-tastic, Jonah attempted to one-up the All Star original by recording a single word of the song every single day for a year. Splicing his footage together into one consistent piece, the end result isn’t just ingeniously brilliant but captures a core slice of Gen Z humor so hilarious that it could even make the grannies cackle.
Jonah prefaces his year-long cover with a quick explanation before singing the first word of the hit, “Somebody,” in a voice which matches melody with pure deadpan comedy. In the corner of this clip, the dates roll along day by day—his clothes and scenery changing with each lyrical snippet, proving the authenticity of his ‘one word a day’ rendition. In case you’re still not convinced, you can even see Jonah’s hair growing and getting cut as the months progress, accidentally creating one of the most epic ‘one photo a day’ aging timelapses the internet has ever seen!
Jonah doesn’t come across as a trained vocalist in this cover, giving his version a vividly wholesome, student edge, whilst recreating the vibe of old-school YouTube content to perfection. And this fact only clears the path for more comedy than can be imagined—his struggle to hit the tune’s lowest notes makes even the star burst into laughter mid-take, multiple times!
But, as his clip plays out, Jonah’s lack of pro vocal skills is completely overshadowed by his astounding expertise in another musical area: his insane ability to sing a single word on pitch (albeit with a side-splitting deadpan tone) and slot his 300+ takes together in perfect rhythm with his backing track—lightning-fast segments and all. It’s a near-unimaginable feat of music production, and we can only guess how many hours it took Jonah to splice his snippets so perfectly to the beat. Against all odds, it’s a pretty flawless cover, if you ask us.
And the internet couldn’t agree more. As one top commenter on this viral YouTube clip realized, to the tune of 25,000 likes, “If you think about it, there were probably times where he’s had a bad day but still committed to the bit, so props to him.”
Others were quick to notice the sheer absurdity of Jonah’s mammoth musical task, with one viewer writing, to an even more shocking 79,000 likes: “I can just imagine this man pulling his phone in some random place, singing ‘mold’ and immediately putting it in his pocket again. Legendary.”
Jonah Who’s year-long meme-to-hit journey shows why he’s a creator to watch — his viral Smash Mouth cover proves it. Want to dive deeper into the making and watch the full video? Find useful links to discover more below this paragraph.