Today is May the fourth, meaning we will be inundated with all things Star Wars for the entire day. However, the most bizarre Star Wars related item may have taken place last night. On the May 3 episode of The Tonight Show, host Jimmy Fallon read an audience suggestion from a fan who proclaimed their love for both Star Wars and the band Smash Mouth. In tribute to these two passions, Fallon put together the following video in which all the characters from the Star Wars movies work together to perform the lyrics to the band's hit "All-Star." You can't unsee it once you click play, but you know you need to do it.
All things considered, the editing team at The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon needs a raise after this one. The collection of quick cuts are done perfectly in sync with the Smash Mouth song that you'll now be trying like hell to get out of your head for the rest of the day. What may be most impressive is the way they covered for the words they apparently couldn't find. The video includes aliens like Jabba the Hutt, who never speak English in the film, but they were able to find sounds that he makes that sounded enough like the words that they needed that you barely notice. They even include some bits where alien sounds take the place of the melody instead of just the lyrics. I'm not saying I want to hear the entire song done this way, but it could have been a lot more painful.
If you've been living under a rock, the fourth of May has become a sort of Star Wars holiday because of the phonetic similarity between May the fourth and May the Force. It's a day for Star Wars fans to celebrate their fandom and fill up your social media feeds with May the Fourth hashtags. Occasionally, Lucasfilm even gets in on the action, using the day as a reason to release news about the upcoming films. It's possible we'll get some information from the studio, but with Star Wars Celebration Orlando having just concluded a couple weeks ago, odds are that most of the big news was released there so it'll be a bit before we hear anything else significant.
In the end, we have to hand it to Smash Mouth. many jokes get made at the band's expense, mostly justifiably, but "All-Star" is one of those songs that everybody instantly recognizes. It's got a place in pop culture forever, however dubious that place may be. It may never be as popular as Star Wars but it may be as well known. Maybe putting the two together isn't that crazy an idea. Maybe I've just had to listen to this mashup too much and my brain is melting.
