It’s the Summer of “Smooth,” a time when a swirling nexus of irony and nostalgia has opened wide and spewed back a Grammy-winning 1999 hit by Santana ft. Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty. Whether out of snark or genuine fondness, people would rather be listening to “Smooth.”
Look at this damn T-shirt:
MAN ITS A…. HOT ONE pic.twitter.com/GZ2US61BIP
— Esmarelda Fitzmonster (@corihealey) July 26, 2016
It’s “going viral,” and it’s so dope that even Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty himself has retweeted it:
@corihealey lmao Rob Thomas retweeted you pic.twitter.com/Cv7gMV6F0f
— Mikelennial (@Mikelennial) July 27, 2016
After a lot of searching, we still don’t know where this exact shirt comes from, or who the guy wearing it is. Cori Healey, the hero who tweeted the photo, has not commented.
There are several variations of the tee available, but I couldn’t find one in that exact font and with the printing on the back. Ugh, I would love to own it—instead we’ll have to settle for one of these:
They don’t even have the kicker: “off the multi-platinum album Supernatural.” One design that did, but still isn’t the shirt from the photo, was for sale on Teepublic earlier today.
It appears to have been taken down now.
But at least there’s a mug version of the joke.
I found a mug version pic.twitter.com/kQfa2BO3uY
— Mikelennial (@Mikelennial) July 26, 2016
And a butt plug. No, seriously. It was created by the dankest butt plug maker on the internet, GlowFYourself.
HOLY SHIT THE INTERNET IS WEIRD pic.twitter.com/sSiNUdVOkN
— Esmarelda Fitzmonster (@corihealey) July 27, 2016
https://twitter.com/megelizabeth/status/758307497753083904
That is officially the Smoothest featuring Rob Thomas thing ever.
The Summer of Smooth continues unabated, and it appears nothing can stop this catchy Latin rock juggernaut. The internet has given its heart, made it real, and won’t forget about it.
Update: Nicholas Kula, creator of the second “Smooth” shirt you see in this post, tells us he was the progenitor of the joke. His shirt launched in December of last year, making it “the OG.”
“The one everyone’s been passing around is a ‘bootleg,’ haha,” he writes.
It may not have been the most famous version of the shirt, but it was the first, so credit where credit is due.