Smash Mouth just found out about one of the alt-right’s favorite artists in a very embarrassing way.
To a well-adjusted person whose brain hasn’t been systematically poisoned by the internet, this looks like a normal interaction: fan tweets artwork, band shows appreciation. Except Shadman—Marshall Shadders as it’s listed on his YouTube page, though likely not his real name—isn’t known for his vocal enthusiasm for the Shrek band, he’s an artist who’s best known for drawing lolicon (meaning prepubescent women in sexualized scenarios) versions of popular characters from video games and politics. Yikes!
Anyone could be forgiven for not knowing this tweet came from the guy who drew Hillary Clinton and Jill Stein as naked children smoking weed. Shadman isn’t exactly a household name and the tweet itself is more or less innocuous. But whoever tweets for the band clearly did not click through to Shad’s profile either, which is replete with Nazi imagery and the bio “every hole’s a goal.”
Several fans told them (the world was gonna roll them) that Shad was perhaps not someone the band had intended to post to their timeline. “Just checked out his other ‘work’. Yes,....he may have issues. lol,” read the first realization. Shortly afterward, however, the band replied to another fan, “Obviously children are off limits. Checked his work and didn’t see kids. But thanks for the heads-up.” That may be because his site—Shadbase—was offline for several months due to “legal issues” and appears to have had some content scrubbed since then. He’s also been given temporary suspensions from both Twitch and Twitter.
In any case, here’s what we know: Someone from Smash Mouth realized the fan art they retweeted came from a skull-faced Nazi man who draws porn of exceptionally young-looking women, and decided to power through it.
Many years ago, the band was told they weren’t the sharpest tools in the shed. Not much, it seems, has changed.
Update 6/22/17 6:17pm: Smash Mouth have deleted the retweet. None of us are beyond redemption.