About

"Smockin" is an intentional misspelling of the catchphrase "smoking" uttered by the protagonist in the 1994 comedy film The Mask, which is often associated with a photograph of Jim Carrey's costumed stunt double from the film.

Origin

On January 14th, 2015, Redditor Join_You_In_The_Sun submitted a photograph of The Mask co-stars Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz posed next to their two stunt doubles to /r/Moviesinthemaking^[8] (shown below).^[8] In the comments section, Redditor notfromhere23 remarked that Carrey's stunt double resembles the Feels Guy.

Spread

On February 13th, 2015, Redditor mark2d resubmitted the photograph to /r/movies,^[7] where it garnered upwards of 3,000 votes (94% upvoted) and 370 comments prior to being archived. On April 9th, the @Realmaskparody parody Twitter account was launched, written from the perspective of The Mask stunt double.

On April 18th, the account tweeted the word "Smockin!"^[4] According to an article by Complex,^[5] the term "smockin" was subsequently popularized by Twitter user @trillballins in reference to the stunt double. On August 12th, Twitter user @MikeAkaleroy^[2] posted a photograph of The Mask stunt double photoshopped on to Mt. Rushmore along with Guy Fieri, Crying Michael Jordan and the Tom Brady courtroom sketch (shown below, left). That tweet was subsequently deleted. On August 13th, the Twitter feed for the morning talk show Good Morning America retweeted the image, speculating that it may be the "most popular meme" (shown below, right).^[1]

On November 19th, Twitter user @ChrisVannini^[9] tweeted a photograph of a Michigan State Spartans football fan holding a sign featuring The Mask stunt double (shown below).

On June 21st, 2016, the Good Morning America Twitter account posted a tweet about #CryingLeBron, which referred to The Mask stunt double photo as "#smockin / the mask" and the Kermit the Frog tea-sipping image with the hashtag "#tealizard" (shown below, left)

Trump's "Smocking" Tweet

On December 10th, 2018, Donald Trump misspelled "smoking" as "smocking" twice in one tweet while complaining about the ongoing Russiagate investigation.

The typos led to jokes revolving around "Smockin." Actor Zach Braff insisted that the multiple misspellings proved that Trump could not spell "smoking" (shown below, left). Others joked about how the word "smocking" literally means a type of fabric decoration. User @Apple_Chinbolt tweeted about how the "smocking gun" could be a home goods product (shown below, right). "Smocking" was trending on Twitter that day, and jokes were covered by Daily Dot.^[10]

Search Interest

External References