Eat the Eggs Please, Smash Mouth! Twitter Joke Turns to Charity (and Comic) Gold

Back on June 3, one man on Twitter started what would soon become an internet phenomenon when he tweeted at the legendary alternative-rock group Smash Mouth (best known for their work on the soundtrack of Shrek and their brief appearance in Rat Race) offering the lead singer, Steve Harwell, $20 to eat 24 eggs. Yesterday, the band accepted the challenge, and in 24 hours, they have raised nearly $6,000 for St. Jude Children's Hospital.

This all started when Johnny 'docevil' Titanium, a contributor to SomethingAwful.com, wrote a message to Smash Mouth:

Within hours, Titanium's cause had exploded into a Twitter sensation with more than $2,000 pledged:

Five days after Titanium's tweet, some British guy named Bert wrote this wonderful song imploring Smash Mouth to "eat the eggs please":
On July 5, Smash Mouth accepted the challenge and created a causes page:

Now, it's just a matter of time before this:
[@willisplummer]