# Woll Smoth

Woll Smoth is a Photoshop format from November 2007 that uses the warp tool to drag a subject's eyes, nose and mouth into a tiny cluster on an otherwise normal face. The name is a vowel-swapped misspelling of actor Will Smith, whose warped portrait was the first to run on 4chan's /b/ board, kicking off six years of shrunken-face celebrity edits that eventually crossed into Japanese social media.

## Origin
The earliest known Woll Smoth post went up on 4chan's /b/ (random) board on November 14th, 2007 and drew 334 replies in roughly seven hours[1]. Other posters answered the thread with their own warped celebrities, replying with pictures whose eyes and mouths had been pinched down the same way[1].

The visual look pulled from Nod Flenders, an MS Paint series that had been running on /b/ since June 11th, 2007, in which cartoon figures, including Ned Flanders from The Simpsons, were redrawn with tiny eyes and mouths and renamed with vowel-scrambled spellings[2]. Woll Smoth lifted that drawing joke off cartoons and onto real celebrity photos with the Photoshop warp tool[6].

- **Platform:** 4chan /b/ (origin), Tumblr / LiveJournal (viral spread)
- **Creator:** Unknown
- **Date:** 2007

## Overview
The joke needs two moves. First, the warp tool in Photoshop pinches a subject's eyes, nose and mouth inward until they cluster near the center of the head, while the forehead, hair and jaw stay their normal size[1]. Second, the subject's name gets rewritten with the vowels swapped: Will Smith turns into Woll Smoth, Hillary Clinton becomes 'Hollareet Clatnog,' Tom Hanks becomes 'Tom Honks'[4]. The misspelling is as load-bearing as the photoshop, and both parts are standard across almost every edit in the format.

Later variants pushed the compression further and pulled the nose in too, which produced the 'little face' and 'shrunken face' spinoffs that drove the format's second wind on blog platforms in 2011 and 2012[6]. The pose and lighting of the source photo tend to stay untouched; the only thing changed is the cluster of features, which is what makes the edits read as uncanny instead of simply ugly.

## How to Use
To make a Woll Smoth edit, open a straight-on face shot in Photoshop, grab the warp tool and pull the eyes, nose and mouth together into a tiny cluster near the middle of the head, leaving the hair and face outline alone[1]. Then rewrite the person's name with the vowels swapped. Common convention keeps the pose, lighting and background of the source photo untouched; only the features move. Variants typically either shrink only the eyes and mouth, like the November 2007 original, or push the nose in as well, which is often called the 'little face' or 'shrunken face' version[6].

## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Woll Smoth?
Woll Smoth is a 2007 Photoshop format that uses the warp tool to shrink a subject's eyes, nose and mouth into a tiny cluster on an otherwise normal face, paired with an intentionally misspelled version of the person's name[1].

### Where did Woll Smoth come from?
It started with a warped Will Smith photo posted to 4chan's /b/ (random) board on November 14th, 2007, a thread that drew 334 replies in about seven hours[1].

### What does Woll Smoth mean?
'Woll Smoth' is a vowel-swapped misspelling of actor Will Smith's name, used because his portrait was the first to get the warp treatment in the original /b/ thread[6].

### How do you use Woll Smoth?
Open a face photo in Photoshop, use the warp tool to pull the eyes, nose and mouth inward into a tiny cluster near the middle of the head, then rewrite the subject's name with the vowels scrambled[1].

### Is Woll Smoth still popular?
The format peaked in waves between 2007 and 2013, including Little Face Mitt during the 2012 US election[9] and a Japanese 'shrunken face' revival covered by Rocket News 24 in 2013[11]; it is now treated as a classic 4chan photoshop format rather than an active trend.

## References
1. [http://4chanarchive.org/brchive/dspl_thread.php5?thread_id=45391871&x=woll+smoth+-+tinyfied+celebs](<http://4chanarchive.org/brchive/dspl_thread.php5?thread_id=45391871&x=woll+smoth+-+tinyfied+celebs>)
2. [http://chanarchive.com/4chan/b/430?style=burichan-ish](<http://chanarchive.com/4chan/b/430?style=burichan-ish>)
3. [http://chanarchive.com/4chan/b/837#45848024](<http://chanarchive.com/4chan/b/837#45848024>)
4. [http://chanarchive.com/4chan/b/2355](<http://chanarchive.com/4chan/b/2355>)
5. [https://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/20184696.html](<https://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/20184696.html>)
6. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/woll-smoth](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/woll-smoth>)
7. [http://forum.ebaumsworld.com/showthread.php?248156-Official-Woll-Smoth-Picture-Thread!](<http://forum.ebaumsworld.com/showthread.php?248156-Official-Woll-Smoth-Picture-Thread!>)
8. [https://www.reddit.com/r/fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu/comments/r74d9/woll_smoth/](<https://www.reddit.com/r/fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu/comments/r74d9/woll_smoth/>)
9. [http://littlefacemitt.tumblr.com/](<http://littlefacemitt.tumblr.com/>)
10. [https://www.funnyordie.com/articles/2d67cd42b5/20-little-face-celebrities](<https://www.funnyordie.com/articles/2d67cd42b5/20-little-face-celebrities>)
11. [https://soranews24.com/2013/05/02/celebrities-with-shrunken-faces-the-latest-meme-to-sweep-japan-%E3%80%90photo-gallery%E3%80%91/](<https://soranews24.com/2013/05/02/celebrities-with-shrunken-faces-the-latest-meme-to-sweep-japan-%E3%80%90photo-gallery%E3%80%91/>)
12. [https://smallfacecelebs.blogspot.com/](<https://smallfacecelebs.blogspot.com/>)

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Source: https://meme.com/memes/woll-smoth
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