Drew Barrymore began hosting an eponymous talk show this week. It is, in a word, batshit. On Thursday’s episode, she interviewed her tonal ancestor, Tyra Banks, who hosted her own madcap talk show in the ’00s. Barrymore introduced Banks as an “entrepreneurial maven and creator of smizing,” and asked the supermodel about the art and craft of smiling with one’s eyes, a crucial nonverbal method of communication in a masked-up world. The ensuing conversation was earnest to the point of self-parody.
Banks explained that people who opt to smile with their mouths under their masks, as opposed to smiling with their eyes, look evil. “I created smizing really just about having an intense look and a gaze in a photo,” said Banks, in all apparent seriousness. “I never thought in a million years that it would mean so much more and come to mean so much more and be so important today with us wearing masks.” To get the right smize, Banks explained, you must think of something that delights you.
The intention of a properly executed smize is to “beam that light from your being” into its intended recipient (in Barrymore’s case, her daughters in a hypothetical stage performance). “What happens is your eyes begin to squint, your mouth becomes slightly numb, and all the energy comes up here [gestures to forehead], and you’re like, yeah baby,” said Banks in a description that sounded like a medication’s side effects. Smizing’s a hell of a drug.
“And so now a smize doesn’t just mean, I’m fierce,” Banks continued. “A smize today means thank you. Or a smize means, ‘You go first.’ Or a smize means, ‘I’m going to be here for you during this difficult time that you are going through right now.’”
Whatever you say, creator! Banks proceeded to discuss her ice cream line, naturally called Smize Cream. To describe the “edible truffle-icious cookie dough surprise” inside every serving of the dessert, Banks used the word “gamification,” which really impressed Barrymore. They then decided that they should be friends. Best of luck to these two!