Smosh

Smosh is a sketch comedy YouTube channel founded by Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox created in 2005. The name originates from one of their friends saying the word “mosh pit” as “smosh pit.” Smosh was the most subscribed YouTube channel after the “subscribe” button was implemented but soon lost that title, only to earn it back, but then lose it again.

In July 2011, Smosh became a brand owned by Alloy Digital/Defy/Break Media (aka Defy Media). Six years later, Anthony left Smosh due to him feeling like his creativity had been going through a filter ever since being turned into a brand by Defy. He admitted to no longer enjoying making Smosh videos and went on to upload on his own independent channel, AnthonyPadilla.

On November 6th, 2018, just one year after Anthony’s departure, Defy Media spontaneously went bankrupt, putting the future of Smosh in jeopardy with no funding or support. A couple months later in February 2019, the Smosh channel and brand was saved by Mythical Entertainment, a production company owned by notable YouTube pair Rhett and Link. Unlike Defy, Mythical Entertainment allowed Smosh to operate semi-independently, with minimal intervention from Rhett and Link, but was still ultimately owned by the two.

Smosh operated under Mythical Entertainment until June 20, 2023, when it was announced that Anthony Padilla had returned to Smosh, along with the news that he and Hecox had chosen to purchase ownership of Smosh from Mythical Entertainment, making Smosh an independent entity once more. With the prodigal son returning, Anthony and Ian made a commitment to return to their “Classic Smosh” roots, writing, directing, and producing sketch comedy on the main Smosh channel whilst leaving Smosh Pit and Smosh Games as they are.

This also resulted in the main channel description being changed to simply “two boys making videos”. Their first classic Smosh skit featured a return to around five minutes in length, a revamped iconic spray paint and “SHUT UP!” intro, and the simple outro of Ian promoting bonus content and clicking the next video.