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Just a few months after YouTube launched in 2005, teenagers Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla joined forces to create goofy lip-synch videos of their favorite theme songs. Posted under the username Smosh, the duo's antics became one of the website's most popular channels—and with two movies, 41 million subscribers and a host of new content, Smosh shows no signs of slowing.
Hecox recently chatted with Parade.com about Smosh's rise to YouTube fame, his sense of humor and the future of the channel.
How did Smosh get started?
The videos began when my friend Anthony Padilla (who left Smosh last year) and I began making mostly lip-synch videos to our favorite childhood theme songs in 2005. The main purpose was to just entertain ourselves. When we began uploading to YouTube late 2005, a few of these videos began getting a lot of attention, with our Pokemon Theme Song Music Video becoming the most viewed video on YouTube for over a year. We decided to transition away from lip-synch videos to original sketch comedy, and over the course of almost 13 years, Smosh has evolved into what you see today!
What was the turning point for Smosh?
The major turning point was in 2007 when YouTube asked us to be in their newly created Partner Program. We were one of the first 10 channels to have ads on our videos and actually start earning income from YouTube. This allowed us to focus on Smosh full time and treat it like a legitimate career.
How did you handle being one of YouTube's first sensations? It seems like a different sort of fame.
From the beginning, I thought the claim of us being famous was ridiculous, but occasionally I am recognized in public, and I don't think I'll ever get used to it. However, internet fame is very different from other kinds of fame. If you're internet famous, you're be a big deal to a very small percentage of the population, and the rest of the world will have no clue who you are. Also, for the first several years, no one in old media took us seriously and saw this YouTube thing as a passing trend. Only in recent years has the platform been truly taken seriously by those in old media.
How would you describe your sense of humor?
In some cases, a little too dark or inappropriate for YouTube. But most of my real joke pitches start with "OK, this is probably a bad idea—this is a really stupid, dumb idea and it probably won't work—but what if…"
The brand has already expanded so much—how do you see it growing in the future?
We've made a couple movies (Smosh: The Movie and Ghostmates) and an original series (Part Timers), and every time we do a long-form narrative, we get better at it. I'm most excited to see what else we can do with long-form. We've also seen huge growth on Facebook and Instagram and have started strategically programming against those platforms. So I think the key is to always remain open to change.
Do you think there will be a point where you will step away from Smosh to focus on other endeavors?
I've been doing Smosh for almost 13 years, and sometimes I forget how fortunate I am. My job consists of me going to a place every weekday where I pitch and discuss comedy with a bunch of other funny, driven people. Obviously it's not always perfect, but even then, how is that not a dream job? And the fact that my work through the years has given many of the people around me full-time employment is something I am very proud of. In regards to other endeavors, I'm always open to other opportunities, but Smosh is my main focus.
What's it like having younger fans who were born around the time YouTube was getting started?
That's the crazy thing about how long I've been in the YouTube game. We've had viewers who started watching us early on in elementary or high school and are now married with kids and still watching. But when we do some sort of throwback to something very early with Smosh, there have been comments like "I was 5 when you made that," and that blows my mind. The internet moves so quickly, and every year internet sensations come and go, and I count myself very fortunate to have created something long lasting.
Do you have a favorite video?
Of recent memory, one of my favorites was our Secret to Instagram Comedy we did last year. It was a sketch I wrote that satirizes a certain type of comedian that was very popular on Instagram. It was the perfect subject to lampoon, but I also viewed it as a public service to call out the behavior I was seeing being rewarded on there.
Check out some of our favorite Smosh moments below!
Source: https://parade.com/674920/ccopelan/the-best-parts-of-smosh/
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