Why is the return of classic Smosh a big deal?

Last week, Smosh’s co-founders Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla purchased the company from owners Rhett and Link. It’s the first time the two have had complete creative control since 2011.

Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla have announced their acquisition of Smosh, a comedy YouTube channel and brand they first founded in 2005.

After six years working independently on scripted sketches and vlogs, the duo sold Smosh to a larger digital media company called Defy Media in 2011. Both stayed on as employees and still appeared in most videos, branching out into new projects such as mobile games, a movie, and additional channels.

Smosh’s expansion steadily diminished the creative freedom of its original founders, however, and eventually Anthony left the company entirely in 2017, leaving Ian to keep the brand afloat with a new cast of supporting comedians and entertainers.

Defy Media suddenly went into liquidation in 2018 and Smosh was left without any financial backing. It was then picked up by Good Mythical Morning, an online entertainment company owned by YouTubers Rhett and Link.

Now, the creative rights have been purchased back by Ian and Anthony, giving them complete control over Smosh for the first time in twelve years. They made the news official on the original Smosh channel and have said new sketch comedy videos will be appearing fortnightly. In Anthony’s words, ‘classic Smosh is back’.

For younger Millennials and older Gen Zers, Smosh was a hugely influential channel that helped establish online content creation as a viable career path before it was a norm.

Building a commercial and monetizable brand that housed multiple channels, properties, and products digitally was not yet standard practice, and so Ian and Anthony’s business approach was mostly guess work.

A decade ago, management companies and marketers often funded big YouTube channels like Smosh in exchange for ownership, as most creators were young and unsure as to how long an online creative career could last. Today, there are far more options for YouTubers to turn their channels into profitable properties, whether that be through merchandise, ad-revenue, or third-party sponsorships.

In 2023, creators have influencer marketing and SEO experts at their disposal, with clear goals to make their content last and maintain relevance in the zeitgeist. YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and Instagram allow multiple feeds of short-burst content that can be re-used and reposted to maintain relevancy and keep online creators at the forefront of internet culture.

Smosh did not have this luxury back in 2011. On a recent podcast with Nigahiga, another first generation YouTuber, Anthony says that ‘everything for new creators is easier, except for the saturation of online content’. Smosh is a big reason why it is so much easier today.

The company’s acquisition is a full circle moment for those of us whose childhoods were spent watching Ian and Anthony make complete fools of themselves every week.

It’ll be interesting to see how Smosh’s more traditional sketch format fares amidst YouTube’s modern algorithm, which heavily favours long-form, brand-friendly content that is cost effective and uploaded daily. Those are all things that sketch comedy isn’t.

To combat these problems, Smosh is launching a three-tier subscription system that will help fund content and keep its output affordable. Ian and Anthony are now in their mid-thirties, largely catering to older Gen Zers, so it’ll be intriguing as to whether they’ll maintain as large of an audience going forward.

If anything, the acquisition of Smosh by its founders is a reminder of how much internet content has changed. In many ways, the channel helped create the monetisation models we have today, and was a large boost for YouTube as a mainstream platform in an era where television still dominated.

Smosh is back. Can it survive in a completely different market it helped create? We’ll have to see.

Originally written by Charlie Coombs for Thred.