Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox announced on Tuesday that they are buying back Smosh — a YouTube comedy brand they built together 18 years ago. In a four-minute YouTube video, the comedic duo revealed how the decision came to light.
History of Smosh
Hecox and Padilla started the YouTube channel in 2005. They mostly did comedy skits together and grew the channel into one of the most subscribed channels then. In 2011, Defy Media acquired Smosh to expand its brand. However, in 2017, Padilla left the team and made his own YouTube channel due to creative differences with their parent company. According to Padilla, the “company’s goals were just too different from my own.”
Defy Media closed in 2018, leaving Smosh and other YouTube channels without a company. In 2019, Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, the owner of Mythical Entertainment, acquired Smosh from Defy Media.
The OGs are coming back with new comedy skits
The duo shared that they reconnected last year. They admitted that their friendship was not on its best terms when Padilla left, but when they reconnected, they “both had done a lot of growing.” Then a crazy idea came; Hecox asked Padilla, “What if we bought Smosh?”
We can’t believe we’re living in the reality where we own Smosh and making classic smosh sketches once again. We’re beyond ecstatic to show you all the fun stuff we’ve got planned for you across all three Smosh channels. Thank you all so much for supporting us for almost 18 years…
— Smosh (@smosh) June 21, 2023
After six years, Hecox and Padilla will now, once again, make content together, and the duo seemed to be ecstatic with this venture. Hecox said, “I’m excited to be creating comedy once again with Anthony, who I began this journey of digital comedy with almost 18 years ago. There’s a certain kind of magic that happens when the two of us create together, and I can’t wait to continue this journey with him.”
Mythical Entertainment also expressed their support in a tweet, saying, “We couldn’t think of a more perfect outcome on our investment than selling Smosh back to the internet’s other iconic best-friend duo.”
Mythical Entertainment is still the brand’s minority shareholder. Smosh’s core talents and the rest of the team will continue to make content alongside Hecox and Padilla. This includes the other main channels: Smosh Pit, Smosh Games and ElSmosh.
We sold Smosh.
— Rhett & Link (@Mythical) June 20, 2023
Ian & Anthony, the original founders of Smosh, have reunited and bought back the wildly popular brand they founded 18 years ago! We are extremely proud of everything we and Ian accomplished during our time working together, and will continue to be fans and… pic.twitter.com/TbAnEsVA2X
This is huge news that we guarantee was not on everyone’s 2023 bingo card, but we wish the comedy duo luck. It’s been six years since Padilla and Hecox worked on Smosh together; it will be great to see a piece of YouTube history reunite and create more content. We will eagerly wait for Smosh’s next video, slated for June 30th.