Smosh

Smosh
Anthony (right) and Ian (left) at YouTube Live
Born	Anthony Padilla: September 16, 1987 (1987-09-16) (age 24)[1] Ian Hecox: November 30, 1987 (1987-11-30) (age 23)[1]
Nationality	American
Occupation	YouTube comedy duo, YouTube Partner
Years active	2005–present[2]
Home town	Sacramento, California
Website
smosh.com

Smosh is a web-based comedy duo consisting of Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla.^[3] Padilla first began posting flash movies on Newgrounds in early 2003, under the name Smosh. He was later joined by his friend Ian Hecox. Soon afterward they began to post videos on YouTube in the autumn of 2005 and became one of the most popular channels on that site, with more than 3.6 million subscribers as of November 2011.^[4]

Four Smosh-related channels exist on YouTube. The base "Smosh" channel, where both Ian and Anthony post their skits and other videos, has new videos every Friday. From "IanH" (used at first for vlogs and other non-scripted videos), the pair upload their side series "Ian is Bored" on Mondays and "Lunchtime with Smosh" on Thursdays, while their associate performer Mari does "Smosh Pit Weekly" videos on Saturday. A third channel, called "AskCharlie", is based on the popular Smosh character Charlie the Drunk Guinea Pig. It uploads videos every Wednesday. Their final channel, "AnthonyPadilla", has been inactive since February 2011; it was formerly where Anthony made vlog-like videos on his own.

History

Formation and Pokémon Theme Music Video: 2005–2009

Smosh began when Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla made several videos together, lip syncing to theme songs such as Mortal Kombat, Power Rangers, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. At first, these videos were not intended to be posted online, but after they sent them to their friends, they started a YouTube channel.

One of Smosh's earliest videos, "Pokémon Theme Music Video," was released in November 2005. It followed the same style as their other earlier videos, featuring the duo lip-synching the original English theme song for the Pokémon anime. However, the video instantly became much more popular than any of their other videos; over the course of its lifetime, it gained 24.7 million views, becoming the most-viewed video on all of YouTube at that time.^[5] It held that title for about six months, but was removed by YouTube after the website received a notice from Shogakukan Productions Co., Ltd., claiming copyright infringement.^{[citation needed]}

The success of their Pokémon video and other videos led Smosh to be featured in the "Person of the Year: You" issue of Time Magazine, published December 13, 2006. It also inspired them to expand their style beyond basic lip-synching videos, and eventually to start creating videos of various genres, such as mini-skits and sketch comedies.^{[citation needed]}. In March 2007, a user named Andii2000 re-uploaded the original Pokémon video. It has over 12.9 million views as of November 2011.^[6]

2010 era

In January 2010, Smosh launched the "Smosh Pit" feature, a blog that consists of various pieces of pop-culture trivia. In addition, 2010 saw the channel launch 3 different Smosh-based web series: "Ian is Bored," which is a collection of comedic videos by Ian Hecox; "Ask Charlie" (which is an interactive series where people ask Charlie, from their January 2010 "Charlie the Drunk Guinea Pig" video, random questions); and "Lunchtime with Smosh," a Comedy series featuring Smosh getting and eating food from various places.

Also in early 2010, Smosh created the "iShut Up App" for Android phones as part of a Google sponsorship; it eventually made its way to the iTunes app store. As of November 19 2011, Smosh is the third most-subscribed channel on YouTube.^[4]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "About Us". Smosh. http://www.smosh.com/about-us. Retrieved 23 October 2011. 
2. ^ "smosh.com". Archived from the original on 2002-11-24. http://web.archive.org/web/20021124191813/http://www.smosh.com/.  - Official Website.
3. ^ "BB Suggests: The Best of Web TV". Batch Buzz. November 13, 2009. http://www.batchbuzz.com/detailedStoryDefault.php?id=751. Retrieved 2009-11-16. 
4. ^ ^{a b} "smosh's Channel". YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/smosh. Retrieved November 6, 2011. 
5. ^ Virginia Heffernan (April 4, 2006). "Comic shorts, home on the Web". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/04/arts/04iht-videos.html. Retrieved November 23, 2009. 
6. ^ Andii2000 (March 17, 2007). "SMOSH - POKEMON THEME SONG". YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOX3OmUhQoo. Retrieved November 6, 2011. 

External links

• Official website
• smosh's channel on YouTube
• IanH's channel on YouTube
• askcharlie's channel on YouTube
• AnthonyPadilla's channel on YouTube

Achievements
Preceded by nigahiga	Top Subscribed Channel on YouTube smosh Ranked third as of November 2011	Succeeded by machinima
Preceded by RiotGamesInc	Top Subscribed Channel on YouTube IanH Ranked 50 as of November 2011	Succeeded by communitychannel