If you’re fluent in internet history, you’re probably familiar with Smosh—which started as a website coded by co-founder Anthony Padilla, before it became a YouTube channel created with classmate Ian Hecox.
While in high school, the teens wrote, directed, filmed, and edited comedy sketches, making content that naturally developed catchphrases (“SHUT UP!”) for adolescents across the country.
Over two decades later, Smosh has amassed over 43 million subscribers across its YouTube channels and over 4 million followers on Instagram, despite temporarily losing ownership of the company and a member of the duo.
Hecox and Padilla have since rebuilt the company with an ensemble cast of comedians from throughout L.A.
The humor often runs satirical, with the comedians improvising as obnoxious true crime podcasters, “boy moms,” aka mothers who dote way too much on their adult sons, and familiar pop culture characters (like in this tense and dirty Teletubbies reunion).
Once two dudes with a webcam and a dream, they now head one of the only YouTube channels to achieve generational success.
“Our sort of motto or mission statement is ‘comedy rooted in friendship,’ so I think for us it's always important to listen to our partners and support them . . .” Hecox tells L.A. TACO. “I think that's kind of the thing that separates us from maybe some other channels, is it really is a team effort, and there's not a big star that everyone is supporting.”
Moving from the original duo format to an ensemble cast was more of “an adjustment period” for the Smosh audience than for Hecox, he says. When selecting cast members, Hecox says that he looked for team players, active listeners who could hold a conversation.
“I think I've always been a very collaborative person, so to be able to make content with more people was great for me,” Hecox says. “I feel like I've always been a good support for other people, and I've never really wanted to be like the sort of ‘number one’ person with the spotlight on me.”
Hecox is frequently seen on the channel, acting and improvising as a member of “Straight Eye,” a doomsday conspiracist, and a worker at a baked potato joint—among other roles.
The main Smosh channel is known today for sketch comedy series like “Bit City,” and its sister channels, “Smosh Pit” and “Smosh Alike,” have developed the company into a sort of online variety show including gameplays, podcasts, and “Smosh Reads Reddit Stories.”
“Describing the job that we do at Smosh is probably the hardest thing, the closest I can come to it is, ‘We're like, if SNL sometimes did the sketches, but was more about the personalities of it all,’” comedian and Smosh cast member Tommy Bowe says.
Beloved by audience members both online and at in-person performances, the Smosh team has formed a synchrony with viewers, mastering what it means to utilize the digital economy as comedians in L.A.
Smosh has given consumers something to grip onto, many viewers incorporating videos into their daily routines.
“Having a following and being in a space that lends toward a parasocial relationship, like YouTube, where you're putting them on while you're cooking, while you're folding laundry, or you're basically hanging out with us, there are, of course, drawbacks to that,” Bowe tells us. “Like, how you are constantly perceived, but as it relates to me doing comedy, I think it's only been beneficial.”
Bowe moved to L.A. about ten years ago from Palm County Beach, Florida, an area “where all the old people who can't afford Boca Raton go to retire,” according to Bowe.
Like many eager film students, Bowe moved out to L.A. without visiting beforehand, taking a chance on the entertainment industry. Bowe says that the most surprising part about the city was its neverending bounds.
“I love that [L.A.] is a never-ending pocket of—wait, it’s not really a pocket, it's more of like a whole dress, a never-ending space to explore,” Bowe says.
Bowe has been performing in improv shows hosted by The Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB), a coastal comedy group known for an alumni pool packed with acclaimed comedians (like Ayo Edibiri, Jessica Williams, and co-founder Amy Poehler).
“I've been doing improv on and off since college, where I first truly learned the UCB version of improv,” Bowe says. “It's come in and out of my life, depending on what I'm really into, and it's truly the most fun you can ever have.”
On the Smosh channel, viewers have seen him as a scrappy landlord with a silver combover, a personified Tesla, and a co-judge alongside drag star Trixie Mattel on “America’s Next Top Bald Person.”
Bowe also performed in a queer musical parody of 2005’s “Hitch” at Typewriter Dynasty earlier this year.
“I've had fans come and show up to shows, and from what I've been able to learn from the people who are not only Smosh fans, but Tommy fans, is that the fans who come out for me are the coolest, chillest people on Earth, and it's so hard for me to not be like, ‘Can we be genuine friends?’” Bowe says.
“SERVING!” is Bowe’s self-produced web series which lives on his personal YouTube channel, separate from Smosh. The concept arose during a night out at a bar, whose decor was severe with paintings. Bowe gamified this by asking his friends which paintings were the most aesthetically impressive (aka serving).
The series has accumulated over 2 million views on YouTube.
“A fun part about knowing different skill sets from beginning to end is that I can ideate, produce it, write it, get a crew together, direct it, and then bring it to the edit myself, and make exactly what my brain wanted to make, even graphics,” Bowe explains.
Similar to Bowe’s ventures into independent production and musical theater, SFV native and fellow castmate, Angela Giarratana, is known for her on-screen acting credits, extensive theater experience, and ensemble podcast when she isn’t on the Smosh channel. (UCB improv, HBO’s “Minx," and StarKid Productions are just a few of her credits.)
Giarratana was raised near the Tarzana-Encino region of the Valley, looking up to comedians like Julie Louis-Dreyfus, Amy Poehler, and Raven-Symoné. She says that she “grew up with so much anxiety,” but eventually learned to “lead with the light and the bright and the best parts of life.”
This translates to Giarratana’s current magnetic presence as a performer, keying in on moments others might miss to make an entire film set crack up.
Giarratana performs as the host of “Bit City,” leaning into a classic late-night show host archetype. She has also been seen as a Foot Locker employee who has taken too many hits of weed, someone undergoing an exorcism, and a film crew’s nonchalant grip guy.
Comedy is not just Giarratana’s career, but an outlet for her and her peers, especially during periods when our country seems to be hurting the most. She says that comedy has felt especially important during eras of Covid, the Black Lives Matter movement, and ICE activity.
“A year ago, I was doing shows right after all of the L.A. fires, and it was really hard because it felt necessary to go and make each other laugh and have fun, but sometimes you're like, ‘Is this appropriate?’ . . . You never want to make light of anything or help in a way that's superfluous, and you want to read the room, but then you also need to laugh,” Giarratana tells L.A. TACO.
She has become a Smosh “fan favorite,” garnering praise via online comments and fanmade compilations of her best moments. Lots of the clips feature her candid, exuberant energy, while adorned by wigs and costumes.
“I think all of our dynamics in the Smosh cast are as real as they look, and the way we are on-camera is the way we are off-camera, so it's like we share—the best friendships I have, I’m sharing with everybody, instead of just keeping it to myself, which I wouldn't label a disadvantage. It's just a little weird,” Giarratana says.
Giarratana explains that being part of an online company like Smosh brought a sense of autonomy to her career, especially following the 2023 SAG-AFTRA writer and actor strikes.
As someone familiar with the traditional actor workflow, she says that the internet’s capacity to distribute content straight from creators to audience members is the “new greatest thing” in this era of “the old studio model failing.”
YouTube comedy channels like Smosh and Dropout started using membership-based platforms to release exclusive content within recent years, a strategy growing in popularity as more consumers vow to cancel subscriptions to mainstream media companies like Netflix.
“I don't have to just wait for a job, I can kind of just do it and put it up on my own YouTube, or put it up on my own Patreon, or put it up on my Instagram or TikTok, so that's benefited me immensely,” Giarratana says.
Hecox and Padilla are far from the days they spent scripting their own sketches to perform in their backyards and driveways after class. But at least, when you develop one of the largest online empires in history in a formerly untouched digital landscape, you get used to evolving.
