If you asked people in 2005 what a "Smosh" is, the majority of people would look at you and make sure you are speaking English. Ask the same question today, some may still give you the same look. But more likely than not, people will answer this question with two names: Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox. These guys are famous, but not for the traditional reasons. These two men are part of a new class of famous: "Youtube Famous". And ironically, these two are the reason why that class even exists today.
On November 19th, 2005, Padilla and Hecox created their original channel named Smosh. The two were high school students at the time, and as a way to pass the time, they would make random sketches and lip sync videos in Padilla's bedroom. However, within 2 weeks of posting videos, they already had a hit with their lip sync video to the Pokemon theme song. This video was one of their first videos uploaded, and garnered them with over 20 million views. This video was actually the most viewed video on Youtube, until it was taken down due to copyright after six months. However, they still captured the attention of those who used the video sharing website since the beginning, which was an odd situation. People did not just "become famous" from some random video of themselves acting stupid in their room.
The thing about Smosh though is that they took this fame from the beginning and have kept it going strong for 10 years. Yet, when they first started, Youtube was not a career. There was no ad revenue program, there were no companies that assisted channels, and there was definitely no convention just for Youtubers. Throughout those ten years that Youtube has existed though, these have all become realities. To add onto that, many popular Youtubers today started out on the website as fans of their soon-to-be colleagues.
Of course, it is not just Smosh that created this culture. But they were one of the first channels to not only start trying to make a career off of Youtube, but also are still relevant today. Many other channels were popular back in 2007-2009, but they no longer have the fame they did back then. Smosh has continued to grow, even holding the title of most subscribed channel during the majority of 2013. Even though it took seven and a half years to get there, that is a huge achievement. To add to their fame as well, they were the first Youtubers to have wax figures of themselves in Madame Tussaud's San Fransisco location.
So, the next time you go to watch a video of a Youtuber you like, go watch a Smosh video, as well. Because the truth is, that person would not be on Youtube today doing what they do without those guys. They set the foundation for the website, and created a phenomenon that will forever be a part of history.
All history and statistics taken from the official Smosh Twitter account and Youtube account.
