The franchise began when Anthony Padilla built a website in 2002, smosh.com, and made several different Flash animations. He has stated that the name "Smosh" came from an incident where he mistook a friend explaining a mosh pit as a "smosh pit". Padilla created the website's logo through juxtaposing a fast-forward sign and the letter "S" from a Linkin Park-based text font. Later, his friend, Ian Hecox, joined the venture; Padilla and Hecox first met in the sixth grade. They became friends, and quickly discovered their knack for comedy. On November 19, 2005, they joined YouTube and made several videos together, lip syncing the theme songs to Mortal Kombat, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers, the last of which was their first video uploaded to the website. 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 on November 28, 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.[9][10] However, the video instantly became much more popular than any of their other videos. Over the course of its lifetime, it gained over 24 million views, becoming the most-viewed video on all of YouTube at that time.[9][11][12][13][14] This held that title until being dethroned by Judson Laipply's "Evolution of Dance". It was later removed for copyright infringement.[13]

The success of their Pokémon video and other videos led Smosh to be featured in the "Person of the Year: You" issue of Time, published December 13, 2006.[12] Due to the channel's continued success, and Smosh's partnership with YouTube, the two recreated the video in November 2010, this time changing the words to be critical of The Pokémon Company taking down the Pokémon theme video.[15]

Initial YouTube success (2006–2011)

Hecox (left) and Padilla (right) performing at Vidcon 2012
Over the course of the next few years, Smosh began to diversify. They started making short YouTube skits, such as their annual video series Food Battle, which shows Hecox using a pink-frosted sprinkled doughnut and Padilla choosing a variety of foods voted on by fans,[16][17] and That Damn Neighbor, which were primarily filmed in and around a house in Rosemont, California.[‡ 4][18] According to a 2012 interview with New Media Rockstars, Smosh's process for making sketch videos involved Hecox and Padilla brainstorming ideas for sketches, with Hecox writing their ideas into an outline and the duo expanding them into a full script. The duo described their editing and writing skills as primarily self-taught.[19]

In January 2010, Smosh launched the "Smosh Pit" feature, a blog that consists of various pieces of pop-culture trivia, and written comedy.[6] In addition, 2010 saw the channel launch three different Smosh-based web series: Ian Is Bored, which started as a collection of comedic videos by Hecox, but then turned into both Hecox and Padilla making vlog like videos, and renamed Smosh Is Bored;[19] Ask Charlie, where people ask Charlie, from their January 2010 Charlie the Drunk Guinea Pig video, random questions;[20] and Lunchtime with Smosh, a comedy series featuring Smosh getting and eating food from various places, and answering Twitter questions from their fans on Twitter.[10] Some of Smosh's most popular video series include Pokémon in Real Life and If X Was Real.[7][21] The If X Was Real videos see the duo parody various video games, films and pop culture media while questioning their realism.[10]

Defy Media and Padilla's departure (2011–2018)
In 2011, Smosh was acquired by Alloy Digital (later rebranded to Defy Media), while also enjoying a 40% boost in viewership.[13][22] In 2012, the duo started three new YouTube channels, ElSmosh, with Smosh videos dubbed in Spanish, Shut Up! Cartoons, with various animated videos,[23][24] and Smosh Games, with gaming-related content hosted alongside Mariko "Mari" Takahashi, David "Lasercorn" Moss, Matthew Sohinki, and Joshua "Jovenshire" Ovenshire.[25][26] The pair also ventured into music, creating comedic songs for licensed media such as The Legend of Zelda and Assassin's Creed 3, among other original compositions.[20][27] These songs (along with other original songs) have been released in four albums to date – Sexy Album (2010), If Music Were Real (2011), Smoshtastic (2012), and The Sweet Sound of Smosh (2013).[20] In January 2013, the Smosh channel surpassed Ray William Johnson in subscribers to become the most-subscribed YouTube channel for the third time.[3] Following the achievement, Smosh collaborated with Johnson on a video of his "Equals Three" series.[28] They held this position until August 2013 when they were surpassed by Swedish Let's Player PewDiePie, who also collaborated with the duo shortly after reaching the position.[29][30] During this period, Smosh participated in YouTube's Comedy Week in May 2013.[31][32]

In March 2015, Smosh re-launched the Smosh Games Alliance, a multi-channel network where fans join to enjoy network benefits in exchange for a percentage of the ad revenue.[‡ 5][33] That same year the duo announced Noah Grossman, Keith Leak Jr., Olivia Sui,[34] Courtney Miller and Shayne Topp[35] as new regular cast members for Smosh videos. They began appearing in sketches such as the Every (Blank) Ever series.[36][37]

In January 2016, a web sitcom was launched on the main Smosh channel. Part Timers is a comedy-drama which takes place at a fictional children's arcade and pizza place called Pork E. Pine's, which takes inspiration from Hecox's first job at Chuck E. Cheese's.[38][39] Each episode presents a challenge that the team must overcome to keep the business going. The series features regular Smosh cast members, Grossman (as Pete), Hecox (as Ian), and Padilla (as Anton), in addition to Cat Alter (as Mads), Jade Martz (as Ella), Casey Webb (as Dinger), and Natalie Whittle (as Lori).[40] The series was released every Monday on the Smosh channel from January to May 2016.[40] Also that year, the Smosh cast streamed a live sketch show on YouTube on August 26. Compared to Saturday Night Live, the 90 minute show featured improvisational sketches and fake TV commercials, which Hecox and Padilla stated was an adjustment from their typical scripted comedy. Regarded as the first live sketch show on YouTube, the stream reached 55,000 concurrent viewers and over 1.3 million views.[41][42]

On June 14, 2017, Padilla announced he would be leaving Smosh to pursue independent video ventures due to a "lack in creative freedom".[43][44] Hecox stated he would remain with Smosh, adding "I'm really looking forward to taking Smosh to the next phase, and we can't wait for people to see what we have coming up." continue the script. what if anthony returned to smosh at the end of 2017.