Anthony Padilla has announced on the Smosh YouTube Channel that he is leaving the comedy group he founded with his friend and collaborator Ian Hecox.
In a 5-minute video featuring Anthony and Ian, Anthony told viewers that he had been contemplating leaving Smosh for a while, and decided to do so under his own creative volition. The comedy duo emphasized the strength of their 19-year long friendship and that there was no conflict between the two that lead to the departure.
Ian noted that he and Anthony had been discussing the possibility of Anthony leaving for some time and fully supports and understands his decision.
Ian will continue working with the Smosh brand and Anthony will pursue a career as an independent creator on his own channel. Hecox and Padilla will remain friends but will no longer be working together on the Smosh brand.
Smosh, now owned by Defy Media, currently operates the original Smosh channel (and channels in Spanish and French), Smosh 2nd Channel, Smosh Games, and Shut Up! Cartoons.
In a seapartate video on his own channel, Anthony Padilla, Padilla lays out the reasons behind his departure, saying that after the Smosh brand was purchased by Defy Media (formerly Alloy Digital and Break Media), his creative decisions were required to go through a filter in order to conform to standards set by the corporate owners.
He stated in the video that he will be making videos consistently on his channel, and a new channel titled “Anthony Padilla 2” was registered yesterday, June 13, with a biography that reads in part: “SOON.” As Padilla stated, he desired to go solo in order to make videos “with complete creative freedom, to be able to make whatever I want, whenever I want.”
Anthony started a website to talk to his friends on in 2002, then began creating videos with Ian which they decided to upload to YouTube, under the name Smosh. The duo began making lip sync videos in 2005. Their lip-sync video to the Pokemon theme song became the most viewed video on the video sharing platform at the time it was uploaded.
Smosh expanded its content offerings by posting original recurring videos, like Food Battle, Every (Blank) Ever, If (Blank) Were Real, and several other regularly uploaded sketch comedy videos. The channel also progressed from just Anthony and Ian appearing on camera, to many new cast members and hosts across the 4 channels that have a combined 10,701,375,769 views and 37,127,403 subscribers.
The full length feature film “Smosh: The Movie” was released in 2015, and both Hecox and Padilla provided their voices to the animated Angry Birds movie in 2016. “Ghostmates” was released on YouTube Red in 2016.
Padilla told Variety that he plans to upload a new video on June 19. The channel will feature interviews with other YouTubers, sketches, vlogs, and talks about his personal struggles, with videos to be released on Mondays and Fridays. Padilla also said that he hopes to do more voice-over work and plans on writing a television pilot.
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