Smosh: YouTube Gods and Unlikely Online Video Superstars

For online video viewers over a certain age, the word "Smosh" doesn't mean a thing; it's just a nonsense word. And for online video viewers under a certain age, Smosh是国王, 两个最有趣的, 最奇怪的, 今天大多数原创的人都在工作.

That says everything about online celebrity in the age of YouTube. Cable television gave us niche programming. Online video gives us micro-niche programming, 创作者到底能在哪里, 真正的大, 但只针对一个特定的群体.

毫无疑问, Smosh是真的, 真正的大, 尽管大多数人从未听说过他们，也没有看过他们的视频. 他们有 third most-subscribed-to YouTube channel，拥有超过500万用户.

紧随其后的是来自加州的伊恩·海克斯和安东尼·帕迪拉，他们现在都24岁了. With no rules on what they could create, 他们利用了对新鲜食物的需求, 无政府主义的, surprising youth-oriented online comedy. 他们的成功是如此巨大，以至于他们肯定不需要拥有他们所谓的“真正的”工作. Smosh might have started out as two guys and a video camera, but through strategic partnerships and smart expansions, 它已经成长为更大的东西.

Smosh开端

"It was pretty crazy; we just started doing it even before we found out about YouTube,海克斯说. “我们在发现YouTube之前大约三个月就开始了, and I was just hosting the videos on Smosh.com, and posting them around on MySpace, back when that site existed. 它很受欢迎, and we were really excited that people liked it, 所以我们决定多做一些."

这就是Smosh的开始:不是作为投资者的商业计划，而是作为一种有趣的爱好. 海克斯和帕迪拉, 当时两人都只有17岁, 开始制作自己喜欢的视频，并很快找到了观众. 他们在YouTube刚刚起步的时候进入了这个网站. 两年后, in 2007, they were tapped to be one of the first YouTube partners, and they began making real money from the site.

“一开始，我们根本没有制作视频或喜剧的计划. 我们刚去上社区大学，不确定自己想做什么。. “我们认为这些视频很有趣, 所以我们一直在做, 然后, when we finally started -- when it finally started making money, 我们就像, “哦,哇, 好吧, 很酷的, so maybe this is actually something we could turn into a career, 或者一份全职工作.'"

海克斯和帕迪拉的喜剧技巧从一开始就很明显，即使是在无预算的创作中. 他们最早的热门作品之一是2005年模仿《百家乐软件app最新版下载》的主题曲. It landed on YouTube's front page and earned Smosh millions of views. 它也受到了Pokemon的母公司任天堂的一些不必要的关注.

海克斯说:“《百家乐软件app最新版下载》的歌曲视频确实帮助我们吸引了很多人。. “然后它被要求版权, 我们就说, 哦，我们都很难过, 但是我的意思是, 你打算怎么做? 我们用了他们的歌. And we always kind of thought it was fair use."

而视频的官方版本不得不被删除(在获得2400万次观看后), 在YouTube上搜一下就会发现转发版本，可能是粉丝的留言. At the time of writing, it had more than 14 million views. Smosh笑到了最后，创造了一个复仇口袋妖怪视频 that makes merciless fun of Nintendo for not getting it, while continuing and building on ideas from the first video. That video has more than 15 million views.

“几年前, 我们做了, 这是一首复仇之歌，配上《百家乐软件app最新版下载》的主题曲，基本上是在嘲笑那些删除视频的人, 并说, 现在就想告我们, 因为我们改了歌词, 而且玩得很开心,海克斯说.

《毁灭之路

自从海克斯和帕迪拉在2005年推出首个mv以来，Smosh已经有了很大的发展, their method of creating new work has stayed casual.

“我们中的一个会想出一个主意, 我们会说, ‘嘿, I have this idea about a killer teddy bear,' 然后 we'll just kind of sit around and talk about it, 然后得到一个想法, 然后我会写一个提纲, 把球传给安东尼,海克斯解释道. "He'll tell me if it sucks, and what could make it better."

“通常是这样的，”帕迪拉说.

“是啊, 然后我们把它变成一个脚本, 然后 we do all the preproduction on it, 然后再拍摄几周, 或者一周后,海克斯说. 然后进入编辑阶段. So it's a pretty long process, but we've sort of found a ..."

"Schedule," said Padilla, finishing the sentence.

“是啊，有点像时间表，”海克斯说. “所以我们实际上领先了一点 ... can't really say that for a lot of YouTubers."

帕迪拉说:“我认识大多数youtube用户，他们会说，‘哦，糟了，这周我必须做一个视频. “我们肯定在同一个小组里，你知道，有三年了."

许多成功的YouTube创作者都有这样的特点，即坚持按时制作节目, and it's the first piece of advice they'll offer newcomers. Video makers can't slack their way to YouTube success, said Hecox. 有时它意味着24小时工作日, 即使它看起来像是在10分钟内做出来的东西.

Because they come off as likeable (if crazy) guys next door, 海克斯和帕迪拉's fans develop a strong association with them. Smosh的粉丝们特别热衷的一件事是Hecox和Padilla的发型. 如果他们中的一个人改变了发型，他知道他会听到这件事.

"People flipped when he cut his hair short," Hecox says of Padilla.

"For the very first time, they did, in 2007," shot back Padilla.

“是啊，直到他的头发又长了，他们才会停止谈论这件事，”海克斯说.

“我们为此制作了一个完整的视频, 然后伊恩把头发剪短了, 他说, no, I don't want to make a whole video about it,帕迪拉嘲弄道.

"Then people flipped out about that, too. ‘Go back to your full haircut,'" remembered Hecox. “这是YouTube的一个特点. 我的意思是, you've got all these people telling you to do something, 所以你们知道, it's always important to listen to your fans."

“但有人会说, “你的情绪摇滚发型糟透了,' or ‘Your hair -- you look like a hippie,’”帕迪拉说.

“这是双向的，”海克斯建议道. “你永远不可能取悦所有人，这是你必须了解YouTube的另一件事."

So always please the fans, but don't worry about pleasing everyone.

Smosh遇见Barry

早期发生的一些事情让两个傻乎乎的视频爱好者朋友成为了新媒体大亨. 那个东西就是巴里·布隆伯格, 这位前迪士尼高管从一开始就发现了这对搭档的天赋，并成为了《百家乐app下载》的合作伙伴. 布隆伯格负责后端交易，让海克斯和帕迪拉专注于创意.

“我在迪士尼为青少年和年轻人制作娱乐节目的经历是我的经验,”布隆伯格解释道. “当我在YouTube上看到它们时, 我看到了一个机会，两个家伙显然与他们的观众有联系. They demonstrated with a couple videos that had gone viral on YouTube, 我觉得只要有合适的制作计划、管理和创意，就可以把它打造成一个品牌."

几次沟通不畅，打了几通电话，还去了趟加州的萨克拉门托.为了与海克斯、帕迪拉和海克斯的父亲见面，三人组成了合伙关系. 布隆伯格不愿透露具体细节，但三人从那以后就一直在一起工作.

In 2008, Smosh hired its first staff and built out its website. In 2011, Smosh was acquired by teen media powerhouse Alloy Digital, LLC (具体条款未披露). On April 30, 2012, Smosh branched out with 闭嘴! 漫画, an original animation channel on YouTube. 闭嘴! 漫画 was a monster hit from the start; it currently has 600,000-plus subscribers and more than 61 million views. Smosh还有另外四名全职员工以及Alloy员工和自由职业者的支持.

"The people who are engaged with Smosh are very, 非常忙碌, 它几乎就像一个高级俱乐部，知道它的人都非常, very rabid fans and watch a lot of what we do. When people get exposed to it, they join in," said Blumberg. "We grow our subscriber base and the traffic to the website. 还有像《百家乐软件app最新版下载》这样的东西——我们在不断发展，不断添加新的内容. 我认为Smosh仍然是YouTube上增长最快的频道之一."

奔向未来

Whether or not anyone over 30 has heard of them, Smosh是YouTube上的王者，拥有数百万粉丝和多个成功的频道. 他们发行了专辑和周边产品. The have a large multimedia company backing them up. Can they continue to please their young viewers as they get older? 他们说他们已经做到了.

"Our videos' humor has just kind of grown and expanded," said Padilla. “我认为整体基调是一样的，只是笑话有点不同. And I think we're just -- I think as we go along, we just get better at timing and writing and stuff, so I'm not sure if it's our sense of humor is changing, I don't think our sense of humor is changing, I think it's just our ability to tell a joke, 我猜."

"I think some of our earlier stuff was more PG. Now it's a little bit more PG-13," added Hecox.

Just as important, what new mountains will they climb? 不出所料，布隆伯格不会回答有关是否正在进行电视交易的问题. 有了Smosh的追随和幽默, 如果有几个有线电视频道不看这些节目，那才奇怪呢. 然而，Smosh自己更感兴趣的是建立自己的核心在线优势.

“我们希望继续开发《百家乐app下载》, 然后把品牌发展壮大，吸引更多的人才，让更多的人加入Smosh品牌,帕迪拉说.

"Our goal is really to expand it to be more than just two guys. 我们在网站和《百家乐软件app最新版下载》方面已经做得很好了。. “我认为我们的目标是将其扩展到许多不同的场所——这有点难以解释, but just basically Smosh humor in more places."

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