S2: #89 - Smosh Turns 15!

Summary

Smosh Turns 15! Podcast Summary

Episode: S2: #89 - Smosh Turns 15!
Release Date: November 18, 2020
Hosts: Shayne Topp (Courtney), Amanda Lehan-Canto (Damien), and rotating Smosh friend Shane Topp.

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Introduction

In this landmark 15th-anniversary episode of the Smosh Mouth podcast, hosts Shayne Topp (Courtney), Amanda Lehan-Canto (Damien), and Shane Topp come together to celebrate Smosh's enduring legacy. They reflect on pivotal moments, cherished memories, and the evolution of their content over the years. The episode also marks a significant transition as the hosts announce a hiatus for the Smosh Cast to focus on other ventures.

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Key Discussions and Milestones

1. Early Beginnings and Breakthroughs

• Meeting Olivia and Starting Smosh:
  Courtney shares a nostalgic account of meeting Olivia, who was pivotal in the early days of Smosh.
  Courtney Miller [00:04]: "Olivia was this girl that I met. She had us all sit down... she was being Olivia."

• Smosh's First Major Hit - Pokémon Theme Song:
  Ian reminisces about their breakthrough when the Pokémon theme song skyrocketed to become the most viewed YouTube video at the time.
  Ian Hecox [31:05]: "The big moment was when we got our first video on the front page of YouTube and then the second video on the front page, which was the Pokémon theme song."

• Monetization Milestone:
  Being among the first 10 YouTube channels to get monetized was a game-changer, allowing them to move out of their parents' homes into the iconic Smosh House.
  Ian Hecox [31:28]: "Being one of the first 10 channels to be monetized allowed us to move into the Smosh House."

2. Expanding Content and Diversifying Channels

• Launching Smosh Games:
  Recognizing the growing gaming trend, Smosh launched Smosh Games, integrating gaming content with their comedic flair.
  Ian Hecox [47:17]: "We created Smosh Games because gaming was a thing that was growing."

• Smosh Summer and Winter Games:
  These annual events became staple content, blending reality competition with Smosh’s unique humor.
  Shane Topp [67:07]: "Every summer and Winter Games that we ever did... it was so ridiculous and so fun."

• Smosh Live and Live Tours:
  Transitioning to live content, Smosh hosted live shows and embarked on tours, enhancing fan interaction and expanding their reach.
  Shane Topp [70:17]: "Smosh Live was just a big sponsored brand deal that Defy snagged... it felt like something different."

3. Overcoming Challenges and Adaptation

• Defy Shutdown and Mythical Acquisition:
  A tumultuous period where Smosh faced a potential shutdown under Defy, leading to uncertainty. However, the acquisition by Mythical Entertainment provided creative autonomy and revitalized the brand.
  Damien Haas [61:44]: "The Defy shutdown was crazy... Mythical purchase everything and actually, you know, give us creative autonomy."

• Introduction of New Cast Members:
  Expanding the Smosh family by introducing new talent, ensuring the brand's longevity and diverse perspectives.
  Damien Haas [60:28]: "The introduction of new cast members was another huge defining moment because that's when you added longevity to the channel."

• Evolution of Content Formats:
  From scripted sketches to interactive formats like "Every [Blank] Ever," Smosh continuously innovated to stay relevant and engage their audience.
  Damien Haas [60:47]: "Introduction of the 'Every Blank Ever' format really made a mark... it was both comfortable and pushed the envelope."

4. Memorable Moments and Favorite Content

• Iconic Videos and Top Moments:
  The hosts enumerate their top Smosh moments, highlighting videos that defined their journey. Notable mentions include:

  • "Juju Mufu" with over 34 million views.
  • "Assassin's Creed 3" achieving nearly 100 million views.
  • "Real Death Note" resonating with anime fans.
  • "Two Truths and a Lie with Pam" which went viral and stirred memorable reactions.

  Ian Hecox [30:43]: "The Pokémon theme song was a major mark in history."

• Behind-the-Scenes Stories:
  Shane narrates the spontaneous creation of certain videos, such as the air mattress jump, which captured the essence of early Smosh’s unfiltered fun.
  Shane Topp [75:28]: "We just started to just launch each other on this and see who get the most air... it was a very special moment connected to that."

5. Personal Growth and Team Dynamics

• Learning and Adapting Together:
  The hosts discuss how working closely over the years fostered a familial bond, aiding in personal and professional growth.
  Courtney Miller [51:14]: "That shutdown definitely was like a lull kind of in life in general... realizing how much this was a huge part of our lives."

• Challenges of Growing Pains:
  Reflecting on the rigorous 12-14 hour workdays and the unsustainable pace before institutional support was provided.
  Ian Hecox [00:17]: "We were working ourselves to death... what we were doing was not sustainable."

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Ian Hecox [00:30]: "We worked 12, 14 hour days every single day and did a lot of the work."
• Shane Topp [00:43]: "Holy crap, we're doing this."
• Courtney Miller [02:51]: "Be careful with where you put your personal information online."
• Damien Haas [22:00]: "We can adapt."
• Ian Hecox [31:54]: "Once you got your video on the front page, that was the only way to really get discovered on YouTube."
• Courtney Miller [83:24]: "Girls are Gross was the first female-centric music video that Smosh ever did."

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Conclusions and Future Directions

As the podcast draws to a close, the hosts announce a temporary hiatus for the Smosh Cast. This break allows them to dedicate more time to other projects, including expanding their presence on Twitch and developing new content formats. While this marks the end of an era for the Smosh Mouth podcast, the legacy of Smosh continues to thrive across multiple platforms, adapting to the ever-evolving digital landscape.

Ian Hecox [95:02]: "We're not saying Smosh cast is going away forever. This is a break."

Courtney Miller [96:01]: "Living our lives on other channels while Smosh continues is a bonus."

Damien Haas [96:25]: "It's a break, but we're focusing on what’s most important."

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Final Remarks

The "Smosh Turns 15!" episode serves as a heartfelt tribute to the brand's journey, encapsulating the highs and lows, the laughter and the trials. It underscores the importance of adaptability, teamwork, and staying true to their comedic roots. As Smosh steps into the next chapter, the bonds formed over 15 years ensure that their humor and creativity remain as vibrant as ever.

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End of Summary

Transcript

[Courtney Miller]

And Olivia was this girl that I met. She had us all sit down. She's like, guys, I. I'm auditioning for this channel called Smosh. I have no idea what I'm doing. And like, we all sat there and she was being so. She was being Olivia.

[Ian Hecox]

But we were working ourselves to death. What we were doing was not sustainable. Like, we. We worked 12, 14 hour days every single day and did a lot of the work.

[Shane Topp]

And you know, the Hangman sketch, that moment that, like, gets played a lot when I'm sitting there kind of pausing. I really think I was sitting there kind of thinking about what was happening in that moment. I was kind of like, holy crap, we're doing this.

[Ian Hecox]

Did I put 16 on here?

[Damien Haas]

Oh, my God. This podcast is over. We are 55 minutes in. Ian, read your 15 things.

[Courtney Miller]

Andrew Hecox.

[Ian Hecox]

We are going on a hiatus for the Smosh cast. We're not saying Smosh cast is going away forever. This is a break.

[Courtney Miller]

The fact that I think. I think someone is doing this and putting in the work, trying to get me to pay them to be my regular psychic.

[Ian Hecox]

That's. So did you. How much personal information did you give them?

[Courtney Miller]

Okay, so I really wanted to know my moon sign and my rising sign.

[Damien Haas]

Oh, this is real?

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah.

[Damien Haas]

Oh, okay.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah, I wanted to know my moon sign in my rising sign. So I started typing in, like, my birthday, the town that. That I was born in, like, things like that.

[Ian Hecox]

Did you just dox yourself to the psychic?

[Damien Haas]

No, not that heavily, but to this person directly. It was like a dm.

[Courtney Miller]

It was a website. That's like a website where it's like, you learn, like, which is a. It's a common thing. And you're doing that thing where you're like, mad, but I, like, have any eyes.

[Damien Haas]

You look manic. And your eyes were like, yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

I'm like, how much did you give them?

[Courtney Miller]

So I give them like the. The birth date, the time, the general area that I was born in, and then at the very end, security number, and then asked my name and. But then it was like. And I was like, okay, that's fine. And then it was like, okay, so what's your email so that we can send you all these things? I was like, no, no, no, no. This should have been a generator. But, like, I had already started typing in my email, but I didn't press enter or submit. And I was like, nah, I don't want to do this. And I exited out right Then a day or so later, I get this super long email. Like, I feel like you're reaching out to me in an emergency. Things seem urgent. I can. I can sense your energy. A very extraordinary person. We need to talk. And, like, I've still been getting emails and emails and emails that are super long. Like, I decided to sit down and read one that was, like, talking about who I was as a person, what I'm dealing with, and how happy I am in certain aspects of my life. Some things was like, yeah, that's true. And other things, I was like, no, that's not true. So it's just very interesting that, like, it could very clearly be someone typing up a lot of stuff, trying to get me to, like, pay them to be my regular psychic or it's a robot.

[Damien Haas]

That stuff frustrates me. I mean, whether it's a psychic or a robot, they're gonna type the same stu to everybody. Where it's like, you are fiercely loyal but aren't afraid to take your own time when you need it. You are someone that has had to learn how to put up boundaries and respect yourself over time. You are someone who, Damon, you should be a psychic.

[Courtney Miller]

But yeah, it's weird though, because, like, I never pressed submit on my email and it's still somehow got it. So that's a little heads up for you guys. Be careful with where you put your.

[Ian Hecox]

Maybe they logged your keystrokes or something. I don't know.

[Courtney Miller]

I don't know. It's pretty weird.

[Damien Haas]

It's a pretty sus website.

[Ian Hecox]

Sounds pretty sus. I did one of those where I was born and, like, my name, I'd be like, well, do you need. But I mean, guess I guess to figure out those, like, signs and stuff, you have to give them that info.

[Damien Haas]

Yeah. And I. I don't. I don't personally subscribe to that belief, but, you know, if you do, that's okay. But I did it once for you.

[Ian Hecox]

Just haven't subscribed.

[Courtney Miller]

I just wanted to be able to know my signs.

[Damien Haas]

Totally. So I did that once before as well. And I had to put in, like, birth date and time. And I even messaged my mom to figure out time. Apparently exactly noon.

[Courtney Miller]

It's 11:43am no way.

[Ian Hecox]

Those are both times. Wow. High noon.

[Courtney Miller]

Maybe this will be safer. Hey, if you guys. You guys couldn't tell me my Moon's Rising sign, I was born on June 19, 11:43am 1995.

[Damien Haas]

I had a weird one happen, though, when I looked up that thing and it was a generator. I didn't have to put in an email thankfully, it was. I don't remember what the rising and falling was, but one of them were. Was Black Moon Lilith. Like the Night Man Comet. Yeah, no, Sagittarius and like Capricorn or whatever. But then it was like, this thing for you is sounds like Black Moon Lilith.

[Ian Hecox]

And I don't know Yu Gi oh card.

[Damien Haas]

It does. It sounds like a Yu Gi oh card. But I was like, what is Black Moon Lilith? And it just made me feel kind of special because I was just like, oh, I was born at exactly noon in this specific spot, and therefore I'm Black Moon Lilith.

[Courtney Miller]

Oh, my God.

[Damien Haas]

The specialist sign. But of course, someone in the comments is going to be like, actually, no, everyone has Black Moon Lilith and some house. Yours just happens to be in the eighth corner of the, you know.

[Ian Hecox]

Hello, everyone. Well, welcome to the Smosh Cast.

[Courtney Miller]

What's up, Capricorns?

[Ian Hecox]

This is the 15 year anniversary celebration podcast extravaganza of the Smosh Cast.

[Courtney Miller]

Pop Pop confetti.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, please. None of the. My ears are still hurting from those. Pop Pop.

[Damien Haas]

Yeah. I can't wait till we run out.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. Today I'm joined by Courtney and Damien.

[Damien Haas]

I'm the second one.

[Ian Hecox]

And remotely by Shane in a little bit.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah. He's quar tuning for Goldberg's.

[Damien Haas]

Yeah, y'all.

[Ian Hecox]

Yes.

[Courtney Miller]

No. Cases are high right now. We gotta be extra safe.

[Damien Haas]

No more letting people sneeze into my mouth. Sorry, guys.

[Ian Hecox]

Well, I only do it when you're sleeping.

[Damien Haas]

I know. I'm. I'm always more awake than you think.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Damien Haas]

When you sneeze in my.

[Ian Hecox]

Just so you guys know, just a little heads up, I know this. This may come as a little bit of a shock or a surprise. This will be the last Smosh Cast for a while. I'm not saying it's gonna be gone forever, but we will be taking a little hiatus to focus on everything else that we' I'll explain more at the end of the podcast. But let's jump in to the. To the cheerful. The cheerful times of the smoshiness.

[Courtney Miller]

To be 15.

[Damien Haas]

Smash can almost vote, dude.

[Ian Hecox]

I know. And. And we're already just ripping fat cigarette drags.

[Courtney Miller]

Weren't you close to being 15 when Smosh started?

[Ian Hecox]

I was 17.

[Courtney Miller]

Okay.

[Damien Haas]

That's pretty much the same.

[Courtney Miller]

Closer to the now.

[Damien Haas]

Yeah, I wouldn't want to be 15 again. Like, going back to where I was at 15. I want to know everything I know now and then be 15.

[Ian Hecox]

I think you would just be really frustrated probably.

[Damien Haas]

Okay. I want to go back and be 18 still do everything I need to do.

[Ian Hecox]

That's. That's fair.

[Damien Haas]

I want to have all the resources I have now, all the knowledge I have now, and then go back to being 18.

[Ian Hecox]

That's.

[Damien Haas]

That'd be cool.

[Ian Hecox]

That'd be a little bit better. But. But then would you still be, like, having to hang out with 18 year olds or would you be, like, hanging.

[Damien Haas]

Out, be that cool 18 year old that everyone is like, oh, man, they're bas. 30.

[Ian Hecox]

You're, like, wise beyond your years, bro.

[Damien Haas]

You're such an old soul. Yeah, I mean, but that was me. Anyway. Sorry, I just made this all about me. That was me. Anyway, when I was 16, all my friends were like 30 something because I worked at an improv studio, like, and.

[Courtney Miller]

That'S a lot of older friends.

[Damien Haas]

That's all.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, me too. I just didn't have friends.

[Damien Haas]

You had Antonio.

[Courtney Miller]

Antonio Padidas, Antonio Adidas.

[Damien Haas]

Antonio.

[Courtney Miller]

Antonio Adidas.

[Ian Hecox]

Nobody's ever said that before. And that's pretty funny.

[Damien Haas]

Really. It's pretty weird.

[Ian Hecox]

I copyrighted so to kick this 15 year podcast extravaganza smash. Extravaganza Lollapaloose.

[Damien Haas]

Okay, Keep it in.

[Ian Hecox]

Sorry. I burped. We thought it'd be fun to ask what was the first Smosh video that you guys watched? So we posted that. And a butt ton of you guys responded. So we kind of looked at a buttload. Yeah, a buttload. So we just looked at a. 15 responses.

[Damien Haas]

A buttrick ton.

[Ian Hecox]

A buttrick ton. Exactly. That's. That's good.

[Courtney Miller]

Hold on.

[Damien Haas]

Your hair looks great.

[Ian Hecox]

Do you remember that one podcast you did where you put all the hair? Yeah, yeah.

[Courtney Miller]

Just for the Annabelle premiere.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. So anyway, without these guys distracting me again.

[Courtney Miller]

Sorry, sorry. We're being really bad.

[Damien Haas]

Jangling my keys are.

[Ian Hecox]

You guys are on something today.

[Damien Haas]

It's called friendship.

[Ian Hecox]

All right. So anyway, we asked you guys what was the first Smosh video that you saw? And a whole bunch of you guys responded. And we picked the videos that we saw coming up a bunch. And we've kind of. We've kind of picked them from. From all around Smoshlandia right off the bat. Try not to laugh. 12 with juju moofu.

[Courtney Miller]

That one did get a lot of views.

[Damien Haas]

It sure did.

[Ian Hecox]

That one was getting like, crazy amount of tons.

[Damien Haas]

I was not familiar with Juju Moofu before that.

[Courtney Miller]

Same.

[Damien Haas]

Does he just have extreme, like, pulling power for people or just. Was that just a damn good episode?

[Courtney Miller]

Crazy views, really?

[Ian Hecox]

Well, it was a great thumbnail because it was like the super buff dude with a pug head, if I recall. And I think he. Yeah, he had a. He has a pretty big following on Instagram. That's cool. But yeah, I don't. I don't know. I think it was just that kind of like that perfect merging of. Of thing. You know, you can't. You can't quite distill it down to a specific thing. Unless you're Mr. Beast.

[Courtney Miller]

He was so funny in that one. I can see why people maybe go back and watch that one as well.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, the Juju Mufu one was. Was extra. Like, it was ridiculous. He almost broke his groin on that one.

[Damien Haas]

Beg your pardon?

[Ian Hecox]

Thing.

[Courtney Miller]

Oh, yeah, the squat machine thing.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, that one had, by the way, 34 million views. That's 34. That's.

[Courtney Miller]

And that's the most views on a. Try not to laugh, period.

[Damien Haas]

I do believe so. Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

By far. Because it just. I think it hit some weird algorithmic thing where it just got recommended to a ton of people.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah. I also, I do want to like, give credit to Juju Mu's following. Like, they. They really love his content. So it made sense that they were like, holy smokes. It was like it was a marriage of two.

[Ian Hecox]

It was right up his alley because like all. If you ever like, go and watch his content, it's like so ridiculous. Anyway, another one. Food Battle 2010. Oh, was. It was a big one, I guess. I'm going to guess it had a girl in a bikini on probably.

[Courtney Miller]

Now what were the foods do you remember from that one? Was it the rock candy?

[Ian Hecox]

I'm gonna guess rock candy versus pink donut. That's gonna be my guess.

[Damien Haas]

Which one was churro?

[Ian Hecox]

Churro was before 2008.

[Damien Haas]

Yeah.

[Courtney Miller]

So his were always phallic things.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Courtney Miller]

Okay.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, yeah. For a long time that was the joke that mine was like a hole and his was a. His was a phallic object.

[Damien Haas]

I never got that.

[Ian Hecox]

Now you know. Little. Little Food Battle secret Chili pepper. Chili pepper was 2010.

[Courtney Miller]

Wow. How big was the pepper?

[Ian Hecox]

Wouldn't you like to know? About five inches?

[Damien Haas]

She asked. She wanted to know.

[Ian Hecox]

The next one.

[Courtney Miller]

I don't mean that small. I don't think five inches is small. You said five inches. And I was like, haha, that's funny. That's roughly the size of a penis. Cause Kevin was laughing at. He laughed and rolled his eyes because I was like, whoa, five inches. Gonna stop backpedaling now. Let's continue.

[Damien Haas]

No, let's. Let's double down. Just kidding.

[Ian Hecox]

I'm doing the journalistic thing. Where I don't say anything and I just keep staring to make her keep saying more and more.

[Courtney Miller]

Shane does that to me enough. I. I've learned.

[Ian Hecox]

I just don't think Shane ever talks.

[Courtney Miller]

No, he lets me unravel. He likes to see, like, I will self destruct if I. If like, I do say something like, he does that.

[Ian Hecox]

Like, for sure. If you want to destroy my sweater, hold his thread as I walk away.

[Damien Haas]

No, totally. No. But that's definitely a thing that he does. It's like he'll. He's a really good listener, but sometimes he just listens. And so it almost forces you to dig a little deeper like a therapist.

[Courtney Miller]

I think just this whole. That whole chunk is probably should be cut. Let me talk about penis pepper.

[Ian Hecox]

Hey, you know, if. Yeah, let's just stop.

[Damien Haas]

Let's talk about the thing.

[Ian Hecox]

Just Dance.

[Courtney Miller]

Oh, which one?

[Ian Hecox]

I don't know. Just Dance was written on here. So I'm guessing any of the Just Dance videos.

[Courtney Miller]

Those ones are really fun.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, I mean, that was kind of like. We didn't. When we made the first Just Dance video, we didn't expect that one to like pop the heck off. And it did.

[Courtney Miller]

And are those like, really, like, we don't. We can't monetize those. No, because it's always just.

[Ian Hecox]

I think back in the day we could. Because you could just kind of get away with it. But then like.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah, because it was gaming, but.

[Ian Hecox]

Well, it was also just like the. The auto claiming wasn't a thing back then. Yeah. So.

[Damien Haas]

Yeah, it's the same way with Twitch. Like, you know, you start off being able to do a lot more and then as things sort of catch up to it, it's like, okay, this has to be restricted to Twitch. Things is going away. Like, you know.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah. Yeah, those were cool, though.

[Ian Hecox]

I remember.

[Courtney Miller]

Sorry. I have a bad habit of trying to talk while I yawn.

[Ian Hecox]

I have a bad habit of talking while I burp.

[Damien Haas]

Yeah, I think we all have that habit here. Yeah, every one of us lets burps run their lives.

[Courtney Miller]

What do you have, like a favorite costume you've done on Just Dance?

[Ian Hecox]

Well, we only did. We only did Halloween Just Dance for maybe three years. I'm gonna say my. My. Definitely my fortnite costume.

[Courtney Miller]

Oh my God. Near dance. The weirdest dance ever.

[Ian Hecox]

That I love the fart night. I had the fart night shirt on.

[Damien Haas]

My. My big secret that's not a secret is that whenever we do Halloween just dance, I just want to get a cool costume that I can also Take home later.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, I noticed that.

[Damien Haas]

But, like, it's what I would do anyway. Right. Like, I don't do gag costumes. I do, like, I want to do a cool anime thing. And so I do.

[Ian Hecox]

I like when. When Noah, like, totally, like, he came in as Billie Eilish before, like, well.

[Damien Haas]

You have no idea.

[Ian Hecox]

You probably.

[Courtney Miller]

You knew that the eyelash and I hadn't seen that, like, anywhere yet.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. Like, I hadn't even heard of her before.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Like, he called it, man.

[Damien Haas]

She was like a toddler by that point.

[Ian Hecox]

She's a good little, tiny baby.

[Damien Haas]

Negative eight, dude.

[Ian Hecox]

Another. Here's another one. Every Starbucks ever. Oh, really?

[Damien Haas]

Wow.

[Courtney Miller]

That was, like, our first time finally coming for a brand. I feel like, on every blank, like, we were always too scared of it for some reason at Defy to, like, mess up either relationships with brands or to get sued or something.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, Defy was our first.

[Courtney Miller]

Even then we, like, called it Starbucks, but, like, we weren't very heavily, like, putting the branding on set or on wardrobe or anything. It was interesting. But that one, I was really proud that we did that. That was, like, also kind of a game changer in a way that we, like, started going for brands more.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Courtney Miller]

And those ones really do pop up. Yes.

[Ian Hecox]

I think. I think at first we didn't. We're like, who's going to care about, like, us doing a brand? Like, is that just going to come off as weird? But they ended up, like, every time we went after a brand, they ended up being like, really?

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Because, like, oh, yeah. Everyone can sort of relate.

[Courtney Miller]

Everyone goes to the Apple Store Ye. To mess around.

[Damien Haas]

That was the first video I was in on Smetch.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, shoot.

[Damien Haas]

At the Apple Store one, I got to be just a random dude.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, random dude. Number two.

[Damien Haas]

Yeah, that was nice. Thank you. Also, like, disclaimer for a lot of the things we're talking about in this podcast. It's before my time in terms of working at Smosh, but I knew who y'all were, and I watched stuff as a teenager. Teenager, teenager. So I'll be weighing in with that.

[Ian Hecox]

Is it that perspective?

[Damien Haas]

Okay, yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Next one. I mean, this doesn't surprise me at all. Assassin's Creed 3 music video iconic. Yeah. I mean, I don't wear briefs. I don't wear brief. Yeah.

[Damien Haas]

So good.

[Ian Hecox]

I mean, that's. That's one of my favorite videos.

[Courtney Miller]

Like, the golden standard of smashed content.

[Damien Haas]

Honestly, it's funny, you made a T shirt off of it.

[Courtney Miller]

Extremely talented. It was branded.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. The T shirt was actually Pretty dope. A lot of people bought the T shirt.

[Damien Haas]

Yeah.

[Courtney Miller]

It's a great song.

[Ian Hecox]

Like, you guys, it holds up strangely. Strangely. Like, I think it. I think it holds up like the other. The other songs we've made. I'm like, yeah.

[Courtney Miller]

Because I remember for the next. The next Assassin's Creed, you guys went with, like, a rock punk.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, we were doing, like, a pop punk kind of thing.

[Courtney Miller]

I remember I was like.

[Ian Hecox]

Which, I mean, stuck with the same.

[Courtney Miller]

Genre, because that was a choice.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. The audience let us know that that wasn't their favorite.

[Courtney Miller]

This is not a cheese.

[Ian Hecox]

But, yeah. I don't know. There's a certain vibe to Assassin's Creed 3 that. That I think still holds up. Very much so. This one's more general, but I see a lot of people are still like, hit me up asking for this. But mail time. Like, I do feel like. I do feel like we were one of the first, like, YouTube channels to. To do, like, a mail time. Oh, just like, opening mail for video.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah. I mean, you guys are around for so long.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Courtney Miller]

It makes sense that you guys were. Because, I mean, that's. You guys kind of set a lot of those things in Motion on YouTube. Like, weren't you guys kind of the first or among the first channels to have custom thumbnails that were, like. And, like, a set niche of, like, the text and almost like, the comic booky format? I mean, that's what our previous marketing manager had said that you guys kind of, like. Like, kind of set the standard back in the day.

[Ian Hecox]

I mean, I would never. I would never claim that. I mean, I would think. I think, like, Anthony was good at, like, graphic design. Graphic design is my passion. I think he was good at, like, graphic design. We're like, okay, how can we, like, really, like, catch people's eyes? Because that's what, like, every YouTuber was talking about. Like, oh, you have to have really grabby thumbnails.

[Courtney Miller]

Totally.

[Ian Hecox]

So I think we were just kind of following the trend, but we might have been one of the first to, like, really make them obnoxious. Yeah.

[Damien Haas]

Well, I just remember as a young and always seeing your stuff with, like, oh, there's a bikini in the photo. Like, yeah, yeah, that was kind of. Y'all stay.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, well, you know, it worked. This next one, stuck in the Toilet, which was a video about Anthony getting stuck in a porta Potty toilet, did really well. Great thumbnail. Great title.

[Courtney Miller]

May not have seen that one.

[Ian Hecox]

It's a. It's a. It's a banger. Probably One of our best. Probably one of our best. One of our best merch items where we sold. We. He wore a shirt that was like, oh, it's my awesome shirt. And it's just, like. It just says awesome. It's just black text poorly written on a shirt that says awesome shirt. And we sold that.

[Courtney Miller]

I like that. That's a thing that has been consistent because now Anthony has the interview shirt.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Courtney Miller]

Black text on it.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Courtney Miller]

That's cute. I like that connection.

[Ian Hecox]

That one. That one that did you guys. 37 million views on that one. 37 million views.

[Courtney Miller]

Wow.

[Ian Hecox]

37 milli. Bobby Browns to step back a little bit to Assassin's Creed 3 was 95 million views. Yeah, I know. That one's almost about to crack. A hundred million.

[Damien Haas]

And everyone listening to this podcast right now go watch it. Then we'll get to 100.

[Courtney Miller]

I say I still go back to that one sometimes and just enjoy what it is.

[Ian Hecox]

That's a great. It's a great one. This is. This is. This is a song you should go back to Box Man.

[Damien Haas]

Box. So I knew Box man that. So when I. I mean, I guess I'll talk about it when we do our, like, things, but, like, yeah, I knew Box Man. Like, that was something I watched back in the day. I knew Boxman.

[Ian Hecox]

Were you more of a Box man or Box Man's girlfriend or Box man for President?

[Damien Haas]

Not Boxman present. Box man and Box Man's girlfriend.

[Ian Hecox]

Okay, what about box man 2.0?

[Damien Haas]

I don't remember that. I fell off around that time because I was in that, like, rebellious teenage phase where I was like, I really liked it. But then if a joke didn't hit for me, I'd be like, I don't. I don't like this humor anymore. And then I, like, stopped watching and then would, like, come back. It's just, you know what you do. I know.

[Ian Hecox]

I know. I know what you mean. Here's a great one. I mean, I think this is, like, one of. I think I wrote this. It's probably one of my favorite videos because it's just. It hits my. My. I like dark humor. I'm quirky. This one. Adult Magic School Bus.

[Courtney Miller]

Love that one. I was. I was really excited about that one. I remember us being in the. The office talking about doing that.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Courtney Miller]

Because we realized that we perfectly had, like, our squad was the kids.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Damien Haas]

That's funny. Who was Ralphie?

[Courtney Miller]

Shane.

[Damien Haas]

Shane. Yeah. Typical.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Courtney Miller]

Search.

[Ian Hecox]

And then at the end, he just threw in that improv line where he's like, My shirt has the first letter of my name. Who does that? Something like that. It was really fun.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah, that was great. And the car covered in pink sludge after coming out of a body. So good.

[Ian Hecox]

Let's see what the inside of a cheating man's heart looks like.

[Courtney Miller]

Dude, so good.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. I got to play Ms. Frizzle. My. My ultimate dream.

[Courtney Miller]

That was amazing. And the dress just had, like, uteruses all over it.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, uterus. And, like, Xanax pills. And, like, we should.

[Courtney Miller]

We should sell that dress. I would buy it.

[Ian Hecox]

I think that might have been lost in the. The Defy collapse.

[Courtney Miller]

No, like, we should remake it.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh.

[Courtney Miller]

And sell it in mass.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, yeah.

[Damien Haas]

What we should do is also get Lily Tomlin to guest star on Smosh, and then you guys get to decide who's the better Ms. Frizzle.

[Ian Hecox]

Great idea. I didn't know Lily Tomlin did the voice for Miss.

[Damien Haas]

She did. She did. And so when you're watching Grace and Frankie.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Damien Haas]

That's Ms. Frizzle right there. Dude.

[Ian Hecox]

Whoa. That's wild.

[Damien Haas]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Dude, this next one. Say it with me. Eat it or eat it.

[Courtney Miller]

Wow, that was some people's first.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Courtney Miller]

Wow. That's pretty cool. It was a great. I just. I. We literally just had an episode talking about that show, but it, like, it was a great new. New, like, project for. For Smosh. That's been, like, successful.

[Ian Hecox]

This next one, I skipped over it on accident. Real Death Note. You know, the anime fans came through.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

They watched that quite a lot and has a ton of views. I think it hit some kind of, like, weird algorithmic thing, too, because it kept getting recommended. It was, like, in our top 10 most viewed like, of the past. Like, 48 hours forever.

[Damien Haas]

Would that have been able to be made at this point? Like, can you still say death in your.

[Courtney Miller]

That's what I was gonna ask.

[Damien Haas]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

I don't know. Yeah, I really don't know.

[Damien Haas]

One thing that's been really awesome about Smosh from both an insider and an outsider perspective is, like, how. Well, like, if you consider the changes of Internet like a wave, you have surfed, everyone. Like, you did the bikini photos. Now they're not okay. And so you stopped it, but then you had things like death and violence in the thumbnail, and then you stopped it. Like, you're always able to, like, get the new thing. Like, we can do that now. Cool. And now we have to stop. Cool. And you adapt. I like it. Yeah, we adapt.

[Ian Hecox]

I mean, adapt or die.

[Damien Haas]

That's the T shirt, too.

[Ian Hecox]

That's I don't know. That's Bear Grill's motto, right?

[Damien Haas]

Oh, I've never seen a bear.

[Courtney Miller]

It's so true in the real sense, the word, like, adapt or die. Like, every time I still see people saying, I miss the old smosh or whatever. Like, I think, like, literally, humor is changing faster and faster every day, especially because of platforms like Tick Tock, vine changed comedic timing forever, like, influencing a lot of editing styles. And I mean.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. I mean, I think humor is the thing that ages the quickest.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah. And people change. I think it's good if you're not changing.

[Damien Haas]

Well, it's like you're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't. Right. Like, Ian, if you still looked exactly like you did when you were 16.

[Ian Hecox]

I was the same freaking hot.

[Damien Haas]

But you were wearing the same clothing from when you were 16 and making the exact same content when you were 16. You have people saying, like, well, not only that, but, like, you'd have people saying, like, look at him. Like, grow up, dude. It's been 15 years doing the exact same thing. Come on, man. And now that you've changed, it's like, I missed the old thing. You're not gonna please everybody.

[Courtney Miller]

And in a way, we are. We still do a lot of the same things. Like, a lot of our content has been a legacy, like the blanks in real life and things like that for sure. Like, whatever. Anyway, no, we need to get on a tangent.

[Ian Hecox]

Another one. Throwing it back to if blank are real, if horror movies were real.

[Courtney Miller]

Wow.

[Ian Hecox]

Which is a good one.

[Courtney Miller]

I'm trying to remember that one.

[Ian Hecox]

I don't think you. It was before your time.

[Courtney Miller]

Wow. Okay, so I'm thinking of every. Every horror movie ever, I think.

[Damien Haas]

So y'all have too many good videos. Too many.

[Ian Hecox]

Too many video number. Here's an. Here's the funny one. And this is specifically the. This episode, Part Timers. Ghost Sex.

[Courtney Miller]

Of course.

[Ian Hecox]

I'm sorry, but I gotta say, like, you know, so we made this little series. We made this limited series called Part Timers, and we wanted to kill off a character. I think we. We killed her off in the best way that anyone's ever killed off a character. Where she fell off a roof, and then you thought she was going to be okay, and then she gets ran over by a car. But anyway, she comes back. She's the love interest of Noah, and she comes back in the next episode, the final episode, she comes back as a ghost and takes his virginity. But it's how, like, hold on. It's how she gets to heaven. Oh, that's. Yeah. I don't know why, but that's how she gets to heaven.

[Damien Haas]

Well, yeah, sure.

[Courtney Miller]

I think I saw some of that episode. I didn't watch a whole lot of part time summers, to be honest. I auditioned for one of the roles and didn't get it.

[Ian Hecox]

That's why you didn't watch it? You're bitter.

[Damien Haas]

Whoa.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah, it's just. But it was like kind of based out like the whole thing was based off of the fact that you used to work at Chuck E. Cheese. Right. It was a similar thing. I think that's really cool.

[Ian Hecox]

And that was like. That was like pre YouTube originals. Like, we got like. It was financed by YouTube.

[Damien Haas]

So. No, YouTube Red. It was just there before, right? Oh, it was YouTube Red.

[Ian Hecox]

No, it was before YouTube Red. Yeah. It was just an opportunity to create something cool. But it was like longer and like a fun little thing. The first smosh. Summer games.

[Damien Haas]

Which one was that? Was that summer camp or camp house?

[Courtney Miller]

Beach house. Just. Just at Santa Monica. Yeah, we were just on Santa Monica. It was my birthday. Shane was there, but he was a ref because, like, he was.

[Ian Hecox]

It was his first week.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah. He was so new that they were like.

[Ian Hecox]

Well, we also had even teams, so we didn't.

[Damien Haas]

I want small summer games to come back so bad. And I want to do it either at a beach in a forest for like a camp or something like that. When I joined, we started going like monster games. Lava. And you're like, yeah, it's 185 degrees in this location. It's been every summer games I've had. I really want to go to a beach.

[Ian Hecox]

No, we're gonna. We're gonna find the hottest place on earth.

[Damien Haas]

You did. You did. That was Barstow, California.

[Ian Hecox]

I think we can do better. I think we can do better next time. I think we could go hotter.

[Courtney Miller]

I think it's. We wanted to do a cruise ship. We were hoping that if some fan whose father owned a cruise line or something would be like, I like these kids. They seem fun.

[Damien Haas]

Hi, I'm Trevor Royal Caribbe. My father is. I don't know, Charles Royal Caribbean.

[Ian Hecox]

All right, we need to keep on track because we're taking way too much time.

[Damien Haas]

Yeah.

[Courtney Miller]

Ian, do we not want to comment on them? Do you want to just blow through?

[Ian Hecox]

I don't know. I only have like one last.

[Courtney Miller]

Oh, then.

[Damien Haas]

But we. We have to make a pact that we're not going to comment on for the sake of time.

[Courtney Miller]

Okay.

[Damien Haas]

Just this one we're not.

[Ian Hecox]

But I want to comment on this.

[Damien Haas]

It's a part of the pact.

[Courtney Miller]

Fuck. Fuck. Ian, what is it?

[Ian Hecox]

It's April Fool's video.

[Damien Haas]

Okay, done.

[Ian Hecox]

Where we walked for an hour.

[Courtney Miller]

Oh, my God. I remember that one. And I thought it was so sweet. Stupid.

[Ian Hecox]

I loved it. It was such. I mean, like, that's just right up my alley for comedy.

[Courtney Miller]

It was actually really genius because, like, it was an action movie in the beginning with Ryan Higa.

[Ian Hecox]

We called it, like, Smosh, I think we called it. We called it something that was like, our first movie or something like that. So it looked like a movie. It was an hour long. But then we. Yeah, we begin it like it's an action movie. Then we're like, okay, we gotta go to this place, and we walk out of the house and we walk uninterrupted, zero cuts for an hour.

[Courtney Miller]

And you guys had, like, the camera on a cart or something?

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, yeah. Had a whole rig and everything. We. We mapped out. We mapped out, like, where we were gonna walk in the neighborhood so that we can loop back around to that. So basically, halfway through the walk, one of us remembers that we forgot something at the house. So then we turn back around and then walk back to the house. Yeah.

[Damien Haas]

That's ridiculous. I have seen that. Not the whole thing, obviously, but I.

[Courtney Miller]

Want a way to dox your neighborhood.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Damien Haas]

Different time.

[Ian Hecox]

At that point, people are already figured out where we lived.

[Courtney Miller]

It never got to, like, team 10 house level.

[Damien Haas]

Dude, I'm scared to even take too much detailed, like, videos in my own home, like, inside my house, because then I don't want people to be like, oh, that's the structure. Right? Well, there are buildings that look like that in Los Angeles. He must live here. Like, it's. It's weird, man.

[Courtney Miller]

What was your first Smosh video?

[Damien Haas]

Oh, I saw. I saw the Pokemon theme song. I. But the first one that I really, like, sat down and watched and was like, oh, this is a channel called Smosh. It was one of the first couple food battles. Or Box Man. It was one of those three. Either Pokemon theme song, Box man, or otherwise. I don't. I wouldn't remember. But I was like. I must have been like, 16, 15.

[Ian Hecox]

Okay.

[Damien Haas]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Nice. What about yours?

[Courtney Miller]

I think I was, like. Like, 13 or 12 or 13. When my friend showed me dolls.

[Ian Hecox]

Dolls.

[Courtney Miller]

So funny. I loved it. I immediately was like, who are these guys? I think I, like, had seen the theme song, but it wasn't, like, something that stuck out to me. But it's Definitely, like, it was a format like music videos, but it's. You.

[Ian Hecox]

Okay.

[Damien Haas]

The one I remember most is. And I don't remember which one this is from, maybe, like, Food Battle 2, but it was like, very good. Very good whale carcass.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Damien Haas]

Shut up. And so, yeah, I was probably.

[Ian Hecox]

I mean, that might have been the first battle.

[Damien Haas]

Okay.

[Ian Hecox]

Cuz every. Every. Every food battle we opened with, like, that's very good. Very good whale carcass. Yeah. And then, yeah, we'd have some sort of, like, weird thing.

[Damien Haas]

Well, whale carcass stuck with me.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, the whale carcass at one is. Is memorable. I don't remember any of that.

[Courtney Miller]

I have no idea what that's from. What else?

[Damien Haas]

It's just a new shutup.

[Ian Hecox]

Well, guys, now we're going to get to the. To the real meat. Oh, man.

[Courtney Miller]

That was the appetizer. Psych.

[Ian Hecox]

So since it's been 15 years, we thought it'd be great to talk about. So because I've been here for 15 years, not y'all, I'm gonna. I'm gonna let you know what I think were my top 15 smosh moments.

[Damien Haas]

Wow.

[Ian Hecox]

And Damian, Courtney, and Shane will then give their top five moments, which will then combine into 15 between the three of you. All right, well, you know, I sort of wrote this chronologically. Do you think I should start. I'll start from the past top 15 smosh moments.

[Damien Haas]

Number one.

[Ian Hecox]

Number one.

[Courtney Miller]

Number 15. Technically, right?

[Ian Hecox]

15 numbers. Depends how you want to count. Did I put 16 on here?

[Damien Haas]

Oh, my God. This podcast is over. We are 55 minutes in. Ian, read your 15 things, Andrew Hecox.

[Ian Hecox]

All right, so while we. While Smosh started on a website, it wasn't really, like, anything like, what it is today. Then we made a. MySpace, made a couple of videos. That's fine. But. But the big moment was when we got our first video on the front page of YouTube and then the second video on the front page of YouTube, which then was the Pokemon theme song, which then rocketed to the most viewed video of all time on YouTube at that time. So that's. That's my. That's my number one, which is getting that video on the front page. Because once you got your video on the front page, that was like. That was like, the only way to like, really, really get discovered on YouTube. So that was a. That was a big old moment.

[Damien Haas]

Nice.

[Ian Hecox]

All right, number two, becoming one of the first 10 channels to be monetized. So. Yeah, so YouTube said, hit us up. And they're like, hey, like, we want to, we want you to be part of this thing we're calling the partnership program where we're going to guarantee you a certain amount of money and then you have a chance to make more. Basically, we're just gonna put ads on the. We're gonna put an ad, like a little pop up ad in the video.

[Damien Haas]

Huh.

[Ian Hecox]

And like those little lower thirds like.

[Damien Haas]

You'Re watching Fox and it tells you like Family Guy Sundays basically.

[Courtney Miller]

But you could, it was like a little guy that came up and you could click X on it.

[Damien Haas]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

And we were like, gosh, like people are like, our viewers are gonna be so pissed that we're like putting ads on our videos. They're gonna be so pissed. This little pop up and, and they were. But sell out. But it's so funny because like nowadays like we'll sit through two pre rolls, unskippable pre rolls, and then like five mid rolls if you're watching a video that's like 20 minutes long.

[Damien Haas]

See, that's the funny thing about the way the mindset has changed. I don't remember where I saw this, but it was like if you were a band in the 90s and you were on like a commercial or something, people would be like, sellouts, you suck. Like your music sucks because your sellouts nowadays, like if you're a creator and you're doing a brand deal, people are like, get paid by Denny's. Yes, Queen. Get that money.

[Ian Hecox]

And you're like, that totally changed.

[Damien Haas]

That's a flip.

[Courtney Miller]

It's like because they see you as a person now.

[Damien Haas]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

This person who's like, also it's an star and also it's an aspirational thing. Like they want to be that. So they don't want to be hypocrites. You know what I mean? Like yeah, yeah.

[Courtney Miller]

I don't think every single viewer like wants to be a famous YouTuber sellout. But like I would say it's definitely more of an, like the world is just getting more and more covered by advertisements like everywhere you go. But I think also at the same time, YouTubers are, are definitely being or just like high profile people are being seen more as people.

[Damien Haas]

I would agree with that.

[Courtney Miller]

And social media has a lot to do with it.

[Ian Hecox]

But so we, we got that money which then allowed us to number three, move out of our parents house and into the smosh house.

[Courtney Miller]

That's pretty cool.

[Ian Hecox]

The very first creator house. I just want to put it out there first. Yeah, that's right.

[Damien Haas]

So when, when Courtney was talking about like yeah. You guys pioneered new thumbnails. You're like, I don't want to claim that. No, but you're definite. This is the first house of creators ever know it?

[Ian Hecox]

No, it's not really though, because it was just like two guys living.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah. But I mean that eventually had like five people sleeping there to make YouTube videos.

[Ian Hecox]

So like literally you're right, it was two guys. But then. But then also we were joined by teleporting fat guy.

[Courtney Miller]

So teleporting that guy.

[Damien Haas]

I remember teleporting fat guy.

[Courtney Miller]

I've only seen a clip of it.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh man. Teleporting fat guy was great. Probably wouldn't fly guy these days. I'm saying calling a guy fat guy. Okay, so four. Number four, going to VidCon and meeting large amounts of viewers for the first time.

[Courtney Miller]

For the first time. What Was your first VidCon?

[Ian Hecox]

The very first VidCon year 2011.

[Courtney Miller]

Don't roll your eyes at me. I'm five years old.

[Ian Hecox]

No, I'm falling. No, I'm falling asleep. Because I'm trying. I'm. Now she's overloading my grab. It's overloading my brain. I'm trying to like. It's been so, so long.

[Damien Haas]

You have a phone in 2009, I.

[Ian Hecox]

Think, I think it was 2009.

[Courtney Miller]

Wow.

[Ian Hecox]

Because we sell. Cuz we've been to every single one. The. The vidcon before the last. This one that didn't Happen was the 10 year anniversary. Right. So that was 2019, so.

[Courtney Miller]

Oh, okay.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, yeah, 2009. Wow. Which is like the first time. Cuz like. Yeah, we like ran into like, we ran into viewers like on the street and stuff. But this is the first time where it was like YouTubers were getting together, meeting each other for the first time and then like there being like. I think there was like 1500 people there.

[Damien Haas]

That's crazy.

[Ian Hecox]

Which was. Yeah. Insane at that time.

[Damien Haas]

Yeah, that's crazy.

[Ian Hecox]

So that was, that was. It was just such a weird experience.

[Courtney Miller]

I remember, I remember my first vidcon with you guys when I was just a little. I had the purple badge and like you guys were still doing signings which feel like so outdated now.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Courtney Miller]

And like, like people didn't know who we were so they like would. We'd ask for just pictures with you guys. And I was like learning by watching you guys how like how you guys greeted fans and how you interacted with them because like that was so new to me.

[Ian Hecox]

And you'd always tell like you'd always tell people she's like, off.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah, I thought that's what you're supposed to say.

[Ian Hecox]

Off, Off.

[Courtney Miller]

Don't make me get the heat side joke. Yeah, I. I don't know. That was a cool, cool first experience. And trippy for sure.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, the. The first Vidcon experience is always weird for people. Number five, launching content from Enh, or as it is now known, Smosh Pit.

[Damien Haas]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

So we wanted to start releasing more content. We were doing, like, stuff on just the Smosh main channel. We're like, oh, well. People were starting to make, like, second channels. I was like, well, I have this, my channel, which I don't put anything on. I just use it as a user. And so we started uploading videos to There.

[Courtney Miller]

You had your Ian is board. Like, you were doing really weird stuff.

[Ian Hecox]

Well, that's. That's what we started doing. So we're like, what kind of videos can we make? And I was like, well, Anthony edits. Anthony does all the editing for the main channel. So how about I make some of my own videos and edit those and call it Ian is bored.

[Damien Haas]

You know what's crazy to me is I can't think of many other channels that have. Have a second channel from that time that survived. Like, I think about, like, Philip DeFranco and he started like, bam bam caboose.

[Ian Hecox]

Well, Phil DeFranco started like a gajillion.

[Damien Haas]

I know, but they've all gone away. Yeah, but that's what I'm saying. And like Cassim. Not. No, not Casim Ray. William Johnson of equals3 had your favorite Martian. Yeah, that went away. Like, all these things went away. And yet Smosh Pit, like, Smosh adapted and became.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, I mean, Smosh Pit to. Yeah, adapted.

[Damien Haas]

It's incredible.

[Ian Hecox]

Multiple times.

[Damien Haas]

But you had to.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, because we. Because. Yeah. So then we. We did. Yeah, we launched with Ian as board. And then I think shortly after that, lunchtime with Smosh, which is kind of like our, like, hang out with us kind of thing, because we never had a direct connection with. With our audience. So that was our first time of like, okay, you'll send questions and we'll answer them. Then. Then we did mail time of Smosh. Then it became less of, like, Ian Channel, more like, oh, us together.

[Courtney Miller]

That's when you name. When did you name it? Smash second channel.

[Ian Hecox]

That's right. We call it Smosh Second. We turned it into Smosh second channel, then the Smash Pit. I'm an idiot. I don't remember. I think. I think that was whenever YouTube, like, was since we were in Their good graces. I think we. They were like, oh, like, you can change the channel name. I remember. It's been a long time. Okay. Give me a break.

[Damien Haas]

I won't. I'll never give you a break.

[Ian Hecox]

Okay, so. So. Yeah. So. Enh. Smosh. Second channel, smosh. Pit number six. Shooting the Legend of Zelda rap.

[Courtney Miller]

That one I almost like more than Assassin's Creed sometimes. Because that instrumental was fire.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, yeah, the instrumental is good. The rapping, not so much, because I was just, like, trying to find rhymes, like, funny rhymes. Like, I was trying to. I was more focused on trying to, like, tell a joke. Joke than, like, make. Than to, like, sing a good song.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah, I think it's still. Like, a lot of the lyrics are really good. Like, I'm trying to remember it.

[Ian Hecox]

There's.

[Courtney Miller]

There's like, Lil Wayne references.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, like Katy Perry. Lil Wayne references, obviously. The one which I. I mean, like, I. I can't. I can't defend it. I mean, I could say, like, okay, he's a villain. So. So he would. Would like. But he says, like, L A, N K. More like L I N. Gay.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Where it's like, well, he's. He's like a villain.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Of course. He has, like, bad taste in, like, you know, name calling.

[Courtney Miller]

That crossed my mind when I had watched it, like. Yeah, I was like, that's still, in a way.

[Ian Hecox]

And we were. Yeah, we were also, like, kind of like, we were iffy about it then, but we're like, it's. I don't know. He's Ganondorf. He's an.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah, yeah, we just won't do that again.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. But. But shooting it, though, was. Was just. It just like, we had never put so much money into a video before.

[Courtney Miller]

And it wasn't branded, right?

[Ian Hecox]

No, it wasn't branded. It was just kind of a gamble. We're like, okay, well, we might. We might make some of this back in, like, album or song sales back when people would buy on songs on itunes and. Yeah, we'll just. We'll just go for it. And I just remember thinking, like, gosh, this is so cool. Like. Like. Like, I got, like, this makeup done. We got this. Got this makeup art.

[Courtney Miller]

Didn't you get a horse at one point? No, there's no horse in that.

[Ian Hecox]

There's a horse. Never had a horse in a video.

[Damien Haas]

That's Mandela effect. There's. There's no horses.

[Ian Hecox]

There's a. There's a horse and carriage drive by. In Assassin's Creed 3, the carriage was Real. But the horse was fake, right? Wait, I don't think there's a horse. We never showed a horse. We just showed the carriage.

[Damien Haas]

There's no such carrots.

[Ian Hecox]

Drive by bullet in the chain. That was one of the sickest lines. Thanks, Ryan. I could have sworn no horse. There's. There's no horse.

[Damien Haas]

Nope. While you're doing this, I'm gonna pull it up silently and watch.

[Ian Hecox]

But we like, we got this really great cosplay designer to create the outfit. She was also Zelda.

[Courtney Miller]

The Zelda wig from that video is Brianna Boho's wig.

[Ian Hecox]

What?

[Courtney Miller]

Yes.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh yeah. Zelda. I thought. I was thinking Link.

[Courtney Miller]

No. Yeah, I feel like that's Zelda's wig and it's on its last legs, man.

[Ian Hecox]

There's no horse in that video.

[Courtney Miller]

Fucking A. Why am I crazy?

[Damien Haas]

I'm watching right now.

[Ian Hecox]

And if there's a horse, girl, you just imagine horses.

[Damien Haas]

We're gonna fight.

[Courtney Miller]

It's so pretty. The. The graphics and like the lighting and everything is.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, the color was good.

[Courtney Miller]

Stream and you guys put like the moon, that moon in the background.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, that was. That was an Anthony touch. I believe or I love stars.

[Damien Haas]

I don't remember when you told me about it. It was the stars.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah, there's the moon. Yeah, there it is.

[Ian Hecox]

Just we use like a. We rented like a really good came. We. It was our first time using like this sort of small crane. There's no horse, trust me.

[Damien Haas]

But let's see if there's a horse. Let's see if there's a horse.

[Ian Hecox]

But yeah, I mean like it was just. It was just a wild experience because we put like so much into it. Like I remember waking up at like 4 or 5am getting the ears put on me. And then we drove up to the mountains, like a two hour drive in order to make it to this like, like beautiful like plains area in the mountains. Like, we put a lot of effort into that video and it. And it paid off. Actually. It did really, really, really well.

[Courtney Miller]

You know how like songs do part twos sometimes or like remixes to their own songs. What if we did like a Breath of the Wild remix and like had that same awesome. I. Because I love that the melody.

[Damien Haas]

I did find the horse, by the way.

[Courtney Miller]

What if we did an updated version of that with Breath of the Wild? Because they're making a new Breath of the Wild.

[Damien Haas]

I'm. I'm. I believe I just. I found the horse.

[Courtney Miller]

Love that. I don't get it, but I love it.

[Damien Haas]

It's Snoop Dogg in A Halloween costume. Sorry, but I'm listening. I think that's a good idea. And I'm gonna double down. I think it'd be cool if we did a very minimalistic song style, because that's what Breath of the Wild did. And so we could take those little like.

[Courtney Miller]

Well, the whole point of a remix or part two is like. It's the same backbone of the song melody wise.

[Damien Haas]

You got it.

[Courtney Miller]

I think that's something really cool. And it could still be topical since a new Breath of the Wild's coming. Yeah, I'm pitching it on here so that it's almost impossible to ignore.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, no, it's deleted.

[Courtney Miller]

No. Kevin, be on my side. We were just talking about Breath of.

[Ian Hecox]

The Wild number seven. Yeah.

[Damien Haas]

Damn. We're only through seven of these.

[Ian Hecox]

Shooting. Shooting Smosh, the movie. Similar kind of vibes. Just being on something that was so beyond what we ever did before. Just. We never prepared for something that big. We never done something that big. And it was just. It was a very special moment connected to that. Number eight.

[Courtney Miller]

Number eight.

[Ian Hecox]

Number eight. The Smosh. The movie premiere.

[Courtney Miller]

Which.

[Ian Hecox]

Which, you know, I'm sorry, Damien, still before your time. But that was flipping insane.

[Courtney Miller]

That's trippy. Jenna Marbles came.

[Ian Hecox]

I mean, there's a whole bunch of influencers that came in that were invited. But the big thing was, like, we had worked with. With Awesomeness to. To make that movie.

[Damien Haas]

They.

[Ian Hecox]

They co produced it.

[Damien Haas]

And Shane and I worked with Awesomeness before Smosh.

[Ian Hecox]

Cool.

[Damien Haas]

Before we joined Smash. I mean, I'm just saying, okay, I'm not able to contribute to most of this because it is before my time. So me for saying the one thing that connected. Ian, I'm just gonna sit back here with my arms crossed and nod.

[Ian Hecox]

Thanks. Anyway, back to me.

[Damien Haas]

Yes, back to you.

[Ian Hecox]

Sorry, that was me.

[Damien Haas]

No, it's okay. Leave it at it.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, so Awesomeness was like. Was like, dude, we gotta make this thing huge. We gotta have this big premiere to show this is like, for real and this is like a big deal. So I'm pretty sure they, like, bankrolled this just ridiculous premiere where they. They rented out this theater that a.

[Courtney Miller]

Lot of big premieres are at.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, we've gone to a bunch of premieres.

[Courtney Miller]

The Annabelle premiere was at that theater.

[Damien Haas]

Oh, that one.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, yeah, the Fox. Fox theater in Westwood.

[Damien Haas]

Oh, they spent money. Money.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, they, like, closed down a road. They had a huge red carpet. They had like all this stuff. The theater was like.

[Courtney Miller]

They got a sponsorship too.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, it was like trolley. Yeah, yeah. But then like There was like 800 seats and we filled like half of half of them with fans.

[Courtney Miller]

It was awesome, dude.

[Ian Hecox]

It was crazy.

[Courtney Miller]

Oh, we also had my suits on. Yeah, and Madame Tussauds had your. Who had your wax figures there.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, we debuted the wax figures. It was a crazy day.

[Damien Haas]

That's awesome.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah, that's awesome for you, dude.

[Ian Hecox]

And I mean like, you know, whatever. Regardless of everyone's feelings on the movie, like, it was, it was, it was a very special moment. Okay. Number nine, selling Smash. Well, actually this would have been before, but whatever. Selling Smosh to Defy. Again, regardless of people's opinions and whatever transpired, it did help us become what we are today. If we didn't make some kind of partnership like that, I don't see how we would have ever gotten this far. So regardless of like what did transpire, they helped us a heck of a butt ton. I got. I gotta give. I gotta give props where Props are due. Well, we had sold to Alloy, then Alloy merged with Break to become Defy. Yeah.

[Damien Haas]

Sounds like it should have been the other way around.

[Ian Hecox]

If.

[Damien Haas]

If you merge a bunch of metals, you can become. It becomes an alloy.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, so that's.

[Courtney Miller]

That's.

[Damien Haas]

They should have named and prepared that way. Sorry.

[Ian Hecox]

Damn, bro. I mean you could. You should go tell them.

[Damien Haas]

I will do that. Thank you.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, I mean that, that was a huge moment for us. Like being able to. To grow this thing that was like, you know, two. Two guys. Just like, just two guys. Literally.

[Courtney Miller]

Good time.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Damien Haas]

Oh yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

But we were working ourselves to death. Death. Like what we were doing was not sustainable. Like we. We worked like 12, 14 hour days every single day and did a lot of the work. And without, without the sort of support that Defy allowed us to. To get. Yeah, I. I would have burnt out a long time ago. So big, big props. Even though, you know, some of your decisions I don't agree with. Defy. Rest in peace. Number 10. Number 10 smosh games.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah, launching of it.

[Ian Hecox]

The launching of Smosh. The Smosh games. Yeah.

[Damien Haas]

Because you all merged with Clever, right? Or was that. It was Clever.

[Courtney Miller]

Like people from Clever Gaming came over into Smash Games.

[Ian Hecox]

Exactly. Yeah. So we. Well, we created Smosh Games when. When Alloy acquired us. Alloy also owned this. This thing called Clever. Part of Clever was this thing called Clever Games which we took a couple of those people and merged them with ourselves and Mari. We created Smosh Games because gaming was a thing that was growing. And like we played the whole. The whole reason for us starting a games Channel was a couple times on lunchtime. Lunchtime at Smasher. Ian is bored. We. We got, like, a Sims brand deal, and we played Sims on our. On our second channel, and it blew up. Like, people loved it, and they're like, play more video games. Play more Sims. And we were like, well, this isn't really a gaming channel. Smash Games. So that's what we did. And Smosh Games lives on.

[Courtney Miller]

And it kind of was the first. I mean, Mari was. But the first era of hiring new talent.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Mari was the first one when we hired her on for, like, almost like, the second. The second iteration of our second channel with Smash Pit Weekly. And then. And then we're like, oh, Mari, do you play video games? And she was like, I like video games. Like, good enough. And then somewhat connected. Number 11. Smosh Summer Games.

[Damien Haas]

Well, number 11.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. Just, like, great times. It was. It was originally created as a way to bring Smosh games and regular Smosh talent to together.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah. This was after you'd hired five new people.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, yeah, it was after. Yeah, we hired y'all, and. And we were working on opposite sides of the building, and we weren't really. Like, there wasn't a lot of collaboration between the two.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah, we tried to. We. We had, like, organized collab shoots, so, like, we would pop into each other's videos occasionally.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Courtney Miller]

But, yeah, we never saw each other, never spoke to each other. It really was just, like, a big bonding exercise.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. Yeah, it really was. I remember there was, like, something with, like, you guys sitting on a hammock at the beach house. Not at the beach. At the beach house. There was, like, somebody like. Like you. Or maybe it was like, Shane. I don't know. It was just. Oh. It was like, Joe, I'm just saying names now.

[Courtney Miller]

What happened with this hammock? I don't know.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, well, not that.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

When? Who was it? Lasercorn. He, like, rocked.

[Courtney Miller]

That was can't camp.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, that was camp, but that was the hammock. The hammock broke. The hammock broke. And then, like, almost broke their butts. Yeah, but no, this is just, like. I think I have, like, an old video or old picture of it. And I was like, oh. Came across. I was like, oh. It was like, just a couple you guys just, like, arms over each other, just, like, looking at the sunset.

[Courtney Miller]

Oh, that's like a pick that we all sat. I didn't. Are we sitting on a hammock?

[Ian Hecox]

I don't know.

[Courtney Miller]

I think it was, like, maybe a swing.

[Ian Hecox]

Like, I think there's a horse. I think there was a horse. Pretty sure there's a horse.

[Damien Haas]

We gotta get to the bottom of this. I gotta figure this out now.

[Courtney Miller]

I need to put a horse in the Smosh.

[Ian Hecox]

I don't think we have ever what we did.

[Courtney Miller]

I wanted one for Red. We were going to do a Red Dead music video and I wanted one.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. I was. One day your horse girl dreams will come true, Courtney. I promise. For that. For that. I promise you.

[Damien Haas]

Dude, why didn't we do every horse girl ever? Or did we?

[Courtney Miller]

I'm not like other horse girls. Okay.

[Damien Haas]

Yeah, I know. It's. Cuz you're totally different.

[Ian Hecox]

Smash Summer Games. I mean, it started as a bonding exercise and it just like it. We really just. I think we made some really great content.

[Courtney Miller]

It became the ultimate success of the Smosh brand. Like, honestly, we were always like, that was the kind of the thing that we looked forward to.

[Ian Hecox]

It was like a big, like, tent pole event.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah. And every year, like, the, like the fan base was super excited every year too. Like, it became a legacy, I think.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. The teams and like, everyone got to.

[Courtney Miller]

Root for somebody small.

[Ian Hecox]

This sounds like a sad top moment, but it is. It's. It's still like, it's. I would. It's like this is also, like, memorable. No, fuck it. It's a top moment. Anthony leaving and find. Hold on. Anthony leaving and finding his own thing. Okay, so it's a top moment.

[Damien Haas]

I'd say so. Because we're not just doing favorites here. It's like defining moments of Smosh. Anthony leaving Smosh. Even from my perspective as a newbie at that time, because that was right after I joined, it's a huge deal.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Damien Haas]

Colossal. And people still are like, where's Anthony? Some people do it as a meme, but other people.

[Ian Hecox]

A lot of people do it as a meme. So, yeah, it was a good moment for him, but it's also a good moment moment for us because it did. It did force us to. Well, we had a lot of things that. That we wanted to change on Smosh and that we wanted to evolve and. And this gave us that chance. It was a big moment for. For everybody.

[Courtney Miller]

And it is really cool seeing what Anthony's doing now. He's got a clear path on, like, what his content is, and it's really exciting to see him do it too. Like, it was. I think it. It was for the betterment of Everybody.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

100%. Number 13.

[Damien Haas]

13.

[Ian Hecox]

Smosh getting rescued.

[Courtney Miller]

Unreal. That, like, that. I Remember hearing that because I was like, I remember I was pretty mad at you because I was like, I don't know what's going on. Because we didn't know what was going on. We've talked about it on the pod where, like, you didn't want to bear any news to get people's hopes up. But also it was like, really scary, just like not knowing at all. I remember I was in Utah when you called me in the snow and when you told me that mythical was possibly gonna buy us. Yeah, that blew my mind because obviously we've watched lots of mythical back in the day, Rhett and Link. Like, I was. I was watching Rhett and Link in the era where they were doing like, they had the balloon video and the pillow video. And like, that was when I was Rhett and Link.

[Ian Hecox]

Rhett and Link.

[Courtney Miller]

Fun. Fun story. Fact. Fun fact. Story fact.

[Ian Hecox]

Huh? Fun story for fun fact.

[Courtney Miller]

Years and years ago, my family was going to a Maroon 5 concert. We were driving through LA. I was very unfamiliar with LA, but we were driving through the street and we see Rhett and Link standing at the curb about to cross the street. Me and my sister rolled on a windows. We're like. We didn't know what to say, but we were like, hey.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Courtney Miller]

And they didn't. I don't think they saw.

[Damien Haas]

They're so tall, the sound waves.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah, but that was my first time seeing a YouTuber in real life was Rhett and Link standing on a curb.

[Ian Hecox]

And you're definitely like the biggest, like, well, it's like, good mythical morning.

[Damien Haas]

I really like the mythical morning. But I didn't. I had seen their stuff back in the day, but when I really started watching them was with. When Defy shut down and I was home alone a lot. And I was like, well, I need to find a source of revenue. And I started streaming because I was like, I'm bored. I want to make some. Something that's mine. So I started streaming and I would do that at night and then during the day I would just go on YouTube and just watch Rhett and Link and just marathon it. And so that I only really started watching them at that time. So for months it was just Rhett and Link. And then for you to, of all. All things say, like, yeah, it's potential that we're going to be purchased by a good mythical morning. I was like, what is this, man? Did I die 10 years ago and I'm stuck in a simulation? Like, this is crazy.

[Ian Hecox]

That whole time was so crazy. And I. And I know that, like, when I was trying to, like, figure it out and get it all together, I couldn't really tell you guys that much. And I know that at that time, that seemed like I was being really secretive for nefarious reasons, but it's like, honestly, I couldn't tell you guys.

[Courtney Miller]

You're teasing me.

[Ian Hecox]

No, I know.

[Courtney Miller]

Tik Tok reference.

[Damien Haas]

Okay.

[Ian Hecox]

Okay.

[Courtney Miller]

What are you, 32?

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, almost 33.

[Damien Haas]

Oh, God.

[Courtney Miller]

14.

[Damien Haas]

Number one.

[Ian Hecox]

Number 14. This one's. I mean, it's a top moment because I'll never live it down. Do you have any guesses?

[Damien Haas]

I do. Two truths and a lie.

[Ian Hecox]

That's right.

[Courtney Miller]

Oh, my God.

[Ian Hecox]

The two truths, one lie with Pam.

[Courtney Miller]

Oh, my God.

[Ian Hecox]

It's. It'll never not elicit a physical reaction from me.

[Damien Haas]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

I've never unintentionally hurt somebody more than that. So that. That goes. That goes down as, like, one of the. I mean, like, man, we should have w. Look, we should have won a streamy for. For that episode that. Nobody's created drama better than that.

[Damien Haas]

Well, people do it on purpose because I've seen a lot of tik toks where they're like, make fun of of thing, or like, I'm gonna go back. I've seen a lot of tick tocks where, like, pranks go way too far. And it's always like, a boyfriend and a girlfriend being like, baby, I cheated on your baby. We should break up. And I'm like, that's shitty in the first place. But you didn't by accident.

[Ian Hecox]

Yep.

[Courtney Miller]

Did it by accident.

[Ian Hecox]

Braid her with water.

[Courtney Miller]

That was the most.

[Ian Hecox]

In her worst moment. Sorry.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah. Because I. I was like, oh, man. I felt right there with her.

[Ian Hecox]

You guys were there to witness it.

[Courtney Miller]

Shane. That was the most angry I've ever seen. Shane. Because that's the point where he yells like, what is going? What is going on? Because, like, we really thought there was a weird up version of this universe.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Courtney Miller]

Where this was how you were doing it and you thought it was good because you're being honest or something.

[Damien Haas]

Well, because sometimes you can take a joke a little far. Like, yeah, every once in a while we've all done it. But, like, there is a world where a version of Ian might have been.

[Courtney Miller]

Saying that this would have been you being honest or something. But yeah, it was just a scary alternate reality. But yeah. Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Glad we're past that.

[Courtney Miller]

Glad we're past that. And Pam, I think, is doing well.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Damien Haas]

Yeah, I think so. We still. We still chat. We started. I started playing Final Fantasy 14. So we started talking about that.

[Ian Hecox]

Nice. Oh, yeah, nice. Final. So capping it off. Good.

[Damien Haas]

Numbing 15 num and 15.

[Ian Hecox]

Num and 15.

[Courtney Miller]

That's how I say number now.

[Ian Hecox]

I'm going to get a num. My num going to go to. Going to go to McDonald's. Can I get a num num one. No, no num in one large McDonald smosh joins Twitch. Big moment, man. This is the. This is like the first like, like big, crazy content change that we've done in a long time. It's a big move, like a big change from what we've ever done. I've realized that I have a lot of fun on it. I. I didn't know. I didn't know what was. What exactly was going to happen, but it was just like, let's try this. And I'm enjoying it. And I think we have a good team behind us, and I think we're making some really, really fun stuff. Stuff.

[Damien Haas]

I agree.

[Courtney Miller]

Agreed. Sorry, I was altering my top five list.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh. So that does it for my top 15 smosh moment. Topher Grace.

[Damien Haas]

So for grace. Foot lettuce.

[Ian Hecox]

All right, well, if you guys want.

[Damien Haas]

To bring Shane into this, he is standing by.

[Ian Hecox]

Ready on that zoom call. Shane is here.

[Damien Haas]

You mean from Shane? And tops from Goldman.

[Ian Hecox]

We're gonna call him then the Shane Goldberg top. He had to legally change his middle name to Goldberg. All right, so that was my top 15. But now I'm gonna hear from you little turds, what were your top five moments? And. And to get. And to enter and to get. Get all. To get them. I got this one and only Shane Goldberg top here. He's calling in from his own domicile.

[Courtney Miller]

He is quarantining because of the Goldberg say. Hey, Shania.

[Shane Topp]

Hello, Angel.

[Ian Hecox]

Hi, Charles. Hi, Charlie.

[Damien Haas]

I'm Lucy Lunel.

[Shane Topp]

Guys, I'm calling you live from my toilet seat.

[Damien Haas]

Dude. Nice.

[Courtney Miller]

I'm Drew Barrymore.

[Damien Haas]

I am Cameron Diaz.

[Ian Hecox]

So who wants to. Do you guys want to go?

[Shane Topp]

Doing all right?

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Yep.

[Shane Topp]

Oh, no, I. I asked if you guys are doing all right.

[Damien Haas]

Oh, we're doing good, man.

[Ian Hecox]

Just doing. We're doing good.

[Damien Haas]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

So how. How. How would you guys like to do this? Would you like to each say all five of your things or you like.

[Damien Haas]

To go around and was saying we do all five.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, that makes sense.

[Courtney Miller]

It might be easier cuz Shane's on a box.

[Ian Hecox]

That makes sense.

[Damien Haas]

And now you're the princess because everybody else has more perspective than I do and have been here. Longer. May I go? Since mine will be a little more bare bones, please. My perspective on the smosh stuff is I watched them as a teenager, fell off for a long time, became aware of them again when Shane joined and then now I'm a part of it. Mine will be a little bit more of a smattering. And I viewed it as most important, defining things that happen. Not necessarily favorite because there's some rough ones too. So I think the biggest one right off the bat, Pokemon song getting front page access. I mean it. It introduced me to y'all. I think it Major, major mark in history.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, that's a weird mark. That's a weird mark.

[Damien Haas]

What about the one that's. My dermatologist said, hey, my dermatologist.

[Courtney Miller]

But it's a. It's a format that is still relevant. So it's kind of cool in a way. You know, people are still lip syncing the music.

[Ian Hecox]

That's crazy, man.

[Damien Haas]

It's darn cool. The addition of new cast members was another huge defining moment because that's when you guys added longevity to the channel. Not just two young men doing their thing, which has a time limit if you're just by yourselves now you have more people and you've turned yourself into this comedy brand and there's more people that can come in and. Yeah.

[Courtney Miller]

Bringing in more voices and different perspectives.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, yeah. Cuz I'm just suburban one lane Jane.

[Damien Haas]

White boy that's why I call you behind your back Suburban white boy Suburban white boy But I'm also yelling it at the mirror. So yeah, that to me was huge. And it's a big step too for y'all to be able to like take something that was just yours and be like, you know what, it's time to do it and do it right. So I also think the introduction of the every blank ever format really made a mark. It's how things got both. It was both comfortable for the past couple years of doing that, but also pushed the envelope like it was getting a lot of views and allowed us to explore different spaces. You know, can we mess with brands? Can we mess with. With these celebrities? Like what are we doing? And that's how I came to know Modern Smosh.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah, it was the first videos to not have the Shut up intro.

[Damien Haas]

That's right.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, we were, we were phasing. We were trying to phase the shutup out. And that was a good. That was a good like starting point. I think I forgot about that.

[Courtney Miller]

How come you wanted to phase it out?

[Ian Hecox]

Cuz it was old it was just. It was old and overplayed, and it just like, do we really want to, like, also having to come up with a different thing to say, to shut up after that long was a little annoying. But it was also just like, we had been doing it since 2006. I think it was time to just move on, just not do it.

[Damien Haas]

I put the Defy shutdown, the Mythical acquisition, all as one, because I sort of view it as one event in history. The Defy shutdown was crazy. I know we've gone into it on the podcast multiple times, but I tend to join things later in their life. Life, you know, and it's just sort of a pattern I've had, like, in my 20s, like, where so random, so random. And this. And I. There was another channel I joined for a minute very briefly before this that was trying to do what y'all did and add new members to their comedy brand. I joined that. And then after one sketch, the audience was like, we missed the old people, and they didn't even tell us that we weren't gonna be coming back. So the next video they uploaded was like, we heard you, and they're coming back with just the normal dudes. Oh, my God, yes, I'm fired. So I always join things at the end. So when the Defy shutdown happen happened, I was like, yeah, this tracks. This makes sense. And so it's just. It refreshed my outlook on life to have Mythical purchase everything and actually, you know, give us creative autonomy and, you know, be brought back. Because I was exclusively games before that, and I really wanted to. I'm like, now that we're not held down by Defy, can I do sketch? So, like, it was all just such a cool.

[Ian Hecox]

And this is the perfect time to mention, next week, Anthony's coming back, and we're getting rid of everybody.

[Courtney Miller]

Oh, my God, don't do this.

[Damien Haas]

I mean, dude, at this point, we're too powerful. We'll start our own channel. Shane, Courtney, me. We'll grab everybody. We'll do it. All right. Big thing number four for me was the Smosh west coast tour.

[Courtney Miller]

Yes, sir.

[Damien Haas]

I mean, that was the thing that other creators have done. But for us to, like, do live content, which we had not done before at that point, other than Smosh Live, but, like, in front of a large audience, tour bus every night, like, that's an experience I'll never forget. It was exhausting. It physically exhausted me to the point where I was like, I can't do this any longer. But I had so Much fun.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah. It was a huge learning experience. I don't know how much we've actually talked about what the road was like and stuff, but it was definitely like a. I learned a lot as a woman on tour, like, what it's like to do your skincare routine or your makeup by yourself on a tour like that. It was definitely. That was an interesting experience. And then, like, us learning that it's hard to do. Try not to laugh every night. And either, like, we struggled between new bits and. And keeping the bits that worked because we are not improv professionals, but we did what we could.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. No, everyone did a great job. Shane, do you have anything to say about that?

[Shane Topp]

Yeah, that was. We did that in 2015.

[Damien Haas]

Right.

[Ian Hecox]

It feels like basically. That's funny. It's so funny. We were joking on stage. We made a couple jokes about, like, oh, there's like a pandemic starting, so we gotta, like, you know, be careful, bro.

[Damien Haas]

I don't remember us saying that.

[Courtney Miller]

That early during Smosh tour. Was that during Smash Australia?

[Ian Hecox]

I made. I made a joke about it on the tour.

[Damien Haas]

Wow.

[Shane Topp]

I don't remember it on the tour. I do remember in Australia.

[Damien Haas]

That means you were also warned in January.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, I was there. I was there with the president. We. We all knew in January.

[Courtney Miller]

Oh, God.

[Damien Haas]

And then my Numb in five. Numb in five is SM Australia. Because I think, you know, people have been asking us for years, like, come to England, come do this. And we've done conventions as a group, and it's always a wonderful, fun experience. Going on the road to do conventions is, like, one of my favorite parts of this job. I miss doing little random travel things where it's like, over the weekend, you're going to this convention, you're going to be in Boston for a couple of days. Cool. Like, I love that stuff. I love seeing new places. But for us as a group to go, like, as a company to Australia with a charity aspect involved, like, that was. Because there was. Right. There was charity aspects. Yeah, for the shirts, for the. For the fires.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, that was. That was a.

[Courtney Miller]

That was its own thing. But we also happened to be going out there. But there was that aspect for sure.

[Damien Haas]

But it was just so cool to me. Like, that's. That to me is a sign of, like, making it, like, not only are you just being dispatched to a couple conventions here and there, you're traveling internationally to do it, and people are there to see. See you.

[Ian Hecox]

Like, all expenses paid, baby.

[Damien Haas]

I mean, that was cool, too. Yeah. I finally got paid for work Instead of having to pay you guys to let me chill here.

[Ian Hecox]

So that was pretty good.

[Damien Haas]

It was nice. Thank you, Finner. And those are my top five from a very limited perspective.

[Courtney Miller]

Very nice.

[Damien Haas]

Thanks for having me here. I've never been happier.

[Courtney Miller]

Very nice.

[Ian Hecox]

Damien's gonna hate this news later when everyone gets replaced.

[Courtney Miller]

Oh, yeah.

[Damien Haas]

I mean, it makes sense.

[Courtney Miller]

It's like snl.

[Damien Haas]

That's true. I will be the Kenan Thompson. Staying around longer than you'd expect.

[Ian Hecox]

Can you?

[Damien Haas]

Yeah, I can half smile through every sketch.

[Courtney Miller]

Shane, do you want to go next?

[Shane Topp]

Yeah, I can go next. I was thinking about the ones that came to mind, and these are the five that, like, really just stand out. I think about these moments a lot. First one. And a lot of these are obvious, but the first one is obviously every summer and Winter Games that we ever did. It's just insane. It's insane that we got to do those and get to do those. We will. We obviously want to do more every single time we did them. Even in the, like, tough moments, because there was always a tough moment every single summer Winter Games because it's so much work. But it was just so ridiculous and it was so fun to get together and be literally just doing a reality competition show for a week.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Damien Haas]

Hell yeah.

[Shane Topp]

It really, truly is not a job if those were kind of like week long parties and very much so. They're so much fun, every single one of them. Even. Even the ones that, like I said, even if the weather was hot or miserable and we were filming non stop, it was still. I look back and they were a blast.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah, we really.

[Ian Hecox]

Except for we blew it. We can all agree that one, even.

[Courtney Miller]

That one was even.

[Shane Topp]

Even then I look back and it had had really fun moments.

[Ian Hecox]

Now that's true. That bouncy added to it. Yeah.

[Shane Topp]

I don't look back on that and go, that was a miserable experience. I look back and I'm like, that was really fun. It was just different. It was just crazy.

[Ian Hecox]

Like, that's true. Damien discovered the extent of his. Of his hive rash.

[Damien Haas]

Oh, dude. Yeah, that one. That one. I will gladly say that that sucked, but that was just for me. That wasn't anybody.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, well, who was the person that bounced on that bouncy thing, like, super hard and like landed. Landed with their face?

[Damien Haas]

Isn't that me?

[Ian Hecox]

This is Joven.

[Damien Haas]

No, they showed a lot of fails. I got epic fail of the year.

[Shane Topp]

Ari also got kind of messed up, I think, from the GoPro hitting her face.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, wait, was that.

[Damien Haas]

I also had an Asthma attack slash panic attack in one of those balls, too. That was. That was actually a very bad couple of days for me. I'll be honest. But all the other Summer and Winter Games were awesome.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, that. Yeah. When we were all in those balls, that was ridiculous. Like, everyone. Like, I remember almost everybody gassed out, like, halfway through the competition, like, rolling.

[Courtney Miller]

Around in their own, like.

[Damien Haas]

Like, waving down. People being like, I can't breathe. Like, waving down. And then people are seeing me, like, just like, hey. Hey, buddy. And I was like, this is how I die. Like, people are just like, what's up, dude?

[Ian Hecox]

You know what? There were some good competitions in there. I. I enjoy. I enjoyed that one, I think.

[Courtney Miller]

I thought you wanted the camera.

[Damien Haas]

Oh, totally. In theory, it all makes sense. I just. Selfishly, those couple days were like.

[Courtney Miller]

But I don't say, like, we even. It's like Shane said, like, even in those bad times, like, when it's too hot or there's. Or too cold, after jumping in the snow in our swimsuits, straight out of a hot tub, like, we are suffering together. And at the end of the day, even though even, like, things like, we blew it, like, that was the last one at Defy and the first one at Defy, we didn't. Couldn't sleep in the same house. It was cool, too, when those shoots were over, kind of hang out together. And, like, that was. That was kind of what made me love this job so much, was those.

[Ian Hecox]

Quality times, the big fam all coming together.

[Damien Haas]

Yeah. How you feeling, Shane? What's your four?

[Shane Topp]

Number four. Now, these are all kind of. I don't really have these ranked. It's tough to rank them because I don't think we. Now I'd say I'm gonna go with number four being. You know what? I'm gonna go with Smosh Live. I have to shout it out again. That.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. Oh, damn. Yeah.

[Shane Topp]

It's just ridiculous as well. Like, Summer Games and Smosh Live, they just have no business having ever. Like, it's. It's crazy that we get to do them. And there. You know, there's a lot. Our job is really tough. A lot of weeks. There's a lot of times where you're going to work, and it feels like it's. It's work, even though it's. It's what we love to do. But those experiences, when we were actually doing them, it is. You get to do those things. And Smosh Live, Although Smosh Live was a ton of work. I mean, it was a month of preparation. The Actual day of doing it was so insane. It just felt like something different.

[Courtney Miller]

It was. It was. It was a total accomplishment. The fact that we. Like, I remember the moment like after was. Was after dress rehearsal was the final performance and the plot, like it was any. We did the final joke and Joe was right there next to the camera just being like, you did it, like with this thumbs up, just like you fucking did it.

[Shane Topp]

Yeah, yeah. And you know, the hangman sketch, like there. That moment that obviously like. Like gets played a lot when I'm sitting there kind of pausing. I really think I was sitting there kind of thinking about what was happening in that moment. I was kind of like, holy crap, we're doing this. And this is crazy.

[Ian Hecox]

I mean. I mean, and also, like, big, big props to the production company that handled that whole live show.

[Courtney Miller]

Because that shit was professed.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. Because it was. It was a big sponsored brand deal that. That defy snagged and a lot of. A lot of money went into the. The company that handled the whole live production and they. They pulled it off almost perfectly. Like, there was not a single. There's not a single thing wrong with it. Except for the credits where they wrote Smoosh.

[Damien Haas]

That happened on tour too.

[Courtney Miller]

And on tour.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Damien Haas]

Smoosh Live.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Courtney Miller]

Amazing. Sorry, Shane, Continue.

[Shane Topp]

It was just so much fun and. And you know, Damian, it. I. I think you get the feeling it felt very similar to when we did our live recordings on so Ran random. It's just.

[Damien Haas]

It's cool.

[Shane Topp]

It's just, you know, getting in front of a live audience and doing it is so much more nerve wracking. But once it's done, you feel so alive. Like, you just feel like such a rush from it and it's really a blast. And that was. And I would say tour had that vibe as well, but Smosh Live was just the first time, and I was so. It was so early on in this job for me. I mean, I hadn't even been here a year, so it was just crazy for it for us to be doing something like that so quickly, but.

[Ian Hecox]

Hell yeah.

[Shane Topp]

But I love it. And I think. I think all the sketches from it really. Number three, I would go with. I think this is a really cool moment. Was just the inception and creation of the Damien and Shane show.

[Damien Haas]

Because.

[Shane Topp]

Because years prior, before I even joined Smosh Damien, I talked about, like doing a YouTube channel and playing video games or whatever, and, you know, it just never really panned out. It's really tough to start a YouTube channel.

[Damien Haas]

And well, when you join Smosh, we couldn't say. And that's how. Just how it goes. Like, of course, we.

[Shane Topp]

Even before I was on Smosh, it was just a thing that we talked about, but we knew it was, like, such a serious undertaking, and without any platform to begin with, we'd have to start from scratch. And that's so hard to do props to people who do it. But as everyone knows, it takes years. And we weren't in a place where we felt like we could do it. We didn't think it was possible, but it was something we dreamed about. And we're like, that would be so cool. And then, you know, suddenly, years later, we were doing it, and it just kind of like, it was like, holy crap, we. We did it. And. And, you know, the show didn't last forever, but also, at this point point, it's kind of like there's a. You know, with so many episodes on Pit and Games that kind of end up becoming like a Shane and Damien show. So it's like, it does live on, and it's just a very cool thing. It's one of those things where you look back and you go, oh, at one point, I thought this was impossible. And now here I am doing it.

[Damien Haas]

That means so much. Thank you.

[Shane Topp]

Yeah, so it was really just a cool thing.

[Ian Hecox]

And two bros broing it out.

[Shane Topp]

Just two bros bro in it out. Then I'm gonna go to my fourth.

[Damien Haas]

Pick, which is the time Courtney was Shane on Damien Shane show. The.

[Shane Topp]

The fourth one is the. The shutdown, which I think is about roughly two years ago, when it looked like Smosh was gonna go away. And we all essentially lost this job for several months. And the reason it actually stands out now as special was because it is so easy to take things for granted. And we obviously were at a point, especially back in those times, things were very stressful, and I think we really. I definitely took this job for granted a lot. And then when it went away, it was only then that I realized how special this was and how much of a family we all were. And, you know, it's. It. A lot of those people that. That left or that, you know, lost their jobs in the shutdown, they moved on to other jobs. And, you know, it's sad to see them go, but they're also. All. A lot of them are doing great things now, but I realized just how great of a thing it was and is. And obviously, we came back and we've rebuilt, and we're back to where that is, I'd say, even growing beyond that. Now, but you kind of do have to lose things sometimes in order to realize how special they are. And I think it really made me grateful for this job to lose it for a couple months because I. I think otherwise it was just this thing that I always. I had and was working on for years and I. It's easy to forget. And so it was a. It serves as a reminder for me about how special this whole thing is.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah, that shutdown definitely was like a lull kind of in life in general. Like, I think it. Yeah, it was definitely a moment where we realized how much this was a huge part of our lives because it's not a job, it's literally an entire lifestyle and you do have an entirely new family that all of a sudden we didn't have a place where we were all together anymore. Some people had no choice but to move on. Others just wanted to try something new. And like, that was a moment in time where I was realizing a lot about myself, about my life. That was when I had Django and I realized it was. I just. I couldn't be a dog parent anymore. That was, it was a huge check in moment.

[Damien Haas]

Selfishly, it was special for me because I did start streaming on Twitch and it was the first thing I'd ever done that was my own. That was like sort of what Shane and I had talked about previously. Like, you can just sit home and do this thing and. And I actually found some success there. And it was, it was a big, like, eye opener. Being like, if something were to go away, I would not crumble.

[Ian Hecox]

Right.

[Damien Haas]

Like I could actually do something, anything.

[Ian Hecox]

It's funny because, like, I think during the shutdown, because I was, because I was so focused and so busy on getting it back that I don't feel like I had a sort of crisis moment until it came back. And then I was like. And then I was like, oh, like I have this new responsibility and. And what, what am I supposed to do? So, So I feel like my, my crisis moment actually happened once we actually came back. I never, I never really had a chance to really sort of just like stop and reflect. Yeah, exactly. I didn't have any time to reflect because it was just like, okay, well, I don't think it's gonna be gone forever. I think I need to just try to work on getting this thing back.

[Courtney Miller]

That energy was what it needed. Yeah, that was necessary.

[Ian Hecox]

But that's really interesting, Shane. Okay, so that's your fourth.

[Shane Topp]

Yeah. And then my fifth is a very, very strange throwout. But, but I was Thinking about it, and I just think it is a very special moment that is very forgotten, but it's. It's more special, I think, for us as the cast than it is as a viewers. It's a very old, forgotten video. I don't think it ever did that well. But basically, there was. There was a time. This is back. I want to say this was. This was maybe late 2015 or early 2016. And. And the entire cast, Ian, Anthony, and the squad were in Sacramento. We were staying in the Smosh house at the time. And there was a night we were all just kind of hanging out, talking, and we realized one of the air mattresses that one of us slept on was kind of deflated, but it allowed for one person to lay on the air mattress and someone else to jump on the other side of the air mattress and launch that person.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Shane Topp]

And we're. We just started to just launch each other on this and see who get the most air. And we were just having a blast. And then eventually, I think it was Ian who was like, should we just get the camera out and film and record this? And. And we did. And we made a vlog just very, like, naturally. It wasn't planned out. It wasn't like, a thing. And I think for me, it was kind of like a window into, you know, what probably Smosh started off as was Ian and Anthony just having fun and being like, let's. Let's record this. And, you know, it's one of those rare times where I felt like we kind of, like, transported back in time and we all just did that for that moment. And obviously it's hard to do that on a regular basis when.

[Ian Hecox]

Sure.

[Shane Topp]

This is a whole operation. We have so many people who are employed here who rely on this job. We have to keep it moving. We have to keep planning. We have to think things through. We can't just do things on a whim all the time. And we still do. It's not like we don't. But in that moment, it was. It just so came from, like, spur of the moment.

[Ian Hecox]

Hell. Yeah.

[Shane Topp]

And it was just so funny, and it was just cool.

[Ian Hecox]

It was.

[Shane Topp]

It was just like a moment where I feel like old Smosh and the modern Smosh overlap for a second.

[Damien Haas]

That's sick.

[Courtney Miller]

That's so true. Like, that was a spontaneous moment where we were all legitimately laughing together and there's no, like, producers and tons of cameras around like we normally do, and it's normally, like, how we prefer to do it. But, like, yeah, that was kind of the start of it in a way, like a lot. Then we had many videos kind of after that that were almost similar in a way of us not knowing. Not so so much spontaneous, but us being able to loosely just have fun together.

[Ian Hecox]

I think it, I think it is like a window. It is like a window in. Because we do get along when the, when the camera's not on. But people don't ever usually see that. Like they only see the videos that we have planned out. So. Yeah, that's, that's very interesting Shane, because that probably reference. That probably is one of those moments where we were honestly just hanging out and having a good time and we just decided to record it. Whereas normally it's, it's. It's planned.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, that's interesting.

[Shane Topp]

Anyone who goes back and watches that video, I think what separates it is when we were recording it, we weren't necessarily planning on posting it.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah, we were like.

[Shane Topp]

I don't know, we're like, let's see, let's see. This might work. But it wasn't the intention as we were filming. It was not. We got to make this a good video.

[Ian Hecox]

So.

[Shane Topp]

So it really is just genuinely kind of like a home video that's posted on.

[Ian Hecox]

That's wild. I gotta watch that slow mo jump.

[Damien Haas]

Is that it? Slow mo jump.

[Ian Hecox]

I don't know.

[Courtney Miller]

I can't see. What's the thumbnail?

[Damien Haas]

Well shoot. It's this.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah, that's it.

[Damien Haas]

That's it.

[Courtney Miller]

That's the weirdest thumbnail too. You can't tell what's going on.

[Damien Haas]

Wow.

[Ian Hecox]

I'm gonna have to, I'm have to watch that. That sounds.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah, that one got me in my gut. Shane. That was like a really good memory to bring back. Cuz like that was a very like simple moment. That was bigger than I realized.

[Damien Haas]

Nice. Yeah, that's a good num in 5 Shane.

[Ian Hecox]

That's a good num num 5. Well, thank you Shane. Corny. Corny Corno.

[Courtney Miller]

Some of mine are similar to you guys. So I'mma try and, and be unique. Totally different. But also a couple of these are a little self serving. So I'm sorry.

[Damien Haas]

I mean we all do.

[Courtney Miller]

They are things that are like. I'm personally, I'm personally like proud of that week.

[Ian Hecox]

They're top five to you.

[Courtney Miller]

They're top five to me. And also like I think that they were very progressive for the Smosh brand. I will bring up Smash Australia. Like that was my first time being in another, on another continent and like being like spending a ton of time in another country. I'd only ever been to, like, Mexico. And that was an incredible experience, like, being with you guys.

[Ian Hecox]

And then just the freedom, too, of just like, we kind of, like, split off and did, like, our own things with the different groups and we meet back up for lunch.

[Courtney Miller]

It really was like 50, 50 work and play, too. Like, I. I really hope we go and do another supernova one day.

[Ian Hecox]

That'd be great.

[Damien Haas]

Great.

[Ian Hecox]

It was like. It was like. It was like 20% work, 80% play.

[Courtney Miller]

I would say more than that. 60, 40.

[Ian Hecox]

All right.

[Damien Haas]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

All right. Sure.

[Courtney Miller]

Because we had, like, the meet and greet in the middle.

[Ian Hecox]

That's true.

[Courtney Miller]

The vlogs.

[Damien Haas]

Yeah. Because we also had that. It was, you know, when it was pitched, and I love it either way, but when it was pitched to us, it was like, you know, guys, we're just gonna have a couple meet and greets, and then we have, like, a full week in Australia. And then it became like, every day where it's like, well, today we're going here to film this video, and we need to move here to prep for this, and we need to catch this flight to get here. So it was a lot of work, but it was fun as hell.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Courtney Miller]

So, yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

So I didn't mean to co opt your. Your top five.

[Courtney Miller]

No, it's okay.

[Damien Haas]

Stop it.

[Courtney Miller]

Okay, I'm gonna. I'm gonna take a step back and go to the shutdown again, but I'm going to bring up the Fiat Jack in the box vlog.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, yeah. Which I still think we need to do more of.

[Courtney Miller]

I think that stuff was great. This one's important to me specifically because it was us coming together. I'm sorry, Damien, you weren't there, but it was something we all came together to do because we wanted to do fun content, and it was something that I filmed and I edited myself and created the thumbnail for. And that was very new and cool to experience because, like, you know, I, back in the day used to make my own YouTube videos before smosh, and then I did it more during Smosh. It was just like, a really fun. Everyone was just being silly and themselves and, like, eating food. And it did really well. So that was really cool.

[Ian Hecox]

I remember. I remember having to figure out how to upload videos again because it had been, like, eight years since I had to upload a video myself.

[Courtney Miller]

I'm jumping even back further now. I'm very. This is, like, very. Yeah. Is this Numb and three?

[Damien Haas]

Yes.

[Courtney Miller]

This one is way back in the past. I'm all over the place again. I'm sorry. This was seriously super stupid. Sleepover. It was my first time hosting a show ever, and it was something that I got thrown into that was originally gonna be just Olivia's show.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh.

[Courtney Miller]

And Olivia was this girl that I met randomly on a day where I was friends with Viners, and I invited them all to come to this, like, prop warehouse that I was, like, friends with the owner, and she was there, and I was super intimidated by how pretty she was. And she ended up being this, like. Then, like, in that week, she had us all sit down. She's like, guys, I. I'm auditioning for this channel called Smosh. I don't know. Like, I have these character pitches, but, like, I have no idea what I'm doing. And, like, we all sat there, and she was being so. She was being Olivia, and it was so funny where, like, she was so not sure of what she was doing, but it felt, like, intentional, and it was so funny. We're like, olivia, just do that. Like, just do that. You're going to get.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah.

[Courtney Miller]

And then, you know, months later, she asked me if I wanted to put together a comedy reel for you guys. And then, you know, another month later, I'm sitting with her doing this show that eventually we leveled up to do Won't nature show. But, like, her and I went through a lot together. Like, as we went through a lot, you know, like, we. It was. It was, like, not an easy process. Sleepover. It was, like, really hard. I think as female hosts or like, just being female talent, you. You learn how to deal with a lot or learn What's. What's a good experience and a negative experience. But, like, we. We. That was like, we needed each other, and we worked really hard together, and it wasn't easy. It was really fun. And I. And I learned a lot. Like, and we had so many guests on that show that, like, some of them are even hurt now or, like, have had lots of controversies and et cetera.

[Ian Hecox]

But, yeah, I know. Like, we never put out the Jake Paul episode, did we?

[Courtney Miller]

But we did do a video where we reacted to it and talked about it.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, okay.

[Courtney Miller]

So, yeah. And that was, like, around the Team 10 era, when we were like, jeez. And then Logan Paul and Amanda Cerny had an episode together. Yeah, it was a wild time. And, like, you know, and then eventually we hosted another show together, the. The wo nature show, which basically felt like a. Like, the production value felt like a TLZ show. TLC show.

[Ian Hecox]

Tlz.

[Courtney Miller]

Tlz. So that's why Sleepover is a big chunk for me because it was like my world kind of came together. Me loving Smosh, me meeting this friend from vine. I loved YouTube. YouTube. And then number four, another. Another bit. A little bit number four. I'm gonna go with Girls are Gross.

[Damien Haas]

Yeah.

[Courtney Miller]

Because that was the first female centric music video that Smosh ever did. Like that's a dream that I've had in my back pocket for a long time is like I love music videos. I've always wanted to make them. And like I had pitched Girls are Gross or like the concept of it back at Divide and like it just kind of didn't seem like anybody was excited about it. Kept it in my pocket for a long time and then pitched it again years later. And like it got, it got picked up like that and then like everybody worked so hard on it. I think it was a big moment for me. And like, okay, the female talent are like, we're here. Like this is us. We're like. So yeah, I'm really proud of the girls that got to be a part of that. And like Monica helped co direct it and she obviously helped write the song with Finnerty. That was a big moment for me and we. And I also helped design that merch for it that got donated to Weave women's shelters. So that was really cool.

[Ian Hecox]

I think it was also like. And I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I mean, I think, I mean it was also, I'm assuming a pretty big learning experience because that song went through a lot of like work. Right. And you were, and you were there for, you know, know all the steps and the changes and everything. And I mean do you feel like you, you kind of learn more about the process like when you're making that.

[Courtney Miller]

Song or like I mean I'd our. I had no experience so obviously I learned quite a lot. But I mean it wasn't like shocking to me that the music, you know, there was a lot of hands on it. Like I wasn't really expecting to have like a ton of say in the final product but. But it turned out great and like I had, I pretty much had full, full reign on creating the vocals. Like cuz, you know, we had the lyrics and everything. But I recorded the demo at, at my apartment at 9pm after drinking a couple ciders. Oh. And then we just kind of recreated it in the studio.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, we definitely need to get back more to make some songs. We might be doing that nice. Maybe little hint, little hint.

[Courtney Miller]

The renaissance Fair vlog. I know, I know. It's such a weird one. It's such a weird one. You guys covered so good. I'm going with these dumb ones because you guys covered, like, a lot of the important ones. Like, fine.

[Ian Hecox]

You just said it's good because you got Scottish egg.

[Courtney Miller]

Scotch egg.

[Damien Haas]

Because it was. Because it was an idea that I pitch and it finally saw the light of day.

[Courtney Miller]

What'd you say, Shane?

[Shane Topp]

No reference to Smosh, the movie.

[Damien Haas]

Wow, that was earlier.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, I referenced that.

[Damien Haas]

Weren't you paying attention when we hadn't called you yet? So rude. Dude.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah. The Renaissance Fair. And maybe this is a silly one and I have other better ones that I should have said. It's crazy because that video did so well. Nobody was really expecting it to. But that is my favorite stuff is like, when we go places like the Disney Disneyland vlogs, sometimes they're hella stressful. But when we get to go to a fun place and experience something new together, it just. Us in a new environment is like, just. It's always gonna succeed. Like us being put somewhere weird. Like we always. Our personalities coming together. Like, it's always something fun. And I think that, like, the viewers can agree, like, that's something that they love to see. I personally cannot wait until we're able to get out of the studio again.

[Ian Hecox]

I mean, that's true. I guess that is one thing.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah.

[Ian Hecox]

Of holding this back.

[Courtney Miller]

And Kevin was there for that. Like, Kevin and Nancy were there filming this vlog where we got dressed up. Shane hates dressing up. But we made him put on that. The monk cloak.

[Damien Haas]

She hates dressing up.

[Ian Hecox]

Oh, yeah. And I wore his.

[Courtney Miller]

He always dresses up.

[Ian Hecox]

I wore his monk head. His. His hair. Yeah.

[Courtney Miller]

That weird ass wig on your head. Everybody was so funny in their own way in that video. It still makes me laugh. Shane, what do you think?

[Ian Hecox]

I think that's a great pick.

[Shane Topp]

I think that was a lot of fun. And yes, Damien, I do hate dressing up.

[Ian Hecox]

You.

[Shane Topp]

You know this.

[Damien Haas]

I actually, unless this is a bit. I had no idea.

[Shane Topp]

I. Yeah, no, it's why I never. I never wear outfits for Halloween. I like. I don't know, because we dress up so much at work.

[Ian Hecox]

That's my defense.

[Shane Topp]

Dressing up. Outside of it, I'm just always like.

[Damien Haas]

But now it's like. It's like your choice though. Like, for work, a sketch is locked in place. But if it's like, you can dress up as anything you want. I'm like, dude, yes, full. But I didn't realize that I can respect It. But I didn't realize I got to be the blue knight and eat scotch eggs.

[Courtney Miller]

Look you at the blue Knight.

[Damien Haas]

You're like, what kind of night be you A weeb.

[Courtney Miller]

I laugh so hard.

[Damien Haas]

It's so fun.

[Courtney Miller]

But yeah, and like that. Those kinds of vlogs, like, those kind of have that charm of what Shane mentioned with the mattress. The air mattress vlog is like, that's us on the fly. We're not. Like, we don't have. Sometimes we go like that crazy one where we. We just. We planned a. Neither of you were there. The perfect we. I randomly was like, guys, we should do a fake Disneyland marriage proposal in front of the castle.

[Damien Haas]

I've seen that though.

[Ian Hecox]

And I mean that. If you want to talk about videos that blew up, I mean, that video blew the fuck up.

[Courtney Miller]

But that was. That was one of the rare times where we. We had a planned or like, I at least had the idea like ahead of time where. Where like we had a motive at the place. Like we did Disneybounding and stuff. But yeah, we just decided to freaking just go. We had some like loose, like, oh, I might get knighted today. But like, we literally was just us being us having fun, experiencing something new together. And I think those. Those are the things that make this job feel new again.

[Ian Hecox]

Things like that and eating scotches, fried.

[Damien Haas]

Carnival style scotch eggs.

[Courtney Miller]

I just. I really look forward to. To being able to go to new things again and like taking you guys to cool places.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah, it'd be nice to go back into crowds. Like, I mean, we. We should just do a Renaissance fair part due when. When this. When it. When it's. It's safe again. I'd definitely be down.

[Damien Haas]

Let's do it.

[Ian Hecox]

Let's do it.

[Damien Haas]

Let's do it.

[Ian Hecox]

And you know what, Damien? Just for you, I will eat a whole scotch egg.

[Damien Haas]

Okay, but you can't chew. You gotta just do it. This is the last.

[Courtney Miller]

Oh, those were so good. I think about them sometimes.

[Damien Haas]

Me too.

[Ian Hecox]

All right, well, that, That's. That's everyone's top top moment. Top smosh moment.

[Damien Haas]

Is this the longest podcast we've ever done?

[Ian Hecox]

I mean, who knows?

[Damien Haas]

It was like two straight hours of talking about stuff.

[Ian Hecox]

But I mean, you know, we got. We gotta send people out on a good one. As I mentioned at the. At the beginning, we are going on a hiatus for the smoshcast. The reason being we got a lot of stuff we're doing. This sweatshirt is part of the reason. Twitch, baby. We got a lot of stuff. This. This pandemic that we're going through makes things a little bit more difficult to get everything together and working. And we just need to focus on the things that. That are the most important to us. Not. Not that talking to you guys isn't important, but. But if we're.

[Courtney Miller]

It's a bonus. It really is.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. Because we got Smosh main channel. We got Smosh Games, we got Smosh Pit. We got the Twitch channel.

[Damien Haas]

In a way, I think Twitch, I mean, it's not the same. Same thing. But this is. This was always our, like, four. Like, this is personal one on one. It's just us talking to you. Twitch is that too. We can't edit. So it's literally just so in a.

[Courtney Miller]

Way, on our Wednesdays, like, those can kind of become the. It is the just Chatting podcast. So what do you think, Shane?

[Shane Topp]

I agree.

[Damien Haas]

Nice.

[Ian Hecox]

So I implore you guys, if. If you're not following us on Twitch, check us out. We're. We're on. On. We're on there Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Mondays, 3 to 6pm PST. Then you're going so slow.

[Courtney Miller]

Wednesday, 1.2 times speed. Come on.

[Ian Hecox]

Wednesday.

[Damien Haas]

Wednesday is 3 to 5, and then Friday is 3 to 6. Be sure to check us out.

[Courtney Miller]

Yeah, we do board af. We chat, we do video games stuff. Like, it's a good time. It's a good time. We love hanging out with you guys.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. So, I mean, like, I'm. Look, this. We're not saying Smosh catch is going away forever. This is a break. We're taking a break. We're focusing on the things that are most. That are most important. So we love you so much. We thank you for all the support that you guys have given us on the smoshcast. It's been two. Has it been two years? Yeah, pretty close. Been close to two years of doing a podcast that I never thought we'd ever do.

[Courtney Miller]

Shoot dude.

[Ian Hecox]

Yeah. Would you say this is a full shoe dude. And speaking.

[Courtney Miller]

Well, do we have a Shoot dude dude?

[Ian Hecox]

I think this is the shoot. This is the shoot dude. This is the most shoot.

[Courtney Miller]

I think my Shoot dude is that psychic story that I had. That was weird.

[Ian Hecox]

So this is. I mean, like, really though? Like, shoot dude.

[Courtney Miller]

Shoot dude.

[Ian Hecox]

But don't worry, Shoot dude will live on. And you'll see. You'll see in the future. Trust. Trust. All right, well, thank you guys so much. Thank. Especially Shane. Thank you. You for. Thank you.

[Shane Topp]

Thanks, guys.

[Ian Hecox]

Thank you.

[Shane Topp]

I've got an important announcement. I've moved from the toilet into my shower because I think it can withstand the what's coming out.

[Ian Hecox]

All right, well, thank you. Thank you, Shane. Thank you, Damien. Thank you, Courtney, and thank you guys so much for listening. We love you so much. And we'll see you around on all the other channels.

[Courtney Miller]

Literally everywhere.

[Ian Hecox]

Literally everywhere. Literally. Love you so much. Bye.

[Courtney Miller]

Love you.

[Shane Topp]

Bye, guys.