Smosh is an American YouTube sketch comedy-improv collective founded by Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox. Initially starting as a comedy duo of Hecox and Padilla, the channel began expanding to include additional cast members starting in 2010, with the majority of new cast members joining after Smosh was acquired by Alloy Digital (later rebranded to Defy Media) in 2011.[1] Padilla left the channel in 2017 to pursue his independent channel, while Hecox remained with Smosh through the merge with Mythical Entertainment. In June 2023, it was announced that both Padilla and Hecox had bought Smosh from Mythical Entertainment, and the two founders would resume working together on Smosh as an independent entity.