Smosh is an American YouTube sketch comedy-improv collective, production company, and former social networking site founded by Anthony Padilla (all assets) and Ian Hecox (comedy group only). In 2002, Padilla created a website named "smosh.com" for making Flash animations, and he was later joined by Hecox. They began to post videos on Smosh's YouTube channel in the autumn of 2005 and quickly became one of the most popular channels on the site. , the Smosh channel has over 10 billion views and over 25 million subscribers. Since 2012, the Smosh brand has expanded to consist of multiple channels, including a Spanish-language channel (ElSmosh), a channel focused on gaming content (Smosh Games), and a variety channel (Smosh Pit). The sketches have also included more actors. Padilla left Smosh in June 2017 to pursue independent ventures. The Smosh channel has experienced three different spans as the most subscribed YouTube channel. The first period spanned from May to June 2006, the second from April 2007 to September 2008, and the third span from January to August 2013. On November 6, 2018, Smosh's parent company Defy Media abruptly closed without warning. Six days later, the Smosh cast released a video announcing that production of Smosh, Smosh Pit, and Smosh Games content was still ongoing, and that existing videos would be finished and other content would be released independently by Smosh on their YouTube channels. They subsequently joined Mythical Entertainment after their company was purchased by Rhett & Link on February 22, 2019. As of 2019, the channel's regular cast consists of Hecox, Courtney Miller, Damien Haas, Olivia Sui, Keith Leak Jr., Noah Grossman and Shayne Topp, who run the majority of its content. Anthony Padilla founded Pressalike Inc. in 2020. As a result of Padilla creating Smosh Productions to safeguard Smosh from incidents like these (and because the company owns Smosh but Mythical owned the YouTube channel), his production company automatically owns Smosh Productions, making Mythical an MCN for Smosh's management, funding, and promotion. Thus ending Mythical's short-lived ownership of Smosh. History 2002–2006: Formation and lip sync videos The franchise began when Anthony Padilla built a website in 2002, smosh.com, and made several different Flash animations. He has stated that the name "Smosh" came from an incident where he mistook a friend explaining a mosh pit as a "smosh pit". Other content creators in the pre-YouTube era would also upload videos to smosh.com, including