Things are coming full circle for Smosh as current owners and hosts Rhett & Link have sold the popular YouTube comedy brand back to its original creators Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox, who previously exited the company after a personal and professional parting of the ways back in 2017. Padilla and Hecox have now rekindled their friendship and have likewise elected to go back into business together.
Rhett & Link made the surprise announcement via a Twitter statement this Tuesday. “We sold Smosh,” the statement began, plainly. “Ian & Anthony, the original founders of Smosh, have reunited and bought back the wildly popular brand they founded 18 years ago!”
The Smosh Twitter account, meanwhile, posted a 10-second tease, featuring Padilla and Hecox reunited, although the duo later appeared to more fully explain the move in a video posted on the Smosh YouTube channel (see above).
This is an unexpected turn of events for long-term followers of Smosh given everything that previously went down between Padilla and Hecox. Rhett & Link’s production company Mythical Entertainment acquired Smosh in 2019 after prior parent company Defy Media collapsed. Hecox has been with the brand all along, but Padilla exited Smosh in 2017 in order to focus on his own content, having not appeared with Hecox online or in public ever since.
“By the time Anthony left Smosh, our friendship was not really that good,” Hecox explained. Around a year ago, however, the pair reconnected “and we really hit it off.” Hecox continued: “It’s kind of freaky how well this has all fallen into place. Our friendship had to end to be able to come back together.” This reconciliation then led to the point when Hecox turned to Padilla one day and asked: “What if we bought Smosh?”
“I really want to return to our roots, and part of that is owning the company so we can really take Smosh in any creative direction,” Padilla elaborated. The duo’s first collaboration in six years is set to arrive on Smosh’s channel on June 30 with new videos planned to follow every two weeks. The specific details of Padilla and Hecox’s re-acquisition of Smosh have yet to be revealed, but Rhett & Link will remain on board in an advisory capacity as minor shareholders.