Welcome to the wondrous world of Anthony Padilla! Padilla is a famous YouTuber who started his career in 2005, the year YouTube was first created. He shared his channel, Smosh, with his good friend Ian Hecox. Prior to appearing on YouTube, Smosh was a website that the two young creators made in order to upload all of their sketch comedy skits. While Padilla eventually left the channel, it is still a big part of his YouTube career and helped him build the following that he has today.
A Brief History on Smosh
Smosh was originally just Padilla posting comedy skits on his website and, later, random content he felt like producing. Later joined by Hecox, Smosh grew enough to move on to YouTube, and their influence rose with that of the media platform. Their shift to the multimedia giant proved to be a smart decision as their first video soon accumulated around 24 million views.
The channel was actually one of the first to be monetized. Right now, Smosh is associated with six other channels that they also post content on. The creators still post content periodically on their own channel; their latest video is a comedy skit making fun of the popular trend of YouTubers filming their morning routines.
Padilla’s Departure From Smosh
In 2017, after 11 years of creating content on the channel, Padilla left Smosh to create in his own solo career. The separation of the two friends wasn’t bittersweet though, and they were both happy to support each other in whatever they pursued. However, Padilla’s exit led many of his fans to stop supporting the channel, and some people believe that Smosh changed for the worse, especially after it was bought by a larger media company.
In Anthony’s own video addressing his departure, he says, “I need to be doing what makes me happiest to wake up each morning.” It was a hard decision for him to leave but because of the company controlling Smosh, he felt that his creative ideas were being filtered and suppressed. In this video, he stresses that the split from Smosh is because of his feelings regarding the company and has nothing to do with his friendship with Hecox.
His Other Content
After his departure from Smosh, his content largely consisted of comedy skits and parodies. A lot of his fans had followed him from all the work he had done with Smosh. The one thing that Padilla was passionate about was sharing his humor with the world and trying to make people laugh. A lot of his videos did just that, earning hundreds of thousands of views and likes from his current 4.32 million subscribers.
One of the most popular skits on his channel is his 2017 “so … now what” video where he interviews a few famous YouTubers. The people that he interviewed ranged from Gabbie Hanna, Joey Graceffa, Lilly Singh, and Dan and Phil of DanAndPhilGames. While this video was popular because of the well-known cast, it’s also known for the creation of his ironic “Best Interviewer Shirt.” While his humor is the thing that kept him afloat in the YouTube community, it’s his hardworking drive that gives people the constant content that they ask for and love.
The Wondrous World
Besides his older skit videos, Padilla has recently been posting a lot of videos where he interviews people in different professions. His first video in the series was titled “I Spent A Day With TikTok Stars.” In this video he spends some time questioning popular TikTok stars about what they do on the app and how they make their content. A large number of his views comes from videos like this one.
A recent interview from two months ago has become well-known for both negative and positive reasons. In his video “I Spent A Day With Multiple Personalities,” Padilla interviewed people who have DID (dissociative identity disorder) in order to raise awareness for mental illnesses. Another popular YouTuber, Trisha Paytas, responded to this video claiming she has the same illness without an official diagnosis. The negative attention from Paytas created something of a feud with Padilla as well as another YouTuber, DissociaDID. Because of the drama, DissociaDID has taken a break from posting educational content.
Padilla’s recent videos and interviews have been focused on issues that surround the current global pandemic. He’s posted videos from survivors of the illness, essential food workers, frontline health workers and people who are immunocompromised. His interviews are educational and give people the inside look on how others are affected by the coronavirus and how they have changed their lives to adapt. The profits from those videos are being donated to Feeding America and their COVID-19 response.
Anthony Padilla has made big strides in the YouTube community and even beyond Smosh. After initially focusing on comedy, he has transitioned to shining a light on oft-ignored issues. His amazing creativity has built up two amazing brands, Smosh and his own, and Padilla will be bringing people interesting content for years to come.
