[Music] welcome to air biscuits I’m Rhett and I’m Linc it’s time for another conversation with someone interesting from the internet like we do every single week people at the roundtable of dim lighting this week it is anthony padilla and ian hecox the comedy duo better known as smosh I’ve heard of them I’ve heard of them two times I’ve actually met them well well I’m you were friends but uh you know they’re very busy guys so after we were both guest on an upcoming epic rap battle of history mm you know we both shot all day and then we got here at the round table of dim light and have a conversation now you probably know that Smosh is the second most subscribed personality fronted channel on YouTube over seventeen and a half million subscribers and three billion views I might have to break out the word powerhouse a good house like powerhouse is like weird bringing that out sometimes well you know this is in other situations where probably everyone who’s listening already knows knows who Smosh is and if you just happen to be one of the few people who don’t know they are you probably have seen one of their videos if by accident you’ve seen one of their videos I mean that yeah they’ve got a view for almost half of the world’s population you know but it doesn’t just their main channel those three billion views they’ve added to that they’ve got Smosh games a channel with over four million subscribers they’ve got an animation based channel shut up cartoons over a million and a half subscribers and I’m not making this up link they have a Spanish dubbed channel never never watched it I can’t say el Smosh el Smosh with over a million subscribers and they have their own magazine they’ve got a magazine like a magazine you can go into a magazine store like a physical magazine Smosh magazine why I yeah I was in Walgreens and I’ve proved it you perused it I didn’t purchase it I’m gonna be honest I mean I don’t purchase magazines I just look at them they’re what my wife is like getting other stuff and I’m over here like a tween looking at a Smosh look at that look at that 35 year old guy into Smosh magazine Forbes called them a new purely digital breed of celebrity and they’ve been ranked in the Hollywood 30 under 30 two years in a row by Forbes magazine okay so they’ve been putting out weekly sketch based comedy for many years of their three billion views 100 million of those views comes from their most popular video called beef and go hi I’m Anthony Padilla are you the kind of person that just loves me but it’s always on the go well I know I am for years I’ve searched for an easy way to eat steak and other meat products with my on-the-go lifestyle but products like quickie steak were too inconvenient while other products like meatball necklace were just plain messy that is until I found beef and go they’re also known for their video game-themed music videos like their Legend of Zelda wrap which is approaching 50 million [Music] Katy Perry [Music] okay so being a comedy duo ourselves in talking to the most successful comedy duo in the history of the Internet and I don’t think that’s any exaggeration though I was really interested in talking to them about their friendship off-camera you know in the ways that we relate to each other there’s conflict there’s there’s lots of coordination when there’s two of us you got to be on the same page that’s not always going to happen I was curious how they dealt with that I think at a certain point this ear biscuit approached a counseling session yeah it does get into counseling at one point I don’t know who was being counseled I think it if I think it was putting it went both ways but yeah you know we’ve got this what we feel like is some insight into what it’s like to be a comedy duo so we ask a lot of questions have a lot of conversation just about what that dynamic is and concluding what is it like to you know have a this big brand that is this thing that people understand as Smosh that’s also a real friendship how does that relate to their lives as individuals the fact that they live in different cities we talk about a lot of stuff related to that this is a this is a duo interviewing a duo and they have relationships they that they have on the internet with their girlfriends differently they approach degrees to different degrees yeah to also to different girls yeah that’s good we’ve always maintained that I always have a relationship with the different girl each person in the duo right I mean we get into a lot of things here so see if you can learn something new about Smosh like I said we’re glad to call them friends also collaborators they were guests on one of the very first episodes of our half-hour show the mythical show of last year 2013 so and we’re happy to have them on air biscuit here’s our air biscuit with mosh mosh homage [Music] your water there yeah and this is a new water and do you feel the need to be more hydrated well I came in with this water I didn’t know you guys were gonna be supplying personally whenever there’s more than one water ball in front of me I’m like I better drink like that one so I only have one maybe I’ll double fist it yeah well no serve it link is obsessed with being hydrated no seriously thanks is your wonderful skin really yeah is it the hydration or the urination I think my constant urination is what will explains my obsession with hydration hydration leads to urination but you know that if you are properly hydrated like if you flood your body with water you’ll die no you will you can die from a water overdose have you done that he’s died before yeah yeah it wasn’t fun but water intake your body adjust yeah somebody did that’s real like actually there’s a radio contest in our city Sacramento somebody somebody died it was a whole new we for a we that was my aunt I bet they don’t still do like looking at you’re trying to read your face like is he serious I hate to make light of water deaths that happened in Sacramento because I’ve heard about it yeah all the radio deejays got fired yep and they don’t do the contest you know I don’t think it was that before or after we went on that radio show was there a pawn in there different what a different Channel you said we went on the show we would like to play that was the only other time that we really went on a radio show and have mics up to our faces so this is our first podcast Wow this we are honored breaking the seal taking that podcast virginity and let me tell you a sexy you should have never given us headphones to hear what we sound like because with some ways I mean I can turn it off here no I sit around and just talk to I could do this when links not here sometimes it is come in here to just talk to myself because I sound so much cooler you do you do after myself in person you just you’re just like is your philosophy to pee before you do something important because I wait or to hold it because I always find I really have to be realized I just realized we hosted the video game awards at South by Southwest and I realized that I am a nervous like yeah I like right before I go on I suddenly have to go yeah and I trace that back to like every time we’ve done a live thing at VidCon that I’ve I thought maybe I just ate something bad but like literally every every time I do like a live thing I get way nervous okay similarly I like psych myself out I’m like do I have to pee I better go pee right now and then for some reason I always convince myself that I’m cold and then I need to really make sure my hands are warm I think that’s some internet pee on them okay I don’t know I think it’s some kind of a mental disorder well but no it’s natural to evacuate before you do something important I mean that’s just a biological system it’s like flying just lessen the weight kind of it goes back to it goes back to your ancestors that needed to run after animals on the plains for long periods of time it was like listen I’m gonna be chasing this gazelle for the next two days I better take a bill do spray yeah so I could I’m serious man I always I was trying to evacuate as much as possible before I did like a running sort of race the worst for me was my first day of school every year I don’t know why what oh man yeah I always felt like I was so nervous I don’t know why at the school before I think this you’re highly need to differences between me right I’m kind of curious where you guys fall on this one is right now I always get in an argument about this whole pee thing because we’re about like if we do something live on a stage I’m like I’ll be right back yeah again and he’s like no hold it harness no harness that use that use that vision the performance because then the whole time all you’re thinking about is how you have to pee no but then if he has to pee the whole time all I’m thinking about is how he has to be it and then it can be contagious but the second thing you mentioned being really nervous before your first day at school and having to evacuate I have always been that way too I pristinely remember every school year just being a nervous wreck before the first day of school whereas Rhett right I I mean correct me if I’m wrong I know we’ve talked about it that the first day of school is always like your best day ever like you cannot wait to get there really so excited you get like the new the new school clothes and everything but there was no anxiety so you’re saying you like that was always a nervous thing for you the worst day of my life every every year was that first day is kind of an irrational it’s just this yeah a new beginning the unknown it’s weird cuz I like wasn’t even really scared I just was like okay crap literally like right I was never nervous about my classes I was just like when when you first go into the class and everybody chooses what what seat they want to sit in nobody ever like chose a seat next to me meet so I was always Stokes whenever they had those presets like this but that’s also carried over which now I’m like grateful for it nobody wants to sit next me on a plane so like you think you just give off that vibe I guess so and I guess I gave that vibe off in school to do so now it’s actually paid off so like I don’t know if I’m just like really boss it’s electing like airplane seats but literally like the entire plane will fill up and I will be the one with the last remaining empty seat next to me what’s the look on your face I don’t give anybody a look I just I’m just doing my thing how do you do look forward like a serial killer doing something you just don’t know do it I mean sometimes I’m I’m you know stabbing a doll that looks like just your average airline passenger yeah I’m just I’m just a vac you know I get nervous I just okay yeah yeah the evacuation that probably creates a radius that guys grabbed his pants and he’s stabbing a duck I’m not sitting next to him I bet his girlfriend is gonna be here any second now how many people are gonna start trying there now well it’s not worth it it’s a crappy pain you might have a little bit of extra leg room an arm room but you’ve just crapped your pants so so but you’re not the type are you also the type to get anxious like before some sort of live gig I mean the whole usually I just weren’t so much control yeah that then when you have to go into this live format first time I saw you guys live was at YouTube live you know you had that you guys had to introduce something oh man I was stage I was only like a three second spot and I was so nervous yeah yeah yeah I was a different world cuz it’s live and you can’t you can’t edit it before it goes up yeah I’m really terrible with like just being on in the spotlight I don’t really like it yeah so like you know even like in class like when when you had to go around and say who you were like some classes like you say who you were and like what you like to do like my heart would be beating like ten people away like they go down the line there’s like I’m like ten people away I’m like oh you’re like practicing your name under your breath like the fact that everyone is so nervous they’re not even listening to what anyone else is saying so you’re nervous for no reason like no there are a few people who aren’t nervous like I’m saying about Rhett that’s it that’s like he likes know what’s his problem that’s weird well I I don’t sit I was nervous and I do get nervous when we do when we do live stuff definitely but I wasn’t thinking about I was thinking about I got to say the right thing so they’ll think the right thing about me the rest of the year that’s what I was thinking is like this this is the chance right now you got to say I can’t say I like snow because for the record who doesn’t like snow yeah come on if you live in Sacramento I mean it’s yeah you like snow what you don’t like a novelty yeah yeah okay okay so we’re talking about class I think this this is a good a segue is ending into how you guys met so I assume that there’s kind of this normal story you tell yeah have you read the story because it seems like you kind of are on the right track but you can give us I knew that it’s kind of a middle school that you guys matter it’s great okay so that that’s the first year middle school in my mind for some people oh maybe there’s no our common now but where we grew up it was sixth grade was elementary you were the big kids in the elementary school so that’s what I assumed yeah I have I’ve read the Smosh lore so I guess this is the forum for you to to say what you actually remember not what’s been written in a Wikipedia well we remember now is what’s been written like slowly change them like so I was raised as a girl yeah I love snow probably no right because that’s if that’s what your wiki says yeah that’s what you believe but you do I I guess you do find yourself telling this part of the story so I don’t know I don’t want you telling in a fresh way okay what’s a fresh way the high-pitch boys maybe Japanese acknowledging this may be the the thing that you that you have to say a lot and then people okay we got it yeah we’ll quote how many views you get it and subscribers you have and then that’ll be the thing yeah but take us back there what what year is this sixth grade it was a nice sunny day 1998 I’m guessing something like that I just moved to that town so the big ass loser could use the new cut kid and moving from where from basically just a different side of the town because my parents didn’t want me to it’s actually where the Smosh house is yeah yeah I grew up in an area that was it was it was okay but the high school you they had like gang problems and stuff so so my parents didn’t want me going there and you know becoming a Crip or a blood they didn’t have a snow liking gang that you could be a part of but I never checked yeah but so yeah we moved we moved on to the other side of the city where they had this decent high school for me my sister to go see so I went there sixth grade met Anthony well actually the first time we met was in this class so yeah was it that did we merge like classes because there was our science class did were we in the same class and then we I don’t know it was weird way to go to a different a different room I just realized that our teacher kind of looked like Seth MacFarlane yeah he’s a creeper he was a creep but it was a guy yeah yeah he’s a guy yeah but well we got we went to this different room to be with a different teacher to learn science was kind of weird yeah but it was this woman teacher I don’t remember her name I can’t say I’m saying that I’ll believe anything every night and was it the type of was it okay we are lab partners and now we’re best friends type thing or there’s just an acquaintance like okay I met you and along with everybody else yeah we were paired up and it was the first time I ever really talked something she’s just the new kid yep and we’re paired up and they’re like all right you’re gonna be drawing gonna be drawing a dump a landfill really I don’t know why that’s where we met going to landfills all about landfills and stuff yeah so and fills some reason we thought it was the funniest thing ever to draw gas masks and flies and points flying all kind of cutting goes back to our the conversation we all had rights being any of this right it’s interesting that we met course it was first grade our Wikipedia dictates to us no I’m just trying to connect okay I get it you guys are better I see no no I’m not saying that they can do and it was well before 1999 or whatever that was but when we met we were held in from recess and being being punished and we had to color pictures we so we were both drawing pictures was not the same unethical be saying sir you were both in trouble yeah but in ways of landfill yeah you guys look like some serious were the only to the only 2d helping kids in trouble yeah that day yeah did you guys beat each other up no we were like or did you just beat kids up so bad that they like didn’t why’d you get in trouble for profanity on the dash desks you guys prevented yeah yeah yeah right in front of us we have a desk that we can draw on right yeah but you can’t write profane at all in this are we gonna get in trouble or we’re gonna have to draw mythical creatures I will put you in detention enjoy the same picture like is it like yeah it was one paper and we do yeah I mean I had that land think about that yeah what could you ebay that for I think he was joking with separate landfills 10 but no we really were drawn it was the same landfill is the same paper yeah yeah with the same tag team drawings pretty sweet viral it was a spy I didn’t I basically the way we did it was I held Anthony’s hand yeah we drew it together like a Ouija board so do you remember thinking boy I like the way that guy draws a gas mask I respect him creatively the one that drew the gas mask you’re trying to flies I don’t know but we we laughed till we cried it seems like something that’s not funny at all and it’s not but for some reason it’s sixth-graders it was the funny maybe we drew really hilarious gas masks and flies well I still remember it for some reason I can’t what do you remember though it was this a beginning of a friendship you know it’s like it’s like you know when you uh when you go to prison you know oh oh we all know about you guys are the troublemakers there’s no survival thing you know so you gotta you gotta get in there and and you know gonna take your claim and you know try to find I was your claim yeah I guess her claim I guess I was you were his affiliation school affiliation hey see I have a friend now I joined the bug like basically a gang I even know it I was your bitch hey that’s pretty much what was that yeah yeah so then yeah it was just like a group of a group of friends that and then I took you we initiated you into our group of yeah and so for loser friends like one of them like hated me up until like up until like Ryan Ryan hated you said you didn’t like me until a couple years later I don’t think Ryan fights either of us I don’t know but uh but yeah so we just we just stayed friends until you know just hung out played Goldeneye played perfect dark yeah played halo I mean we’re working through the videogame years that’s a good that’s why define like the the years in our Friday the video game yeah yeah yeah we were pretty good friends but never like super close until high school and I got my driver’s license and a car before Ian and he needed a ride home and it just so happened he’s kind of on the way home so he bummed rides off me carpool huh yeah it was totally for carpool reasons right Ian now he bombed rides his amazing 429 Ford Probe so okay so you’re in a group of friends yeah and did it quickly become like okay yeah we’re in this group of friends but you know the two of us we’re besties we’re best friends or were just two guys in a group of friends like how is that shaping up there is I mean I started we were just two guys in a group of friends yeah there’s definitely times that that it seemed like we weren’t included on some cool kid things mm-hmm we were we were kind of losers in high school yeah so so sometimes our friends would do some stuff with people that were kind of too cool for us yeah I don’t know if we necessarily weren’t invited but we were like alright let’s maybe I wasn’t listening when they invited me yeah who knows but yeah so I mean Anthony started the website Smosh comm sophomore year of high school so that was all of our friends all of our friends were kind of participating in the for a month back in 2002 yeah that’s all the Smosh comm was was for your I made a girlfriend girlfriends yeah yep to discuss what probably girls girls I don’t know I really don’t know honestly we were just like oh what are we doing this weekend we’re doing this oh man it’d be funny if we there’s no random stuff what games are you guys playing yeah it was weird and then uh my smosh smosh well that was something that another story we tell a lot that was something that our friend Ryan the one that told me that he was like he’s like I hated you for like when I first Ryan would always very nice guy very honest so basically he he went to a blink 182 concert back when that was a thing and he he was bragging about how he was in a mosh pit right yeah he said Smosh pit yep yes Ryan was talking to me he’s like I was in the Smosh pit it was freaking it was insane I was like you should say small I said mosh pit I’m like now I’m pretty sure he said Smosh pit so we walked it was he and I walking over to a group of friends I was like Brian said Smosh pit ba Baba I don’t know why we thought that was funny what we did I just kind of became with an inside joke for all your friends and it became the name of the forum yeah yeah well yeah and then oh is this super nerd that basically built websites all the time so then I was like man I don’t have any websites to work on I want to work on something else’s in this web design class I was like oh man I should make this site cold what am I gonna call it call it Smosh it’s where me and my friends mm-hmm that was a good idea you can’t get a five letter word URL anymore like and how did so how did that progress to you guys make it videos well first it started out we we were into like before YouTube there is this place called Newgrounds and it was they hosted flash animation okay that’s not still around actually yeah yeah it’s not as popular I have some really terrible animations on yeah yeah we so we were both like really interested in like flash flash a flash I think you would say the word flash but yeah so like we were we were just into that kind of stuff and so he started hosting flash animations on on our website on his website yeah and you helped pay $2 a month on that I did I refused all the friends pitched in two dollars a month early investors yeah exactly and so after high school gimmick was I got to keep all the ad revenue of the $20 a month and so when we graduated from high school all of our friends were going off to college and Anthony and I were going to commute we’re gonna go to Community College just in in our city and we’re just like bored one day decided to how we were listening to like the Power Rangers theme so I’m like that’d be really funny if we made some stupid video of us lip-synching it and okay yeah that was before YouTube that’s before we even heard of it so we hosted it on on Smosh calm on our own with our own bandwidth yeah so so then we displayed it on our MySpace page when there was a thing and I thought this genius idea I was like well okay I’ll put the video playing on my page and then I’ll put a box below it that lets you copy paste the video is put on your page but the thing is whatever you copy paste of that and put on your page there’d be another box that would say copy paste this and that was like a early form of viral sharing so it was you it was coding that you developed that showed like the HTML you want yeah so then we made a Mortal Kombat Theme song lip sync thing and well so the power ranger one did well some people watched it our friends liked it yeah our friends on MySpace friends and then like because we had the flash animation on our website there was there’s a few people on the website that sod as well that’s right got it got to a few other people that weren’t just art yeah cool so you followed it up with Mortal Kombat and somebody stole that video put it on youtube before we knew what YouTube was and somebody somebody’s like hey your did somebody tell us what did you know so I was I was bored searching on Google it’s like oh man would that be so cool if like someone I’d like talking about our video or something you know so I did a Google search and I found it on this site YouTube and I had like the name was I had like 100 users or a thousand views or something like that was which is which was like really huge back then yeah yeah yeah yeah we could remember what the website name was cuz we were like oh man was that site we should go back to it and we couldn’t remember a few days later we I thought it was you I thought it was I – I can’t find that I – but I will will interject at this point because people may be making this connection out there listeners of are so interesting obviously the one parallels were both duo’s who met when we were younger bonded over drawing and then got into YouTube because someone else took and this must be the way all YouTube duo’s come together though you know we start asking around us oh yeah same thing happened video got stolen put on YouTube and then got all these views and that was when you’re like oh yeah we should be doing this all that purpose I was called pimp my stroller include your kids in your video parody in an MTV television show with a stroller yeah on our website we had a way to rhettandlink.com/store him it was just hey let’s put videos of some of the videos that we like the same exact yeah but were they spreading around or was it just so we’ll see your friends I watched it or what yeah weird they were definitely not spreading around but that one got a lot of views just like what you’re saying say oh I’ve got a thousand views on its Mortal Kombat thing yeah so then you decided now let’s do Pokemon yeah so what that was next one well we there was I mean we uploaded we asked the guy to remove the video and we uploaded our Power Rangers and Mortal Kombat videos to YouTube and and at that time you could ask you could ask people to like people could basically suggest videos to be be put on the homepage there was a button on the bottom of every video yes I said suggest for home page so we asked the the small following that we had to hit that button for us well the fall it was more like on our aim instant messaging profiles as my away message yeah yeah so we I hosted a poll on myspace I said which what would you guys like to see us make next and then Pokemon won by landslide there was like really stupid there was like Captain Planet and and Inspector Gadget the hymn songs but Pokemon blew everything away and you were just lip-syncing these yeah I mean we spice it up a little bit because it wasn’t it was it was a little bit more than what people were doing at the time a lot of people were doing lip-sync things right yes we the Chinese Backstreet Boys do you remember those that’s way back yeah yes I do remember that they were wearing the basketball jerseys yeah yeah right you’re like we got to do a little bit of competition they were the benchmark for us right they were huge and we were like so so what was the second turning point I mean if the Pokemon thing was like oh there’s we have an audience hmm second turning point is definitely when YouTube said hey we could pay you some money to do this and how much how far down the road is that was that a year later or just months later it was a year and a half later I think it was beginning 2000 so a year and a half it was just you continue the same pattern yeah gained popularity but it was still just like goofing off hobby and you were still in school yeah yeah I mean just something that we thought we partnered with his little tiny website that paid us a little bit so we had enough money to pay for props and stuff like that so we weren’t losing money making the videos but we definitely weren’t making anything but yeah that that turning point is what YouTube contacted you directly that’s how they did with the first yeah it was like to your partner so it was like lisanova us what the Brian what the buck Ryan Higa probably I don’t remember yeah and they’re like hey we’ll give you a cut of the ad revenue yeah so how did you know I’m thinking about the way that that we worked once we started thinking about having this and this is kind of the way that we always were as we would have these like strategy meetings right regardless of what it was that we were trying to do together or trying to accomplish we kind of come together be like all right we we got to figure this out it seems like there was a point at which you guys had this goal that you kind of came together and said let’s let’s accomplish something together I mean do you remember what that process was like because you know going from being friends to guys that are just hanging out trying things for fun to two guys who are like oh no we’re this is like a thing we are a thing trying to accomplish something yeah we’re probably brand you’re Smosh it’s a thing yeah it’s uh we were just two guys just making videos whenever we felt like it once every two to four weeks just kind of hanging out not planning any growth or it’s like let’s just keep doing the same thing for the rest of our lives and then we met up with Barry who’s the president of our company now and he’s like you guys you guys should think on a big scale like make more make more videos and and how did you meet him and where do you come from it’s funny he emailed us yeah he emailed us he was the president of ice ex vice president of Disney Animation yeah Disney television ma tellers manager yeah yeah so the funny story sorry yeah he was like he was like hey I really like you guys I really like you know he said ham you know ex blah blah blah Disney blah blah I really like your guy’s voice and I think we should meet up and have a discussion and then I was like he likes our voice he wants to do voices for animation [Laughter] I didn’t realize that he meant he liked comedic tone our comedic tone yes we learned very soon F yeah like in the meeting you came with like seven different boys practice my you know his blames me though for he’s like he’s like Anthony thought it meant that yeah I’m like you were there with me maybe he’s right just like a voice I just stay quiet but why did he say voice singularly trying to figure that one out but I mean it’s if I were in your shoes having that meeting with Barry I would be very I mean I guess we had meetings like that where it was someone saying okay I want to team up with you guys I want to partner with you guys to make you a bigger success we be very skeptical and have a lot of trust issues with that we definitely were you know it’s it’s the type of thing I mean someone’s got the right credentials obviously III think we can look at your work and I think infer that once you involved maybe it’s Barry maybe there’s even more people from there that there was a there was a there was a turn a corner that Smosh turn it was like okay all of a sudden it’s not just limited by two guys but there’s a lot going on there’s multiple channels there’s all these things but at that moment it must have been a huge decision was all of a sudden you’re not just two guys making funny videos but you’re you have to be business men and you just can’t you know it’s not like you can just turn around to your parents and say hey what do you think I should do right especially the time no one had ever done anything like that right yeah you have no one that could be a mother because he worked for free for us for a long time and kind of I don’t know if it was on purpose but he really proved himself and we just earned your trust exactly yeah and I mean he he got us thinking on a on a on a level that we weren’t thinking of at that point because you know we’re just we’re just two dudes and all we cared about was just making a dumb video every once in a while and you know didn’t really think about long term and that kind of stuff so he got us thinking bigger like you know growing out the website you know producing more content convinced us to get a camera guy yeah convinced us yeah that was another thing it’s like it’s like when you why are you trying to do everything when you should try to focus on the creative creative and and have you know people do basically all the things that we could teach someone we should teach someone and all the things that are like super you know whatever creative or whatever that only we could do is the only thing that we should be focusing on so what what specifically did you decide to focus on and then leave everything else to somebody else that you’re gonna entrust through Barry what were those things that you that you decided to hold on to writing and acting and we did something we did a lot of the directing we did almost all that all the back then we handed off things like but not editing actually yeah I did all the editing you kept editing yeah oh yeah yeah that sounds lighted with this I mean it was like years yeah yeah very slow things like very slow getting getting props and you know making the props and you know casting camera yeah a producer like the cast people get all the props and then what about fast forward to now how does it work now I think I’m I think we’re fascinated we have a very well oiled machine going on not not I mean you guys live in different towns I’m fascinated from a from a professional standpoint what do you guys focus on and then what do you entrust to other people how do you how do you guys kind of divide up the labor what are your strengths well now it’s like tween the two much better process yeah cuz before like Anthony was was doing the brunt of the editing and ian was doing the brunt of all the right yeah so we’ve so luckily like we’ve we’ve taken the the editing I mean we still like you should see the notes that especially like Anthony gives like because we have we have an editor and we send him a bunch of notes like I give a novel of notes but he’s been editing for us for three years now so he’s kind of almost learned how our brain works and he’ll like just go there now but now it’s like Anthony and I can really focus on like writing the writer brainstorms it’s just a lot better process now every week we’re on probably 10 12 hours of writing and brainstorm calls just just with each other to make it flesh out the next video yeah yeah so there’s a your release schedule is one major video or AZ release schedule if you really break it down because we we have the one major release a week then we have the bloopers and behind the scenes which we also still have a big part in getting all the notes on that and stuff too that’s just for main channel and then they were second channel which is weird only in one video week on there now which is either our lunch vlogs or just a random type thing that we do together which is still called ian is bored been both of us on there for the past three years it’s like like three years ago we’re like well maybe you’re like maybe I should be in these videos – yeah okay and then another thing we should call smosh’s board it’s like okay it’s all year’s board but yeah if you trace it back like you’ll find like maybe three years ago and you were actually bored I was actually probably bored for the first three maybe and then yeah but on the on the subject of like yeah work videos we make like it’s it’s the second channel then also two videos on our gaming shamash games yeah we oversee a lot of a lot of those videos give them notes on those five videos a week basically and yeah but you live you used to live in Sacramento correct and you live here I live down here yet so it’s it’s crazy because every two weeks I fly up and we shoot in Sacramento we shoot a batch of our sketch videos and then we have some of the vlogs that we sometimes shoot every once in a while when everybody come up there for that every other week yes and then yeah and then Ian flies down here every two to four weeks and we shared a bunch of gaming videos and then you know we appear on things like this and guest spots on other youtubers stuff and so how did you make that decision I mean like how did you make the decision and then and was it an easy decision and has it been difficult Oh for like the mood for the move yeah um it was pretty is a difficult decision for sure I really want to live down here Ian really wants to live in Sacramento and what like one day Anthony was like I think I’m gonna move down to LA it was like I was like okay we’ll make it work yeah like and then like an hour later I was like what are we gonna do but we but you know we figured it out a little over a year ago and the process has been getting better and better yeah we figured it all out but that but that was the initial conversation was you saying to Ian yeah I think I’m gonna move to LA it was like an announcement yeah I mean I was hanging out of his house I was we were finishing editing on yeah yeah I felt like if I’d asked him he would have just been like no so what went into that decision I really like it down here and I don’t know I just feel like I wasn’t growing in Sacramento I don’t know it’s a really small town so it wasn’t like LA or something I mean you know I have my girlfriend her fiancee I was called a girlfriend I feel like fiance is such a douchebag e-word know we both agree to call each other girlfriend boyfriend is just weird saying fiance I feel like I got to say with a French accent or something that was not French thank you say let’s not get on a rabbit trail so youmu was she living here no she lived down here when we met and then she moved up to Sacramento to be with me for a while and then she really likes it down here and I mean that helped in the decision but most decision was me like I feel like even if I wasn’t with her at the time I would have wanted to move down here was interesting it’s okay if she’s the reason she’s do some extra points yeah just what there’s an interesting dynamic to this you know with Lincoln died when we decide like where we’re going to like right now we’re still renting but hopefully buying houses you know at some point there’s a conversation that’s just like well okay well whoever buys the house first is kind of telling the other guy where he’s going to live in town dictating where the other guy lives right because la is a big place and so yeah right I bought a house in Compton right also sound a lucrative record deal with death-row references so I’m you know that would be very there would be a very difficult thing as I think about how we would relate what’s the nature of the conflict do you have is it are there is their creative conflict is there also interpersonal conflict like do you have a fight over the idea about is funny to fall off the bike you also have an eye you know I know we don’t really ever fight it’s always I mean sometimes it’s like there’s usually a reason for one person to be the correct one yeah they will get I mean that’s why we need decipher week both layouting from long period of time we both lay out our discussion and one person is eventually like all right I mean yeah either it’s not a battle worth having or I mean we agree with you we certainly a lot of our arguments and in whoever’s voice raises the highest yeah he must feel it’s not his idea must be he must have more reasons it’s he must feel more strongly about this because his voice is louder than mine I don’t think I could be in a creative partnership with Rhett cuz like just stature wise you just scare the hell out of him into saying he’s not falling off the bike that’s not funny okay ready don’t what I mean but we do it like link and I will sometimes get into an argument that if there’s someone else like somebody some of our staff are in the room I leave they just kind of just sit there with this look on their face like all right okay I’ll start sweating how long is this going to last know what we do a lot is sometimes a lot of times when we’re writing we’ll have our buddy Ryan on there with us and he’ll writing Fred he’ll he’ll help to throw ideas off of yes so we get an easy he’s a middle man basically so we’re like we you know I’ll just back and forth like five minutes he’ll be like you know what Ryan what do you think yeah he’ll give us his honest opinion so that was that a lot do you guys get pissed at each other personally I mean the retina in a lot of ways we spend so much time together for so many years that we even describe our own friendship more as like an old married couple or yeah like what I mean we literally we get we just get mad at each other like Ray gets mad at me because I’m so sensitive about things like I get mad at him because not of what he says but how he says it to me and he’s like why are we arguing about this you know there’s those type of arguments that have nothing to do with a video idea they just have to do with how are we getting along should we get counsel does that does that happen with you guys it’s a it’s a weird dynamic cuz I think Ian is very like I said reserved you know he’ll he’ll just keep his feelings in I don’t even know what he’s feeling out time he’ll just be quiet yeah I’m like going right now but then does it do you bottle up and then you let it out and you like like there’s probably like 20 years of stuff that he hasn’t told me I haven’t blown up on I don’t know I kind of tell my feelings right away yeah and and you just won’t I’ll just sit there just kind of nod gonna be like yeah but you can tell he’s upset oh yeah but but then it just is like I don’t want to keep nagging him to get it out of him I’ll just be like all right he’ll tell me when he’s ready nope never gonna never never it just goes away it’s definitely been things that ian has never told me that he was mad about that he just was like okay quietness and what’s your approach I mean what is it does it does it dissolve in the depths I don’t I think he I think he secretly hates me because he’s never told me about these things that if I do that I’m not gonna tell you so I could just be harboring these murderous rage feelings yeah yeah well that’s why I’m asking do I Harbor murderous rage for Anthony sure I don’t think so it’s so it dissolved it’s not the type of thing that I’ve never been like I’m just like it’s probably like in I get I get really like easily like butthurt over like over acting direction because you do I would never know I never knew that instance well just cuz Anthony and I are really specific about like a certain way lines should be delivered and stuff and we totally tell it to like other actors that come hunter set but then it’s like when when when he gives like me a direction like should do that better or something yeah maybe so like that I I get I get definitely get butthurt over it and then I realize afterwards like why did I get angry about that video alternate I just you know as needed to do that better for a while I I don’t know if I ever told you but I was like I was a little mad because I would always give you a lot of direction and have you do like 20 different takes and you would always be like yeah I think it’s good to my takes I’m like yeah I want you to get the best out of me that I could get I’m like I’m just doing weird stale takes and you have all these like crazy takes that high life got out of you our producer Ryan said that when I die he’s going to put on my tombstone the quote whatever because that’s my that’s my common response to a like what about this shot I’m like he’ll be like you’re like do you think we should shoot like this or do you think we should shoot this um whatever like whatever you think is better man I’m definitely more of the go with the flow path of least resistance type guy Ian’s more into the writing and yeah but you don’t know most of the writing at first it sounds like you guys are like no option knows it’s hard to say cuz I mean like sometimes you know Anthony would come come up with an idea sometimes I come up that idea but there was there was a time that Anthony was taking the brunt of the editing sure so I was taking a brunt of the outlining and here’s an overall funnier person’s were you very opinionated about the script but then when it came to the other things you like whatever and then like yes since I wrote this since I wrote the outline and then Anthony would would tell me things he didn’t like I guess I get by her but her over that too you get hurt easily but you never tell me that creative it’s just a creative thing you just you take ownership over something and then when somebody tells you that it’s not good you’re like what do you mean yeah right yeah a problem for a while as ian would get stuck in writing us everything a certain type of way and there was no evolution it was just all a very safe certain type of way and I’d be like we need to grow when you do things different definitely right well and you know we deal with this all the time with with coming up with ideas and presenting ideas to one another and you know we kind of develop this philosophy and it’s you don’t do it we try to do it but we don’t always do it but like hold your ideas out here and those who are listening I’m holding it next to me instead of in front of me so when somebody hates on your idea they’re not hating you then right right okay so you can’t you kind of learn to live okay I think the analogy is when somebody shoots down your idea it doesn’t hit you right with the bullet so it’s so you you just you learned to take criticism but it’s I mean it’s tough I I think one of the dynamics is maybe maybe the fact that you guys are in different cities may you know that actually may be something that I think the reason that link and I are like okay well we we have to get our feelings out there and we have to deal with this like I’m like everyone it’s like alright we’re gonna have a conversation it’s gonna be a two-hour conversation but it’s not about ideas this is about our relationship with each other guys so we have to keep they’re around each other’s no yeah but this is a like a 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. every single weekday right the plus the commute you’re not counting yeah yeah people in the other yeah and so and because we are committed to this thing being in an indefinite endeavor is oh it’s like marriage counseling oh definitely that’s amazing no we know we’ve we’ve actually talked about that we’re like what do you think we could been it like no I’m let me let me let me preface this by saying that we I think we have a really we have a really good friendship because we talk about our friendship it’s like that’s it because we kind of deal with it on that level but we had a guy come into the office to kind of like evaluate the team like as a as a almost like a fun team building exercise but he also helps you understand the different dynamic personalities and how who can work together and where there might be a conflict and then we never did it but we were like I wonder what it would be like for us just just just sit down with this guy and say alright you know how we’re different you see our personality profiles like how can we work together better yeah so I would not say oh where did we need to go to counseling but you know I I think it’s so idea was to turn ear biscuits into recorded counseling I might be happening right now I wanted to have no healing sessions legitimate counseling sessions couples therapy for the two of us and then only if we can monetize it I mean those counselors are expensive yeah all right and I realize that it’s been broadcasted to you know hundred thousand people or whatever so we take it weighing back do it we didn’t do it but back to counseling you guys but I think I think like part of the part of the the way that we kind of fix that that creative hurdle that we were that we were in was that now that we’re both collaborating together we’re building those ideas together now instead of me instead of us talking about an idea I write something and I come Anthony and then he tells me what we have a much better process because before we when we weren’t collaborating together we’d get down to like the end of a script and it would be so far gone I was like I can’t just dare your idea to shreds yeah but now I won’t let Nydia go unless I’m really happy with it you know yeah I won’t let it get turned into a video well what about the kind of division of characters all right I’m kind of curious how you guys would describe the on-camera versions of yourselves I was gonna say each other but I think it’s safer and fairer to describe yourself I’ll let you go first hmm your on-camera persona because you write for that yeah right well you kind of yeah I mean I think we were I think somehow we were my character is more fleshed out than Anthony’s was like Anthony were the basically like for a long time I was kind of like the idiot and Anthony was more the straight character that was playing off of the of my idiot mmm it is he yeah of my idiocy I guess you say and and like you know about a year ago Anthony was like hey like we should probably try to figure out a way to make me more interesting I was like every interesting can you make me more stupid no I look at every interesting duo in a movie look at a super bad like those two have a great dynamic look you could see one would be on screen hilarious one the other one be on screen by themselves hilarious but en and iean was hilarious and then I’m just like no stop being dumb like always that’s would be my character so so I guess that goes onto my character was just the straight guy that kept the story moving forward but but now I’m trying to evolve it a little bit cuz I was always jealous I was like he knows all the funny lines yeah I mean until we got to like unless we did like a thing where we played character right I playing characters we we tried to divide try to divide like whenever do like if movies are real or anything like that we look at all the all the characters and we’re like okay let’s like evenly yeah right so I would kind of hate playing mice because I would just always be the my here’s what I would say why are you doing that stop that that’s my voice in every single video pretty much saying the same exact thing well did you in how did you guys dress that um who brought it up so Jen’s good lines and me just being that what are you doing guy I mean Anthony’s more of more he looks ahead to try to figure out how we can make things better and then I’m I’m more complacent like I just whatever exactly whatever so it’s it’s kind of it’s kind of an interesting an interesting thing because yeah we haven’t exactly found a remedy for my character situation because we still want a Ian’s character to be similar to how it was who’s really good and then mine I’m like how can i how can i evolve this you know my smartass do I am I overly confident with everything even though I’m you know not necessarily the smartest person yeah that’s kind of the the way we’re going I know berry CH berry tried to explain it he compared it to some old-ass TV show that we never heard of he’s older old and he said it was like it was like his character that’s an idiot but thinks he’s a character that’s dumb but thinks he’s smart and then the other person is dumb but thinks the other one is smart mmm makes sense right well I think it would be encouraging for anybody who’s trying to do anything creative to know that guys who have been doing this as long as you guys have with the success that you’ve seen are still trying to figure out something that could be considered that fundamental and let me tell you right now we totally relate to that we all we have fundamental level of conversations about our comedy and like what is it we’re trying to do and like what who are you supposed to be in this and mmm and after like you know eight nine years of doing it it’s you know you’re trying to figure out what to do next with it right and sometimes just what are you trying to do next week with it yeah there’s the added pressure of doing something every week with really an expectation of never taking a break really I mean we you can but that’s not the expectation it’s not like traditional media in terms of seasons anything are you guys do you experience more pressure at this point in your careers being you know at the top after all these years is it is the pressure even greater now and what’s the biggest fear I’d say the pressure is like almost a snowball effect it’s just more and more and more every year for me at least yeah I think you know we’ve we’ve been focused for years event has been trying to get us on a good schedule so like we’re not killing ourselves every single week like Oh grab what’s what’s next week uh you know so I think in that regards like we’re we’ve we’ve like hammered out a really good schedule so we’re not we’re not going crazy we we I mean but maybe it’s not last time we pulled an all-nighter I mean we haven’t pulled an all-nighter in like three we said well then almost every week yeah I don’t really mean I guess this the pressure to deliver on a schedule as much as the pressure to remain successful and more successful I mean you know there’s it’s lonely at the top it’s how the saying goes and there’s how do you stay there I don’t feel the pressure to be successful for some reason I feel pressure to have the audience like what we’re still doing have have anyone that’s watching it not be like wow this sucks compared to whenever you know I want them to always be like oh you’re growing evolving and I love this so are you you know you’re afraid that you’re not gonna be relevant you’re not I mean is that somewhere there but to me it’s always been for some reason comments and the way that people react to videos has always been something that I say really close to heart I mean we haven’t really worried I mean we just want to just try to grow our brand and and just create good content and if you know we’re not really worried about quote-unquote success but you know we just want to grow the brand and as long as we keep creating content that people enjoy then the successful hosen follow mm-hmm and obviously guys like you have been approached probably numerous times by different media companies who want to want the Smosh TV show who want the Smosh movie how are you guys thinking about the moving forward into the future and all the things that you have I mean you guys launched a freaking magazine you know it’s like you’re kind of in a position where you can do what it is you want and you’re the ones who make those decisions I mean how do you how do you look into the next decade I mean I think it’s just about picking the right things we have all these things that we want to try but then it’s always it always falls back to I we can’t stop doing YouTube on the schedule that we’re on yeah I mean it’s it’s we just want to keep doing what we’re we’re doing right now you know with what we’re doing what have you said no to on I’m on a yearly basis on a monthly basis you guys have to be saying no we said no we don’t want a television show on this channel no we don’t want to sign this type of development deal for this type of television I mean most of things that we’ve said notes who have all only been because of the creative differences don’t mean that or the timing because they’ll be like hey everyone you guys try to do it in a TV show if it gets picked up you’re gonna be shooting for X amount of weeks every year and we’re like we can’t sacrifice that much time because we got to keep doing so much on on YouTube and on our websites and stuff right I mean you were there the night when we were in Miami and we talked about this early as amazed yeah well we got the word that hey our television show got picked up we got 10 episodes on IFC and you know even in our minds it was like is this a good thing and it sounds like you guys made a decision that you certainly had those opportunities and if that was you instead of us it sounds like you did say no I’m not even I’m not even gonna pilot something because we can’t leave this space right I mean you have if you if we have the time and if we’ve if we have it all planned out yeah we’re totally open to something like a TV show though you have to do recurring if it’s gonna be successful but if it’s something like a movie which we’re both interested in doing at some point it’s you could block out 20 days and you’re like we just gotta get really ahead beforehand so what what so what are you gonna do is it a movie have you written the script we might in the future we’re really interested in it but you know the the overall plan for Smosh isn’t just about Ian and I so our main focus isn’t let’s go do a movie let’s go be a huge Hollywood hotshots or whatever let’s let’s grow the brand and keep our comedy alive and as many different forms as we can we have our gaming channel we have a cartoon channel we’re trying to introduce new personalities that totally get our humor that we think our audience will like you know like they love all the Smosh games guys now and they love Mari so those those have been some personalities that we’ve introduced that I totally get it so is so more of that getting to other other Smosh properties yeah other people that we really love that we know that our audience will totally get yeah because I’m like we can’t we can’t create 50 shows ourselves but we can create other shows that other people make that our audience can enjoy just as much as they enjoy watching our shows and I think that’s that’s cool is there is there anything is there anything somebody coming along and saying here boys here’s here’s 20 million dollars each to go live on an island and and just wake up and have a drink everyday and and spend time with your your loved ones is there anything at this point that would stop you from continuing to pursue this I would really like to do that because I because you I I know how hard you guys work yeah yeah I know Allen can get kind of boring I mean what just insert whatever let’s just call it an isthmus oh yeah what whatever it yeah it’s still attached to land in some way but what is it that if anything that would kind of say oh you know okay we don’t have to keep we don’t have to keep pushing so I guess if I ran for president I really love making the videos and I really love just the reaction of the audience and like I said we went back to call me I love when people say they love what we made or what we had a part in yeah like Anthony and I have had this conversation like a million times like what the hell are we gonna do after this yeah and because I mean we love the whole process and we love you know just making people laugh and having people enjoy the content so I mean we want to keep doing what we’re doing and then also you know expanding that so we don’t have to have the same sort of workload to 1 or 40 I’m not gonna lie though again it gets it gets tough and there’s there’s times where I really do where I would take that offer for a certain amount of time but like I go on vacation somewhere for a week and it’s like the most needed thing ever and after I’m done I get back home I’m like alright let’s do this again yeah like I just love it so much but you know I just feel like I need I need breaks in there right sure you guys can relate to this yeah well guys thanks for coming it was good to is good to get to know you and now you got to sign this table you could grasp each other’s hand and do the we do decide we draw the flying gas mask yes we should [Music] that’s our ear biscuit with Smosh tweet at them and let them know you appreciated the ear biscuit at smosh ianh and at Smosh Anthony are there personal Twitter hashtag air biscuit so simple that’s good I was smart thoughtful yeah let them know that you’re glad they came on we appreciated that and their friendship as well at the 20 million dollar question that you asked that a 20 million dollar question specifically the meaning the question about 20 million dollars would you take the money and run I’ll put it back on you since you asked them well but it specifically involved an island oh so your answer was any question oh if I could take $20 I’d buy an island and okay retinol obviously the the nature of the question was if you could just be totally set and and have all the money that you need the security that you want to have the relationships with loved ones and have peace and quiet would you take all that to leave the career that you’re doing that was a question that I essentially presented to them so what’s your ask me boy here’s what here’s what would happen I take the money the twenty million dollars and then I would immediately think man we could do something pretty awesome with this twenty million dollars we can come up with the awesome idea to make to make happen so I think the answer is a really big robot I wasn’t thinking a robot but I was thinking something a little more creative thinking about how big the robot would be between me pretty awesome okay five million towards the awesome robot fifteen million towards another idea but then you’re like nickel and diamond I mean if I was well another million he’ll be like another six foot taller I think then all of a sudden you got a twenty million dollar 130 foot robot and then what what was you dude is he’d then make money I think he’s probably a movie star I don’t know he’s a library star retro bike he’s got human flesh on him and stuff I think it’s gonna take more than 20 mil yeah probably said I’ll take 60 mil maybe 80 I mean freaking I mean that puts things in perspective right there the stealth bomber like a billion dollars man yeah that’s what sucks about it you think you’re rich and then all of a sudden you you you’ve built a fleshy foot of a robot and you’re like I’m out it’s like those houses we used to encounter like back in Harnett County that would be half built well that would be a nice house if somebody completed it I think the honest answer is is that I don’t think there’s any amount of money or any particular thing relaxation or not that I would be like you know yeah I don’t want to keep I don’t want to keep creating I get tired of certain things right doing the same thing over and over again or whatever but I don’t get hired a job the job yeah it’s if we have a job a dream job I think that what I would do with the money I would give the correct answer here and I don’t say I would start an endowment for other people to have the freedom to follow in our footsteps that’s nice no strings attached very nice of you and and advance the cause of Internet tainment where the problem is is you don’t get the money unless you take it and go to the island that’s my stipulation so or you can’t build a robot with it either so forget that oh okay your only requirement to get the 20 mil from our endowment is to listen to all ear biscuits and look you’re already doing that so you’re well on your way and we thank you I think you just made a legal promise to lots of people about 20 million dollars just for listening to every episode of your biscuit so as links unofficial legal counsel I will say here attracts that statement and we really do want you to listen to every air biscuit but you will not be receiving any money for doing so thanks for leaving a review on iTunes if you do that you’re back in the running for the 20 mil endowment okay you can officially in the running for the non-existent 20 million dollar endowment yes and if you use hashtag ear biscuits to let us know give us feedback on the show across all social media you’re in the top ten for the twenty million dollars okay I would like to retract that statement there is no top ten there’s no endowment but there is a 100-foot flesh cover robots like that will come to your house and present you with a check yep for ten dollars and from a footnote all of the is imaginary and including the robot of flesh covering and the check and the endowment and everything like I said during the past five minutes all imaginary non-existent in quote see you on the island [Music] [Music]