Anthony Padilla, co-founder of Smosh, purchases and rejoins popular YouTube channel

Anthony Padilla is rejoining the popular comedy YouTube channel Smosh.

Smosh was founded in 2005 by Padilla, 35, and Ian Hecox, 35, both Sacramento natives. Padilla left the channel in June 2017 due to creative differences with its parent company, Defy Media, which bought the property from the duo in 2011.

Defy Media would close a year after Padilla’s departure in 2018. Smosh was then purchased for roughly $10 million in 2019 by Mythical, an entertainment company founded by a different YouTube duo: Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal of North Carolina. Padilla and Hecox announced Tuesday they bought the company back from Mythical, and that Padilla would be rejoining the ensemble.

“We didn’t know if this was actually possible, but we felt like we had to look into it,” Hecox said in an announcement on the channel Tuesday. “After months of negotiating and deliberating whether this was a good idea or not, today Anthony and I can say, officially, that we own Smosh.”

As of Tuesday, the Smosh channel has 25 million subscribers and 14 million combined on its two spin-off channels: Smosh Pit and Smosh Games. Smosh was the most-followed channel on YouTube in 2006, 2007 and 2013.

The channel was the first to earn a diamond “Play Button” award, which YouTube awards to channels that reach 10 million subscribers.

Some of the duo’s earliest videos were recorded at Primrose Park in Sacramento County’s Rosemont neighborhood.

The channel’s Tuesday announcement concluded in a comedic bit involving the character of Hecox’s mother and an end card that read, “Smosh will return next week.”

This story was originally published June 20, 2023 at 11:16 AM.