So Smosh – the two person youtube “comedy sensation” has at last overtaken Ray William Johnson, the one person youtube “wanker”. I’m quoting myself of course. Both times.
Boasting more than 6,800,000 subscribers, Smosh’s growth over the last six months has been solid and consistent, like a well placed stool in the Youtube bowl. To our more discerning readers, the ones waiting for the day great web-comedy eclipses TV comedy, this news might smell like defeat (and like stool) – Smosh’s Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla aren’t reaching for the lofty heights of great comedy but I think if you take a step back and look at the bigger picture, you’ll see there’s no way this can be anything other than good news for web-comedy…
Unlike most youtube idiots with swishy hair and no taste doing stand up in their bedrooms – the duo at Smosh are actually lifting the youtube bar with a well produced show. Smosh are working hard for their subscribers by putting serious effort into their brand of shouty comedy and all the technical aspects such as audio, lighting, editing and camerawork. Their content may not look very sophisticated next to the slickly produced SFX fests that Freddiew puts out, or Issa Rae’s constantly evolving, dependably funny character comedy Awkwward Black Girl, but it’s leagues better than the tired and effortless “guy in front of a camera talks about…” rubbish that currently dominates the Most Subscribed list. The popularity and demand for Smosh’s tween-friendly, energetic sketches indicates a general rise in the quality expected by Youtube’s audience. Tastes are maturing and there’s a rise in demand for better structured, short form comedy. Standing in front of a webcam, spewing opinions between dozens of jumpcuts has been the number one way to earn a large viewerbase on youtube but hopefully not for much longer. Smosh’s victory over RWJ is the beginning of a potential shift in the youtube paradigm.
Just a quick glance at the current top 15 channels is telling enough, with Smosh leading the charge more and more structured content is working it’s way up – of course, the young, swishy haired relatable tween idols are still dominating the chart, but not by as large a margin anymore – the original squeaky voiced Disney-haired entertainer, Fred has slipped to #49 and is rapidly losing relevance – as of today he averages only 772 new subscribers a day – by comparison Smosh draw in approximately 26,000 a day – but perhaps more tellingly, the #48 and #50 slots (both VEVO) pull in an average of 4/5k – Fred’s sustained position on the top 100 chart is due purely to past popularity and isn’t sustainable.
Outside of the youtube ecosystem the story is similar – Nostalgia Critic Doug Walker, the frontman of one of the largest review and vlog empires Channel Awesome – has retired his character in favour of developing a scripted comedy show that he’s filming in his brand new studio – this move will put him more in line with the kind of short form webshows that are abundant on Blip, Koldcast and other specialist video streaming sites.
Though it’s impossible to say how long the youtube shift may take, I’m certain that it’s coming sooner than later. Whilst Smosh may not personally be my cup of tea, not my Adam & Joe (I’m not a 15 year old girl from the Midwest) they’re definitely somebodies Adam & Joe and you know what? I can live with that. I’ll take Smosh over the preachy, wishy washy nothing-merchant that is Ray William Johnson any day of the week. Congratulations on being #1 Smosh. I can’t believe I actually mean that.